Captured by the game (NC wildlife wardens bag trophy poachers in one of state’s largest dragnets)

Edwin Grant and Wade Burge hunkered lower behind their camouflaged hunting blinds as a line of slow moving pick-ups crept down the desolate Crawford Creek Road sweeping their headlights through the woods.

The game wardens’ grip tightened on the levers that operated the decoys — mechanical deer meant to trick the shooters. The approaching poachers were one of two teams on the rampage that night, competing to see who could bag the most deer from the Nantahala National Forest in Macon County.

The teams traveled in a convoy, communicating through walkie-talkies. The first truck spotlighted for the deer, trying to catch it in the bright light so it would momentarily freeze. The next truck shot the deer, and a third picked it up.

After a full night’s work, they took their kill back to Jonathan Allen’s barn. Allen added the proper number of notches to his barn post according to the number of deer he shot that night. The poachers would then butcher and divvy their game, usually there in the barn, but occasionally down at Franklin Frozen Foods where Allen works.

The calculated hunting rendezvous started each night with a drive-by of Grant’s house to see if his truck sitting in the driveway, indicating he was off for the night. For good measure, they called in a fake report of potential poachers to Burge, hoping to send him on a wild goose chase up frozen Cowee Mountain on the other side of the county.

For years the game wardens had been slowly gathering information on the poachers’elicit escapades, issuing a single fine here and there. Now, Burge and Grant were in it for the big haul, a dragnet that would finally put an end to the poaching ring that had been operating in Macon County for nearly five years.

A brazen mistake

The poachers made a brazen, costly mistake in early January. They shot a deer in the field next door to Brian Southard’s house. Southard is a U.S. Forest Service officer who lives in Macon County. They cut off the deer’s testicles and placed them in Southard’s mailbox. The act smacked of mockery, but it served as a catalyst for what would become one of the largest poaching ring busts in state history.

Dumping animal parts in game wardens’ yards is a mountain tradition that goes back decades in the cat-and-mouse game between poachers and wardens. Grant, who also patrols creeks and rivers checking for fishing licenses and monitoring catch limits, has woken up to a pile of fish heads in his yard. Wildlife Officer Mike Stephens has had doe heads land in his yard more than once.

“These guys got a real charge out of you knowing they did something but you not being able to prove it or do anything about it,” Southard said. “They honestly thought we wouldn’t catch them.”

The months-long investigation, known as “Operation Game Thief,” ultimately netted 14 poachers and 269 state and federal charges. It was conducted by the game wardens with the N.C. Wildlife Commission and officers and agents with the U.S. Forest Service.

With the exception of one 70-year-old, the poachers ranged from 16 to 32 years old. All but one has pleaded guilty. Collectively, fines totaled $30,000. But the worst punishment is losing their hunting licenses, ranging from two to seven years depending on the extent of their involvement.

“These individuals enjoyed hunting. It became a competition, a rite of passage and status symbol within their individual groups,” said Les Burril, special agent with the U.S. Forest Service.

The poachers weren’t a rabble-rousing liquored-up bunch, however.

“They were on a mission. They were very calculated in what they were doing,” said Game Lt. Mike Stephens.

Old-fashioned detective work

Poachers like these are nearly impossible to catch. Only 16 officers – 12 game warden and four forest service officers – patrol the vast wilderness in the six western counties viewed by the poachers as their personal hunting grounds. Catching a poacher in the act is a rare fluke.

“We’d see them coming creeping by and we’d know what they were up to, but we couldn’t do anything unless we they took a deer right in front of us,” Burge said. “Or when you’ve set up on detail in Otto and you get a call on the other end of the county, it can be frustrating.”

Grant said he patrolled or staked out Crawford Creek Road 200 days last year and only got one poacher.

“Yet these guys were going there routinely and taking deer. It is very, very difficult to catch them,” Grant said.

The poachers’ confessed to taking more than 150 deer and 100 turkey illegally over the past couple of years. But the charges brought against the group included the illegal taking of only 15 deer, six turkey, one bear and one owl, along with charges like spotlighting and hunting out of season.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have only charged them with things we could individually corroborate,” said Les Burril.

The officers got many more confessions out of the poachers, but confessions alone don’t stand in court.

“You could sit right here and tell me you killed two dear last night and there’s not a thing in the world that I could do about it,” said Russ Arthur, U.S. Forest Service special agent. “I’d have to say, ‘OK, who was with you? Can they corroborate that? Is there meat in the freezer? Were extra parts dumped back out in the woods?’”

The officers hauled in poacher after poacher, collecting their versions of hunting escapades.

District Attorney Mike Bonfoey said it was good, classic police work that brought the poachers down. Bonfoey appointed a special prosecutor, Curtiss Graham of Swain County, as a consultant to the officers. Graham, a hunter himself, periodically advised the officers to ensure an airtight case.

“Wildlife cases are very difficult to prosecute. Often there are not witnesses and very little physical evidence,” Bonfoey said.

By mid-February — a month after the deer parts appeared in Southard’s mailbox — the wardens were successfully culling reams of poaching accounts from some of the hunters. One of the ringleaders, Bud Elliot, tried to muzzle those who were talking, according to law enforcement reports. Elliot paid one a threatening visit, chasing after the man when he tried to get away. Elliot intimidated another by busting the windows and mirrors in his truck and slashing all four tires.

The victimized poachers turned Elliot in the next day to the officers on the case, who decided to prosecute immediately.

“It actually assisted the investigation. It showed we were serious about this,” said Arthur. Elliot was banished from forest service land for 18 months, a tough restriction in a region where forest service land consumes most territory beyond town.

Bucking the bad guys

Honest hunters, who account for the majority of woodsmen feel personally robbed by the game bandits.

“They need to put them under the jail — not in it, under it. They’re getting out light,” said O.V. Cagle, 73, owner of Buck and Bass hunting outfitter in Waynesville. “I’ve lived here and hunted in these mountains all my life. They’re stealing game from everybody.”

Dennis Maney, a gun repairman at Buck and Bass, looked up from the rifle barrel on his work bench.

“Personally, I’d like to see them stiffen up the fines instead of just slapping them on the back of the hand,” Maney said. “$30,000 between 14 guys and they’ve been taking all three big game species?”

Loitering around Maney’s work bench is a regular afternoon pasttime for some hunters, who alternately shave tiny plastic splinters from their arrow shafts, clean their guns and wait to see who will come in. The topic of poaching made most hunters in the room bristle.

“It’s morally wrong. It’s just morally wrong,” said Don McCracken, a hunter living in Haywood County. “They think they can just go out and take what they want. My grandkids and their grandkids aren’t going to have anything left.”

Cagle said poaching is more common than people think. A poacher can get away with it for a long time – sometimes forever.

“Those guys know exactly what they’re doing,” Cagle said. “Rogue hunters is what they are. They aren’t even hunters, they’re just rogues.”

Officers said they detected no remorse from the poachers. In fact, some were proud of what they were doing, something the officers played up during the interviews.

“One of them actually told me ‘There’d be a lot more deer in Macon County if it weren’t for me,’” Wildlife Commission Lt. Mike Stephens said. “They thought if I didn’t get it, someone else would.”

One poacher appeared in court wearing a T-shirt of a big strutting gobbler captioned by the words, “American Tradition.”

“They look at it as an inexhaustible resource,” said Les Burril. “It’s a faceless victim. They don’t see it like stealing something from their neighbor.”

Men of Cagle’s generation are particularly offended by poachers.

“When I came up, hunting was a food source. When I got home from school, my mother said, ‘Son, we’re going to have squirrel tonight and go out and get it,’” Cagle said.

While hunting is a sport and not necessity today, hunters are legally bound to eat what they kill or give it to someone else to eat. Shooting and leaving an animal in the woods is a crime, called “want and wasting.” Officers only documented one case where the whole deer was left laying in the woods. Jonathan Allen had 42 notches cut into his barn post — marking the number of deer taken illegally at night. Unable to consume the deer themselves, the poachers shared it around and gave it to friends.

But given the small caliber rifles the gang used — chosen to make less noise — there were likely many deer wasted.

“You’re .17-caliber and .22-caliber, those aren’t intended to kill large game. Unless you get a heart shot or lung shot or neck shot, they are going to wander off and die somewhere else,” Southard said.

The honest hunters blame the poaching ring for decimating the deer population in Macon County. Lat year, 223 deer were shot legally in Macon County. The poachers, who didn’t register their kills for obvious reasons, were taking at least 25 percent more deer under the radar, game officials estimate.

“The sole purpose of registering and tagging is to monitor the populations and set bag limits. It’s a check and balances type thing,” Stephens said.

Rifle season for deer is a scant three weeks a year here – from Thanksgiving to early December. Hunting seasons also are set with a purpose, timed to least interfere with breeding and young rearing time.

“You throw off the whole balance if you hunt out of season,” Arthur said.

These poachers were also was indiscriminate about killing does. Does are off limits during rifle season and only allowed during a short window of bow season and one day of muzzle season.

“If you kill a doe, think about how many deer you really killed over that does’ lifespan,” Cagle said.

Arthur said not just other hunters suffer, but “non-consumptive users of game,” like hikers and campers who are robbed from the opportunity of seeing a deer while in the woods.

“The public has gotten a lot more involved in protecting their resources than in years past,” Grant said.

"The poachers made a brazen, costly mistake in early January. They shot a deer in the field next door to Brian Southard’s house. Southard is a U.S. Forest Service officer who lives in Macon County. They cut off the deer’s testicles and placed them in Southard’s mailbox. "

These were organized poachers and ran together for 5 years+, real scumbags who spotlighted deer and shot them with .22 and .17 cal. to keep the noise down. Many deer didn't drop and wandered off to die in the woods.

Very detailed read about their tactics.

"If NC has anything like the deer overpopulation problem that MD has, these guys were doing a public service. "

No, its not. This was over a 6 county area in the western portion of the state in designated game lands and national forests. This is the place where deer are to be managed so that law abiding citizens can get a chance to bag one during hunting season.

These guys were shooting and killing as many as possible, leaving many to die slowly.

To call those poachers hunters is an abomination. As a lifelong hunter, close to 60 years, it pleases me that they were caught.

In my lifetime, one thing that government does has worked. We have more deer, turkeys and in some cases, waterfowl than ever. That has been accomplished mainly through the cooperation of hunters and wildlife biologists and Fish and Game departments through the country. Our purchases of hunting and fishing license, as well as countless billions of dollars spent on hunting and fishing gear, lodging, food, travel and associated spending have made all of this possible.

For those who just like to watch wildlife, and most hunters do, you can thank the outdoorsmen who made it happen.

As to poachers, they deserve what they get.

For those who just like to watch wildlife, and most hunters do, you can thank the outdoorsmen who made it happen.

I have a friend who grew up in Kentucky. When he was living in Asia, all he would talk about was deer season (bow and rifle--he skipped musket season). I visited him one year when he was in Kentucky, and I asked if he had gotten a dear yet, to which he replied no. He hadn't even shot at one--but he had the best time sitting in the deer stand watching as a whole bunch of deer passed him by. He just liked being in the woods.

That is completely understandable. I, too, grew up in Kentucky, in the river bottoms all the way in the west of the state, along side the Mississippi River and in the late thirties and early forties, the beginning of my life, I had the good fortune to have kinfolk who loved the outdoors and all it offered. A lot of what it offered in those days was food for the table.

Needless to say, I fell right in with that way of life, and to this day I am eternally grateful for it. The outdoors has offered my family, friends and me some unmatchable experiences. Just last weekend I spent a day on the water, here in Northern Virginia, and in those fourteen or fifteen hours between daybreak and dark my old eye, I lost one to a detached retina, saw some of the most impressive wildlife of my entire life. The birds, fish and animals observed that day included one doe swimming near our boat, about fifty wonderfully cooperative Blue Herons, two does each with two fawns still in spots, grazing carefree with us on the water nearby, two domestic geese who came swimming to us from who knows where, to share some of our food, dozens of Canada Geese, Mallard Ducks, including fuzzy new hatchlings, and a magnificant Bald Eagle that broke the dead branch in the top of the tree he had been sitting on as his powerful wing thrust while taking off wpon the approach of two fishermen, who he then honored by flying directly over them, a few Osprey, many birds and more than a few fish, that were returned to the water as soon as they were caught.

Many times everything killed or caught has been converted into food, and that is ok too. Wild game and fish is delicious, no matter how much the PETA crowd protests, but i'll bet I have done more to preserve wild animals than a herd of PETAS.

With the exception of one 70-year-old, the poachers ranged from 16 to 32 years old. All but one has pleaded guilty. Collectively, fines totaled $30,000. But the worst punishment is losing their hunting licenses, ranging from two to seven years depending on the extent of their involvement.

Now that's just stupid - poachers don't give two beans about a hunting license - poachers don't need hunting licenses. If they cared about being legal, they wouldn't be poachers.

Around here, the part of getting caught that upsets the most folks is loosing your truck, your gun(s), and anything else possibly connected to your crime.

Your infiltration of that place was one of the best times I've had online.

Thanks. I remember when we 'met' and how offended you were by my comments regarding Gary Condit. Funniest thing was none of the DTR people were offended that I was 'defending' the guy!

They used to send me the articles that they write, not knowing they were sending them to me. I would run spell check on them and send them back with a nice note, such as:

'Great article! BTW, I have corrected your errors for you in order to save you time. Good luck!

' That is one of the best articles you have written, poor grammar and errors not with standing.'

They are really slow on the uptake. Must be using windows '92, the version before spell check was devised.

Poachers are just lowlife thieves.

If not for poachers,legal hunters could have more hunting opportunities and pay less for permits,etc.

If there's an over populated species that sport hunters aren't able to harvest enough of to keep the population healthy,legal commercial harvesting can put money into game management for everyones benefit,animals included.

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