Busted For A Buck

On the evening of September 25, the state Department of Environmental Conservation officers Jeremy Eastwood and Brian Farrish received text messages about a large buck that was allegedly shot on a nuisance permit in the Town of Riverhead. A hunter was circulating a photo of himself posing with a massive whitetail buck to a group of local hunters on a group text.

The next day, the officers located the subject and asked about the photo. The subject said it was a picture from last year sent as a brag, but his story quickly unraveled as the officers spotted numerous antlers in various states of decomposition at his farm house. He eventually came clean and produced the untagged massive buck from a cooler. The officers reviewed all the conditions of his nuisance permit, finding that many of the conditions were not being followed. The man failed to have a hunter’s log available for inspection, failed to notify DEC dispatch when utilizing the permit, and failed to turn in racks from antlered deer.

The hunter was cited for the untagged deer and for violating DEC rules and regulations concerning permit conditions. Numerous additional sets of antlers were retrieved from the farm during the investigation.

bridget@indyeastend.com