# Received a Visit from the ODNR



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

So last friday was the opener for bird and bunny. Through my tradition, I always take this day off and go to spring valley and ceasers. Well as I was walking out the door I got a call from Fairborn Pd seeing if I wanted a deer strike, I said heck yeah im already heading that way. So I pick up the deer, bags of ice, go hunting and come home. I get home and shortly after that I get a knock on the door.

I go to the door and the montgomery co odnr officer is standing there. Thinking he's there for a sheriffs office issue or something related to it, I say hey I'm officer Conner with MCSO whats going on. He says I'm here to investigate a complaint. Of course I looked puzzled. I step outside and he says someone called in a complaint about the deer on the back of my cargo rack and that they were also wanting to complain about the two that were on the back a couple weeks ago.

I started laughing and he just looked at me. I said well, as you know I work for the county and I'm on the deer strike list for about every agency in the area and that all three deer were strikes. So he comes in the garage looks at the deer seeing if it was shot, of course it wasn't. I provided him a copy of the paper tag i had received from fairborn, call logs of the dates and times of the other two deer strikes as well. He questioned me about the two euro mounts on my work bench asking where and when i got em. One was from the years of metal tags the other was from last season. He also asked where I hunted as well. I said casstown ohio. He asked if I hunted in montgomery co, I said yeah I have the 200 acers across the street that I have permission to hunt.

Finally he comes out and says, a neighbor called in a complaint about you poaching and they were concerned about the amount of deer. I laughed and said I'm surprised they didnt call last year, I got 9 deer strikes and shot two myself. He said everything was good as I knew I was. 

It was irritating as crap because one of my neighbors didn't have enough common decency to just knock on the door and ask. They called huber heights pd, which then called the odnr wasting their time. I guess I'm old school in thought, who cares if someone has a deer on the back of their car, and If I have an issue with my neighbors I would at least knock on the door and say hey whats up. I guess those days are gone and karens run amuck?


----------



## hailtothethief (Jan 18, 2017)

People have no morals anymore. If they can **** with you they will.


----------



## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

I think we should be glad that the ODNR followed up and made sure the deer were legit. Hopefully someone got back to the complainant and let him or her know that the deer were road kill.

If I thought my neighbor was poaching, I would let ODNR handle it.

You would think that there s/b a list of who and when got the deer strike that the ODNR could access.


----------



## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Agreed... I think it's terrific that we have sportsman that are concerned about the rules and regulations… And officers that actually follow up with complaints… you should feel the same way


----------



## Upland (Nov 3, 2016)

how about this scenario Neighbor knocks on door of his Neighbor that is a poacher 
Poacher: hi neighbor Hi are you poaching deer ? ah No ! oh ok thanks lmao


----------



## hailtothethief (Jan 18, 2017)

I think the point is he wasnt poaching nothing and didnt deserve to be harrassed. No less have a neighbor dime him out for a crime he didnt commit. Neighbor should mind his own business unless he got him red handed.


----------



## M R DUCKS (Feb 20, 2010)

Sounds like everything went as it should have.


----------



## M R DUCKS (Feb 20, 2010)

Maybe the wildlife officer over stepped a bit inquiring about where he hunted?


----------



## hailtothethief (Jan 18, 2017)

At that point he could of just been small talking.


----------



## ironman172 (Apr 12, 2009)

I can see it both ways, glad it turned out ok , that it should you being legal in all, and hope the reporter(neighbor) is told it's all good so no more future issues


----------



## Upland (Nov 3, 2016)

hailtothethief said:


> I think the point is he wasnt poaching nothing and didnt deserve to be harrassed. No less have a neighbor dime him out for a crime he didnt commit. Neighbor should mind his own business unless he got him red handed.


I disagree with that how did the neighbor know that he wasn't poaching? If you suspect illegal activity report it I don't know Tom c personably but I know that he is a stand up guy from posts and comments and I'm commenting on the action of the neighbor only


----------



## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

9Left said:


> Agreed... I think it's terrific that we have sportsman that are concerned about the rules and regulations… And officers that actually follow up with complaints… you should feel the same way


I highly doubt the person is a sportsman than just somebody always looking out at their neighbors being nosy!


----------



## hailtothethief (Jan 18, 2017)

If you’ve never poached a deer you can’t prove that. There’s always people talking smack suspecting you’re doing something wrong. If they didn’t see you poach its not your responsibility to prove nothing to nobody.


----------



## Upland (Nov 3, 2016)

I agree with people talking smack just read some of the comments on here LOL and I guess the neighbor thought that maybe three Deer he had in his possession was suspect ,enough to make the call


----------



## ya13ya03 (Sep 21, 2010)

1st Glad I have great neighbors. 2nd if I was to poach a deer. I don't think I would bring it home on a cargo rack. Lol.


----------



## Upland (Nov 3, 2016)

ya13ya03 said:


> 1st Glad I have great neighbors. 2nd if I was to poach a deer. I don't think I would bring it home on a cargo rack. Lol.


lol or hang two in the backyard with one the cargo rack Lol But people do crazy stuff at times


----------



## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

I wouldn't like being wrongly accused, but I can certainly understand why the neighbor had concerns. A call was made to the ODOW & the complaint was thoroughly investigated. Hopefully the caller got some follow-up information from the ODOW officer to let them know that the OP is a law abiding hunter. The best thing to come out of this situation is that the investigating officer received all the information/documentation he needed to ensure that TomC was legally in possession of the deer in question, & also made him aware of the fact that you are affiliated with law enforcement as well. Sounds like it was a courteous meeting with the proper outcome. I like to be on a first name basis with the ODOW officers in Mercer & Auglaize counties where I fish & hunt. Mike


----------



## FISHIN 2 (Jun 22, 2005)

I think you should get all the buddies on gun day and hang all the deer in your garage, oops, left the door up, LOL, see what they say then..


----------



## Smitty82 (Mar 13, 2011)

If y’all live in Fairborn I don’t understand why they called Huber pd? At least the odnr officer checked up on it and is doing what we pay them to do. No one likes to be falsely accused though.


----------



## bustedrod (May 13, 2015)

yeah and sometimes the neighbor calls just bevause he dont like him, and uses the force against him..right


----------



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

I live in Huber heights now and hunt right around the corner. My thing was, is all the neighbors know I work for the sheriffs office and why didn't they say anything last year when I got 9 strikes. The wife and neighbors that I'm cool with said hang em in the front tree for now on!


----------



## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

Yeah, i would find this annoying personally. It calls into question the integrity of the man and nobody likes that. Thats why there is the saying "tall fences make good neighbors." At best mind your own business, and at worst simply ask where the deer came from. Just because he had a deer doesnt mean it was poached.

I have called ODNR before on a guy who was keeping over his bag limit fish. I watched him take a limit to his car, come back, and start keeping fish again. He got busted and I personally saw it taking place, to speculate is irresponsible. No different than the internet "wildlife officers" that love to point out someone is over their bag limit of fish not knowing how many people were fishing. Some people just like to stir up drama.


----------



## Shad Rap (Nov 10, 2010)

I think it's all BS, the neighbors should mind their own business...and that officer was asking questions that didn't need asked...BS from top to bottom.
You never tell someone who called in a complaint...they can find this out when the court process starts...this can cause retaliation or animosity...as soon as he seen it wasn't shot and you provided the paperwork, it should have been 'bye bye, have a nice day sir.'


----------



## johnboy111711 (Apr 7, 2004)

Man, there are a bunch of cry babies on here. Many of the police and sheriff departments used to have a saying a "See something, say something" ODNR did their job and it sounds like a hassle free 15 minutes. I'm sure some of the LEO's on here spend way more time investigating lesser issues. BTW, I see a guy bringing home deer ever week, and I was a true sportsman, I would have concerns also.


----------



## Evinrude58 (Apr 13, 2011)

Just a few thoughts. From what the op said to me it seems everything was done basically right. The neighbor may not even know about the deer strike list but seen someone with 3 deer on their property at the same time and thought it was unusual so reported it. Now someone said they should have just asked, but to do so these days is taking a risk. What if he was a poacher and now he is afraid you will tell, how might he react? People have been killed for less. Having someone call the police on you for something that they may find out of the ordinary that is perfectly innocent is annoying as I know from personal experience, but it happens. Now I don't have the actual number but say 10,000 possible poaching calls are made but after investigating only 2% (I bet it would be a higher % than 2%) are really poaching that is 200 poachers caught. I seem to remember reading somewhere the average deer poacher poaches 3 deer a year, so that would be 600 deer a year or more. Isn't it worth them being caught even though some others were questioned that were innocent? How many times are fishermen asked to see their license and had a cooler checked, even though they are not doing anything suspicious? 
So lets look at it another way about neighbors calling on things that catch their eye. I know of someone who had the cops called because a neighbor had seen the garage had a lot of electronics in it. Turns out they were trading drugs to people for stolen property then they kept merchandise in the garage for about a year before filtering it thru their sister's 2 pawn shops. Oh yea, they also busted the guy for having videos of him having sex with underage girls, he was 18 and a couple of the girls were 13 or 14. So should the neighbor have minded their own business? What if a neighbor sees what may be signs of poaching but minds their own business and then later it comes out the person was involved in something far worse that may have been caught sooner if that neighbor had reported the possible poaching? Generally if someone poaches you can almost bet they wouldn't be bothered by breaking other laws too.


----------



## Bprice1031 (Mar 13, 2016)

Poachers aren't going to transport deer back to their house on a cargo rack. If there going to poach a deer they'll cut it where it lays and only take what they want. Just my 2 cents.


----------



## FOWL BRAWL (Feb 13, 2020)

At least there was a responce from the officer and a quick one. I will have to remember this claim of poaching when i have to call on trespassers, maybe then i will get someone to come out and investigate.


----------



## Upland (Nov 3, 2016)

TomC said:


> I live in Huber heights now and hunt right around the corner. My thing was, is all the neighbors know I work for the sheriffs office and why didn't they say anything last year when I got 9 strikes. The wife and neighbors that I'm cool with said hang em in the front tree for now on!


who knows! people do stupid stuff at time and for no apparent reason


----------



## Sleprock (Dec 16, 2005)

get over it your clean. Maybe be glad you neighbor didnt come over that can work out lots of diffent ways. 3rd party probably the best way to deal, neighbor may be content minding there own buisness untill you put your buisness in street.


----------



## OrangeMilk (Oct 13, 2012)

If you see something, say something.

It applies in this situation.

Hopefully the ODNR officers follows up with the complainant and informs them of the situation to relieve any future issues.


----------



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

I would of been happy if the neighbor had come over, wasn't aware of picking up deer strikes was putting my business out there! Not worried about it im legal, cant wait to hear the complaint during gun week.


----------



## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

hailtothethief said:


> I think the point is he wasnt poaching nothing and didnt deserve to be harrassed. No less have a neighbor dime him out for a crime he didnt commit. Neighbor should mind his own business unless he got him red handed.


if everybody took that attitude most poaching would go unreported. if we see suspicious activity it's our responsibility as sportsmen to report it. it's not our place to confront a suspected poacher we could end up getting shop. and the DNR is paid to check out these complaints. even though he hadn't done anything wrong his activity was just a bit suspicious, to say the least. if I had a neighbor bringing in deer at all hrs I would want him checked out.

no harm no foul the guy or gal reported suspicious activity. the pd reported it to the DNR the DNR came out and checked the guy out. it didn't hurt him to get checked out. its really no different than getting checked at the ramp after a hard day fishing. preventing poaching is up to all of us. 

not trying to start a stink even though I may have. but just my opinion on reporting suspicious activity. if were legal its not going to hurt us to get checked.

we were checked in the parking lot on Erie once. we were 2 fish over our limit we had just miscounted. we were in the process of cleaning the fish and found we were 2 fish over. a couple of us wanted to throw the extra fish away. but the caption of the boat said we caught and kept them so we weren't going to throw them away. about 20 minutes later while we were cleaning the fish the Leo showed up and counted our fish. he said it was a small infraction but it was an infraction. he said one of us needed to go with him and put up a cash bond and take responsibility for the fish. he said the cash bond covered the fine so he wouldn't have to show up for court. the caption of the boat said he would do it. it cost us 15.00 each for the 2 fish plus 28.00 court cost for ba total of 58.00. split 5 ways it came to 11.60 each. we knew we were in the wrong except one guy started getting smart with the leo. we told him to just shut up and stay quite. when it was all said and done he said he wanted to thank us for being so nice to him. ( he was alone in an empty parking lot with a van load of us.) then he said he was supposed to take all our fish for evidence but we had been so nice about the whole deal he was going to let us keep our limit and he would take the 2 for evidence.


----------



## bad luck (Apr 9, 2009)

Sooo....local PD doesn’t provide ODNR with names of people on roadkill list? If not - why not?

so if I don’t like somebody (say ex’es or exinlaws, etc...) what’s to stop from lobbing baseless claims to get them searched for nothing ?

the whole , “well if you have nothing to hide .....” just see how much you like being searched for no reason....


----------



## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

Seems the real point here is...if you call to report something suspicious and the guy didn't do anything wrong, then you're wrong for calling. If a guy is doing something illegal and you don't call, then you're wrong again for not calling.
So I guess if I'm reading this right it must mean that before you call a game warden you 1st should approach the person you're and ask if he's doing something illegal...or just don't bother calling? 
Personally I think the neighbor did the right thing. No one was harassing anyone, they were just doing their job and following up on a call.


----------



## FOWL BRAWL (Feb 13, 2020)

bad luck said:


> Sooo....local PD doesn’t provide ODNR with names of people on roadkill list? If not - why not?
> 
> “well if you have nothing to hide .....” just see how much you like being searched for no reason....


The local PD and ODNR could certainly work together and do on these issues as both are responsible to document this type of information.
The division could have called the PD and asked the question and they would have gotten the answer without having to go knocking on the door. If the information wasn't correct for whatever reason then and only then would they have needed to go pay them a visit.


----------



## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

> the whole , “well if you have nothing to hide .....” just see how much you like being searched for no reason....


and now you all know how black dudes walking down the street across this nation feel.


----------



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

one would figure with as many law enforcement and sheriffs office cars that are always in front of my house that there would be an issue in the first place? I'm not worried about it, they didn't call when i got the strike saturday so im sure odnr told em what was going on. I dont mind being searched, the only thing that bugs me that that they know i work for the sheriffs office and they can't walk across the street to be like hey whats up? Oh well its done and over, gun week is here so i'll see if they complain this week.


----------



## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

Local PDs and sheriff's offices are notoriously uncooperative with DNR officers. Usually Wildlife officers want to communicate.


----------



## ruffhunter (Dec 10, 2005)

Nothing wrong with that question whatsoever. WE are there to inquire, follow up and gather facts to make a determination. How is that Overstepping? Its our job and a requirement.
Would like to thank they notified the reporting party they were full of chit. Now i wish the neighbor would have left their info complaining of the generator noise during hurricane ike. would have loved to have a chat with them!




M R DUCKS said:


> Maybe the wildlife officer over stepped a bit inquiring about where he hunted?


----------



## ruffhunter (Dec 10, 2005)

In reference to a question above, when we issued a deer kill slip, the records department called the county wildlife officer pick up the slip. Im sure some records sections just mail them


----------



## Upland (Nov 3, 2016)

TomC said:


> I would of been happy if the neighbor had come over, wasn't aware of picking up deer strikes was putting my business out there! Not worried about it im legal, cant wait to hear the complaint during gun week.


well did the ODNR set up across the street Lmao sorry couldn't resist No problems ? just curious


----------



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

Nope, no problems from the ODNR and no other problems out of the neighbor as well. I didn't receive any calls or visits when I had a 6pt on the back of my car that I got two weeks ago.


----------



## Upland (Nov 3, 2016)

TomC said:


> Nope, no problems from the ODNR and no other problems out of the neighbor as well. I didn't receive any calls or visits when I had a 6pt on the back of my car that I got two weeks ago.


awesome glad to hear that The less stress the better


----------

