Official Game Thief Complaint
This official Operation Game Thief report was filed today with Game and Fish officer John Romero at the Tucson Game and Fish office. The ball is in their court - will they investigate?
OPERATION GAME THIEF REPORT
On November 2, 2005, between 8:00 and 8:20 a.m., two members of the public saw a white SUV with decals on its tinted windows stop on the edge of a cornfield while a flock of sandhill cranes was flying overhead. A camouflaged man holding a shotgun jumped out of the vehicle and crouched in the field with his gun pointed upward. The car drove some distance down the road, then returned a few minutes later and the passenger got back in. The SUV drove out of sight momentarily, then reappeared just as another flock of birds was overhead. The same man leaped out, aimed upward and fired, confirming the observers’ suspicions that they were witnessing a hunting violation: seeking out prey from the road. No birds fell, the man got back in the SUV, and the vehicle drove off.
The vehicle reappeared shortly before 9:45 a.m. At precisely 9:44 a.m., the witnesses saw the vehicle stop abruptly with a flock flying overhead, followed a split second later by the sound of a shotgun blast, leading the observers to suspect that the hunter had actually fired from the road or even the car. At this point, the witnesses informed their companions of what was occurring, so while the witnesses stayed in place, other members of the public approached the SUV in question (which in the intervening time had dropped the camouflaged hunter off elsewhere in the field).
The driver of the car introduced himself as Steven Ward, owner/operator of Ward’s Outfitters (www.wardsoutfitters.com).
In order to preserve the viability of any criminal prosecution, the names of these witnesses are not being made public. If Game and Fish is interested in prosecuting this case, please contact sabthebastards@hotmail.com for their contact information.