First run in with "the man"

JBrown said:

I've been stopped while hunting probably half a dozen times, and a half a dozen more while fishing up at the lake. I've never had a single bad experience with an Ohio wildlife officer. Maybe I'm just lucky. It's hard to ignore the number of complaints given about run-ins with them, though... Sounds like there are a lot out there with shitty personalities. Even so, a guy with a shitty personality can't give you a ticket for something you didn't do.

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In the thread I posted about our former Game Warden (Charlie Stone) getting a DUI, I mentioned how karma came back to bite him in the ass for being such a prick all those years. I was telling my uncle about it last night and reminded me of another funny story involving karma and a Game Warden. There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this story as well, just ask my uncle!!!

This story took place long before my time and involves one of the most notorious Game Warden’s this county will ever have, a fellow by the name of Winstanley. From all that I have ever heard, Winstanley was a world class prick and had the stature to go along with the attitude. At the time this story takes place, the archery season was still a “novelty” and the harvest of any deer with a bow was a true trophy. My uncle was fresh out of Vietnam when he drove out to the family farm to rustle up his little brother to do some bowhunting with their Bear recurve. My uncle was going through a rough patch and needed some venison for the freezer to help feed to family, but luck was not on their side and no deer were seen on the hunt.

After the hunt, my uncle went back to the house to visit for a while and left just before dark. It wasn’t long before he returned with a whopper of a tale. According to him, he had witnessed a deer running a cross what we called “The Flat” and “it just dropped dead”. When my Grandpa asked him what was wrong with it, my uncle replied: “It looks like it was shot with a 12 gauge.” Well my Grandpa was an old school preacher and if you did something, you did it by the book. Grandpa says: “I bet it was those damn Browns. (The neighboring farmers.) I’m calling Winstanley!” So my Grandpa gets on the phone and calls old Winstanley up and has him come out to see this deer. Winstanley knows something is fishy right off the bat and starts questioning my uncle. My uncle stays true to his story and before old Winstanley leaves, he says to my uncle: “I’m no fool Roush. I’m going to be on you like stink on $h!t. I plan to do a full investigation, including ballistics and you can bet your ass you’ll be seeing me again.”

Almost two weeks goes by when Winstanley drives out to see my uncle and gives him this dissertation about how the ballistic angle of the shot was consistent with someone firing from the driveway and blah, blah, blah. He tells my uncle that he has all he needs to convict him in court and he’ll see him there. In reality, old Winstanley was bluffing my uncle and got him to fess up to shooting that deer with his Winchester Model 37. Winstanley leveled him with a pretty hefty fine as a result. So here is a young man who graduated high school, went to Vietnam, comes home and in an effort to feed his family in rough times, shoots a deer out of season. (It cost him roughly $600 in today’s money to pay the fine.) Rather than take it home and get in it in the freezer, he tells a white lie to his old man and the old man calls the Game Warden thinking he can pin one on the neighbors who he had a running feud with at the time. The irony and the humor of the situation is one we have laughed about on many of occasion! The moral of the story, never lie to a preacher!!!

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epe said:

Stone was a douche... Never dealt with winstanley, but heard the same. Have met one of the fairfield county gws a couple times waterfowl hunting. One of the nicest ones I have met..

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