Pennsylvania Game News - December 2012 - 18

together in southern Huntingdon County, while WCO Cadet Jason Kelley and I were patrolling the remainder of the district. Officers Britcher and Cornelius were patrolling SGL 251 in Tell Township when they noticed a hunter standing next to a parked pickup along the Game Lands road. The officers checked the hunter and found that his rifle leaning against the truck was loaded. After requesting the hunter’s driver’s license and hunting license, the officers determined they were speaking to Donnie Miner. While informing Donnie of the violation, the officers noticed what appeared to be fresh blood in the bed of the pickup. There was also deer hair mixed in with the blood. Being that the season had just opened, the officers asked Donnie if he had harvested a deer. Donnie became nervous and had a difficult time answering simple questions and claimed he didn’t know where the blood came from. Suspicious, the officers continued questioning Donnie, and he eventually admitted that a Wayne Jeffries had been out the previous night and shot the deer using a spotlight. Donnie said that he was staying at Wayne’s camp, and that Wayne was currently in the woods hunting. Donnie had returned to the truck to warm up and was waiting on Wayne when the officers came upon him. Donnie told officers Britcher and Cornelius that the deer was taken back to the hunting camp and was in the garage. At this point, as often happens, the officers needed some help. They contacted Cadet Kelley and me on the radio and asked if we could help. We agreed to meet them at their location on the Game Lands. When we arrived I spoke with Donnie about the incident, and he repeated his story of Wayne having
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gone out the previous night and killing the deer. Donnie said he was not along, and that when Wayne returned to the camp he brought in a deer he had just shot. Donnie said the deer was a small buck; he couldn’t remember how many points it had, but guessed five or six. At my request, Donnie wrote his story on a witness statement form. After some discussion we decided that officers Britcher and Cornelius would wait for Wayne to return to the truck. Cadet Kelley and I would take Donnie back to the hunting camp to recover the deer. The only problem was, Donnie didn’t really know where the camp was. This was his first trip to the area and Wayne had driven. He gave me a general location of where the camp was, and having a decent idea, we left to find it. After about a 15-minute drive we arrived at the “camp.” Except this wasn’t a camp but, rather, a home, and not just any home, but one I had been to the previous year for a suspected poaching violation. The home was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Clueless. Mrs. Clueless came to the door and I asked her if she knew a Wayne Jeffries. Mrs. Clueless said Wayne was her son. I asked if he was home, and she said he was out hunting. I then told Mrs. Clueless that we had reason to believe there was an illegal deer in the garage and asked for her permission to look for it. She said there wasn’t any deer in her garage or she would know about it, but that we could go ahead and look anyway. I asked her to sign a consent to search form, but Mrs. Clueless refused, telling us that she said we could look, so look. I asked Donnie if the deer was in the garage behind the house, and he said the last time he saw it, it was in that garage. Cadet Kelly, Donnie, Mrs. Clueless and I all entered the garage. Inside we found a completely finished living space with furniture, a bar, pool table and all the makings of a recreational room. There was a man sleeping on one of the couches. Cadet Kelley went to the man on the couch and
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Pennsylvania Game News - December 2012

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