Most game wardens are drawn to the career for their love of the outdoors and the diversity of experiences and challenges the job offers. At least that’s what attracted John Weber to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Law Enforcement. Now that Weber is retired, the many memories over his career come flooding back this time of the year. But one of those old instances still makes his blood run cold today.
After a short stint in the more urban southeast Wisconsin, Weber spent the balance of his career in Buffalo County, known nationwide for its trophy whitetails. And this is where he took on a case that he’ll never forget.
“The file is gone now, but I know it was between Christmas and New Years in the late 1980’s when I got the call,” says Weber. “The caller told me about a crossbow being used as a set gun. This was before everyone could use a crossbow like they can now. At that time there were rigid requirements — a doctor had to sign off on before you got the needed permit to use one. The caller said the crossbow was set adjacent to a well-used deer trail that crossed a ravine coming off a bluff. It wasn’t far from a road either. He was concerned about what could happen over the holiday season when kids were out of school and a lot of people would be off work and in the woods. The caller also gave me a suspect’s name.”
Now Weber need to catch the suspect in the act, in order to ensure charges stuck. Since the site was near a regularly traveled road with no place to hide his truck, Weber arranged to be dropped off to see if he could find the crossbow. “I wanted to go in there in full daylight since I didn’t know what I might be walking into. There was no snow on the ground, so I wasn’t worried about leaving tracks. I found the crossbow right where the caller said it would be, it was along a heavily used deer trail. He’d aimed it at a 45-degree angle so it would hit the deer in the chest. I also couldn’t help but think it would hit someone my size in the hip-joint or high on the upper leg. It was buried in a box about the size of a peach crate that he’d dug into the ground and angled upward and close to the trail. I was impressed with the ingenuity he’d used. It was set up with a pulley system and a trip wire that would fire the crossbow when a deer’s leg tripped it. The trip wire wasn’t actually wire, it was a heavy cord like the set-line fishermen use. It looked like the guy knew what he was doing. For safety reasons I didn’t want to leave it there in a firing mode, so I knocked the bolt off. I thought that way when I was conducting my surveillance, I’d be able to watch him put it back in place,” Weber said. “That would make my case.”
As happens often in Weber’s line of work, things didn’t go according to plan.
“I was in place to watch the site early the next morning, well before daybreak. I set up between where he parked on the road and where the crossbow was set. I figured that way I’d have a solid, air-tight case when he put the bolt back, but that didn’t happen. I watched the guy get out of his truck with a flashlight and shine it up the ravine, but then he got back into his truck and drove away. I didn’t have enough to make the stop, but I had a clear look at the type of flashlight he had,” Weber said. “It was one of those old ones that held a square 6-volt lantern battery and had a handle on top. I also remember it had a red rim guard around the front of it that really showed up in the dark.”
This simple observation came back to pay dividends later in the investigation.
Weber spent more than a few hours on surveillance of the site along with handling his other responsibilities. Wisconsin wardens average about 1,000-square miles in their administrative areas, so he was unable to conduct continuous surveillance, but he worked it when he could.
“The guy didn’t show up again and I began to wonder if he’d become suspicious that someone was monitoring him,” said Weber, but he wasn’t done yet. “It was late December the last morning I worked the site. I got in there early, it was still dark. I remember it had snowed that night, which meant I couldn’t park where I usually did or walk into my observation point without leaving tracks. I had to park over a mile away and hike there from the opposite direction. By walking in the trickle of water in the stream bed, I got to the general area without leaving tracks, but since I was coming from a different direction, I wasn’t exactly sure where it was. I was also using what little natural light there was, no flashlight,” Weber says. When the dim early morning light brought his surroundings into focus, he realized the crossbow had been moved.
“It made my blood run cold when I saw it was gone and I didn’t know where it was,” says Weber. “Did he move it to one of the other trails crossing that ditch? I was afraid to move so I just stood there until it was light enough to move safely,” Weber says. He then made a careful inspection of the ravine and surmised that the crossbow was gone. Now what?
“I had the suspect’s name and a description of the truck he drove from my earlier surveillance. I also know where he worked, so I drove to his work parking lot, found a truck matching what I was looking for and looked inside where there were parts from the crossbow and the flashlight with the red plastic hood inside. I was certain this was the guy so I went to see the district attorney. He said I had good evidence and should be able to get a search warrant if needed, but suggested I go talk to the guy first,” Weber says.
Weber found the suspect at work, took him aside and walked him through what he’d seen over the course of the last few days, including pictures of the crossbow and the parts that were in his truck.
“He admitted to the violation, but then reality hit me. The Wisconsin statutes clearly state setguns are illegal, but they don’t say anything about set crossbows. Everyone agreed it was – or should be – illegal, but the law didn’t say that. We came up with some hunting related charges that didn’t really fit, so decided to charge him with violating human safety statutes that could cause bodily harm or death,” Weber says.
The warden also asked the man why he’d placed the set crossbow.
Read Next: Tales from the North Country: When a Giant Bull Elk Escaped from a Wisconsin Game Farm, Authorities Called Upon a Retired Marine
“He said the bow season was ending on December 31 and he wanted to fill his tag. It had nothing to do with shooting one of the big bucks Buffalo County is known for, in fact the guy wasn’t even an avid hunter,” says Weber. “He plead guilty to the charges, although I don’t recall his penalty, I’m pretty sure he never did it again.”
Read the full article here
