Using patience and a trail camera, Texas Game Wardens arrested a trespasser on his way to a blind on private property he didn’t have permission to hunt. The arrest was made in November, but Monday’s announcement signals the conclusion of the multi-year investigation.
The case started in 2023, when wardens discovered a deer blind converted from a Porta-Potty on private land in Henderson County in East Texas. Unable to catch the trespasser that season, law enforcement set a trail camera on the property line and waited. Sure enough, on opening day of the 2024 season, the wardens nabbed the trespasser on camera. The man had been walking to his stand, which overlooked a feeder he had also snuck onto the property. Confronted by the wardens, he confessed, was charged, and removed the stand and his feeder from the property. His name was not publicly released.
Mainstream media outlets, which ordinarily wouldn’t care about a trespassing deer hunter, fixated on the Porta-Potty part and ran with it. It prompted cute headlines like “Wardens Flush Out Poacher” for instance, although I’d have gone with “Possum Police Pinch Porta-Potty Poacher” because alliteration is fun. Local news had a potty-humor field day, as you would expect from local news outlets.
Those of us who get out a little, however, know that Porta-Potty blinds are a thing. They have been for a while and, if you make your own, it doesn’t have be as ratty-looking as the one the Texas wardens discovered.
You can buy a Redneck blind for a few thousand dollars, or you can be redneck and make your own from a converted portable toilet. A decommissioned porta-john can cost $100 or less if you look around, or it might be free if you know a guy. After that, it’s up to you what you make out of it. Plow Boy Engineering and Lady Kountry have ideas. Just be sure to put it on property you’re actually allowed to hunt.
In another bizarre blind case of a more serious nature also announced Monday, wardens assisting with Operation Lone Star, a long-running Texas border security program, responded to a call about a pickup truck bailout. A K-9 officer and his black Lab, Jake, responded.
Officials found the truck with at least one hay-bale in the bed and the driver gone. Jake was very interested in the bale, but his handler called him off to search for the missing driver. Jake and the officer got their man, because Texas wardens and Good Dogs usually do.
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In the meantime, other officers responding to the call were surprised when that same “bale” that had caught Jake’s attention rolled out of the truck. The bale turned out to be hay on the outside of a frame of woven wire, with 10 undocumented men hiding inside.
A hay-bale blind might fool people, but it did not fool Jake. And this is yet another reason why you should always trust the dog.
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