Oklahoma Dove Poachers Arrested in Hunting Blind Made of Weed
OutdoorHub Reporters 09.04.15
Officers from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) got a surprise on Sunday when they found three men poaching doves over bait, and then discovered that their blind was made almost entirely out of marijuana plants. The incident took place in Major County.
“Sunday morning, August 30th, did not start out like a normal day for game wardens Phillip Cottrill (Garfield County) and Lt. Frank Huebert (Major County). A passer by called in and reported seeing some Mojo dove decoys spinning in a field. The wardens arrived to find 3 guys dove hunting over bait. Strangely, they were using dove blinds that were built out of marihuana plants. The dove poachers were in possession of 45 dove, marihuana buds and a pipe,” stated the department on its Facebook page.
The men were reportedly so distracted, they did not even notice the game wardens approaching.
“We came in from behind,” Huebert told News 9. “They didn’t know we were there until we were right there.”
All three men were charged on multiple counts, but only one of the alleged poachers were arrested due to outstanding warrants. When wardens followed one of the suspects back to his house for proper identification, they also found several stripped marijuana plants in a fridge.
“The wardens then obtained a search warrant and with the help of deputies from the Major County Sheriff’s Office found more marihuana, methamphetamines and needles,” the department stated.
The blind, which was made of discarded marijuana stalks, was also confiscated. Officials say they never heard of anybody using marijuana to build blinds—which are typically constructed with native vegetation, wiring, and netting—before in the state and that it was a surprising find.
“I’ve never seen a case where they start early, have 50 extra dove, bait a field, hunt out of a marijuana blind,” ODWC assistant chief of law enforcement Bill Hale told KFOR. “That actually sounds more like something you’d see in a story or a movie than it does real life.”
