Recently, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Cacciola responded to a complaint of hunters trespassing in Suffolk County.
Unsure of the hunters' location in the woods, Officer Cacciola contacted ECO DeRose and K9 Cramer for assistance. ECO Cacciola spotted two hunters walking out of the woods soon after making the call and waited for ECO DeRose to arrive to question the pair.
Both subjects denied accessing State land through private property but failed to give the Officers any details about where they had been hunting all morning. With no evidence of trespassing, the ECOs ticketed the hunters for not properly displaying their back tags.
The Officers continued their investigation by deploying K9 Cramer to locate the subjects' hunting location. K9 Cramer quickly cut into the woods and led Officer DeRose to a scent wick and bow hanger in a tree, trail camera, and obvious marks from a climbing tree stand.
ECOs checked the camera photos and recognized one of the hunters interviewed earlier.
Confronted with the evidence, the identified hunter apologized for lying and received additional summonses for trespassing and failing to possess his daily access permit, which is required when hunting State land.
All tickets were made returnable to Suffolk County First District Court.