Poachers Caught in Hunting Blind Made Out of Weed

It’s normally a good idea, if you’re going to go out and try to poach game, that you remain hidden, and from there it’s a good idea to be alert. This is not to say that we condone such illegal activity, but the lesson here is not something we can ignore.

Here’s that lesson: Don’t hide in a blind made out of weed. And if you’re going to make your bind out of weed, then at least don’t smoke it, because you know those game wardens tend to look out for such things. Or maybe they don’t.

Nonetheless, three poachers in Oklahoma did exactly those things while hunting dove with bait Aug. 30. Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation officers found the three men poaching, and then discovered that their blind was made almost entirely out of marijuana plants.

“Sunday morning did not start out like a normal day for game wardens Phillip Cottrill (Garfield County) and Lt. Frank Huebert (Major County),” read the department’s Facebook page. “A passer-by called in and reported seeing some Mojo dove decoys spinning in a field. The wardens arrived to find three guys dove hunting over bait. Strangely, they were using dove blinds that were built out of marijuana plants. The dove poachers were in possession of 45 dove, marijuana buds and a pipe.”

The officers said they were able to approach the blind from the rear, and the three offenders were not aware they were there until they were essentially inside the blind itself.

The officers charged the poachers with multiple counts, while one was arrested for 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. This led authorities to obtain a search warrant from which they found more weed, some methamphetamine and needles. The officers also confiscated the blind, made almost entirely from marijuana stalks. Authorities were flabbergasted.

 “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 TV news station KFOR. “That actually sounds more like something you’d see in a story or a movie than it does real life.”