September 22, 2017 - I seriously thought about chasing a career as a Texas game warden once. In fact, I actually filled out an application, sent in a resume and got invited to the first interview.
Then my feet got so cold I withdrew my application before making the trip. Wasting people's valuable time made no sense. My heart just wasn't in it.
I had young daughter from a previous marriage and didn't the like the idea of having to leave her behind should I get lucky and make the final cut. As a rule, most wardens get stationed far from their home turf for their first gig. Or so I've always been told. No way could I have done that.
It's funny how things work out over time. Roughly 10 years later my daughter moved to Virginia to attend college. She hasn't been back since, except to visit. Today she is married with a beautiful child of her own and lives on the opposite side of the country, roughly 2,000 miles away.
It's all good, though. She's happy and I'm content doing what I've been doing for the last 32 years. Through it all the admiration and respect I have for the men and women who drive the green trucks has held steady. But not just because they look after the things we all hold so dear.
Game wardens often find themselves in peculiar situations - sometimes in the woods, on the water and on our roadways - occasionally in the presence of brazen and really stupid individuals with no respect for laws of any kind, much less our natural resources. They routinely approach people who are more than likely packing a gun, and the encounters frequently take place on dark country roads, amid dense river bottoms or sprawling leases with limited access to the outside world. Things can get dicey in a hurry out there, often when it is least expected.
Furthermore, game wardens help a lot of people. In addition to performing search and rescue in hurricanes, floods, tornadoes other natural disasters, wardens are sometimes called upon to assist other law enforcement agencies or perform educational programs for youths and civic groups. The list of duties performed under the job title goes on and on, and they sometimes lead to chance encounters with danger, humor and other stuff that is somewhat odd.
Every now and then Texas Parks and Wildlife's law enforcement division allows the public to peek inside to its day-to-day field operations through an online report called "Game Warden Field Notes." The report summarizes a handful of the cases filed by the more than an 500-plus wardens that oversee 254 counties across a massive state spanning more than a quarter million square miles. It's got the same allure as the police report that sometimes appears in local newspapers, only it is way more detailed and a heck of a lot more interesting to read.
To get a feel of what Texas game wardens deal with day-to-day, here are a few entries filed in past TPWD reports. Some were edited for space purposes:
Skunked
A Rockwall County game warden responded to a call from a local law enforcement officer about a traffic stop involving three subjects that had been driving the neighborhoods shooting rabbits from a public roadway. When the warden arrived on scene, he found three young men standing around a truck with a bed full of dead rabbits. One young man was only wearing a trucker hat, boots, and some brightly colored underwear. The subjects said they had shot a skunk earlier in the evening and when the individual approached it, the skunk sprayed him. The others wouldn’t let him back in the truck with his clothes on.
Signed, Sealed and Delivered
Wardens from Van Zandt and Smith counties wrapped up an investigation dating back to last hunting season regarding a group of trespassers and illegally taken deer. The game wardens made cases against five individuals for trespassing, running hog dogs and hunting deer illegally near Fruitvale in Van Zandt County. The primary suspect gave a false name to the rancher and had put his own lock on the gate in order to gain illegal access to the property. The investigation revealed that the primary suspect also had a feeder and hunting equipment on the adjacent property. The suspect had also illegally harvested multiple deer and was caught multiple times on camera trespassing with firearms. Multiple cases were filed for trespassing, untagged white-tailed deer, illegal means and methods, and other charges.
You Can Run, but You Cannot Hide
A Tarrant County game warden was patrolling Eagle Mountain Lake by boat when he approached two bank fisherman to check fishing licenses. One of suspects walked away and disregarded warden's commands to stop. The suspect put his fishing pole and something else out of his pocket into his truck, then bent the front license plate upward so it could not be read. As the warden searched the bank for a place to tie up his boat, the suspect opened up his driver side door and reached all the way across the truck for something. The warden jumped off his boat and drew his weapon and the suspect drove off. The warden was able to get a positive ID of the back license plate and several days later successfully executed an arrest warrant, but not before fighting off the suspect’s dog with pepper spray followed by a short standoff at the front door. Charges include felony evading arrest, fishing without a fishing license, failure to allow inspection, failure to produce ID and driving while license is invalid.
Ditched
Game wardens had just finished patrolling the Brazos River and were headed to the boat barn when they noticed a man standing alongside the roadway peering into the bar ditch, where a motorcycle laid on its side. The man denied he was involved in a wreck and had merely parked his motorcycle in the ditch, where it had fallen over after the kickstand failed. He claimed he crossed a median and two lanes of traffic to park it there and would like for the wardens to help him right his motorcycle. Suspecting the man might be intoxicated, the wardens administered field sobriety tests, after which he was arrested for driving while intoxicated.
Bagged and Tagged
Grayson County game wardens were tipped off about a white-tailed deer that was shot with a firearm in an archery-only county in November 2016. The wardens confronted the individual at his home and questioned him about the big buck. The subject eventually admitted he killed the deer with a pistol, after several shots, and then tagged the deer as being harvested in Fannin County. The deer was seized and several citations were issued. The deer scored over 177 inches under the Boone & Crockett scoring system, netting a civil restitution value of over $10,000.
Caught with the Loot
Game wardens patrolling the tornado disaster area in Van Zandt County to minimize looting problems and enforce a mandatory curfew stopped a suspicious vehicle filled with several miscellaneous items that appeared to be potentially stolen from homes in the area. A search of the vehicle turned up18 grams of a crystal-like substance believed to be methamphetamine, marijuana, scales, baggies, and other drug paraphernalia. The subject was charge with manufacturing and distributing narcotics, a first degree felony.
Caught With His Pants Down
A Comal County game warden responded to a call for assistance from the Comal County Sheriff’s Office after deputies received can about gun shots. The officers located an individual in a residential neighborhood who appeared to have fresh blood on his tactical boots, but did not have a firearm. A search of his vehicle was conducted and two assault rifles were located along with small drops of blood on the driver and passenger seats. The warden later discovered that there were numerous deer shot and killed along the golf course neighborhood throughout the night. The warden was also able to determine that another individual was involved and was hiding out in the woods. The first suspect was asked to contact the individual in the woods via cellphone and to wait along the roadway for a deputy to pick him up. The suspect hiding in the woods was not wearing any boots or pants. It was later determined he had removed them to conceal blood evidence. The warden continued to interview the suspects and determined that they had killed at least two white-tailed does and wounded another one. The suspects could not provide a specific number of animals shot, but believed it to be more than 10 animals.
Don’t Text and Poach
During a public outreach event, game wardens were provided information about deer being killed throughout the hunting season by the same two suspects. A warden was able to make contact with the suspects and was given a confession that in addition to killing one deer in January, another white-tailed doe was killed in February on the north side of Canyon Lake. The shooter admitted to killing the deer from a roadway, and at night, with a 20-gauge shotgun. The shooter also admitted to cutting the head off with a hatchet and disposing of the head in a wooded area. Warden confiscated the shooter's cellphone and obtained a search warrant, which uncovered numerous pictures and videos from another deer being killed in late December. The videos included the deer carcass being mutilated by both individuals. Two assault rifles, one shotgun, numerous knives and a hatchet were seized related to the illegal killing of white-tailed deer.
Woodpeckers and Bucks for Bait?
A game warden patrolling Lake Corpus Christi for fishing and water safety violations inspected a small aluminum boat and then checked the fishermen’s licenses and catches. When he asked the fishermen what they were using as bait they said woodpecker. Sure enough, there were three dead woodpeckers in their cooler. Further investigation led to the fishermen admitting to killing an eight point buck the previous year, without a license, and using it as fish bait as well. Water safety, fishing and hunting citations were issued.
One Too Many Trips to the Well
A Montgomery County game warden apprehended an individual trespassing on a deer lease, but the subject wasn’t there to poach, at least not wildlife. Seems he trespassed with the intent to illegally dump a boat. After arresting the guy for criminal trespassing and for driving with an invalid license, the warden drove to the address on the subject’s vehicle registration and found three deer feeders in the backyard that matched the description of ones reported stolen from the deer lease several weeks earlier. The warden also discovered two stolen game cameras and a stolen ATV.
