Wed Dec 1, 5:15 PM ET Strange News - AP
KINGWOOD, W.Va. - Five young men were charged with stealing a Division of
Natural Resources' mechanical deer after one left identifying information at
the scene, leading police to a pickup truck where the robot deer's head was
in plain sight.
Officers found the deer's body hidden in a building at the Fellowsville
baseball field.
"I don't think those boys thought this through," Conservation
Officer Cpl. Rich McCrobie said.
Patrick Bolyard, 20; Terry J. Goff III, 19; Joe Thomas Haskiell, 21;
Andrew T. Knotts, 16; and Thomas J. Shahan, 19, were charged Nov. 25 with
stealing the mechanical deer on Nov. 21. All live in Tunnelton.
DNR officers erected the deer about 75 yards from the road in the
Fellowsville area where they'd had complaints of poaching the weekend before
deer gun season began.
"One vehicle came up and spotlighted. We pursued it, and another came by
and took the deer," Conservation Officer 1st Class Gary Johnson
said.
Goff pleaded no contest to petit larceny, destruction of property,
spotlighting and failure to stop and check game. Magistrate Diane Thomas
sentenced him to 14 days in jail plus fines and costs totaling $1,244. Of
that, $600 is restitution for the mechanical deer.
Thomas levied 10 days jail time and a total of $744 in fines and costs
against Bolyard for his no contest plea to conspiracy to violate game laws,
hunting from a motor vehicle, spotlighting and failure to stop and check
game.
Chief Magistrate Janice Snider sentenced Shahan to 14 days in jail and a
total of $1,244, including $600 restitution, for his no contest plea to
spotlighting, petit larceny, conspiracy to violate game laws and destruction
of property.
Snider ordered Knotts to pay $577 for tickets charging him with hunting
without a license, hunting from a motor vehicle, spotlighting and conspiracy
to violate game laws.
A conviction for spotlighting also results in automatic revocation of
hunting licenses for two years.
Haskiell had not entered a plea in Magistrate Court by Tuesday. He is
charged with destruction of property, petit larceny, spotlighting and
conspiracy to violate game laws.
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