Back in the early 90's my uncle was a member of club south of Arcadia. He didn't turkey hunt and from what I could tell no one on the club turkey hunted. I asked him about going and after checking with the club President, he gave me the green light. He gave me a map of an area where he had heard birds gobbling during deer season, and when opening day rolled around I headed straight to the area he had shared with me.

At daylight I could hear several birds gobbling at the top of a tall ridge. There was a gas line running right up to them, so I began easing that way. When I got as close as I dared, I put a decoy out in the gas line and tucked back into the woods. I made a few tree yelps and the birds responded. Once they hit the ground, I made a few more yelps, put the gun up on the knee and knocked the safety off.

Probably five minutes went by when all of a sudden I see a guy walking up the gas line. I called out to him to let him know I was there, and when I did he started walking towards me. I was a little freaked out because he was wearing green coveralls, and when he got up to me the first thing he said was, "I need you to unload you gun." He unzipped the coveralls and pulled them to one side exposing his badge. He then took my gun and shells and loaded the gun himself, then ejected the three shells and told me I could gather them and put them into my pocket.

He then asked, "is that your feeder up on top of the hill?"

I had no idea what he was talking about and told him so. I shared with him that my uncle was a member of the club and that I'd never been on the property before in my life. His response was, "I don't believe you." He insisted that the feeder was mine and when he eventually tired of trying to get me to admit to something I had no idea about it, he tells me..."I'm gonna pace off how far your decoy is from that feeder and if it's less than 100 yards I'm gonna write you a ticket. Off he went but not before telling me to sit down and not move.

A few minutes later he comes back with a hang dog look on his face and exclaims, "118 steps." Now he was really upset and reverted back to the third degree. Even at my young age (21), I was beginning to get upset and when I asked if he was going to write me a ticket, he replied no. I began walking up the the gas line towards where the feeder was and he shouted at me, "where are you going?" I said, "if you're so sure that's my feeder up there, I'm going to get it and take it home." Suddenly he was running up the hill in front of me to "gather his evidence."

When I got there, he was stuffing chipped corn into a zip log bag. I took my knife out, cut the feeder and started down the hill towards my truck. The entire way down, the continued to harass me and tell me he knew that was my feeder. Once we reached our trucks, I threw the feeder in the back, jumped in and drove away.

I never saw him again.