Spring 2024 Issue Now Available
Read a complimentary Article
Beer and Snakebites
WCO Vance Dunbar, PFBC (retired)
Pennsylvania Fish & Boat
Commission
I served as a Waterways Conservation Officer for 24 years. I’ve been retired for awhile but some people still remember me. Last year one of those people sent me a news feed. It was about a guy being extradited to PA for felony Game charges and for threatening the life of a PA Game War- den. I’d been waiting for that little pig sucker to pop on my radar again. It had been several years since I’d busted him, but he was a hard man to forget. Let’s call him Jack. He had a live-in girlfriend we’ll call Jill. Jack and Jill were running an illegal reptile rescue operation out of their trailer in Mifflin County. I was the special investigator assigned to the case.
It was an easy case to build. Jack’s number was listed on Facebook, he answered his phone and he had loose lips. He told me about a rattlesnake den in the state forest by his place and offered to take me hunting, even though they were out of season and he had no license. He even sent me a picture of a large black phase timber rattlesnake in a tank at his home. He had just caught it and asked if I wanted to come see it – stupid question. I planned to meet him two days later. We secured the search warrants and put a team together con- sisting of officers from the Fish & Game Commissions, local police, animal con- trol & Jack’s probation officer (he was on probation for Game violations). My job was to meet him, see the rattler & scout for other violations in the home. I was to call my handler with an update before we left for snake hunting and then the team would move in to execute the war- rant while we were gone. It was a good plan that went south quick.