Bi-Weekly Report 9/20/2020 – 10/3/2020 DISTRICT 1 Conservation Officer (CO) Ethen Mapes responded to a missing subject in Ontonagon County after a young girl ran into the woods behind her house and had not been seen for over two hours. Michigan State Police (MSP) K-9 assisted in tracking the missing subject into the woods. During the track, the missing subject was found by two hunters returning to their nearby camp. The missing subject was returned to her parents. CO Zach Painter received a Report all Poaching (RAP) complaint involving a video posted on social media of a subject intentionally running over a flock of geese with his truck. CO Painter located an address for the subject in Gogebic County. CO Painter interviewed the subject and learned that the event took place in Iron County, Wisconsin. CO Painter contacted Wisconsin Game Warden Robin Miller who had already located a goose that had been run over by a vehicle in the same location. COs Painter and Dave Miller returned and re-interviewed the subject. A full confession was obtained, and charges are being sought in Wisconsin. CO Ethen Mapes was patrolling the Porcupine Mountains State Park during a busy weekend. CO Mapes worked his way to outside the park to contact a reported intoxicated driver. After failed standardized field sobriety tests (SFSTs), the subject was arrested for operating while intoxicated. A preliminary breath test (PBT) analysis showed that the subject was over three times the legal limit. COs Jenni Hanson and Byron Parks assisted the Ontonagon County Sheriff’s Office search for an unstable, assaultive 18-year-old male who fled into the woods. While travelling to a mental facility, the suspect assaulted his mother, causing the vehicle to crash into the ditch, and then took off on foot in Stannard Township. The suspect had been known to take hallucinogenic drugs prior to the attack. The COs, along with MSP troopers from the Wakefield Post, MSP K-9 units from Calumet and Iron Mountain Posts, and local friends and family searched the area. After about ten hours in the rain, the subject was located without incident. He was placed under protective custody and transported to Aspirus Ironwood Hospital. CO Jared Ferguson was patrolling Dickinson County when he observed two kayaks on a local river system fishing. CO Ferguson contacted the two individuals and found both subjects did not have personal floating devices (PFD)s. During the contact, one individual was questioning why he should have a PFD on a kayak. At that moment he flipped his kayak in the water and was submerged. The individual was not questioning the law after he had to swim with the kayak in hand, back to shore. A citation was given for no PFDs. COs Shannon Kritz, Jeff Dell, Jared Ferguson, Anna Viau, and Sergeant (Sgt.) Brian Bacon proctored a hunter safety field day in Menominee County. About 30 participants were educated on Michigan’s hunting laws and ethics, safe firearm gun handling, archery equipment, and tree stand safety. At the end of the day participants took the written examination and earned their Michigan Hunter Safety Certificate. CO Jeremy Sergey checked a group of four waterfowl hunters on Lake Levasseur on opening day of duck season. Upon checking one of the individual’s ammunition, CO Sergey discovered the hunter had all lead shot shells in his possession. CO Sergey also examined the vessel they used and discovered there was only one PFD for the four individuals on the vessel. Citations were issued for the lead shot and for failing to have PFDs for each person onboard. COs Cody Smith, Josh Boudreaux, Dave Miller, John Kamps, and Jeremy Sergey assisted troopers from Negaunee and Calumet, along with Marquette County Search and Rescue in a search for a missing kayaker. The kayaker was last seen paddling Lake Michigamme and had not been seen by her boyfriend in quite some time. When it got dark the boyfriend decided to call 911 and report that she was missing. The COs responded to the scene with multiple patrol vessels and combed the lake with flashlights and thermal imaging until 4 a.m. but were unable to find the missing kayaker on the 6.7 square mile lake. At that point visibility was low from rain and the search was called off until daylight by Marquette Search and Rescue. Upon continuing the search at daylight, the kayaker returned to the camp she departed from. The COs made contact to find out where she had been. Realizing she was lost; the kayaker had paddled to shore when it was dark. She attempted contact at a camp with the most lights, but nobody was home. Wet and cold she forced entry into a screened porch where she tried to warm up. Still cold and with no phone, she broke a window and took refuge inside the camp for the night. When she woke in the morning, she microwaved her cold wet clothes before hiking the road knocking on camp doors for multiple miles before finding someone to give her a ride to camp. The COs recovered her kayak and returned it to camp for her. CO Cody Smith was patrolling a well-known waterfowl hunting location when he observed an individual in jeans, a flannel shirt, and a hunter orange vest. Striking the CO as odd waterfowl hunting apparel, CO Smith contacted the individual. CO Smith asked if the individual was hunting grouse and waterfowl. The individual responded that they were targeting waterfowl. When asked how much experience the hunter had with waterfowl hunting, they responded saying they were just getting into it. CO Smith checked the hunter’s license and shotgun and discovered they were missing a plug and a federal duck stamp. When asked about both violations, the hunter stated that they thought you couldn’t have four shells in their gun, so they only put two in to be safe and that they thought the waterfowl license was all that was needed to hunt waterfowl. CO Smith educated the hunter on what needed to be corrected before the next duck hunt. The hunter was also informed that ducks have great vision and hunter orange was not needed. CO Josh Boudreaux was patrolling northern Marquette County when he came upon a group of subjects on ORVs that stated they were trying to get back to Ishpeming and were turned around. CO Boudreaux had the group follow him back through a series of two-tracks until he intersected a main road, then directed them south towards the correct trail, which they could follow back to their vehicles. The group was happy to be headed in the right direction as it was getting dark and the temperature was dropping. DISTRICT 2 COs Mark Zitnik and Cole VanOosten were on patrol during the opening day of waterfowl season in Alger County when they heard a large amount of shots coming from a remote creek. The COs were able to locate the hunters and it was determined that one of the hunters was in possession of toxic/lead shot. A citation was issued to the hunter for possessing toxic shot while waterfowl hunting. This was the subject’s third citation for this offense. CO Cole VanOosten responded to a complaint of ORVs tearing up an ORV parking area near Newberry and as he neared the parking area, a large group of ORVs left the parking lot. As he was following the group, the ORV in the rear was swerving in the middle of the road and attempting to drag race the others in the group. The ORV nearly hit CO VanOosten’s patrol vehicle on multiple occasions without the operator even noticing. A traffic stop was conducted, and a citation was issued for careless operation of an ORV. CO Cole VanOosten followed up on a complaint of trash dumped on the private property of another. CO VanOosten was able to find items that identified to whom the trash belonged. An interview was conducted, and the subject stated that she did not know it was someone else’s property and that she just thought it was state land. CO VanOosten informed her that it did not matter if it were state or private land and that she couldn’t dump her trash on either. A citation for litter was issued to the individual and the site was cleaned up. CO Robert Freeborn assisted the MSP and local agencies in apprehending a subject with outstanding felony warrants. The officers received a tip that he was seen in a local retail store. The subject fled the store just before the responding officers arrived. After searching the area, a deputy located the subject in a parked car at another retail store. Upon seeing the deputy, the subject fled on foot from the car into a wooded area that led to a residential neighborhood. CO Freeborn and an MSP trooper set up a perimeter in the area the subject would most likely run toward. After a few minutes, CO Freeborn observed the subject looking around a house right at the officers. CO Freeborn and the MSP trooper pursued on foot and apprehended the subject in a backyard of a residence. The subject was also found to be in possession of methamphetamine. Additional charges will be filed from the local sheriff’s department for the illicit drugs. Following the arrest, it was determined the acquaintance the subject was with had outstanding warrants as well. The acquaintance was found shortly after, hiding in a family member’s residence.