On Nov. 16, 2024, ECOs ended a year-long investigation with the apprehension of two New Jersey residents suspected of illegally taking a deer in the front yard of a residence in the town of Lexington.
In November 2023, ECOs Palmateer and Smith responded to complaints from a homeowner who reported receiving an alert on his ring camera that captured a deer being shot and collapsing in his driveway. The surveillance video also showed two subjects back a black pick-up truck into the driveway before they finished killing the animal, loading it into the truck, and driving away.
Lieutenant Glorioso, along with ECOs Palmateer, Smith, and Hameline used several investigative techniques in the following months to narrow the subject vehicle down to a pick-up truck registered to a subject residing in New Jersey.
On Nov. 16, opening day of the 2024 Southern Zone regular firearms season, Officers Palmateer and Smith located the suspect’s vehicle parked along a roadway at a public hunting property in the town of Lexington. Officers followed the vehicle back to a nearby hunting camp where they identified the driver as the same individual in the ring camera video. The Officers then found the other subject at the hunting camp.
The subjects, both residents of New Jersey, admitted to illegally shooting and killing the deer from the roadway the previous year. ECOs charged the pair with possessing a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, taking a deer from a public roadway, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, illegally killing a white-tailed deer, and failing to properly tag the deer. Officers discovered an untagged seven-point buck at the hunting camp, which also resulted in another charge for failing to tag deer as required by law.
On Nov. 22, 2024, both subjects pleaded guilty in the Town of Lexington Court and paid fines totaling $2,500. DEC thanks New Jersey Conservation Police and the New York State Police Forensic Multimedia Service Unit for assisting in this investigation.
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