“There, he found a man and woman digging in the creek, filling their backpack with agates. He watched for a while, noting they never called for a dog, or anything named ‘Teddy’, so Officer Schroeder decided to wait to see if they returned to the vehicle in question.”
Who let the dogs out? Apparently, these rock hunters didn’t. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police posted this hilarious exchange with some trespassers from last week. What started as a classic “the dog ate my homework” excuse turned into a trespassing citation for these agate hunters, who were on private property. Here’s the story from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Police:
“Several locations in Lewis County were published in a prospecting article and agate hunters have been out in full force as of late. Private landowners don’t particularly like the public digging holes for rocks on their property.
One rock hounding duo thought they’d out-smart WDFW Officer Schroeder with a nice ruse. Officer Schroeder found a vehicle parked at a known rock hounding location but when he got out and inspected the vehicle, he found a note, dog leash, and treats. The note asked kindly that if found to not tow or ticket the vehicle, the owners were looking for their lost dog named “Teddy”. The note continued by saying, that if found, to leash it to the vehicle, and give it some treats.
As this is not Officer Schroeder’s first day or even third day on the job he decided to check things out for himself. He headed down to the creek where he continually finds people digging for agates.
There, he found a man and woman digging in the creek, filling their backpack with agates. He watched for a while, noting they never called for a dog, or anything named “Teddy”, so Officer Schroeder decided to wait to see if they returned to the vehicle in question.
He got into his vehicle and backed down the road to where he could see the suspect vehicle, but the suspects wouldn’t see him. They returned to the vehicle a short time later, put their rocks into the trunk, tossed in the leash and treats, and got in and began to drive away. Officer Schroeder pulled up and the male suspect claimed they were just turning around and had gotten lost. Officer Schroeder told him he thought they may have been at the creek. The male then changed his story and said they did go for a quick walk to look at the creek but had only been there for a quick minute. Officer Schroeder then asked if they had found their dog, “Teddy”. The suspects looked at each other in silence and finally responded with a solid no.
Officer Schroeder let them know he watched them collecting rocks and asked to see what they took from the private property. The suspects provided a pile of agates filling ¾ of a 5-gallon bucket. The agates were seized as stolen property and the suspects were cited for trespassing.”
Image Credits: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police, Marliese Streefland of Unsplash
