A man in middle Tennessee was caught on camera last Friday shooting a turkey in someone’s front yard. Officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency have shared the video to Facebook, and they are requesting help from anyone who may have information regarding the poaching incident.
The video, which was recorded with a home security camera just before 9 a.m. on April 1, shows a white pickup truck slowing down in front of someone’s yard. The camera also shows two turkeys—one hen and one strutting gobbler—in the yard, and it quickly becomes clear that the driver has his eye on the strutter.
As the pickup slows to a crawl in the street, a shotgun barrel is already easing out of the driver’s side window. And within three seconds of the vehicle stopping in the middle of the neighborhood road, the driver fires the shotgun and connects with the gobbler.
The hen runs away as the wounded bird flops around in the front yard, and soon the driver, dressed in camouflage, can be seen exiting the vehicle and running to retrieve the turkey. After grabbing hold of the gobbler’s feet, he briefly looks towards the house to make sure nobody is watching before running back to his truck with the turkey still flapping its wings and flailing away in his hands. The poacher then tosses the wounded gobbler into the bed of his truck, and 33 seconds after firing the shot, he speeds off down the road.
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According to TWRA, the yard is located off West Webb Road in Eagleville, which is roughly 40 miles south of Nashville. The agency urges anyone with information on the poaching incident to call the agency and speak with a wildlife officer in Rutherford or Williamson Counties. If he is apprehended, the poacher will likely face multiple criminal charges. “Hunting from any vehicle, stationary or otherwise, is prohibited from a public road,” according to TWRA regulations. And because the hit-and-run took place the day before the state’s spring turkey opener, the poacher will also face charges for taking a bird out of season.