A Virginia homeowner says game wardens trespassed on his property and stole his trail camera without a warrant. Now he's taking on a century-old Supreme Court decision.
is ringed with no trespassing signs. On April 8, the first day of turkey hunting season, his wife and 6-year-old son were playing basketball when the ball rolled toward the edge of the woods. When they went to retrieve it, they saw someone dressed in full camouflage walking among the trees. His wife rushed their son inside to get Highlander.
"My wife has got, like, this panic in her eyes," he recalled. But when he went outside to search the property, thinking it may have been a hunter, he couldn't find anyone. He later realized one of his trail cameras located about 150 yards from his house was missing. When Highlander reported it stolen, the sheriff's department told him the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources had taken the camera and would reach out to Highlander, said attorney Joseph Gay with theMore than two months later, Highlander said he has not received any information from DWR.
A DWR spokesperson declined to answer any questions when contacted by Fox News, citing"pending litigation."Highlander thinks DWR may be searching his cameras for evidence of hunting violations. Earlier on April 8, Highlander’s brother was cited for"hunting over bait" in a different county. Agents claimed to have found seeds in the field where he was turkey hunting and determined they were bait, but Highlander's brother is contesting the ticket, lawyers said.
"The basic principle here is that if we as ordinary people can't sneak onto somebody's land and steal their camera, then government agents shouldn't be able to do that either," Gay said."Not without a warrant."
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