Two Black Hawk County men are facing 14 charges for allegedly taking two deer out of season.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, Dakota Drish, says Waterloo police called him after officers found the men on the east side of the city. “They were on routine patrol and noticed a car that was illegally parked along side the road if you will. And the vehicle was running and they got out to investigate — and that’s when they noticed the illegal activity,” Drish says.
Thirty-one-year-old Paul Lu and 19-year-old Kyaw Wahny, both of Waterloo were found to have two male deer. They are each charged with: shooting firearm over water, highway or railroad right-of-way; hunting deer without a valid license; hunting without a valid hunting license; hunting without paying the habitat fee; taking deer out of season; taking deer with a prohibited rifle. They were also both given a warning for using an automobile and artificial light to hunt deer.
Drish says it was 1:26 in the morning and they believe the two men used flashlights to spot and shoot the deer in the dark. “We run into this quite often as the fall nears. They’ll use flashlights where the deer or raccoon or any other type of animal — their eyes light up and basically glow in the dark — and these subjects are able to harvest these animals illegally after the legal shooting hours and outside the season that way,” according to Drish. He credits the Waterloo officers with seeing the possible violation and calling him.
“It helps us tremendously when you have other agencies that are diligent when they run upon these types of cases and contact us and are able to work with these types of investigations,” Drish says. “So, the Waterloo Police Department did a phenomenal job in this case in particular.”
The antlers on the deer were still in velvet, which means that they had not fully completed their development. Drish says the DNR is asking each man to pay $4,000 in restitution based on the size of the deer antlers. “On a deer that’s under 150 inches like this — the maximum that the state could be reimbursed is $10,000,” Drish explains. The men face other charges in the case of $2,244 dollars.
The two men are scheduled to appear in court today (Wednesday).