Caught on Ring Camera: Year-Long Poaching Investigation Leads to Guilty Pleas

In a world where nearly every damn door has a camera on it, if you’re doing something wrong around a residence, it’s very likely that you’re going to get caught. Such was the case in a multi-state poaching incident that took place in Lexington, Kentucky back in the fall of 2023.

After receiving reports of a deer running towards a home and collapsing on a driveway, a quick review of the homeowner’s Ring camera led investigators to immediately suspect foul play. Despite no one being home when the deer was shot on a neighboring property, the camera was rolling and not only captured the untimely death of the whitetail, but also the two idiots who backed their truck in to retrieve it.

Lieutenant Anthony Glorioso,ECO Lucas Palmateer and ECO Jason Smith promptly got to work  investigating the incident in an effort to identify the vehicle used in the crime. After reviewing the video evidence, officers were able to narrow down the pick-up truck, which turned out to be registered to a New Jersey resident. 

Without any concrete way to ID the suspects, it wasn’t until a year later that the seemingly cold case began to heat up again. During the opening day of the 2024 Southern Zone regular firearm season, ECOs Smith and Palmateer were gifted with the sighting of the very same pickup truck, this time parked at a public hunting spot, once again, in Lexington.

Staking out the vehicle, officers followed the suspects truck to a hunt camp where officers were later able to confirm the identity of the driver as the same individual they saw in the Ring camera footage. It didn’t take long before they were able to identify the second suspect who was also at the same hunt camp.

As officers began to question the two suspects, the pair eventually came clean about their involvement in the incident a year earlier. As they continued to inspect the hunting camp, officers reportedly uncovered an untagged seven-point buck, which was tacked on as an additional charge against the two offenders.

ECOs charged the two 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.

This past November, the pair of poachers pleaded guilty in a Lexington Court and paid fines totalling $2,500.