TAKING GROBEC HUNTERS THE HARD WAY 

By Sr. Agent Richard Purvis

In early August, Lt. Les Rulf and Sr. Agent Davis Madere received a complaint that one of Region 9's most notorious outlaws was back to his outlawing ways. The agents were informed that this subject, we'll just call him Roger, was supposedly going out at night somewhere along Belle River and killing Grobecs. Les and Davis have had several dealings with this subject and knew where he lived. What they didn't know was where he was going after the Grobecs.

After deliberation, the plan was to stake out his house, which was on South Belle River Road. This is a dead end road, so they were able to allow a good deal of "cushion" between themselves and Roger's house.

On the night of August 6, the two set up on South Belle River Road. They knew that Roger was out by the absence of his truck and boat from his house. At around 10:30 p.m., the agents’ wait paid off. They saw Roger's truck coming down the road headed back to his house. The agents radioed each other and decided to conduct a vehicle stop. 

Davis made the initial stop. Les pulled up in his truck to the rear of Davis. At that time, a passenger jumped out of Roger's truck and tried to retrieve something out of the boat that Roger was trailering. This took the agents by surprise. Since they didn't know the passenger's intentions at the time, they both pulled their service weapons and ordered the subject to the ground. The subject complied.

As they tried to order Roger out of the vehicle, he put his truck in gear and sped off towards his house. Les pounced on the subject that had exited from the vehicle while Davis began pursuit. Davis chased Roger until the road dead-ended. At that time, Roger stopped and ran to the back of his truck to the boat trying to get something out of it. Again, not knowing his intentions, Davis pulled his weapon and ordered Roger to stop. Roger then removed a small ice chest from the boat and stated, "You're going to have to kill me man!"

At that point, Roger took off on foot. Davis could see that Roger was not armed and re-holstered his weapon and pursued Roger. Davis was able to catch up and tackle Roger. When he did several Grobecs spilled out of the ice chest Roger was carrying.

Roger didn't just give up at this point. A pretty intense wrestling match ensued. Roger, being quite a bit larger than Davis would have gotten the best of him had Davis not locked Roger in a submission hold and hung on like a pit bull. The wrestling match lasted for several minutes with Roger screaming such endearments as "When I get up, I'm going to kill you!" By this time some local residents had noticed the commotion and came out to assist Davis. Les then arrived and the two were able to subdue Roger.

Roger was arrested and booked with; take or possess Grobec, (Federally), flight from an officer, reckless operation of a vehicle, improper lane usage, D.W.I., and battery of a police officer. The judge set bond on the battery of a police officer charge at $40,000. Hopefully, Roger won't see the light of day for a long time.