What a Difference a Little Raccoon Can Make
By Sr. Agent Richard Purvis

On Nov 13, 2004, Lt. Sammy Martin and I were on patrol in Terrebonne Parish. At about 6:00 p.m. we received a call from our dispatch section. Dispatch advised us that a local land owner had found two subjects trespassing on his property hunting ducks. He further advised that neither of the two subjects had hunting licenses.

We arrived on the scene at around 6:30 p.m. We were met there by the land owner, and a Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office Deputy, Deputy Larpentier. The land owner had contacted the Sheriff’s Office the same time he called us. Deputy Larpentier had detained one of the subjects, but the second fled the scene before he arrived. We interviewed the subject that Deputy Larpentier had in custody. He admitted to duck hunting and showed us where he had hidden a pirogue, two unplugged shotguns, two boxes of lead shot and two blue winged teal. He then gave us a written statement concerning his activities and the name of the second subject but told us that he didn’t know exactly where he lived.

As luck would have it, Deputy Larpentier was familiar with the subject. Deputy Larpentier knew them from previous calls to his home. The deputy agreed to show us to where the subject lived.

When we arrived at the second subject’s home, we found that it was his mother’s home. He, along with a juvenile brother, lived there with other family members. Deputy Larpentier gave us some back ground on the family. Hearing this, Lt. Martin covered the back door and Deputy Larpentier and I made contact with the family at the front door. We were greeted at the door by the mother and a friend. Both of them stated that our subject was not at home. She then claimed that he no longer lived there and she had no idea where he would be. Deputy Larpentier spotted our subject’s girlfriend inside and asked to speak to her. She gave us the same story, but had no good answer why she still lived there while the boyfriend lived elsewhere. We were certain that the boyfriend was inside, but didn’t have reasonable cause to search inside the home. After talking it over, we left hoping that we would run across him later.

As we got down the road, Deputy Larpentier, who was following us, flagged Lt. Martin and myself down. He advised us that he had just received a phone call from the subject’s girlfriend’s mother. She informed Deputy Larpentier that our subject was indeed inside his mother’s home hiding in a bedroom. She got the information from her daughter, the subject’s girlfriend, just moments ago. With this information, we headed back to try and get inside the home.

When we arrived, we were again met at the door by the subject’s mother. When we told her about our information, she again denied that her son was there. We asked to come inside to verify that so that we could leave her alone. At this point she became angry. After she cussed us for a few minutes, she told us all about her rights, and how we were not coming into her house without a warrant. She claimed harassment, and how she was going file a complaint against us. At around the point that she began making disparaging comments about our ancestry, a half grown raccoon crept out the door of the house between the mother’s feet. As the mother continued the string of profanity, some of which I had never heard of before, she calmly reached down pick-up the raccoon and placed it on her shoulder-Uh-oh, game on!

We immediately told her to quiet down and let us see her game breeder’s permit. This kind of took her by surprise. She knew all about her rights and how we needed a warrant to go inside her home, but had never heard of a game breeders permit. That’s when we explained to her that a game breeder’s permit was required to possess any wild animal, such as her raccoon. Since she obviously didn’t have a game breeders permit, she was in violation and would be cited. Additionally, we would have to conduct a search of her home to insure that she didn’t have any more animals inside. We never did find any more wild animals, but surprise, surprise, we did find our subject.