Retired game warden Tom Chapin's favorite stories of hunting poachers
It’s deer hunting season, and many Minnesotans are taking care to stay safe and follow the rules while out and about.
But, of course, not everyone follows the rules. Tom Chapin worked as a conservation officer, or game warden, in Itasca County for over two decades, and part of his job was tracking down poachers. In recognition of his good work, he was named “Minnesota State Conservation Officer of the Year” in 1985.
Chapin is now retired and he has written two books full of funny, harrowing, wild stories about catching poachers in the act: “Poachers Caught!” and “More Poachers Caught!” He joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the job and share some stories.
Chapin said most of the people he interacted with on the job were terrific. Only a small portion of people didn’t follow the rules. To be fair, Chapin thinks many of those people would not have broken the rules if they hadn’t been “alcohol-challenged.”
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
During deer season and early fish season, Chapin often had to work at night, all night, because the cover of darkness is key for poachers.
But even then, there were moments on the job that made Chapin laugh. Once, he was sitting on a dirt road in the dark and saw a car driving strangely. It stopped, backed, turned, stopped and backed up again.
Chapin and a colleague stopped the car and talked to the driver. He said he wasn’t up to anything in particular. But then Chapin walked behind the car a ways to investigate and discovered a traffic counter on the road.
It turned out the road needed work, and the driver was a county commissioner who was driving back and forth in front of the counter to inflate the traffic read on the road, which would make a stronger case to complete the work.
Chapin said working with kids for more than 30 years on firearm and machine safety was the most rewarding part of his job. He also loved teaching community college students about wildlife enforcement.
Today, Chapin traps, fishes and hunts snowshoe hare. He’s still active, although he doesn’t deer hunt anymore.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.