Poacher steals DoE truck
(CNS): Updated — A man suspected of violating the Marine Conservation Law made off in one of the Department of Environment’s trucks on Wednesday afternoon when DoE enforcement officers tried to apprehend him. The man, who was reportedly found taking a large number of conch and lobster in South Sound, stole the DoE vehicle as he tried to avoid arrest by officials, one of whom was injured with a fish hook by the suspect. The poacher was then pursued by a joint team of RCIPS officers and members of the DoE. Police eventually apprehended both him and the DoE truck on Bodden Road, George Town. Police said they had arrested a 52-year-old man for traffic and marine offences. (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
The DoE has confirmed that the vehicle was taken during the attempted apprehension of the suspect after the marine officer was injured but it was recovered after the chase. DoE staff are currently assisting the police with the enquiry.
Category: Headline News
Great job DoE & RCIPS… even with the slip up of the truck keys.
BUT – just now try to also get those scuba divers and others (on jet skis in the north sound and otherwise) who are raping the lobster population.
The large numbers of lobster heads (caught and wrung out underwater) which can be found around most shoals is disgusting once lobster open season comes for honest law-abiding Caymanian residents!!
I just wanted to say that I was one of the conch involved in the crime, and it was a traumatizing experience. That being said, us conch (and the rest of our mollusk & crustacean friends) have decided to band together and fight any future attempts at poaching by hiring Dog the Bounty Hunter to patrol the beaches of Cayman.
Go ahead – try and poach us again. you ain’t getting any conch. All you’ll get are handcuffs, a ride in the back of Dog’s truck, a hard-luck story…and a smoke.
The Conch have risen!
EPIC FAIL
Hopefully this incident will show poachers in their true light, criminals breaking the law and when confronted with their guilt ready to do violence and commit grand theft to make their escape.
These DoE individuals were simply doing their jobs and this individual needs to have additional charges brought beyond his poaching. Time in Northward is warranted in this case.
HA HA HA…How stupid can you be!!! What? Was he expecting to drive around East End and Frank Sound in circles till they had a road block?
As conch can stay alive for hours when removed from the water I assume they were still alive and returned to the ocean.
Being Caymanian conch they might not want to assist police or give evidence for fear of reprisal. Perhaps they could be put in witness protection program.
Have you ever seen someone getting conch? The person does not bring up the conch and its shell!!!! Otherwise they wouldnt be able to take 20, 30, 40, 50 at a time! They stick a case knife in the shell where the conch is curled up (putting a hole in the shell) and pull the conch out. They then put the conch into a big, squishing them all together so that lots fit, or stong them on a line and carry them along in the ocean with them.
Soooo, how the conch gonna live put back in the ocean with no shell?
Funny. You made me laugh.
You are assuming this person did not have a boat. The article did not specify. I hope he was just dropping the whole animals in a boat along with the lobster.
I have hunted conch for years. I appreciate the skill required to track down these wiley and elusive creatures. They can be quite dangerous if you ever corner one against the reef. Once back in the seventies I was nearly mauled by a large female protecting its young.
Seriously though you actually cant cut into the spire of a conch shell with a knife very easily. And they dont just ‘pop’ out of their shell like the other poster states. You need to use a little masonry hammer to make the hole before you cut the muscle. Swimming around with a hammer and knife and a hookstick and a bag full of conch and lobster is tough work. Certainly possible poacher was doing this but he would have been smarter to steal a boat first before he stole the conch prior to stealing the truck.
The important thing is he was caught because he has probably been doing this many times over the years. Shame on whoever was buying this conch from him too!
If you actually knew what you were talking about you would know that a hammer is not needed at all. It is very easy to create the hole by hitting two shells together.
By the way your attempt at humor was also a flop.
They obviously popped the conchs out of their shells – try swimming with 100 plus in shells and see how far you get!
What an ignorant and prejudiced comment. 1. There is no reason to believe that the witnesses to crimes in Cayman are all Caymanian. 2. You will find that response in any country where persons are in fear for their lives. Witness Protection Programs did not originate in Cayman.
Didnt mean to offend everyone. Perhaps it was wrong of me to assume all of the conch were Caymanian. These meak molluscs have every reason to be fearful for their lives – this guy was probably going to eat them and it doesnt get much worse than that. But imagine if just one conch had the courage to stand up for justice to put this guy away. Then future generation of shellfish could grow up in a much safer place.
This was a lighthearted comment on the ignorant discussion last week to do with the closed circuit cameras. If you check back the general theme was you shouldnt help police in their investigation at all because then you might get called up on the witness stand and then be hurt by the bad guys. There is also a longrunning strain of ignorance that incorrectly assumes all crimes are commited by an expat. By default this would make the witness and victims predominantly Caymanian – but not necessarily always a conch.
This was compound humor with some satire, sarcasm and a little cynicism. Perhaps I should stick to knock-knock jokes.
Crusty Crab, I know it’s hard to be misunderstood, especially when your sharp irony and spiky satire are mistaken for straight talk, but please don’t be pushed into the quicksand of knock-knock jokes, as we’d all be the losers. I know you must be feeling a little rosy right now, but it’s nothing a brisk, bracing crawl won’t cure. Get a good night’s open-eye under that comfortable rock, and in the morning everything will look sunny and blue again.
No Crusty, keep your comments coming! We are all one community and need to continue to work together to foster unity. Our crabs in a bucket mentality has always been the problem as well as blaming expats. We will blame anyone but ourselves and if we want to beat crime, we need to start being GOOD CITIZENS and turning in the thieves and thugs and being witnesses and responsible jurors too.
I hope they prosecute these poachers as harshly as the thugs who rob us. Both are against the law and until the "little laws" are adhered to, we cannot tackle the big laws.
Probably very few of our conch are actually native Caymanians. The vast majority of our conch make their way to Cayman as tiny microscopic organisms floating in the currents.
Just think about it… there is no way on earth that there would be a single conch left in our waters if it weren’t for expat conch with the rate that they are removed from our waters.
Sir Henry, I think you may be confusing conch with lobster. Juvenile conch spend their first year buried in the sand.
No, no he wasn’t. Both conch and lobster (and most marine organisms) have a planktonic larval stage. However, when it come to asertions about whether particular populations are self-recruiting or rely on other adult populations to seed them, i.e., a regional meta-population, the jury is still out. Arguably some years we get juvenile conch/lobster/etc. from other locations (e.g., Jamaica, Cuba) and some years they’re local spawn washing back in on loop currents, and vice-versa.
Some of the conch might not have been Caymanian? How does an expat conch get a work permit? I would love to see that job description.
I think the only witness protection program in Cayman is already been taken by the Fosters Clown. Now c’mon nobody knows who he is. But truth be told I heard he was a hardshell criminal.
Well done, brave, hard working DOE men. The criminal, selfish moron should be punished, for assault too. Poaching ruins Cayman waters & wildlife for everyone.
Thank you.
sincerely DOE Man.
it will be interesting to see what his punishment will be…. my bet is no jail time and $250 fine!
For poaching, assult and theft of the vehicle… Lets hope he’s looking at atleast 3 to 5.
Oh well at least the aquatic residents of Cayman are being protected by law enforcement. Now how about us land dwellers?
Let’s see if we get through “armed robbery Thursday” without another unsolved crime.
Did the poacher Hot wire the DOE vehicle ? or was the key left in the ignition ?
The fight against crime is hotting up! In this exciting case – the criminal makes off in a stolen car….that he steals from the law enforcement officers attempting to catch him. A chase enfolds:, the criminal (driving the government vehicle)…is chased by the RCIP, and a multi-million dollar crime-fighting helicopter, and the DoE (they’re on foot because the rascal stole their car). And he is caught. We shall sleep easy tonight. The conch-poacher faces justice (at enormous public expense). A nation breathes a sigh of relief….
I must agree, seeing as the conch is definately more valuable than the enormous sums of cash and valuables being stolen from various local businesses, elderly couples homes, tourists, school children and the list goes on!
If only this amount of effort would go into solving the more serious crimes affecting our islands and the people who live here! Our law enforcement obviously have their priorities twisted!
So what happens to the conch…..?
oh come on now…..DOE was doing their job…which has nothing to do with the robberies that has been occuring….. it was the theft of a government vehicle and assault that got so many police involved!!!!
It’s not stolen, it’s ‘taken without consent’. Without the intention to permanently deprive, the theft offence is not made out. Let’s wait for legal to ‘f’ this one up.
I am Caymanian by birth " and not paper lilke some of you stupid people claim for what reason I dont know", and I think this man should be imprisoned for this offense. He may not have the resources to pay a fine so punish him. This offense of taking / over taking the limit of conch and lobster and other natural resources cannot be permitted to occur with what is considered "shore I ken take more den erebody else cuz I iz Caymanian". That frame of mind is what is leading to all the crime these days. The frame of mind of "I iz allowed becuz it;s my right". This has to stop and until there are proper punishments imposed it will not.
I am so glad that you wrote this intelligent comment and I applaud your principles….perhaps someone could now arrest the 2 fat Caymanian kids in the aluminum boat, who plunder Conch and Lobster from the South Sound most weeks of the year…don’t they teach conservation and respect for the environment at school anymore?
Don’t their parents have any morals or shame/, it’s not like they need the nutrition, one of them is so big, it’s a miracle he floats!
Every time you see them, call 911.
If you don’t report it you are just as guilty as if you were out there!!
Well done the pines will be happy. Job well done by everyone involved (DOE, RCIPS,AIR SUPPORT). Some may think it’s a petty crime. I don’t, I want my grandchildren to know what a real conch in it’s shell looks like and if in season teaching them the importance of only taking the limit allowed in the proper aeras. And then, enjoy the taste. I do have to say that the moral of the story is also to remove the keys from any vehicule at all times when exiting and please don’t take offence to the remark.
Yes M. Lemay, remove the keys from the vehicle. Good observation, good advice.
People in the pines cannot chew conch so I don’t know why we keep thinking they go there.
At least give the DOE people some tasers if they are going to have to arrest poachers. This kind of stuff is DANGEROUS.
I agree, but in the CNS story "Crime ‘intolerable’ says Bush," he is quoted as saying: "…this government fully supports His Excellency the Governor and the commissioner of police in whatever actions they deem are necessary to take to address criminal behaviour…" Since the Commissioner of police does not want DOE officers, or private citizens to have a reasonable means of defending themselves, crime will get worse.
Some have been telling me that I’m wrong about personal protection, but clearly their plan is not working. I ask the public to stand up and support the DOE here and help get them proper protection, tasers…
Link: http://centos6-httpd22-php56-mysql55.installer.magneticone.com/o_belozerov/31115drupal622/headline-news/2011/02/10/crime-%E2%80%98intolerable%E2%80%99-says-bush
Tasers. Hmmm. People wet with conductive salt water…. Super high voltage devices…. What could possibly go wrong.
I suggest a big net or a gun with rubber bullets. Better yet a tape recorder armed with one of Mac’s speaches on crime to put them to sleep.
I must say the news stories are getting more and more bizarre everyday!
Another person who apparently has not watched “Worlds Wildest Police Chases”- Don’t you know you are ALWAYS caught!
Ya ever hear a thing like that – these are the last days.
Anon 18:14: We done passed the last days long time, Honey.