Josh Highlander lives at the end of a quiet residential road in rural Virginia. His house sits on about 30 acres and has “No Trespassing” signs posted all around the property line. On April 8, the first day of turkey season, Highlander’s wife and son were outside playing basketball. When their ball rolled toward the woods, Highlander’s wife went to retrieve it—and spotted an unknown person in the trees wearing full camouflage. She rushed her son back into the house and told her husband.

Highlander rushed outside and made a circle of the property around the house but didn’t see anybody. By this point, Highlander already knew that both his father and brother had encountered agents of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) that day—he assumed that if the mystery guest wasn’t a hunter who had gotten lost, then it was probably the DWR.

Later that night, Highlander noticed that one of his trail cameras—located about 150 yards from his house—had stopped transmitting photos. When he went out to check, he discovered the camera was gone. It was only once he contacted the county sheriff to report the camera stolen that he learned it was in the possession of the DWR, which he says has yet to contact him about it.

[Crazy, but is it unconstitutional? As Lancaster points out, it’s murkier than one would think — at least about coming onto private land. The theft of the camera should be another matter entirely. — Ed]