Thief Shot Dead in the Street - details

Finally... Justice is served. Sometimes the wheels of justice turn slowly, slower than the innocent victims deserve, but in the end justice is served.

We have been plagued with a thief and killer at the farm for a while. The boldness of his crimes increasing. Each time, even though there was an eye witness to his attacks, the perpetrator got away from justice.  Until last night.

He was spotted last night, just after dark, planning the night's mayhem. When he realized he had been discovered, he took cover in his usual hideout - the drainage pipe under the neighbor's house.  It became a waiting game. thankfully he had no hostages holed up with him. It became a waiting game, me and him. I tried to flush him out shining bright flashlights in the opposite end of the pipe, see he loves darkness I thought perhaps this would rustle him out. But no, he apparently had built a barrier in the pipe middle so the light wouldn't reach him.  One hour goes by, then two. Every so often I can see his beady eyes peering out from the pipe in my night vision scope. Still, he wouldn't emerge from safety.

Finally, just before I was ready to give up, he pops out and darts up to the road. I saw him in the night vision plain as day. Unfortunately when i put the night vision down to raise the shotgun, i couldn't see a thing in the shadows.  I was unwilling to shoot blindly at a moving target with innocent others around (our cats were with me). Foiled again.. he disappeared.

My nose confirmed that he had returned to the safety of the pipe, but this time I was determined to not let him get away. His record of broken eggs and dead chickens etched in my mind, an idea developed.  A quick trip to the farm store, 2 fresh eggs, and I reutned to the gun to set up an ambush. Crouching behind the wooden fence, shotgun and nightvision both in hand, I carefully adjusted everything for quick uninhibited movement. After making sure all the cats were accounted for, I tossed the eggs out onto the street right by the pipe opening.  Then readied myself. Sure enough, he emerged not 5 minutes later.

He obviously smelled the aroma of fresh eggs broken and waiting for the taking. In the night vision i watched quietly as he cautiously made his way to the remains of the first egg. When he stopped and held still enjoying the spoils of his find, i raised the shotgun. This time I felt confident because he was still and even though i couldn't see him in the darkness, I knew he couldn't move far in the second it took to switch the night vision for the shotgun.  a quick pull of the trigger and the night was shattered with sparks and a blast of noise.

Now the flashlight brought to the spot whee the blast was aimed showed  the guilty himself slowly limping across the road. This time aiming in the light was easy, and one more blast stopped him in his tracks.  IT was over.

Cruel? Not if you consider he had been eating the heads of chickens to gorge himself on the blood. He had been stealing eggs daily, leaving the empty shells for us to find. When the new baby turkeys hatched he would gladly dig his way into the brooder to enjoy a Vegas style buffet of baby birds.  I dont consider stopping him cruel, but justice.  Skunks do not belong and can not be tolerated on a farm that raised large amount of baby birds.

Farmer 1 : Skunk 0