Police arrested a Waterbury man for having “jacklighting” equipment in his truck at the end of a cul-de-sec off Skokorat Street Friday night.
The wooded area with new homes under construction is known for its large deer population, and Gustavo Useda was found with a rifle, hunting knives and a flashlight, police said.
Oh, and some marijuana, too.
Police charged Useda, 50, with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana and possession of jacklighting equipment, a charge that comes when a person is found in an area frequented by deer with a combination of hunting equipment and lighting devices.
“Jacklighting” refers to a type of illegal hunting where a person shines a light in the eyes of a deer, then shoots it after the animal stops in his tracks.
Police said they were patrolling the area when they saw a car parked on the road under construction. When officers arrived at the car, the driver turned it on and started to drive away, according to Lt. Paul Satkowski, the spokesperson for the department.
The officers pulled over the driver, Useda, and found the equipment, along with some marijuana, Satkowski said.
Jacklighting is illegal night hunting, where hunters surprise deer with a bright light, freezing them in their tracks for an easy kill. While Satkowski said Seymour police occasionally get complaints about illegal hunting in the area, state Department of Environmental Protection officials said there has been an overall increase in illegal hunting across the state.
“Unfortunately, as long as there is hunting, there are going to be people who bend and break the rules,” said Dwayne Gardner, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
For example, the DEP’s environmental conservation police arrested a group of illegal hunters in May. The three men and one woman from New York were in an illegal hunting ring, the police said. They were hunting several turkey and deer in northwestern Connecticut, videotaping the kills and hoping to send the footage to a hunting show on television.
In May, a New Milford man was sentenced to nine months in prison for poaching deer. In one illegal hunt, the man shot a deer while riding in a moving van, the Republican-American of Waterbury reported.
“But overall, deer-hunters in Connecticut take their sport seriously and understand the gravity of having a loaded gun,” Gardner said.
Besides the obvious safety dangers of shooting a gun into the woods at dark, Gardner said jacklighting is frowned upon by the hunting community because it breaks the law. And it’s considered unethical because the deer are blinded by the light and don’t have a chance to get away.
All night hunting is illegal, Gardner said, regardless of whether the hunter has a light to blind the deer with. And hunting so close to a residential area is also against the law. Also, deer hunting season is in the winter.
Useda was released on a $1,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in Derby Superior Court on July 27.
