bored folks

animals to death
By SHANNON GREEN
Capital Newspapers

PORTAGE — For a group of Beaver Dam High School students and friends, killing is a game.

The goal is to earn as many points as possible, but this game isn't played on the Nintendo Wii or Xbox 360 using a controller; it's played late at night on dark county roads with spotlights and clubs.

Specially equipped trucks carry the players. They hunt by traveling with only a high-powered spotlight to search for raccoons, opossums, skunks or other wildlife near the road. Once an animal is spotted, the participants jump out of the truck, club the animal to death, then take a photo of the corpse with their cell phone, sending it to friends as proof of the kill.

They assign points according to the animal they kill, and the team with the most points wins.

They call it "coon bashing."

Six area conservation wardens with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources responded Friday night to a tip from Dodge County wardens and the Dodge County Sheriff's Department that teams of high school students from the Beaver Dam area would be near Pardeeville and Rio looking for animals to club as part of a game.

The wardens, with help from deputies from the Columbia County Sheriff's Department, detained an adult and five teenagers following a high-speed chase that reportedly topped 85 mph on dark county roads and involved a pickup truck carrying three of the teenagers in the open bed of truck's box.

"We're still looking into it," said Conservation Warden Paul Nadolski, who participated in the investigation Friday.

The driver of the truck, Christopher J. Swanke, 22, of Beaver Dam, was ordered held on $500 cash bail at an initial hearing in Columbia County Court on Tuesday. He is charged with five counts of felony first-degree reckless endangerment and felony attempting to flee or elude a traffic officer. The charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 16 1/2 years in prison, are the result of the high-speed chase.

Nadolski said he is looking into fines and citations for Swanke and the five teenagers in relation to the illegal clubbing of the animals.

The five Beaver Dam area teenagers who were passengers in Swanke's truck — a girl and four boys ages 15 to 17 — also faces fines and citations, Nadolski said.

The violations include hunting out of season, hunting within 50 feet of the road and hunting by illegal means. Through the DNR, the participants could lose hunting privileges as well be required to pay hundreds of dollars in fines; some of the participants, like Swanke, could face criminal charges.

"Most of them knew what they were doing was wrong, but they figured they'd never get caught," Nadolski said.

Authorities who searched Swanke's truck discovered several bats and clubs, including an aluminum bat and 2x4 pieces of lumber with hand holds in one end, Nadolski said.

Blood was discovered on some of the bats, and on the side and in the back of the truck, according to a criminal complaint.

The bats also were marked with "racially motivated slogans," Nadolski said.

The clubbed animals are left to rot in the ditch.

"It was just needless killing of wildlife," Nadolski said.

Nadolski believes 15 or more teens and young adults may be involved in the Beaver Dam and Waupun area.

"Most are high school students at Beaver Dam High School," he said.


Ready for the game

Swanke's truck is equipped specifically for the "game" — with a spotlight, several radios including a police scanner and special switches inside the truck to turn off head lights, tail lights and the license plate light.

"They were set up better than our warden squad trucks," Nadolski said. "They've obviously been at this awhile."

A warden spotted Swanke's truck on Sawyer Road in the town of Springfield Friday night, following it for some time. While the wardens watched, Swanke and the five teenagers used the spotlight to look for wildlife, twice exiting the truck with clubs and bats and returning, the complaint stated.

Nadolski said later one of the teenagers admitted they had killed an opossum.

When wardens attempted to stop the truck near Pardeeville Road and East Bush Road, Swanke took off, prompting a 10-minute pursuit along Highway G, Highway 16, Traut Road, Highway B and Highway 22.

Speeds reached nearly 85 mph on dark county roads — with only the truck's fog lights on and, unknown to wardens at the time, three teenagers in the open bed of the truck.

With the help of deputies from the Columbia County Sheriff's Department, the truck was corralled and stopped at Highway B and Highway 22.

Wardens had observed the truck before attempting to stop, but with the truck's head lights out, officers could hear but not see how many people were in the truck.

The wardens got a surprise when the truck finally stopped.

"All of a sudden three kids popped out of the bed of the truck," Nadolski said.

Nadolski said he was relieved no one was injured during the chase. During the pursuit, officers had considered using spike strips to stop Swanke, but he stopped before they were used, Nadolski said.

Had the spike strips been used, the truck might have lost control and flipped, possibly killing the teenagers riding in the open bed of the truck.

Swanke reportedly told authorities that he "got freaked out" when the wardens attempted to stop him, prompting the chase despite the teenagers in the bed of the truck, and that he turns all the lights out on the truck when someone comes up behind him, the complaint stated.

Swanke is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on the charges May 11.

Nadolski said the teens could be linked to smashed mailboxes in Columbia County

That is just a plain bunch of crap, and i bet they will get there hands slapped like every other little brat.

Idiots!