There are some spots that just beg for a late night roadblock during deer season. One such spot is a nearly deserted road in the Town of Ephratah, Fulton County. There is along and very desolate stretch with no signs of civilization and lot of deer sign. The department was having guys from less-busy sectors travel to the busier areas on overtime to help with the case load. One day they sent Keven Riggs from up near the Canadian border all the way down to me--nearly a 4 hour drive--to help me set a road block on that road.
We settled in and sat for the shift with very few cars to check. The few that came through were either legitimate hunters hunters going home or people taking the shortest distance between two point--in spite of the desolate road. We had agreed to quit at 11 PM so Kevin could get on the road. I was just about ready to surrender and call it quits when we saw headlights reflecting in the tree tops. We got out into the road and stopped a small pickup with two occupants. The owner was on the passenger side, reclining with an open beer in his hand. When I asked the driver for his license and registration I got the old "it's home on the dresser," as a response. "Do you have a license?" I asked. "Yes, I have a license," was the reply. "Do you have a valid license?" "I think it's valid." You can guess how that turned out.
Not only was his license suspended, but there was a warrant out for his arrest in the nearby village of Canajoharie. It seems he was suspended for failing to answer a DWI ticket. We wrote the tickets for the violations we had, got transportation for the owner--who'd had a few too many beers, and took our guy to answer his warrant at the issuing court.
A couple weeks later I had a call from the judge before whom the guy was supposed to appear on our tickets. He had not appeared as scheduled and this judge was waiting to issue a warrant for his arrest. I suggested that the judge check with the Montgomery County Jail, and there he found him.
A sad footnote to this was that only a couple years after this event our guy was killed in a drug deal gone bad in a nearby city.
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