Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I hear that the Gap Park rangers are driving around supposedly intoxicated and harassing individuals. They are also allerting gamewardens to activity. I here some of you on here were down there for this. How did the Gamewardens handle the situation, and were they aware of the physical and mental state of the park rangers on the road that night?
Matt

Call DPS next time that happens. They know what to do.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

We were in the Gap on June 26th and on the way out we had a truck come up behind us pretty quickly out of nowhere so I pulled of the road to let them pass and it was TP&W. They stopped with us and asked what we were doing. Simply told them we were photographing wildlife and the first question they asked is if we were snake hunting. I told them no we would not collect on public property or right of way. Then asked if we were leaving the park and we told them we were and that was that. There was 2 of them in the truck and that was about 1:30 a.m. Chris Drake

What you heard is true. I dealt with the park people on two different nights and the game wardens on another. I tried to not rock the boat too much, but I did not let them harass me. They will harass you as much as you let them I am afraid. They are just trying to scare people. They are, however, the game wardens' eyes and ears down there. The wardens did not seem too surprised or concerned when I told them that I suspected that the park guys had been drinking too much.

Bryan Box

Bryan,
Is this true? You reported this to the Game Wardens and they did not follow up on it? If you don't mind I'd like to hear your account of those events either here or in e-mail.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

If you put in a call to the Brewster county sheriff's office dispatcher you could have a deputy down there in 30 or 40 minutes.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

Joe,

I understand everyone's concern. First of all, I don't get cell service at the gap so I guess that I would have to use the pay phone down by the river (I guess that it works). Secondly, those guys did not give me too much grief (although they did harass some others that were there when I was). Exactly what happened with the game warden exchange is as follows. We (a friend of mine and his 6 year old son) were parked at the pulloff just south of Black Gap HQ. We had just finished walking that long cut. Two TP&W vehicle pulled up with their red and blues on. There were three game wardens, two men and one woman. Troy and Terry Hibbitts pulled up right at that point. The "veteran" went over to talk to them. The two "rookies" stayed over with us. (I just wanted to add that I don't think that it is a great idea that a 5 foot nothing, 100 lbs woman chooses to be a game warden, but that is another story) Then, a fairly strange line of questioning ensued. Never was I asked if I had a hunting license. The woman started asking my friend's son questions about what we were seeing and if we had caught anything (which I believe is illegal unless she receives permission). Then she leaves us and goes over to "assist" the veteran who is speaking with Troy and Terry. The other young guy stays over with us and we start talking about all kinds of stuff. He was actually pretty cool. After speaking for a while, I find out that he also grew up in Wichita Falls and moved when he was a freshman in high school, yada yada. Anyway, I guess that he decides that he had better do his job and ask to look in our cooler (why the game wardens think that this is where everyone stashes their illegal reptiles is beyond me) and what was in there. I told him cokes, water, and beer. When I showed him, I made the comment "it looked as if those rangers had too many of these tonight (referring to the beer). He replied, "yah, that sounds about right". That really is the jest of our exchange. I believe, that Troy referenced that he thought that the guys were drinking as well. I think that others that were involved earlier that night had planned on alerting the DPS to the situation.

This is right on with what I heard. I was just trying to bring it to the table so others would be aware of the situation. Thanks for the replies.
Matt

Thanks.

AT&T gets reception at the very top of the road.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

We had a little run in with a new local in the Xmas that has moved into the old Luna Vista Resterant. He had also been drinking. He watched us pass his house all night for a couple of nights then decided to find out what the H#ll we where doing. When I told him we where looking for geckos he started to give us grief. Melissa was pi$$ed and called the sheriff. A deputy showed up in about 20 min. and agreed that no matter what we where doing, the drinking local had no right to harass us. He had a talk with the local and we had no more problems. Moral is, call the sheriff, no matter what you are doing, it is still illegal to drink and harass.
We also met one of the new wardens who was accompanied by Bridgefarmer (the one year veteran) and we also got some strange questions but I wrote it off to the rookie blues and the fact that I think the new wardens and the new DPS get more homeland security training than game law training. Anyway, they did their job and it was painless.
Later
Rick

Heck one year they were shooting at us from that Restaurant! When the deputy showed up he was drunk too, and said if they were shooting at us they would have hit us LOL Sonny is no longer a deputy thank goodness.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
Mexicana Group Directory
Photography by Joseph E. Forks

Yeah, the good old days in the lawless state of Terlingua!!

I am not in the loop or anything, but the last I heard was that the live in guy down there got fired for going "The Shining" on somebody. The only other person I have met down there claiming to be a "park ranger" was Fred. This is not Fred that was drunk on the road harassing hunters is it? or does the gap have new people down there.

I did not get a name (or if they said their name, I ignored it). Two guys in a brand new TP&W, Ford F-450 diesel. I think they are biologist working with the bighorn from what I understand.

issued truck, how dumb.