The man spearheading the crow hunt in Chatham-Kent is furious police raided his home early Saturday.
Richard Erickson, of Fletcher,has been holding a contest to encourage local hunters to shoot some of Chatham-Kent's abundant crow population, now estimated at over 100,000. He's been vocal in his view that the municipality should be killing the birds to help preserve the local songbird population and for health reasons.
At 6 a.m., Erickson said his daughter was awakened when someone shone a flashlight in her eyes through the window of her bedroom.
"She came out screaming that someone was shining lights on her," he said.
By then, everyone was awake and approximately eight officers from Chatham-Kent police, the RCMP and the Ministry of Natural Resources were waiting at his door with a search warrant.
"They were looking for a 12 gauge pump shotgun and Winchester 12 gauge shotgun shells," he said.
The officers found and seized Erickson's Browning 12 gauge automatic, a Remington 700 automatic, five or six boxes of Winchester shotgun shells and a knife which had been given to him by a conservation group. All were under lock and key said Erickson.
Chatham-Kent police Staff Sgt. Chris Kennedy said the MNR, acting on a complaint, was in charge of the raid and Chatham-Kent police were called in for assistance. Ministry officials were unavailable for comment over the weekend.
Last week, a local citizen reported finding shotgun shell casings and a dead crow behind the CAW local 127 hall on Merritt Avenue, near a residential area.
Chatham-Kent Mayor Bill Erickson, the brother of Richard Erickson, said "unauthorized people" must have been responsible for the death of these birds.
Richard Erickson said someone is pointing the finger at him.
"Believe me, I wasn't by the union hall. I've got plenty enough crows here to shoot."
Chatham-Kent police said the raid was not linked to the shootings in the city.
Richard Erickson said he's Richard Erickson already contacted his lawyer and is extremely angry about the intrusion into his home.
"The way they treated me, you'd think I just shot Jimmy Hoffa."