Law enforcement encourage hunters to keep an eye on their hunting gear

Hunting season isn't here yet, but some folks are eager to get things ready

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Hunting season isn’t here yet, but some folks are eager to get things ready, so they can take down their prey.

Hunters often set up their camps well ahead of the season, but that can leave them open to being prey to thieves.

In Webster County, they see several cases a year and want to offer folks some tips on how to protect their gear.

“Folks come from all over the state to hunt here as well as a lot of people that live here hunt and every year we find that as people are getting geared up to hunt they get their hunting camps set up they get their rifles, side by sides, four wheelers out there and we see a pretty significant uptick in theft and burglaries,” said chief deputy JC Smith.

Smith said people often don’t think their equipment will come up missing especially on private property, but why do people take hunting gear?

“The sheriff worked a case where we found that there was a group of people working together from several states that were going through and stealing and shipping them off to different states to resale and it can be anything from that to the local drug addict looking to steal something to get a fix,” said Smith.

Smith says as long as your equipment is in an isolated area with no one there to watch it, it’s going to be more vulnerable to theft. He advises hunters to invest in an extra piece of equipment that will help everyone.

“If you put a camera up, cameras are so big in helping us solve an investigation that is why we encourage the public to put cameras on their property so that if someone does come in there and take something we have a much higher percentage chance of solving that,” said Smith.