A hunter in Michigan was being hunted by the authorities for illegally hunting ducks.
Damon A. Freeborn and his buddies were out duck hunting during the late morning of a fall day in 2015. Suddenly, a Department of Natural Resources officer approached them in his vehicle, reports M Live. The officer did the standard checking of the hunters’ licenses, firearms, and hunted wildfowl. 
Damon Freeborn was on the run for two years after he was not able to prove he had a duck stamp on his hunting license (photo via M Live)
And that’s when things got sticky.
When the officer asked Freeborn for his hunting license, he showed him. But the license didn’t have a federal duck stamp, a requirement in Michigan. Freeborn insisted he had bought a stamp from Walmart, even showing the officer the receipt. However, the receipt didn’t prove that he had bought the stamp.
So the officer went back to his vehicle to check on Freeborn’s name and to see if he actually had a duck stamp. It turns out, he was wanted on nine misdemeanor warrants.
The officer returned to the group of hunters. But Freeborn was gone, leaving behind his 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, and his license.
Phragmites like the ones Freeborn escaped into after he couldn’t prove his license to hunt (photo via allegancd.org)
He had disappeared into some phragmites, a tall, dense reed common in wetlands. He was gone.
And Freeborn was on the run for two years.
But finally, he got caught this past June.
He was slapped with single counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police and general violations of wildlife conservation.
He might’ve been born free (as his name suggests), but Freeborn got caught. This is a lesson to all hunters — make sure you’re licence has all the necessary stamps and approvals.
