Thread: Police called out for Duck shooting

Having been through a situation similar to what the OP posted, my advice is get in early and argue your case...
This is what happened to me about 12 years back.
Being a wildlife ranger, I got notified by F&G that the local council rubbish/recycling place had a problem with Pukekos that were pulling out plants in the educational facility on the property......(Schools visited the place and the kids planted vegetables etc in recycled waste then came back a few weeks/months later to harvest what they had planted.)
After getting the required permit, the only way to deal with the problem was to use a suppressed 22 with subsonics and because of the terrain, there was only one direction available to shoot. This direction was into a 25m high soft earth bank with trees lining 3 sides giving a firing lane about 30 m wide and about 50m long. After setting up a 'Hide' before sunrise the following morning I duly dealt to about 25 pukeko's between 7.15 am and 7,45 that turned up, collected the carcasses and left.
Got back home and about 3 hours later one of my staff ( home business) said the Police were out back wanting to talk to me. It transpired that a person who was kayaking a local creek, and who was opposed to the pukeko cull had laid a formal complaint that they had been shot at, with the bullet hitting the water right next to the kayak. The Police then went on to say that the sound of the shot was witnessed by 2 other people who also heard the bullet hit the water. I told them that wasnt possible and described to them the area and the setup..then after they had checked out my licence, storage etc I accompanied them back to the scene and showed them the setup. They then left to discuss the matter with their Snr Sgt.

They arrived back later that afternoon with a formal letter of warning and told me that it would go on my FAL record. I refused to accept the warning and went down to the local station to talk to the Snr Sgt. The upshot was that the following morning I met the Snr and the 2 officers at the site at 7am along with my rifle/suppressor etc and showed them exactly what I had done....including firing 2 live rounds. ( Got 2 more Pukeko's btw) The police were standing about 30m behind me in the direction I had, according to the complainant, been shooting. They didnt even hear the sound of the the suppressed shots due to the shredding machine at the green waste section munching greenwaste along with all the other machinery that had started working.
To cut a long story short, the police withdrew the warning letter, apologized and went back to interview the complainant and witnesses.....When they pointed out that the gate log showed my entry and exit times between 6.15 and 7.45, the complainant was adamant that the event took place between 8.30 to and 8.45 and that even if they dismissed the timing aspect, due to the noise of the the machinery there was no way they could have heard anything let alone a suppressed 22 from 300m away they ended up giving the complainant a warning letter for making a frivolous complaint and wasting their time.
I also asked for and got a letter stating the outcome of the investigation and stuck it to the back wall inside one of my gun safes in case the matter surfaced when I did my next FAL renewal. ( It didnt)

My suggestion is to gather the facts, present them in a concise and logical way and do not accept any liability whatsoever. It will save time, money and stress in the long run.