A friend and I used to hunt a local coyote competition that wound up getting big. Anyway they told us anyone caught cheating would have felony charges pressed on them because the jackpot was over I believe $600( jackpot was lot higher than $600, but I think that was the legal number to make it a felony) I think they should be charged, but also agree with yes sir on the pro athletes that get caught cheating seems maybe if they started charging them for fraud it might change things

It's been my longstanding belief that once your time is served, you should have your rights back. But yeah, these guys should pay dearly for their actions.

Prize money goes from a few hundred dollars to over 1 million dollars .Largest prize ever paid at a contest in the Ozarks.

So are these run on an honor system, or is there a "ref" in the boat? If on an honor system, once the money gets big enough, been my experience, there is no honor among thieves.

Have never fished a tourney, but have played in several golf tourneys. Didn't think it possible, but watched 3 guys cheat well enough they won $300, split 3 ways. City parks and recs event. They eventually had to take the cash out of it. Have seen several other instances of blatant cheating in golf outings. If it matters, has to be a 3rd party ref along to keep an eye on things.

now should they be punishing juveniles who steal Kia's , yes absolutely especially when they wreck them and do other damage

do they

not until they are on like their 30th car and 4th time being caught.

It is a broken CJ system

realistically anyone who is over 18 and needs to be prohibited form owning a firearm should be in prison until they are not

used to be you could have a full on uprising against the Fed Gov and when they let you out of prison you were a full citizen again and could own a firearm

now it be came inconvenient to house criminals , so slap the hand and put them back on the streets to criminal again while taking rights from the citizens

it is very backwards punishment a group blaming for the behavior of a few.

"multi-million" means anything over 1. so......im not a biologist, or a mathematician, but by my yooper hillbilly math, it dont take to too many wins in the hundred thou range to equal 1 mil.

Same crime ..but on a smallah scale

I get that. They should face repercussions, they are no good cheaters. With that said, I don't agree with charging them with a felony called Criminal tools, it's a boat. I don't agree with them taking their boat either.

Also, I don't think they, if found guilty, should be stripped of their right to bear arms and vote. They didn't break in to a home or rob someone at gunpoint, they just attempted to cheat. I think the charges are way to harsh for a couple of knotheads with poor character.

St Francis KS used to have a big coyote calling contest every year. A hunting club from CO would all go hunt for a day, then two guys would check in. One year the two guys had 22 coyotes for the win. Pretty good for a days hunt. St Francis no longer has a coyote calling contest.

I've seen guys cheat for a $20 payout catfish tournament.

Boy oh boy, wouldn't that be nice. Also, what is this Criminal tools thing? I've never heard of it.
So, if a ole boy shoots a squirrel out of season for food and gets caught, can they take his gun and charge him with the Criminal tools felony? IDK but something seems way off with this law.

If you think this is the first time they cheated then I doubt I can reason with you but ................................

My take is these are career thieves. It is a fact that they failed a polygragh in a previous tournament and forfeited a boat (guarantee you that was worth over $30K) and have been suspected in the past of cheating.
This time they got got caught with plenty of evidence.
They need to face criminal charges and do some prison time.
They need their trucks, boats, fishing equipment, etc seized (anything used for the comission of the crime)
They need to carry the consequences of being a felon for the rest of their lives. No firearms, no professional license of any kind, and every other negative part of being a convicted felon

This sends a message to others that it is not worth stealing because when you get caught it is going to impact the rest of your life in a negative way on a big scale

Hopefully the rest of the fishermen can bring some sort of suit against them and get reparation for entry fees, lodging costs, fuel costs, wasted vacation time and any other costs they had associated with this tournament

Way overkill on the punishment. Time honored tradition of outsmarting the competition by hook or crook. These boys granddad’s must a been horse racers. They got caught and rightfully so. But this is too much.

I never thought I would read this and the majority would be saying the punishment is too harsh

I'd like to do a survey of their tournament competitors from the last few years and see if they think the punishment is too harsh

Ya know, the guys they stole from

bookem, dano....

They did not get away with it so stole nothing. Disqualify the cheaters and keep on with the tournament no one is out anything.

Then hammer them for fraud and any game laws thet were broken if any

Let them handle this inhouse then.

So, this became ballistic on social media thru the USA and even world....that kind of attention the govt felt it needed to do something. That is the power of social media and that is why social media banned Trump.

I was one who was cheated years ago at a turkey shoot. A guy was giving reloads to all the shooters with less shot in them, except for his buddy. Who knows how long this went on. Granted, we were cheated out of steaks, slabs of bacon and so on, not on the scale of 28k but cheating is cheating.

I would not want the guy to loose his right to bear arms or his right to vote over it. He was life banned from the shoot and word got out and he wasn't allowed to participate at any of the other shoots either. No formal charges were filed but if they had charged him with a misdemeanor, I'd have been ok with that.