Karen Called Wildlife Officers to Arrest Me for Fishing — They Shook My Hand Instead
Chapter 3
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Emily held the memory card between two fingers and looked at me with a careful expression. "Before we play this, I need to ask one question: Did you record Brenda without her knowledge?""The camera was mounted on my fishing bag," I explained. "It automatically records whenever I come near the water. I use it to document my fishing trips and keep track of the shoreline conditions. It was already running before she arrived."Daniel nodded. "That is useful, but we still need to verify what it shows."Brenda suddenly stepped forward. "This is ridiculous. He is trying to trap me with some edited video.""I have not edited anything," I said. "You can watch the entire file."She looked at Emily. "You cannot let him use a private recording against me."Emily remained calm. "We are not deciding anything based on one recording. We are checking the facts. There is a difference."She placed the memory card into a small reader connected to the department camera. The screen showed the same shoreline from a few minutes earlier.The video began with me parking my truck near the public lot. I walked down the trail, stopped beside the official sign, and checked my fishing license before setting up near the water. The time appeared in the corner of the screen: 7:12 in the morning. The picture was steady, and the sound of the lake filled the background.A few minutes later, Brenda appeared at the top of the trail. She carried the same private property sign that now stood behind us. She looked around before placing it against the wooden post. Then she moved it several times until it covered most of the official notice."There," she said to herself. "Now maybe people will finally understand."Brenda reached toward the camera screen. "That does not prove anything. I was only placing a temporary warning."Daniel looked at her. "A warning about what?""About unauthorized use of my shoreline.""You just said the sign was temporary," Emily replied. "You also said it had been there for weeks."Brenda opened her mouth and stopped. Her two explanations could not both be true.I watched her carefully. I did not want to celebrate too soon because the situation was still being investigated. The first few minutes of video showed the sign being placed, but they did not explain why Brenda was so determined to remove every fisherman from the area.Then Emily advanced the recording.The camera showed Brenda walking back toward the trail after I began setting up my equipment. She had not realized that the microphone was still picking up her voice."If they keep using this access point," she said, "the county will never let me control it."Brenda's face changed when she heard herself.Daniel replayed the sentence. "Did you say you wanted to control the access point?""That is not what I meant," Brenda answered quickly. "I was talking about keeping it clean."Emily looked at the bag of trash beside my tackle box. "The only person we have seen cleaning anything this morning is him."She pointed toward the shoreline, where I had collected plastic bottles, snack wrappers, and a tangled piece of fishing line.