An officer with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was conducting a patrol check along the Mill River within Sleeping Giant State Park. Neil's on duty. Any luck? Any luck? Nice. Oh, is it just you? Yeah, just me fishing. Okay. You got your fishing license? Uh, that's in the car. You have your driver's license? In the car. In the car? Where's your car? Like way over there. Okay. Is it the Toyota or the one parked on the road? Oh, it's on the road. It's on the road? Okay, cool. All right, and those are all from you? Yeah, I'm going to throw them back out. You're going to throw them back out? Okay, cool. You know they're dead, right? Yeah, they are. Yeah, so you can't throw them back out. That I got them. They're all the hooks were stuck inside of them. I got you. All right, pack all your stuff up, man. How long you been here? An hour. An hour? Yeah. Well, you did pretty good for an hour. I'll say that. Yeah. But, uh, also not so good, so we're going to have a conversation at the truck. Yeah, I know. Do you know what the limit is here? No. Two? Two. So, uh, I throw them back when I'm fishing. No, because they're dead. And you've already put them on your stringer, so boy, you got all the tension on this drag. Holy cow. My first time fishing. This is your first time fishing? First time, yeah. This year or ever? This year. This year? Yeah. All right. That's it. All right, I'm going to follow you back to the car. You ain't going to arrest me, are you? No, you're not getting arrested, man. We're going to have a talk and uh we're going to go over a couple of things. Yeah. But this is a big no-no. You do have a fishing license, right? I think you're right. Okay, that might change things, too. Definitely not. We're going to have a look. But I'll tell you straight up right now, you you be cool with me, I'm going to be cool with you, man, all right? I'm not a big ball buster, but at the end of the day I got to do my job. Gentlemen, what's the limit here? What's up? What's the limit here? Five. The limit is two fish. >> Is it? I haven't looked it up yet. >> You have your fishing license? >> Yeah, yeah. I'll check that real I'm not actually fishing though. I Nope, you have no pole. It's all good. Um I saw it the other day. I should take a screenshot. I trust you. I got to go. Yeah. All right, I just need your driver's license, please. Is this your rod? Yeah. Okay. It's in the backseat. Thank you. I'm going to have you come up with me. Yeah. You're going to stand in front of my truck, the black one, okay? All right, real quick. tailgate here. All right. How many we got here? I don't know. It's in the cooler box. What kind of fish I got to see? One, two, three, four, five. Six. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 14. Okay, you can see how we have a little bit of a issue with 14 when the limit is two. Yep. No, I I understand that. So >> give me a ticket, officer? I'll pay for it. All right, watch your hands. That's going to stay in there for right now. I'm going to have you go right in front of the vehicle. You got nothing I need to be worried about, right? No wants, no warrants, or anything like that? >> Nah. Okay, just hang out right in front. Make sure you don't go on the road. All right, man. Come on back here. All right. So first things first, you don't got a license. So that's one thing. In order to fish, you also need a trout and salmon stamp. So that's two violations. You have 14 fish. That's 16 violations total, okay? I didn't hit you with 16 violations, okay? I appreciate that. >> going to take your gear. >> so I don't know anything. I I get that. That's that's something, but I don't know anything about the fishing It's two It's literally two fish, man. You have 14. In all my time doing this, I've never seen this many. Yeah, this is my first This is my first time fishing. You're going to learn the hard way. I'm going to tell you, it's a big ticket, but it's not as big as it could have been. It could have been a lot bigger. Okay? A lot bigger. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you your rod back. I'm going to give you your stringers back. But I'm I got to take the fish. Can I keep like two at least? >> No, because you don't even have a license, so you can't even keep two. Did you cut yourself? Do you need a Band-Aid? Yeah, you got a Band-Aid? Yeah, I got a Band-Aid. Give me a sec on that. What I'm also going to do for you, just stay right here so you're not in the road. Uh I usually let the cool guys go. Look. >> that. Yeah. I don't know how it's going, you know? Well, you're going to unfortunately find out. Oh, here we go. So, the Bible. This is all the regulations for the whole state for fishing right there, inland, not on the ocean, just inland like this, okay? >> Like lakes, ponds. Lakes and ponds. Everything you need is in there, okay? So, that's very important stuff. At the end of the day, man, I get no satisfaction out of writing people tickets. Yeah, no, you got But, you have 14 fish, dude. I have to and I'm bound by it. Once I let them know what's going on, I'm bound by it. All right. So, give me a sec. How bad's your cut? There's your band-aid. All right, I got you. It won't go on. It's my It's my my license. What's going on? No, it's only with us. So, we'll know this happened. >> Okay, but you guys Yeah. No, that has nothing to do with it. All right, so I'm fully understanding. No, don't worry about that. >> my license, so you know how they are. Yep, and I completely understand why you would ask that, but this has nothing to do with that. >> So, it's just fishing this year. >> This is just with our department, fish and game, okay? >> [snorts] >> So, that being said, you know, if we cross paths again and you're doing this again, there won't be a break. Cuz I saved you about $500 by not ticketing you for everything, okay? So, where do they hide the band-aids in this thing? Let's see, we got gauze, we got those things, we got band-aids right here. All right, man, there you go. Listen, well, you know, uh you're not going to like the amount on there, but like I said, I saved you 500 bucks cuz you were honest with me, you seem like a square dude, and at the end of the day, I can only give so much leniency when you have 16 violations, you know what I mean? So, well, no, I didn't give you 16, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I do need to explain something to you as far as the ticket goes. All information necessary can be found on the ticket. You have to plead guilty or not guilty, up to you, before the 6th of May. That is the date the court will be waiting for your response. If you don't mail this in, call them, or do it online before that date, they're going to have a warrant for your arrest. Uh there's a website I can pay it off, right? Yeah, all the information's on there, all right? So you can go ahead grab uh grab those string grab your stringers. No, no, no, that's your that that's your property, man. Two bucks for the stringers? That's up to you, man. I'm not going to make you do anything here. All right, here's your gun. Yeah, well, you you up today, I'll say that. All right, man. Yeah, be safe, all right? Yep. Your license is in there, yes. In the end, the suspect was charged with 12 counts of possession over two trout in the Mill River Trout Management Area. He was fined $1,848 for this case. We were unable to locate the court records online, but I called the records office and confirmed that he did in fact pay the full amount. If you like this video and want to see more like it, subscribe to Arrest Cam. As always, thanks for watching. >> [music]