You have to LOVE hunting in Massachusetts!!!!
I went out Friday night to try a little predator night hunting here in my home state of Massachusetts. I don't get often, maybe 2 or 3 "nights" a year. I was having a good night, not scoring but I had a fox come in right behind me to about 10 feet before I heard it and I called in a group of 3 LARGE raccoons at another spot. My wife had her girlfriends from college over for the weekend, so I was crashing at my parents house .. so I had no reason to be home early, so at 11:20 pm I hit one last spot on the way in.. in Westford MA. I pulled onto the little dirt road I've parked on about 5 or 10 times to deer hunt, it's next to a sub station and has a street light and got my gear ready and headed off into the woods. I did notice when I pulled off the road that a car had slowed down and checked me out when I had pulled off. Anyways, I set up and called for about 20 minutes and all I saw was 2 deer, then it hit midnight and I had to head in, because in Mass you can only hunt till 12. It took me about 15 minutes to get back to my truck .. and I was just about there and walking back into the light of the street lamp when I heard "FREEZE!"
I looked up and all I saw was bright lights and 10 muzzle's all pointed directly at me .... m16's, street sweeper shotguns, 45's and 9mm's. Yup .. 3 Westford town police and 7 state troopers ... 4 members of the SWAT team were even present. I was asked to put my hands over my head, get down on my knees, then I was put in hand cuffs. It happened that the car that had slowed down while I pulled in had been an off duty state police officer, who had circled back and reported he had seen a man leaving a truck heavily armed heading into the woods towards some homes! Talk about someone over exaggerating!
Well after 5 minutes, and checking my hunting license, FID card, drivers license and searching my truck ... they lightened up and took the cuffs off and gave me all my stuff back. They told me in the future I may want to give them a call when hunting their town after dark .. then told me some places they had heard reports of problems with coyotes.
Then they mentioned the biggie ... and I quote "Hey Jay, you may want to give your wife a call as she's a little upset."
They had dispatched 2 rookie police to my house to check if I was home and if my truck had been stolen .. and at 12:00 at night, with 4 half in the bag college friends just about falling asleep ... pulled my wife out of the apartment and asked if I was home .. when she said no, they told her that they were unable to locate me. Which caused her to FREAK OUT! She was thinking accident or worse .. so for 15 minutes before I called home to verify I was alive and ok .. she was fearing the worse. The big problem was I had not told her I was going out .. I hadn't made that wise decision till later.
For a brief moment I got to experience what a coyote must feel like when a he gets a bright spot-light in the eyes and while squinting notices the muzzle of a .223 caliber pointed at his head ... which I would gladly have happen every day, rather than have the phone conversation where I have to calm my wife down for 20 minutes after she thought I was dead from some car crash!