ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Neighbors flip a coin to settle dispute over a 9-point buck

ONEIDA, Wis.

A dispute over a nine-point buck in Wisconsin was settled with a coin flip.

Wisconsin’s deer season was just a few hours old Nov. 22 when D.J. Jorgenson says his 11-year-old son, Kameron, wounded the buck in the town of Oneida.

“Deer hit the ground, and it came back up, and took off running,” Jorgenson said.

The father and son then tracked the animal through the woods to a neighbor’s property, Jorgenson told WLUK-TV.

Before they could get to it, neighbor Randy Heyrman shot the buck twice from his deer stand to finish it off.

With the deer dead and the hunters deadlocked over who could keep it, they flipped a coin.

“So I dug in my pocket. I grabbed out a quarter. [Heyrman] did the coin flip. My boy called tails, and it was heads. And [Heyrman] said, ‘Well, it looks like it’s my deer, then,’” Jorgenson said.

All Kameron got was a photo.

Hunters need permission to follow a deer onto private property, and the landowner has a right to take the deer, according to Shad Webster of the Oneida Conservation Department.

Even though Heyrman legally had a right to keep the deer, he said the coin flip was a fair way to settle the dispute.

Jorgenson disagrees.

“I wish he would have done the right thing to begin with. All my son wants is his deer that he shot,” he said.

Associated Press