Last weekend, Richard Page of Portage County, Ohio, was deer hunting on his own property when he was sabotaged by some of the most unhinged hunter harassment ever caught on film. His neighbor yelled threats and even fired off a gun just because she believed he shouldn’t be hunting.
Page owns a small farm on five acres with chickens, turkeys, and guineas. In Ohio, you can hunt your property if it’s at least five acres, so Page was well within the rights to be out trying to harvest a deer. His neighbor, Leanne, however, decided that her anti-hunting ideals were valid enough to rise above the law.
Adorned in a blaze orange vest and gripping a pistol, the disgruntled neighbor doesn’t look entirely out of place in the deer woods until she starts screaming at Page.
“I will be a hunter’s nightmare,” she yelled on the video Page recorded to submit to local police.
According to Page, this wasn’t Leanne’s first time “advocating for animal rights.” She has also harassed other landowners in the area attempting to legally harvest animals.
“She knows who we are,” he told told 3News. “And she’s still shooting at us.” Leanne’s not-very-neighborly behavior only continued to get worse as the video progressed.
“I have nothing else to do with my time,” she hollered at Page. “So good luck with that!” She then fired her pistol into the air.
Interestingly enough, Leanne wasn’t even on her own property during this exchange. She was on another neighbor’s farm. She followed up with the gunshot by telling Page, “F*** you and your hunting. Get the f*** out of here.”
Before the situation escalated even more, Page dropped his blaze orange and ran. He didn’t return home until two hours later in the dark.
Despite being clearly harassed and threatened, Page remained pretty calm and collected about the ordeal. “She’s got, obviously, strong feelings about it,” he said. “But that doesn’t give her the right to come out and harass people that are out and enjoying themselves.”
According to Ohio law, hunter harassment is illegal. Section 1533.03 reads, “No person shall purposely prevent or attempt to prevent any person from hunting, trapping, or fishing for a wild animal as authorized by this chapter.”
The Portage County Sheriff’s Department currently has an open case and is working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to find a resolution.
Feature video and image via 3News.
