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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Chanterelle mushroom poaching ring busted [CA]
#5284005 - 02/09/06 10:55 PM (18 years, 10 days ago) |
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Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies break up mushroom poaching ring Associated Press February 9, 2006 - kesq.com
LOMPOC, Calif. - An elusive Eastern European mushroom poaching ring using global positioning satellite devices to keep track of fungi finds has been broken up by sheriff's detectives.
The ring's prey was the coveted chanterelle fungus.
"The Czechoslovakians were bragging that they were so sophisticated and cagey that they'd never get caught. But it's like anything - you do it long enough and you'll get caught," said Lt. George Gingras of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department.
Three people were arrested last week and GPS location equipment, walkie-talkies, journals listing locations of prized mushroom patches and sheets detailing the sale of $10,000 worth of stolen mushrooms were found in one of their cars, detectives said.
"When they find a mushroom patch, they log in the coordinates on the GPS, and the next year they home right in," Gingras said.
Detectives had been looking for the poachers for some time. Following a Feb. 1 meeting with local ranchers about the chanterelles, detectives got a good tip.
The ranchers alerted deputies to "several Czechoslovakian males who have been the most prolific thieves," Sgt. Erik Raney said. "They described them as tall, thin and coming from up north, possibly Oregon."
Arrested in the Lompoc area were Josep Vychodil, 52, of Seattle, Maxim Mikhailytchev, 24, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Lucas Vrana, 29, of Seattle, Raney said.
The mushroom, which grows on oak-studded hills, can sell for $10 to $20 a pound "on the street" and retails for about $25 a pound. The fungus is generally yellow and funnel-shaped, though California varieties are usually white.
Efforts to cultivate the mushroom have not been successful.
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daba
Stranger


Registered: 12/30/02
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Re: Chanterelle mushroom poaching ring busted [CA] [Re: veggie]
#5284203 - 02/09/06 11:47 PM (18 years, 10 days ago) |
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How's that illegal?
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Koala Koolio
TTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGG

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,752
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Re: Chanterelle mushroom poaching ring busted [CA] [Re: daba]
#5284279 - 02/10/06 12:19 AM (18 years, 10 days ago) |
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I believe you need a license, and perhaps only in designated areas.
20 a pound? Hmm... I can think of bigger and better things if they plan on breaking the law anyway, hah.
-------------------- You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!
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horha
trout


Registered: 02/07/06
Posts: 292
Last seen: 17 years, 4 months
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Re: Chanterelle mushroom poaching ring busted [CA] [Re: Koala Koolio]
#5284290 - 02/10/06 12:27 AM (18 years, 10 days ago) |
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it doesnt sound ike it was werth the risk
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coda
Banjo Goiter


Registered: 03/20/01
Posts: 8,750
Last seen: 10 months, 21 days
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Re: Chanterelle mushroom poaching ring busted [CA] [Re: Koala Koolio]
#5285284 - 02/10/06 10:15 AM (18 years, 9 days ago) |
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well considering at 20 dollars a lb wet weight id say thats a pretty good deal for doing nothing but stealing lol.
-------------------- To get really high is to forget yourself. And to forget yourself is to see everything else. And to see everything else is to become an understanding molecule in evolution, a conscious tool of the universe. And I think every human being should be a conscious tool of the universe. . . . -JG i really am glad you came back to us instead of taking the other path. *hug* -A_S (RIP your final words to me will never be forgotten)
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koppie
astral projectile


Registered: 07/23/04
Posts: 2,653
Loc: cloud hidden
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Re: Chanterelle mushroom poaching ring busted [CA] [Re: veggie]
#5293912 - 02/13/06 07:08 AM (18 years, 7 days ago) |
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Wow, real live Czechoslovakians. They have become even rarer than Chanterelles since Czechoslovakia fell apart in 1993. I wonder if they are a protected species...
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motaman
old hand

Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 6,047
Last seen: 10 days, 13 hours
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Mushroom poachers agree to plea bargain [Re: veggie]
#5550559 - 04/24/06 09:36 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2006/04/23/news/news05.txt
Mushroom poachers agree to plea bargain By Mark Abramson/Staff Writer
Three chanterelle mushroom poachers have agreed to a plea bargain in which the charges were reduced to misdemeanor trespassing and they were given 200-day jail sentences.
Josef Vychodil, 52; Maxim Mikhailytchev, 24; and Lucas Vrana, 29, were arrested in mid-February on suspicion of grand theft. Vychodil was also arrested on suspicion of trespassing, while Mikhailytchev and Vrana were also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy.
Under their plea bargain, the three men pleaded to a trespassing charge, got sentenced to the jail time, and were ordered to pay a $1,600 fine and $4,025 in restitution.
Deputy District Attorney Patricia Kelly could not be reached for comment. She negotiated the deal with the men's defense attorney.
According to court papers, the men were suspected of poaching nearly 1,000 pounds of the gourmet mushrooms from the Cojo Ranch and selling them to people in San Francisco and Bayside.
At the time of the arrests, police estimated the value of the mushrooms at $8 to $10 a pound wholesale, with retail prices reaching up to $25 a pound.
Ranchers said that Vychodil, Vrana and Mikhailytchev are the same three men from Washington State and Vancouver, B.C., who they have spotted on their property several times.
Mushroom poachers also have targeted ranches in Humboldt, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.
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Banez
Stranger


Registered: 09/23/05
Posts: 15,181
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Re: Mushroom poachers agree to plea bargain [Re: motaman]
#5554343 - 04/25/06 09:11 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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yeah when i was reading this i was wondering what about it was illegal? do u really need a license to hunt for mushrooms?
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EquilibriuM
dream stalker

Registered: 07/17/05
Posts: 2,323
Last seen: 16 years, 8 months
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Re: Mushroom poachers agree to plea bargain [Re: Banez]
#5554381 - 04/25/06 09:39 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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I assume they were taken from other peoples property. Also, its Santa Barbara, Last time I was there, the big thing on the local news was "bird theft." The authorities are probably board out of their minds.
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giz
daydreamer


Registered: 02/08/06
Posts: 651
Loc: EU
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Re: Mushroom poachers agree to plea bargain [Re: EquilibriuM]
#5555504 - 04/25/06 04:45 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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i liked the idea of using GPS to keep track of mushroom patches. .. i will do that myself, i dont break any laws here by doing it sp chantarellas and liberty caps
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