Texas Marshals Fired, Indicted for Antler Theft

They took rack found by man in park, face 'oppression' charge
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 27, 2010 2:47 PM CDT
Texas Marshals Fired, Indicted for Antler Theft
File photo of a deer foraging for food.   (Getty Images)

Two Texas deputy marshals were fired and face criminal charges after taking a pair of deer antlers from a citizen, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The deputies have been indicted on a charge of official oppression, a misdemeanor, for their treatment of self-proclaimed "antler freak" Anthony Brown. On March 23, Brown was ecstatic to find a full set of 8-point antlers in a city park, but he says his day quickly turned when the two deputies rolled up while he was tying the antlers to his 4-wheeler.

The marshals took his prize find and said he was "getting off with a warning," though they wouldn't explain for what. "I kept on saying: 'Guys, this is not right. Guys, you know this is not right. This is my property," Brown said. In a last-ditch effort, he asked the deputies to at least photograph him with the antlers using his cellphone—and the next day, he took the photo to their superior. "These antlers were very important to me, much more important, obviously, than these guys realized," said Brown.
(More police stories.)

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