Two charged with theft of Elk antlers during NRA convention - Value $515,000

[RamboLiberal]

Not exactly gun related except for NRA convention but in Pittsburgh we're laughing at these 2 dingbats arrested carrying 2 huge elk racks down Penn Ave.

Two workers are accused of stealing prized elk antlers worth more than $500,000 from a vendor's booth at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown, where the National Rifle Association held its convention.

Stephen Christopher Lee, 44, of Cumberland, Md., and Gary Curtis Felts, 49, of Jopps, Md., are charged with theft and criminal conspiracy in the theft of two sets of elk antlers Sunday night from a vendor who was waiting to load his truck, Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard said.

Lee and Felts are identified as workers for the Brede Exposition Services offices in Beltsville, Md. Company officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

One set of antlers had a score of 522 inches appraised at $500,000 and the second set had a score of 486 inches appraised at $15,000, Richard said.



Read more: Two charged with theft of Elk antlers during NRA convention - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_735135.html#ixzz1LJRJLCmC

[brooklynite]

1. They wanted to prove they could shoot...

...and needed a model to help them figure out what to shoot at?

[DrDan]

2. confusing - we are told gun owners are not interested in trophies

how could these be worth so much?

[rl6214]

4. Where and who said gun owners were not interested in trophies?

It's very common for hunters. Can you show where that was said?

[DrDan]

6. we are constantly being told that the purpose of hunting is to put food on the table

not a trophy on the wall.

[RSillsbee]

7. If we are constantly being told that surely you can cite multiple examples

I'm sure you cab also show how taking a trophy Elk and eating said elk are mutually exclusive. While you're at it let's prove the antlers in question weren't sheds.

We'll wait

[DrDan]

8. so - you admit that one reason for hunting is trophy collecting

thank you for that - not many gun owners are as willing to admit it.

[AtheistCrusader]

24. Some hunters hunt for trophies. Some for meat. Some for both.

Why is this a shock to you?

Never stumbled across an outdoors fishing or hunting show on late night TV?

[DrDan]

25. abolutely not a shock to me - I have made the point in the past that

hunters are often in search of trophies - only to be "informed" that is not the case.

We agree - some hunt for meat - some hunt for trophies.

(added - I find it sad that there are those that will kill for a trophy on the wall.)

[AtheistCrusader]

34. I'm not sure what the connotation of 'often' is.

I would consider keeping the head as a 'trophy' to be inclusive of using the entire animal, and wasting nothing.

Purely trophy hunters appear to be a minority, from my experience, but I do not know of any metrics that have been gathered on this by the state.

In fact, hacking off the head and leaving the body is grounds for revocation of hunting privelidges in WA state.

[DrDan]

37. nothing beyond the point that it sometimes the case - I do not want to imply

that a majority of hunters are strickly in search of trophies

[AtheistCrusader]

39. Fair enough.

Some percentage of the hunters in this state (since they must take the meat) will donate the meat to others, or shelters, in order to then keep the head/rack.

[RSillsbee]

32. I'm still waiting for the examples

I don't recall ever reading here that no one trophy hunts. And ,again, you don't know those antlers weren't sheds

[Hoyt]

17. Saw show on taxidermy. AHole shot a lion, then wanted it mounted for home showing all private parts.

The AHole gunner was adamant about seeing the magnificent animal's penis and balls. What's with that? Sounds like Ted Nugent or something sold at NRA convention.

[spin]

26. Where I live at in a poor area of north Florida ...

the prime purpose of hunting is to put food on the table. I have, however, seen a few sets of antlers mounted as trophies.

[DrDan]

27. no problem with that . . .. I married into a family that hunts for food

not a trophy in sight.

[spin]

33. The trophies I have seen locally were more luck than an attempt to hunt a trophy buck ...

Venison and wild hog are commonly hunted in this area and are plentiful. In fact they are far too plentiful. I have several neighbors who have run into deer usually at twilight and suffered considerable damage to their cars. Several weeks ago, a deer ran into my daughter's car causing minor damage.

I personally have never went hunting but I do find the taste of venison and wild hog to be as good as the beef we buy at the grocery store, but much depends on the preparation. I have considered hunting since I retired, but unfortunately I have am a candidate for a hip replacement and if I wounded an animal I would find tracking it down difficult. I have no desire to leave an animal suffering.

My daughter has considered hunting "Bambi" since the deer ran into her car. She has several close friends, both male and female, who hunt on a regular basis.

What amazes me is that while deer are everywhere during the off season, I've known people who were never able to shoot one during hunting season. They aren't smart enough to stay off the roads during most of the year, but at the first sound of a gunshot they seem to disappear.

[DonP]

9. May or may not be gun owners

They work for the exhibit company. They weren't attending the convention they were working at it.

But, please carry on with your pointless whatever it is.

[DrDan]

10. a vendor's booth at an NRA convention - pardon me for assuming gun-owners were involved

[DonP]

11. Reading is fundamental but comprehension is everything

Why would you assume that two guys working the show, driving a lift truck, rigging electrical equipment, doing booth assembly/knock down etc. were NRA members attending the show?

Or don't you know what an exhibit company at a major trade show does? Do you assume that everyone setting up the Hardware show works at Ace?

Or just jumping to short sighted conclusions again to try and slight gun owners?

They may have been gun owners or may not, may have been NRA members or not. May be union members (many exhibit companies are), or not.

[DrDan]

12. the purpose of putting the trophies at a vendor's booth at an NRA

convention is to attempt to sell them to a convention attendee - probably a gun-owner.

The vendor probably considered the trophies as something an NRA-convention attendee might want to purchase.

[DonP]

18. Not really - stop reaching for something that isn't there

You've never been to an outdoors show, have you?

Antlers, full and partial mounts, fish, deer, moose and bear at. al. are used by exhibitors as props to decorate their booth and hopefully attract customers for their lodge, fishing trips, guide services etc. They don't sell the booth props any more than they would sell the booth itself. They pack them up and move on to the next show on their circuit.

The exhibit company, which these bozos worked for, is responsible for set up, take down and shipping of all the booth components to the next stop on the show circuit or to the storage warehouse used by an exhibitor, or their home for the smaller players.

FWIW, in most cases getting a trophy elk, whitetail, Muskie or any other trophy quality animal doesn't mean you aren't getting the meat for your freezer. It's not an "either - or" situation.

You can eat the elk and still have a rack for the family room, if you have the skill set and that's your particular decorating taste.

For all we know the two idiots could have been the last two dues paying card carrying Brady members. I like to think they probably are since they obviously have no moral compass.

[DrDan]

19. a $500,000 prop - and I am the one "reaching"?

[DonP]

28. Yeah you are and now you're changing the subject - again

First you suggested that the people involved in the theft were gun owners and NRA members. When it was pointed out that there was no evidence of that you shift the discussion further and further afield from your original, ignorant post. Now the exhibitor is stupid for using an expensive prop. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and really makes gun owners look stupid, right?

Even with a polite education you still don't seem to be able to get it and try to somehow stretch reality to try and make some obscure point about gun owners, or lodge owners, or exhibit companies or something? I'm not quire sure what you are trying to say anymore?

This is the point where you should probably just skulk off to post about something else in another forum for a few days where you won't look nearly as ill informed.

Or maybe just do a an, "Well all gun owners suck and are poo poo heads" kind of post and lay low for a few days.

[DrDan]

29. "reading is fundamental, but comprehension is everything"

please show me where I said those involved with the theft were gun owners and NRA members.

I never said that - you made that assumption.

my post - "confusing - we are told gun owners are not interested in trophies - how could these be worth so much?"

Notice - I did not mention those involved with the theft. I WAS REFERRING TO THOSE ATTENDING THE NRA CONVENTION.

The antlers were a part of a vendors booth - because gun-owners love their trophies (not all obviously). This was an NRA convention - hence attended by gun enthusiasts.

I pointed this out - and you continue to not comprehend jumping to conclusions that support your weary posts.


Also - I made NO reference to lodge owners or exhibit companies. THAT WAS YOU - read your own posts with comprehension as the goal.

[RamboLiberal]

35. The trophies were at hunting lodge & hunting guides booths

To show game you could hunt at their lodge/guided hunt.

They were from western & southern states, Canada, even 1 from New Zealand.

[DrDan]

38. thanks - don't believe that was info found in the posted article - so I

appreciate the additional info

[AtheistCrusader]

21. Strawman something something strawman, blerg, blather.

[DrDan]

30. as opposed to your amazingly astute response

[rl6214]

3. Can't really stuff those in your jacket to hide em

$500,000:crazy:

There's an idiot born every day.

[Remmah2]

14. Unless Dolly Parton was shoplifting. nt

nt

[petronius]

5. Another article says the $500,000 was "appraised by the owner", so that number could be

somewhat imaginary. Could a set of antlers really be worth a half-million dollars to someone? :shrug:

It also seems like these huge antlers are from elk specifically bred for the purpose - there's apparently an annual 'antler competition' among breeders...

[Remmah2]

13. Does it matter?

Two thieves took something that didn't belong to them. If the antlers were worth $1 or $1,000,000, they didn't belong to the people whole stole them.

and no guns were involved!

[petronius]

16. As far as the crime, of course it doesn't matter. Did I suggest otherwise?

But in a discussion of a fairly pedestrian theft that's only tangentially (at most) related to the topic of the forum, it seems to me that the economics and structure of a trade in a niche item like antlers is the only thing interesting to talk about...

[Hoyt]

15. Right out from under the noses of all those gunners -- LMAO.

[rrneck]

20. Should they have been shot? nt

[Hoyt]

23. No. Just goes to show no one respects a bunch of right wing gun worshipers.

[friendly_iconoclast]

31. Yeah, it just *couldn't* be that dishonest people sometimes steal things

If they were working the Consumer Electronics Show and stole a few TV's, I rather doubt you'd claim that was proof that no one

respects TV owners...


-1 for your logic failure due to bigotry.

[rrneck]

36. Intetesting that

such detestable attitudes are so easily exposed.

[ManiacJoe]

22. Right, if by that you mean

at night after everyone had gone home so that the vendors and crew can pack up.