Women cited for stealing, dumping prized deer in Menasha

MENASHA (WITI) -- A Menasha hunter has a quite a story to tell at deer camp in the coming years. The biggest buck he ever shot was stolen and eventually dumped into the Fox River. Now, the people responsible owe big bucks.

Kelly Sokel shot the buck with a crossbow during the gun deer hunt in November. 

"I was pretty proud of it.  It was the largest spread buck I ever got," Sokel said. 

Now, the eight-pointer with a 19-and-a-half inch spread is nothing more than a broken rack.

After Sokel shot the deer, he showed off his prize at a Menasha bar. He says that's when two women he'd never met before became argumentative. 

"They decided to take it out on my deer," Sokel said.

While Sokel was in the bar, the deer was bungeed to the back of his truck.  The two women came outside, took the deer out of the truck, then ran it over with their own car. 

"That's where their prank kinda went awry.  They thought it was just gonna be a prank.  They ended up leaving and driving a couple of blocks and realizing they were dragging this deer with them," DNR Conservation Warden Ryan Propson said. 

Propson says the women called a male friend who helped them throw the animal into the river.

"This is by far the craziest thing I have run into," Propson said. 

Propson gave them the DNR's harshest tickets.

The women will have to pay more than $2,000 each for larceny of wild game.

While the man will pay about $300 for his part. 

"They got a due punishment, I believe," Sokel said. 

The deer itself was found more than a month later a mile downriver. 

"That's what I'm left with, a pile of bones. It's very disappointing.  I'm out all the time, the effort," Sokel said. 

But the disappointment hasn't hurt Sokel's love of hunting. 

"The memories are still great and believe it or not, it's probably the best deer story I have," Sokel said.