Sasquatch Hunter Harassed By Police
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on June 24th, 2013
He ventured into the wilds of north Durham looking for Sasquatch, but a Toronto man says he was instead confronted by an angry police officer who accused him of being a dope grower.
In a complaint filed with Durham police, Tim Marczenko claims he was detained, called a liar and accused of committing crimes he had no part in.
Durham police have reviewed the complaint and, while admitting Mr. Marczenko’s survival knife was seized in error, found no misconduct on the part of the officer. Mr. Marczenko has appealed that finding to a police oversight agency.
“I was shocked and insulted by the way they handled my complaint,” he said. “My rights were violated.
“I feel an apology needs to come from the officer and the department for not taking this seriously.”
Mr. Marczenko’s brush with the law came last August when he ventured into the bush in Brock Township. A member of Ontario Wildlife Field Research — a group that investigates the presence of creatures including Bigfoot and large cats — he said he went to check on tracks found in the bush near Concession 2 and Sideroad 17.
Mr. Marczenko said that when he emerged from the bush and got back into his rental car, he found his way blocked by a Durham police cruiser. He said that, when he explained his reason for being in the area, he was ridiculed by Constable Robert Aukema, the officer dispatched to check out a report of suspicious activity in the area.
Mr. Marczenko said Const. Aukema dismissed his story as “bulls–t” and demanded to know if he had an accomplice with him. The officer seized a survival knife in Mr. Marczenko’s car and threatened him with legal repercussions, the complaint says.
The officer told Mr. Marczenko he’d heard the same Bigfoot story from people arrested for drug crimes in the area, the complaint says. Mr. Marczenko said he was handcuffed and detained in the back of a police vehicle for more than an hour despite his pleas of innocence.
Read the rest of the story here.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
I would say the trespasser was fortunate. Many folks are rationing ammo and are making the first shot count.
The title is a little misleading. It should have read, “Sasquatch hunter detained by police as suspected marijuana grower.”
According to the facts of the article, Mr. Marczenko was trespassing and admittedly so because he paid the fine for that infraction. Obviously, he was on that property in the late night hours. Suspicious activity had taken place there before with the suspects offering the same excuse while they carried out their crime. Mr. Marczenko was not arrested, but detained. There is a huge difference! His knife was confiscated but he was reimbursed. So no harm, no foul there! As for the gun in the face comment, allegedly made by the officer. I believe the officer. But let’s say that the officer did make that comment. There is nothing wrong with that comment. It was not a threat but the truth. He should have let the officer know about the weapon when the officer was approaching the rental car.
Seriously, this is newsworthy? Not for me! It sounds like an unreasonable child pleading innocence for his own choices that he made. I bet if he handled himself differently at the scene, the outcome may have been different.
For me, because of the prior incidents of marijuana growers being in that area, the officer had a duty to follow up on a complaint of suspicious activity in that area. He did! It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less!
That’s absurd.
Some of them do give the term “pigs” a little credence, don’t they?
“I feel an apology needs to come from the officer and the department for not taking this seriously.”
Yeah. Lots of luck with that.
PhotoExpert: Calm DOWN, dude! You have no proof that “he was on that property in the late night hours”, or any other time. It’s not stated in the article. Or to believe the cops. COPS LIE; it’s what they DO. What’s with the brief for the cops?
He was “ridiculed” by the cops. How endearing. And since when is a knife a “weapon”? I’ve carried knives all my life, since high school. Makes me another miscreant, I suppose.
That said, I think they’re both lying.
Oh, and PhotoExpert:
I agree with you this is NOT “news”; it was ten months or so ago. In the sense it was not “new”.
Personally, I think the cop believed the dude was thiefing his weed crop.
Goodfoot–OK, I will calm down a bit. I guess it is not good to raise the old blood pressure over two individuals I could care less about.
One would assume good BF hunters would supposedly hunt an alleged nocturnal creature at night. At least that is what the crew of Finding BF tells the public. So at “night” would be when to track them, if Mr. Marczenko is as good as he says he is. Does that make sense on why I thought it must have been night time? Who hunts for nocturnal creatures during the day, especially if they are an expert in such things?
Oh, I do believe the cops, partially. And I do believe Mr. Marczenko. I think there is a little bit of truth in both their statements. I also think there is a little embellishment in both their statements. In other words, some cops do lie. I know a few who are outright liars. Just look at Rick Dyer, the one time cop. How many times do you think he lied during his career? It’s about the character of the individual cop. You just can’t group them altogether like you did and say, cops lie!
More likely, the cop was irritated that he had to go out on a call for a potential marijuana grower and that interfered with his donut break. It cut his coffee break short and he was irritated. So he probably did give Mr. Marczenko a bit of a hard time. LOL
But Goodfoot, a knife is a weapon. I would call it a peacemaker but most would call it a weapon. For a cop, it is a weapon, pure and simple. That is why he removed it. He shouldn’t have but he did. That was the only thing I think the cop did wrong. If carrying a knife makes you a miscreant, then I must join you in holding that title Goodfoot. I carry a pretty big one with me, every time I go fishing. But when I get approached by the DNR or any other police agency, I let them know I have it and where it is. Why? Because no matter what you say, it is a weapon. I never get hassled or harrassed because I do things in proper fashion. Mr. Marczenko should have followed my lead when making contact with police. He’d probably still have the knife and he probably would not have been fined for trespassing. It’s how you handle and conduct yourself when having contact with police.
But as usual Goodfoot, we both agree on the fact, that this is NOT “news”. Be it for the timing of reporting it or the fact that a BF hunter got a trespassing ticket and wants to whine about the contact he had with this police officer and failed to handle the contact properly. We still both agree!
And the award for the BEST COMMENT OF THE WEEK at Cryptomundo goes to………Goodfoot! Here is that comment: “Personally, I think the cop believed the dude was thiefing his weed crop.” The runner up would be my donut comment I made above. You get the honors this time Goodfoot! And thanks for calming me down. I am breathing easy now. LOL
I like how you all assume that there must be a grain of truth in Mr. Marczenko’s story, but that the officer was at least partially in the wrong. Just like with evidence of Bigfoot, you only know the parts of a police news story that the news agency decided to tell you. It’s the same with articles about Bigfoot, especially because many agencies like to portray both cops and bigfoot investigators in unflattering ways.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that as much as I love you guys and the discussions you generate, your comments on this story have been somewhat hypocritical. Don’t like being generalized as a whacko for believing there might be a Bigfoot? Great! Cops don’t like being generalized as thugs or donut addicts either.
BlazeHendrix–Really? I thought I was pretty fair about what I posted. I gave the police credit for doing their job while acknowledging that the officer may have been a little agressive.
In fact BlazeHendrix, Goodfoot even took a jab for me at maybe defending the cop a little too much. He even told me to calm down. You are way off base buddy! Did you read the post? Do you even know how to read and comprehend the meaning behind the words I posted? Give me a break!
So BlazeHendrix, the police officer acted perfectly in your opinion? He did confiscate the knife. The admission and proof of that was the department reimbursed Mr. Marczenko for that knife. That means it was taken wrongfully. So the police officer in question did something wrong. That begs the question, “what else did he do wrong”. Mr. Marczenko points out those things with his testimony. If the police officer did not act accordingly on one thing, then logic and common sense tells me he is fallible and could have acted inappropriately on other things. But I was still fair to him in my posting, even knowing that.
You on the other hand, think they are some kind of God, which they are not. Rick Dyer would be my example, along with many others that come to mind. I have police officers in my family. I know they are not perfect. Hell, they know they are not perfect.
So tell me BlazeHendrix, where is the hypocrisy in any of my statements? Oh, and in case you missed it or do not understand humor, the donut thing posted by me and the weed thing posted by Goodfoot is called humor. I know I do not need to defend Goodfoot. He is more than capable of defending himself. But when you lump the postings of Goodfoot and me together, I will defend him. Goodfoot, you can answer this guy too. Don’t let me steal your thunder.
Just answer this BlazeHendrix, where am I wrong in anything I posted? Please copy and paste that sentence and enlighten us all. I am not even wrong about the coffee break donut joke. That is how it came into being, because it is true. You know cops get free donuts and coffee because those shops have weird hours and weird people in them sometimes. They are open to crime or criminal activity. That is why they like cops visiting them. The donut shops wanted to be safer with a police presence. What better way to have cops visit them than to give them free donuts and coffee. So you never saw a cop in a donut shop then? Of course you did and you know it. And tell me that cops don’t flock there because they know they can get free coffee and a donut. You can’t say that they don’t because you know it is true. So where is the hypocrisy, even in my little joke?
I will agree with you that cops are not thugs. So posting that would make you WRONG. I never posted anything like that. Show me where I did since you stated that generalization. I never posted anything near that statement. And the donut comment, even my family members who are police officers and one recently fallen police officer included in that mix, made jokes about themselves and donuts or being at donut shops.
You need to lighten up a bit. You need to understand humor. You need to know what is a fair post and what the meaning of hypocrisy is.
Therefore, unless you can back up your statement or post back here and prove me wrong, then you are the hypocrit! And we both know you can’t back that up nor say that I was unfair in my posting. Show me by cutting and pasting the exact sentence where I stated cops are thugs in my post!!! I did state Rick Dyer is a liar. That is because he is and it is a proven fact. He is a former cop partly for that reason, bringing dishonor to the men in blue.
Get off your pedestal BlazeHendrix. Lighten up and get your facts straight before calling others here hypocritical. My post stands as factual mixed with a bit of humor. I smell a hypocrit but it is not Goodfoot or me. Enough said!
I had a similar situation where the sheriff thought i was making meth..
ofcourse i did not tell him i was there investigating a bf sighting.. i just said i was camping/fishing..
he ran my plates and ID and said find a better place to camp next time..
if there was any bf in the area they were treated to a nice pretty light show from the sheriffs cherries..
Hey PhotoExpert,
You need to stop posting for a while. You are completely uninformed.
There was no trespassing, it was crown land the press states it and the organization confirmed it. That’s why the police are in the wrong here. They handled the situation in the worse possible way.
As for the incident happening in the day time or at night, it doesn’t matter.
You cannot charge someone with trespassing on crown land, it was bogus to begin with.
And also, the press said he was arrested with possession of a controlled substance, so please read the article first because someone who reads your posts might actually take you seriously (one day) and then be as misinformed as you. Shame on you.