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At about 8:30 a.m. Nov. 17, the Darien Police Department received a report of a white man dressed in full camouflage in the woods close to Darien High School. Based on the report, Darien High School and the nearby nursery schools were alerted and took precautionary measures until police determined that there wasn’t a danger. Officers remained in the area for the next several hours that day.
During a search, officers discovered two tree stands and a deer bait station used for hunting, police said. The stands and the bait station were located 30 feet west of the property line of a Middlesex Road home, police said.
This very small wooded area backs up to the Darien High School property. The homeowner of the Middlesex Road home told police that he had not given anyone permission to use the property to hunt deer. Police later determined that this area of the woods is owned by the Town of Darien.
Officers contacted the town's Department of Public Works, which responded and removed the two tree stands and bait station. The property was secured at the Darien Police Department.
At 12:30 p.m. the same day, officers identified the “suspicious person” as a local hunter, police said. The hunter, a Wilton resident, stated that he believed he had authorization to be in the area where he was hunting.
The man, who has a valid hunting license, said he had set up three tree stands in the woods and bow-hunts for deer. Ham stated that he left the woods around 8:30 a.m. that day.
He said he has a longstanding verbal agreement with a local property owner who he believed owned that parcel of land. Because written permission is required to hunt on the property and because he was unable to produce any documentation indicating such, Ham was issued an infraction for trespassing, police said.
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