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The Great Skunk Hunting Contest
Growing up Gunnison
How I met officer Jack (short for Jack Booted Thug (he really was)) isn’t really important. What is important is that we hit it off when we found out we had a lot in common other than being a peace officer.
Jack and I would shoot baskets, see each other shooting pool, go fishing, that kind of thing. He was a good guy to be around if you were on the right side of the law and he was working. Otherwise he pushed the limit of what would be consider acceptable law enforcement behavior. But I digress
We had known each other for a year or two and I was actually interested a little in law enforcement so I did a ride along a couple times. Nothing big basically kept him company on a boring shift, and got to see first hand how small town cops operated.
At this time Barney Fife was chief of police, and he had a very loose grip on w how the officers operated. It was so loose that they came up with a little contest. The Great Skunk Hunting Contest!
I should tell you a little about Gunnison. In the spring when it starts to warm up, the town can become inundated with skunks wandering out of their winter burrows.
The local police force decided they needed to thin out the skunk herd but hunting them every night with the riot gun strapped into their…
