The sudden appearance of bright red squirrels in one New York town led investigators to discover they were being intentionally painted and released into the wild, according to investigators.
One man was responsible and he was “caught red handed” after a very unusual surveillance operation in the town of Patterson, 75 miles north of the city of New York, investigators said.
The NY State Department of Environmental Conservation had officers looking for red squirrels and they eventually found one “crossing the street” near the suspect’s home.
“He (the suspect) admitted to trapping the squirrels and painting them in order to keep track of those returning to his yard,” state officials said in a Feb. 13 Facebook post.
Evidence found at the home included a rodent trap, can of spray paint and a cage that had been bathed in red paint, photos show.
Investigators did not say when the spray painting started or how many squirrels were involved, but the first sightings were reported the third week of December.
The suspect told officers he was using the paint as a marker, to tell which squirrels were returning regularly to his yard to torment his dogs, the department said.
He was charged with “violations related to the trapping, transporting, and liberating of wildlife,” as well as “the mistreatment of animals,” officials said.
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