Hey, it's Jason Moon, reporter and producer for the document team at New Hampshire Public Radio.

For the past year, we've been working with our colleagues at Outside In.

That's another great podcast from NHPR, all about the places where curiosity and the natural world collide.

And last fall, the host of Outside In, Nate Hedgy, told us about a

story he'd stumbled onto, about something called Operation Nightcat. We were hooked. And we're

excited to bring you that story right here, starting next week. Here's a little taste of what's coming. Ron Arsenault was a small town cop with New Hampshire's Fish and Game Department. Someone who spent his days nabbing people for hunting out of season or fishing with illegal minnow traps. These are always fun. Never know what you're going to get. What's he got in there? A cookie? That looks like a cookie, huh? Or no, it's a sausage patty. Yeah, sausage patty. Huh. Until one day, when he landed the bust of a lifetime. Operation Nightcat. It all started with four or five deer walking across the road. Because if you look at it all the way of the beginning, it was like, why did the deer across the road to kill a bobcat?

It's like, it's crazy.

I'm Nate Hedgy, and for the past year, I have been following this case, a poaching investigation that led Ron from the quiet woods of New Hampshire

into the shocking world of illegal hunts, digital trophy rooms, and a twisted game of

one-upmanship. There's blood everywhere. I absolutely smoked them. It's like they're playing

Grand Theft Auto behind their house, except with animals.

Just killed a big buck.

Yeah, I can't even talk.

Gray fox, bobcat, gray fox, bobcat, red fox, red fox, gray fox, red fox, gray fox, red fox, red fox, coyote, bobcat, coyote, crow.

This is a story about what happens when the rules of the hunt are thrown out the window.

And the very people sworn to uphold the law become the ones who break it.

If you're abusing animals like this, are you abusing humans?

From New Hampshire Public Radio's document team and outside in comes a special three-part series,

Operation Nightcat.

You know, we deal with really bad people.

There's some people that, you know, society wouldn't be worse off without.

And they can do whatever they want and get away with it because nobody can see over that wall.

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