Who’s Hazel? Not knowing Mississauga mayor trips up fishing fraudster

nexstar · November 18, 2010

Want to share this funny story from the Star today. The MNR officer did a good job.

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Not knowing the name of Mississauga's most famous angler, Mayor Hazel McCallion, was the undoing of a Chicago-area man poaching from northern Ontario waters this summer. This month the courts came down harshly on the illegal fisherman, fining him $5,000.

Credit for netting him goes to a Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officer, Tim Neidenbach, who approached the man and his companion on a boat on Lac Seul, about 300 kilometres northeast of Kenora, on Aug. 20.

Asked to show his fishing licence, the American handed over an Ontario resident's Outdoors Card and fishing tag, saying he lived in Mississauga. He gave a Mississauga address but couldn't remember the phone number, where he lived or which highway he took to get there.

When the astute officer asked him to identify the 12-term mayor of Mississauga, he couldn't answer. He also didn't know McCallion was an avid angler.

"I had a gut feeling because his story didn't add up," Neidenbach told the Star. "And then I asked about Hazel and he didn't know her. Well, she's pretty famous, so someone from Mississauga should know who she is."

Neidenbach grew up in Kitchener and, even living up north in Ear Falls, he had followed the news of McCallion's re-election.

The angler was actually a realtor from Park Ridge, Ill.., named Wojciech Rzepka, and he'd been fishing illegally in Ontario waters since 1993.

Justice of the Peace Robert McNally, who heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice in Kenora, fined Rzepka $3,300 for three counts of possessing a bogus licence. He was also fined $850 for fishing without a licence and $850 for making a false statement.

A licence for someone with a valid Outdoors Ontario card normally costs $25, but it's twice as much for non-residents.

Using a fraudulent card probably saved Rzepka $800 or $900 over the past 17 years, Neidenbach said, "but now he's having to pay out $5,000."

The artful bust didn't surprise Neidenbach's sister, Mary-Ann Schwarz, who lives near Kitchener.

""I'm not surprised he caught an American doing this because Tim lives on the water and he sees all these planes coming in to fish, and most of them are American. He takes his job very seriously."

Neidenbach said this case is rare and that most Americans carry valid licences.

"There is a four-walleye limit on Lac Seul, so our No. 1 violation is over-limits, not phony licences," Neidenbach said, adding the fine for overfishing is generally $100 per fish.

Rzepka, reached in the U.S., said the fine was outrageous, on the same level as a drunk-driving charge. "It's too high," he said angrily. "For such a high crime? Maybe I'm supposed to be executed."

Asked why he knows about Mississauga but not Hazel, Rzepka said he has a friend in Mississauga and had visited Toronto in the past for work reasons.

From Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.c...-fraudster?bn=1