Most hunters work too hard for their deer—scouting, getting permission, checking the wind, and punching the right tags—to have any patience for guys who treat public ground like a free-for-all and then try to cover it up on camera. That’s why this central Ohio case hits a nerve: the state says two YouTubers told viewers certain bucks were taken in Kentucky, but officers later tied those deer back to illegal kills in Ohio.
In a year-plus investigation summarized in the source post, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife and Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks laid out a long list of alleged violations involving William I. Bethel, 28, and Justin A. Booth, 23, both of Columbus. The two were known on YouTube as “Creek Kings Outdoors,” and their channel allegedly featured videos of poached whitetails.
A long-running pattern, not a one-off mistake
ODNR says the investigation uncovered evidence of poaching from 2019 through 2024, including activity in Three Creeks Metro Park and on other properties where the men didn’t have permission to hunt. That time span matters, because it doesn’t read like a paperwork slip or an honest boundary mix-up—this was described as repeated behavior across multiple years.
For the average bowhunter or gun hunter, the “permission” part is the bright line. If you don’t have it, you don’t hunt it. The case also highlights how quickly a pattern of small violations—trespass, tag issues, season issues—can stack into something that brings multiple agencies to the table.
The Kentucky story and how it unraveled
One of the more eye-catching details in ODNR’s summary is the claim that Bethel and Booth told viewers certain deer were harvested in Kentucky. Investigators concluded those deer were unlawfully taken in Ohio instead. That’s not just a flex gone wrong; it’s an attempt to create distance between the kill and the place where it actually happened…