Vermilion Parish deputies on lookout for crawfish theft

In Texas, you get thrown into jail for stealing a man’s horse. In Louisiana, the same can be said for a crawfish thief.

In Louisiana’s criminal code, in fact, specifically addresses the pilfering of mudbugs, in Title 14, Chapter 67, Part 5.

 Make off with enough of the tiny crustaceans and you could find yourself, at least theoretically, doing a 10-year prison sentence, “with or without hard labor,” the law states. It is a felony to steal crawfish. 

 Don’t think you will earn respect with your bunkmate when you tell him how you ended up in Angola State Prison.

Despite the threat of maybe going to prison for stealing crawfish, the crime continues.

Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon  has his  deputies  on the look out for possible  crawfish theft crimes.

He gave the example of this weekend  how a Sheriff patrolman spotted a truck hauling a trailer with 50 sacks of crawfish on Hwy. 167. The trailer had no  lights and no license plate, so he pulled the truck over at 6:30 in the morning.  He also suspected the sacks may have been stolen. 

The patrolman asked the driver where he was going with the crawfish and the driver told  him they were donated and it was for a prison ministry crawfish boil.  The story checked out, the crawfish were donated. The driver had to off load the crawfish onto a legal trailer. 

“This is an example of a deputy doing his job,” said Sheriff Couvillon.  “I 

applaud him for being aware. It could have been stolen. There are not too many people who could have  50 sacks of crawfish at 6:30 in the morning.”

Couvillon, who also crawfishes, said a thief  is not afraid to run the traps in a pond either on foot or by using the farmer’s crawfish boat.

The crawfish is either sold to friends, family or eaten.

The Sheriff said he has informed his deputies to be on the look out for crawfish theft this week. Throughout the year, he strongly recommends his deputies to get to know the land owner.  

Couvillon said his department will do their best to protect the ponds  and be on the lookout for crawfish thieves.

If anyone sees something suspicious at a crawfish pond, call the Sheriff’s Office or 911 and report it, he said.