The proprietor of the multi-state looking operation Whitetail Heaven Outfitters was arrested and detained in Florida final month as a fugitive from justice. After greater than two weeks in jail Tevis Q. McCauley was launched Tuesday for “time served,” previous to his initially scheduled extradition to Kentucky.
It’s the most recent improvement in a years-long saga for 40-year-old McCauley, who payments himself as a premier clothes shop service whilst his enterprise practices have resulted in scores of disgruntled former staff, dissatisfied purchasers, and shortchanged landowners.
Whitetail Heaven provides semi-guided and guided deer hunts on some 60,000 acres throughout no less than 4 states — Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio, and Indiana — plus Osceola turkey hunts in Florida and some waterfowl hunts. Due to its geographical and digital attain, it’s one of many largest and most well-known outfitters within the nation. Advertising and marketing photographs on-line and on social media seem to ship on the model’s promise of high-quality, low-pressure hunts, with pictures of joyful hunters grinning behind record-class bucks.
However, some sources say, that success comes at a big price. Complaints about McCauley and his operation embrace unpaid salaries, dodged lease charges, false promoting, breached contracts, and over-harvested properties, amongst different points.
Now, his newest arrest has onlookers throughout the Kentucky deer looking group questioning if his sprawling empire is on the snapping point. McCauley dismisses rumors that Whitetail Heaven goes out of enterprise.
“Now we have tons of happy clients and do an excellent job,” says McCauley.
Tevis McCauley’s Arrest
McCauley of Nicholasville, Kentucky was driving in Flagler County, Florida simply earlier than 6 p.m. on March 17 when he was pulled over for dashing, in keeping with a case report obtained by Outside Life. Officer Carter Bryan with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Workplace clocked the Jeep McCauley was driving at 67 mph in a forty five mph zone.
“He had some bizarre hits come again on his Kentucky license,” Bryan instructed the 2 officers who arrived as backup throughout the visitors cease, in keeping with physique cam footage. “I’m simply making an attempt to ensure it’s not one and the identical [McCauley]. It may not be him however [unintelligible]. He’s bought no paperwork on the automotive, apparently it’s a rental out of Kentucky. It expired on the fifteenth.”
Excerpts of the physique cam footage, obtained by Outside Life.
Then dispatch known as again: McCauley had an lively warrant for “theft by deception” involving chilly checks in Kentucky. Bryan returned to the Jeep to search out McCauley rapidly wrapping up a cellphone name. The officer requested McCauley to step out of the automobile, then handcuffed him.
McCauley was “positioned below arrest with out incident,” in keeping with the case report, although the arrest itself took greater than an hour. Footage from the physique cam reveals an officer learn McCauley his Miranda rights and McCauley answered questions, together with concerning the contents of his automobile. A search of the Jeep turned up prescription capsules below another person’s identify, which officers seized. McCauley appeared civil to legislation enforcement, although he repeatedly requested if he may resolve the warrant with an lawyer as a substitute of getting bussed again to Kentucky.
“You’ve by no means seen anyone be capable of resolve it earlier than having to get busted?” McCauley stated from the backseat of a squad automotive. After studying he must face extradition to Kentucky and couldn’t negotiate launch in Florida, he requested, “How lengthy do I freaking keep in jail ’til they bust me?”
“Each time they schedule transport to come back get you,” Bryan instructed him. “It may very well be a pair days, may very well be per week, may very well be a pair weeks. It actually simply relies upon.”
“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, bro,” McCauley repeated. “Rattling. That’s loopy.”
McCauley, who was sporting a Whitetail Heaven shirt on the time of his arrest, instructed officers that he had been on the town for 2 weeks for turkey season. He additionally recognized himself as an clothes shop and said that he had 4 looking purchasers ready for him at a restaurant.
That night McCauley was booked as a fugitive from justice and remained in custody within the Flagler County Inmate Facility for greater than two weeks with a standing of “awaiting trial.” He was launched April 1, in keeping with Flagler County’s inmate search.
When OL reached Henry County sheriff Keith Perry on Friday, he was stunned to study McCauley had been launched. Perry had been planning to drive all the way down to Florida to extradite McCauley himself. He says Flagler County legislation enforcement had offered him with an extradition deadline of April 14. McCauley’s father, he provides, had tried to put up bail whereas his son was nonetheless in Florida.
“You probably have a warrant in Kentucky, one other state can’t take bond cash for Kentucky. Now we have to convey you again right here,” Perry says. “As soon as we convey him again to Kentucky, he doesn’t should go to jail. If somebody comes and posts his bond, the courts will take his cash and provides him a courtroom date and launch him. However that’s the one means we will eliminate the warrant.”
A deputy on the Flagler County Inmate Facility stated McCauley appeared to have been launched for “time served, launched from Kentucky.” They stated they weren’t fully sure whether or not the extradition interval had expired or if another association had been made.
When reached for remark Friday, McCauley instructed Outside Life he was in Georgia looking turkeys. Tales posted to his private Instagram web page within the final day seem to substantiate this.
Bounced Checks and Unpaid Payments
That warrant for theft by deception had been lively since August, when it was signed by a district decide in Henry County, Kentucky. It stemmed from a summons associated to McCauley allegedly passing checks to a landowner “within the quantity of $7,500 with the intent to deprive the affiant thereof,” in keeping with a felony criticism obtained by Outside Life.
Robbie Ethington, a grain farmer who operates in Henry, Shelby, and Spencer counties, filed that criticism in December 2023. He tells OL that McCauley wrote him three checks that bounced. These unfulfilled funds had been purportedly supposed to compensate Ethington for crop injury on the roughly 1,500 acres he leased to Whitetail Heaven during the last seven years.
“They drove four-wheelers via my crops and made roads going each rattling which means,” says Ethington. “I’ve been making an attempt for 3, 4 years to get my cash … He owes me about $35,000 for all of the injury to the crops. All I’ve collected is perhaps $15,000 to $17,000.”
McCauley denies that the arrest in Florida was associated to this situation. He says the arrest “didn’t pertain to something that has to do with looking or my enterprise.” When pressed, he stated, “It didn’t pertain to something. It’s private issues.” He denied that his hunters or guides had induced any crop injury.
Ethington’s scenario is acquainted to different landowners and Whitetail Heaven guides interviewed by OL. A number of reported comparable experiences making an attempt to recoup cost from McCauley. Brent Bowers, a Florida actual property investor, says he lastly acquired overdue cost Wednesday for permitting Whitetail Heaven purchasers to hunt his property lately.
“They did simply attain out to me yesterday and pay me for utilizing my land,” Bowers instructed OL in a Fb message. “It took them three weeks to get again to me. And it was in all probability solely as a result of I gave them dangerous [online] evaluations.”
Bowers didn’t take away his Google assessment after receiving cost. One other supply, who requested to not be named for worry of retaliation, says three checks lately offered to them by McCauley additionally bounced.
When requested to touch upon these accusations of delayed funds to landowners or staff by Whitetail Heaven, McCauley stated “that’s not true.” He says he’s by no means missed or delayed funds.
“Yearly I’m getting cellphone calls from [Whitetail Heaven employees] making an attempt to come back work right here and never there as a result of they’re not getting paid,” says one other whitetail clothes shop in Kentucky, who requested to not be named out of concern for his enterprise. “They’re not getting paid their date charges. [Often] they’re dwelling off of ideas from hunters.”
This clothes shop says he’s additionally approached by landowners yearly who beforehand leased floor from McCauley however not want to take action.
“The enterprise facet of outfitting is pretty easy. You obtain a deposit from purchasers, you lease floor, and also you pay for the bottom off a share of that deposit. [McCauley] doesn’t try this.”
As a substitute of paying landowners upfront to lease floor for shopper deer hunts, McCauley appears to rearrange installment plans.
“He made a number of funds,” says Ethington, the grain farmer. “He by no means had the cash. He was all the time, ‘I’d pay this subsequent month,’ and subsequent month turns into three months turns into six months. It was only a nightmare fooling with him.”
However the problem wasn’t fairly sufficient to make Ethington reduce ties with Whitetail Heaven.
“You felt such as you’d get your a refund. You simply saved hoping that you simply’d get issues straightened out for the subsequent 12 months. He’d get you paid most years proper earlier than the deadline, earlier than his time to lease one other 12 months. He known as up the final two years proper on the finish earlier than he needed to signal a brand new lease and provide you with a rattling cost. Then you definately was hooked into the rattling scenario once more … He’s making every kind of cash doing what he’s doing, however it’s going to different makes use of [than landowner fees].”
This 12 months McCauley lastly missed his cost and renewal deadline of April 1 as a result of he was in jail, says Ethington.
“It’s a giant downside as a result of he’ll ship folks out in all places amassing as a lot floor as doable on a hope and a dream,” says the opposite Kentucky clothes shop. “Landowners [are] saying ‘Sure,’ and he’s entering into and killing as many [deer] as he can within the first week or two. After which [landowners are] not getting one other cost from him. Then they’re sitting there like, ‘Wow, I may’ve bought good earnings off this and now I can’t even get anyone to take it.’”
Whitetail Heaven Clothing store’s store in Nicholasville was named in a 2022 lawsuit introduced by the Outdoor Group for buying greater than $37,500 in sporting items and failing to pay the account stability. Whereas McCauley was named as supervisor within the swimsuit, a judgment in February of this 12 months decided his then-managing associate Casey Sheridan owed the excellent stability, plus curiosity and charges. In response to his LinkedIn profile, Sheridan is not with Whitetail Heaven.
False Promoting
One of many recurring accusations leveled in opposition to Whitetail Heaven is that McCauley overbooks purchasers. A number of sources confirmed that Whitetail Heaven’s Kentucky operation would activity a single information with ferrying dozens of hunters every morning to and from properties that had been too small to help that form of strain.
“They’re taking out 100 and fifty folks or extra within the first week of velvet archery,” says the opposite Kentucky clothes shop, who runs a one-hunter-per-guide ratio. “That’s the place you get fifteen hunters on a thousand acres. And there is likely to be one shooter on digicam. They’re simply stealing folks’s cash. It’s horrible.”
A weeklong Kentucky bowhunt with Whitetail Heaven begins at $3,500, and four-day rifle hunts price $4,250.
“On opening day of rifle season I needed to put my first shopper within the woods at 3:45 a.m., if that tells you something,” says one former Whitetail Haven information who dropped greater than 30 hunters within the woods in a single day. “One factor, you’re gonna drive an hour each methods if you go to the property you’re going to hunt throughout deer season in Kentucky. There’s no homework, [we] simply put folks in stands with no [consideration for] wind or path cam footage.”
Whitetail Heaven touts its top-notch lodging, mouth-watering meals, world-class looking, and — “when the climate cooperates” — a 60 to 70 % shot opportunity rate.
“Little to zero looking strain on a variety of our properties permits us to proceed to supply mature bucks each season,” reads the location. “Good genetics, a wholesome nicely fed herd, intense administration practices, age and really skilled, educated guides is what will get us the outcomes we wish yearly.”
A minimum of one lawsuit was filed in the previous couple of years by a former shopper who thought-about all this false promoting after experiencing his hunt.
In 2022 a hunter from North Carolina traveled to Kentucky with two companions for a four-day rifle hunt throughout the rut that they paid $4,500 apiece for. After Whitetail Heaven switched his lodging days forward of the hunt, in keeping with the criticism, he was compelled to share an Airbnb with hunters he didn’t know and didn’t get the chef-prepared meals he was anticipating.
The looking appeared equally disappointing. Right here’s an excerpt from the criticism:
Through the four-day hunt, the Plaintiff sat in a tree stand all day and noticed solely a handful of does and some 4-point bucks. The primary two days of the hunt, the Defendant put Plaintiff on a closely wooded tract that had fingers of land that stretched out over very deep ravines on all sides. Sight and shot vary was severely restricted and it was definitely not more than 40 yards in distance. Throughout these two days the Plaintiff heard only a few pictures and all of these had been within the far distance. The Plaintiff then requested to be moved to a different farm with higher “shot alternative” as marketed by the Defendant. The final two days of the hunt, the Plaintiff was positioned on the Bell farm. This location did afford alternatives for longer vary pictures, however once more the Plaintiff heard only a few pictures and noticed only a few deer. … Defendant’s Web site additionally advertises its looking places would reveal mixtures of excessive protein clover, soybeans and alfalfa together with the winter wheat, oats, snow peas and turnips. On the properties Defendant offered to Plaintiff, there have been no crops, no deer meals plots or planted clover. There have been additionally no soybeans, alfalfa, winter wheat, oats, snow peas or turnips on both of those properties, as had been marketed. The looking places offered to the Plaintiff had just a few producing hardwoods bearing acorns. The one meals and deer attractants that the Plaintiff noticed had been corn piles between 30 and 70 yards from the looking stands offered.
The hunter finally sued McCauley for breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and false promoting, detrimental reliance by the plaintiff, unjust enrichment, and breach of excellent religion and truthful dealings. One supply confirmed that that they had by no means seen a meals plot on the Whitetail Heaven’s looking properties that they had visited.
In different phrases, the swimsuit argues, McCauley “knew, or ought to have identified, that the statements and representations made, relating to the bought hunt, had been at finest gross exaggerations and likely unfaithful.” The case stays open.
“There has not been a decision but,” Robert L. Gullette, the hunter’s lawyer, confirmed to OL. “It’s an lively and ongoing piece of litigation.”
Whitetail Heaven Outfitters LLC is listed as “inactive” and in “dangerous standing” in Kentucky’s enterprise entity database. The corporate was administratively dissolved in 2022 for failure to file acceptable paperwork.
WHO has a D-minus score from the Better Business Bureau. That poor rating displays Whitetail Heaven’s failure to handle 5 of the eight formal complaints filed in opposition to it within the final three years. It has a mean buyer score of three.69 stars, due to an excessive unfold of five-star evaluations and one-star reviews that element a laundry record of complaints. These embrace overbooked hunts, inadequate bogs and showers, shared lodging as a substitute of personal rooms, and frozen meals as a substitute of dwelling cooked meals.
Sources say purchasers are required to signal a hunt settlement that they gained’t write damaging evaluations about Whitetail Heaven Outfitters. Nonetheless, it hasn’t stopped many annoyed clients from taking to Google, Fb, and other forums to attempt to forestall different hunters from reserving with Whitetail Heaven.
“Among the looking guides had been nonetheless intoxicated [from] the evening earlier than when taking hunters out,” reads one of many unanswered complaints registered with the BBB. (OL heard from sources that medication and extreme alcohol use are frequent amongst Whitetail Heaven workers.)
Opinions additionally point out hidden charges. One Whitetail Heaven bill for a $4,500 rifle hunt from 2021 included in effective print that hunters who harvest any deer can be charged a $200 dealing with payment. It additionally contains this disclaimer:
“Looking is a sport and Whitetail Heaven Outfitters provides no assure of a profitable harvest. Because of the truthful chase nature of all Whitetail Heaven Clothing store hunts and uncontrollable components reminiscent of climate, there isn’t a assure of sport sighting or shot alternative. No refunds can be given.”
A Lengthy Document
McCauley’s arrest in Florida final month was not his first. A verify of his felony historical past via the courts of Kentucky reveals no less than 26 separate instances filed in opposition to him encompassing almost 94 expenses.
Many had been for visitors violations, nevertheless extra critical expenses embrace driving below the affect, a number of marijuana possessions, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, terroristic threatening, resisting arrest, assault of a police officer, and assault within the fourth diploma for home violence.
McCauley was discovered responsible of 26 of the 94 expenses. Most had been dismissed, together with one prior theft by deception for chilly checks in 2016, and 28 expenses associated to playing. These stem from a bigger investigation into Whitetail Heaven for unlawful raffling. In 2023 native information retailers reported that the outfit was below investigation by a number of businesses. Search warrants had been executed at each Whitetail Heaven Elite Outside Superstore and Whitetail Heaven Outfitters.
Jessamine County Sheriff’s Workplace instructed WKYT on the time that they had been “conscious of many victims who’ve gained raffles by paying cash for an opportunity to win however by no means acquired a prize from Whitetail Heaven.” Officers additionally “discovered that Whitetail Heaven Outfitters was selling playing by taking in hundreds of {dollars}, violating Kentucky gaming legislation.” (The Jessamine Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t reply to a request for a duplicate of that investigation.)
In 2019 Kentucky Fish and Wildlife served a search warrant at McCauley’s dwelling and seized a set of 6×6 Kentucky elk antlers and two rifles, in keeping with a local outlet in Pike County. The warrant was reportedly issued after social media posts appeared about his hunt there in 2018. (KFW didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the end result of that investigation.)
Within the early years of working Whitetail Heaven, McCauley additionally educated race horses, in keeping with ESPN, which wrote in 2010 about McCauley working with one of the thoroughbreds his dad and mom owned. In 2015 the Kentucky Horse Racing Fee charged him with multiple racing violations, together with administering unlawful medication to a horse on race day. On the time, McCauley stated the lies of a disgruntled former worker had led to the accusations.
Sufficient Comfortable Prospects
One query that’s puzzled the looking group is how McCauley has managed to stay in enterprise for twenty years. Regardless of all of the damaging evaluations of Whitetail Heaven on-line, there are various extra constructive ones, and the corporate has nonetheless managed to e book purchasers.
“I can inform you precisely how,” says the opposite clothes shop, noting that McCauley did a very good job advertising within the heyday of Fb and the early days of Instagram. “When you’ve bought 100 folks in a deer stand within the first 5 days of the season. You’ve bought so many individuals in stands, deer are gonna die. That first week of velvet with [McCauley hunting] the quantity of property that he was getting, whether or not it was paid for or not, you’re gonna have an image of 20 males lined up with 20 big deer and it’s gonna look wonderful. You’re gonna put up that image and then you definitely’re gonna spend cash to spice up it. And that’s what he was doing earlier than anyone else. And it made him the most important clothes shop [in the area], if not the US, for a very long time.”
The hunt settlement purchasers signal additionally seemingly prevents damaging evaluations. And it’s no thriller why there’s a scarcity of lawsuits introduced by former purchasers. Saving as much as afford a $4,500 hunt is hard sufficient for a lot of purchasers. Paying lawyer charges and coping with the authorized system — usually from out of city or out of state — seemingly isn’t doable for a lot of, and creates a burden even for wealthier hunters. On high of that, the unpredictable nature of looking makes it difficult to show fault in courtroom.
Many unhappy purchasers wrote in evaluations that they determined to chop their losses and stroll away.
The opposite Kentucky clothes shop often guides former Whitetail Heaven purchasers, and whereas he enjoys serving to them kill good deer, he’s troubled by the reputational injury to outfitting as an entire amongst each hunters and landowners.
“After he’s killed each deer apart from a spike on the property, I’ll get a name from a landowner asking me to lease the bottom as a result of they receives a commission up entrance. After which what am I purported to do? Am I purported to lease the bottom he’s killed out on? It’s gonna take me three to 4 years to construct that property again as much as even make it huntable in any respect.”
And no less than one of many Whitetail Heaven lodges was lately offered. The corporate’s North Camp in Aberdeen, Ohio, which was owned by McCauley’s dad and mom, offered for $1.1 million in February, in keeping with Zillow records. The hyperlink to the Airbnb property itemizing via Whitetail Heaven’s lodging page has additionally been eliminated, although the property is still advertised on the site at press time. McCauley confirmed that the North Lodge had been offered, including, “We promote and purchase property on a regular basis.” He says Whitetail Heaven is all the time available in the market for property.
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McCauley denied any risk of Whitetail Heaven Outfitters closing down.
“That’s not true in any respect,” says McCauley. “We’ve been in enterprise 24 years and we’ll be in enterprise the remainder of my life. Now we have books stuffed with hunters, and do an excellent job.”
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