Wild Boar Ran Into Car – Convicted of Hunting Offense

On a dark and rainy evening, a wild boar suddenly ran into Anneli’s car and wrecked the front end. Then, the animal quickly disappeared from the scene. Sometime later, she received a letter from the police stating that she was suspected of a hunting offense.

It was in September when Anneli Kalander was driving towards Storvreta on Road 290. Visibility was poor and there were roadworks, so she was driving slowly. Suddenly, a wild boar appeared.

– Out of the corner of my eye, I see another wild boar running, so I stop. But the boar doesn’t stop; it runs into my car’s fog light and scrapes along the entire front. Then it keeps running as if nothing happened. It didn’t even slow down, she told Upsala Nya Tidning.

The fog light was pushed in and the plastic in the front cracked. Apart from three strands of hair that stuck, there were no signs that the wild boar had been hurt in any way. The car was taken to a workshop, and after a few days the insurance company called to ask for a police report, which is required to receive an insurance payout. Anneli then filed one, resulting in her receiving a letter from the police a couple of weeks later, summoning her for questioning on suspicion of a hunting offense.

Once there, she was told she should have called 112 so the animal could be tracked. Anneli explained that she would have called if an animal was injured, but she assumed it wasn’t necessary in this case and that it would feel mean to force a game warden to search for a wild boar missing only three hairs.

Fined

The district court saw no mitigating circumstances and accepted the prosecutor’s case. In December, Anneli Kalander was convicted for violating the hunting law with a penalty of 40 day-fines, totaling 17,000 kronor.

– 17,000 kronor! Because a boar ran into my stationary car. We live in a society where people shoot each other – but it’s this that the justice system spends time on.

According to Magnus Jansson Klarin, press spokesperson for Uppsala Police, drivers are required to be aware of the laws. Since ten days had passed, he considers that there was a ‘gross negligence.’

He also emphasizes that you cannot decide yourself whether the animal is injured or not – that is up to the game warden to determine.