Lee Rood

lrood@dmreg.com

Hunters around the country who took aim at an Iowa man accused of scamming them say they are thrilled Andrew Rudolf Wulf was arrested Wednesday by the Davis County Sheriff’s Department.

Wulf, 33, who ran Whitetail Ridge Outfitters of Tipton, was charged with first-degree theft and ongoing criminal conduct, according to two criminal complaints filed Thursday.

Through at least all of 2016, "Andy" Wulf lured people into giving him thousands of dollars by offering guided deer hunts in Iowa and Missouri, the complaints state.

“Wulf did this with the intent to deprive the victims of their money and did not have the resources to provide the services that were paid for,” one of the criminal complaints says.

Wulf lured customers through social media and outdoor shows throughout the country, another complaint says: “Once the hunters arrived in Davis County, they did not receive the services promised. Most victims were abandoned and never met by Wulf.”

Wulf also was given 10 citations from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources because hunters were taken to areas where they were not licensed to hunt, according to the Davis County clerk of court.

Alabama hunter David Pasqualotto contacted Reader's Watchdog about Wulf after several people complained on a private Facebook page Pasqualotto created about being scammed.

Pasqualotto said he met Wulf at an outdoors show and paid $2,500 on an Iowa deer hunt at the urging of his 17-year-old son. Later, he said, his son discovered complaints about Wulf on the web, and Pasqualotto asked for his money back.

He said Wulf eventually sent him a refund check for too much — $4,950. He planned to cash it and return the extra, but the check bounced.

After that Wulf would not return his texts or calls.

“There’s a lot of anger directed at this guy in Tipton, Iowa,” said Pasqualotto, a former special agent in Alabama who wanted Watchdog to look into Wulf's actions before learning of the criminal charges.

Kevin Williams, a 39-year-old plant worker near Baton Rouge, La.., said he and a friend each paid $2,500 for a hunting package that turned out to be a wild goose chase.

Williams said the two drove 13 hours from Louisiana for a post-Christmas hunt on the Iowa-Missouri border. He said Wulf told him the hunting stand they were headed to was only about 10 minutes away, but Wulf and a man Wulf called his cousin drove them more than an hour away in Missouri.

When they finally got to the hunting site, he said, the wooded area was about 30 feet from someone's backyard.

"We were hunting while kids were playing in the backyard," he said. "I told him, 'Hey, this is the worst hunt I've been on.'"

The next day, Williams said, Wulf didn't show up after he had promised to take them to a new area. Instead, the man Wulf called a cousin took him to the same place and pretended to direct them to a different stand.

"I walked through the woods for over two hours and never found the stand," he said. "That's when we started texting him and saying 'This isn't what we paid for.'"

Williams said he and many others swapped stories after seeing the Facebook page Pasqualotto started. Since then, several have given witness statements to the Davis County Sheriff's Department.

"I am ecstatic," Williams said. "…​ It's just great that he got busted and he won't be able to do this to anybody else."

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com, 515-284-8549 on Twitter @leerood or at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog