A former Elbert County sheriff’s deputy is in trouble after he allegedly shot a mule deer buck while on duty and then was busted by a wildlife officer who was hiding in the woods to watch for someone to return to the poached buck.

Herbert Stephen Few, a 51-year-old retired Georgia State Police officer, is scheduled to appear in court Monday to face eight criminal charges in connection to the case.

Few skipped town after an arrest warrant was issued in December and was apprehended in Georgia. He was extradited to Colorado over the weekend, a spokesman for the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office said.

Few is accused of using his county-issued .40-caliber Glock handgun to shoot the buck around 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 after he saw the buck in his patrol car’s headlights while driving on a rural road near the town of Elbert, according to his arrest affidavit.

He allegedly had stopped in the road to shoot the deer while standing just outside his car’s door, the affidavit said. He then dragged the carcass off the road and hid it against a power pole.

A hunting guide found the dead deer around 5:15 p.m. the next day on the property of the Silver Spur Ranch and called a state Department of Wildlife officer.

The wildlife officer hid in the woods and watched as Few returned to the deer around 11 p.m. that night — almost 24 hours after the deer was killed, the affidavit said.

When the wildlife officer turned on his lights he found Few trying to cut off the deer’s head with a knife.

During an internal investigation, Few confessed to having picked up a buck on Nov. 12 after finding it dead on the roadside. He placed that deer in his patrol car but threw it away after he got home and discovered the meat had spoiled, the arrest affidavit said.

Few faces eight criminal charges, including attempting to influence a public servant, trespassing on farm land with the intent to commit a felony, wildlife destruction and hunting without a big-game license, according to court records.

Few is not the first Colorado law enforcement officer accused of using his badge to bag a big-game trophy.

In 2014, an ex-Boulder police officer was convicted of six charges, including four felonies, for shooting the trophy elk in a residential area while on duty — without reporting that he’d fired his weapon — then claimed the animal had been injured and needed to be put down, according to previous reports.