Warden assists Kiel Police at armed robbery scene, suspect arrested

Case shows how conservation wardens ready to help other officers

Conservation Warden Robert Stroess of Manitowoc County drove 15 miles from his night poaching patrol to help the Kiel Police Department handle a December 28 armed robbery of a local gas station.

Some may not consider that a typical emergency call for a warden.

But, in rural Wisconsin, it is.

“We wardens back up the smaller law enforcement agencies. And they do the same for us when we are in the area,” Stroess says. “I probably back up the other law enforcement agencies every month or two.”

Stroess is not alone in his enforcement partnership with other local officers.

DNR Conservation Wardens assisting other law enforcement agencies in smaller communities and more rural counties is part of the job. That’s because these less populated areas often are served by possibly one local police officer or one sheriff’s deputy or one warden. That makes the willingness of all to assist one another in certain cases a plus for the public.

Stroess, who has been based in Manitowoc County for 12 years, says the conservation warden is a law enforcement officer trained to do a lot of roles.

“We wardens do a lot of our job on our own. And, by the nature of being on our own, we tend to know how to respond to lots of different situations. That is what we do.

“One time the warden may be the (investigation) photographer or the interviewer – or the traffic cop,” says Stroess, also named the Wisconsin Trappers’ Association officer of the year in 2011. “There are a lot of different tasks and hats that we have – all of those are rolled into one conservation warden.”

And that is why the wardens and the local law enforcement agencies have good working relationships.

The case of the December 28 armed robbery at a gas station in Kiel shows how the two work together to serve the citizens and protect the public safety.

Stroess was handling the day’s reports and keeping night watch for poachers on a rural road when he heard the police radio traffic about the armed robbery in Kiel, a city of about 3,650 straddling the border of Manitowoc and Calumet counties.

Stroess knew there was a shift change under way at the Manitowoc Sheriff’s Department, which meant chances of a county deputy able to respond quickly was low.

Stroess himself covers the entire Manitowoc County area in Eastern Wisconsin – which meant he was 15 miles from Kiel at the time. Still, he called. “I told the shift commander where I was and I was asked to head that way,” Stroess says.

While Stroess was on his way, Kiel also issued calls for assistance from neighboring agencies. Those who responded included the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department and the New Holstein Police Department.

“I was assigned to do security at the scene,” Stroess says. That meant searching the side of a neighboring business and a nearby grassy field area. His job was to survey the scene to see if the suspect, who fled on foot, had left any evidence. After he completed that sweep, Stroess was asked to keep all patrons away from the business – also known as securing the scene. “This was to ensure that only law enforcement personnel came onto and left that location so no evidence could be touched.”

That night the Manitowoc County SWAT team took the suspect into custody at a residence directly behind a neighboring business to the gas station.

“It is good for people to know how the wardens serve as back-up for the other agencies – and how they will do the same for us,” Stroess says.

And the case of the armed robbery at the gas station in Kiel demonstrates it.

-- JMH, Bureau of Law Enforcement