The smoggy, litter-swept stretch of the Cross Bronx Expressway leading to the Throgs Neck Bridge is not a place you’d expect to find a police checkpoint for illegal hunting. But each fall it becomes a hot spot for state environmental officers — some in jungle-green uniforms and Stetson-style hats — who stop camo-clad hunters on their way home to Long Island, all in search of illicit game.

Officers check dead deer stashed in the beds of pickup trucks for the proper tags and try to determine if they were illegally hauled over state lines. Firearms must be unloaded and properly stored. Lawbreakers receive a ticket or a summons. On a busy day in 2021, officers with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation inspected 82 deer and three bears, along with 176 guns.

These so-called dee

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