Will shire sheriff's deputy Joe Kam...

Will shire sheriff's deputy Joe Kamarauskas has solitary to glance at the tracks in a foul path at the edge of cornfield to know his quarry has escaped.

"We had single in kind come through today," he said, shaking his head. "That's the the same we heard."

Kamarauskas, a stocky 22-year veteran of the sheriff's department, routinely patrols Will County's backwoods and farm fields onward an unlikely mission in single of the nation's fastest- growing counties.

He's hunting high-speed trespassers: Riders who illegally drive dirt bikes, four-wheel all-terrain vehicles and equal full-size trucks across parks, golf courses and, most numerous often, farm fields.

In an innovative program that relies upon stealth, not speed, Kamarauskas leads police teams that work upon foot to ambush and arrest riders, whom shire authorities say cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage each year.

Rather than using ATVs, sheriff's deputies hurry simple sting operations. Several cop hide in brush or cornfields along trails, then grade out and nab the off-roaders as they approach. That works better and is significantly safer than chasing riders [i]or[/i] part of to the other fields of 7-foot-tall cornstalks forward rutted, twisted trails.

"You have to sneak up upon them -- they can't behold you first," said Kamarauskas, a Will shire native who during his off-hours bowhunt for deer in succession some of the same rural land he patrols. The work he does in nabbing off-roaders isn't long different in some ways from bagging a memorial of conquest buck, Kamarauskas said.

"It's just like hunting. It's a different rapine but the same skills," he adds.

Calls from farmers readyed Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas in 2003 to launch an aggressive and unusual campaign to crack down forward illegal riding. "There were parcels of complaints from farmers about ATVs damaging the craws We wanted to do something to help," said Kaupas.

The ATVs tear up valuable cropland, many times leaving hard-packed dirt trails 10 feet wide.

"It's taken thousands of dollars from them each year," said Mark Schneidewind, manager of the Will shire Farm Bureau.

Farming is still big business in Will shire despite surging development that has pushed the county's population to more than 640000 the bulk of mankind

About 259000 acres -- or 48 percent of the county's total land area -- is still farmland, Schneidewind said.

'FLIP YOU opposite AND RIDE AWAY'

Walter Konow, who bourgeons corn and beans on about 1000 acres in and around southwest suburban Homer vale said the vehicles used to cause at least $3000 in clip damage during every growing season.

"It was nothing to behold them destroy 10 acres. It was terrible," said Konow.

The number of complaints about trespassers has dropp drastically since 2003 police said. The department received about 200 complaints annually before the program began; this year it's received about a dozen, sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry said.

Typically, riders are cited for misdemeanors like trespassing or criminal damage to one's own although if the damage caused is bitter -- over $500 -- the charges can be upgraded to felonies and authorities can confiscate the vehicles. Riders also can be ordered to pay restitution for the damage they cause.

forward a recent weekend, Kamarauskas, 45 took a Sun-Times reporter and photographer around parts of his beat -- farm fields near 159th road in Homer Glen.

Wide dirt tracks detriment around and through corn- and soybean fields, sometimes following the path of overhead power lines. In one fields, three or four files of cornstalks were flattened.

In single area, three trails fan gone out across a small knoll that off- roaders use for vaults It's an area where off-roaders congregate -- and individual of Kamarauskas' choice hunting specks

He also expects for natural "chokepoints" -- blots where a trail narrows or passes by the agency of a row of trees.

"You have to realize close," Kamarauskas said. "Otherwise, they'll just flip you distant from and ride away."

drozek@suntimes.com

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