So guys minding their own business in the woods take commands from police over the phone?!!? Yeah, no, I’m busy right now.
Well, the chopper hovering over head, with the load speaker shouting instructions, was probably pretty persuasive. It's not like they have any hope of evading them. I would have called them if they asked me too. West Bridgewater does have a swamp boat that they use for water and ice rescue. If they had to bust it out to go after these guys, I am sure they would have been less than amused. Not to mention they knew where their vehicles were parked and the name and address of the guys they were registered to.
If in fact the round came from their little shooting range, that is some serious shit luck and they MUST have had to fired that shot waaaay high. The round would have to travel about a mile, up and over route 24, over pleasant street, to the house on Lincoln. And there are some densely wooded area's in between. I am thinking one of these guys took a shot at a turkey vulture in flight or something equally stupid.
These guys may have been hunting coyote. Legal to use rifle. If they had been shooting down river towards the Nip, they never would have had any issues. There are a couple of miles of woods and swamp from where they were to the Nip, parallel to rte 24.
As far as WBPD goes, they are one of the most 2A friendly departments in the area and Chief Flaherty is one of the better chiefs. It is a green town, that issues unrestricted licenses as long as you are not a PP. Basically, as long as you are not a douche bag, you are treated very well and respectfully as a gun owner. If these guys had nothing to do with this incident, I suspect they will get their property back.