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Over the last few years, Facebook and Craigslist ads for a 50-acre private hunting lease in London, Arkansas caught the attention of dozens of hunters in the area. Many of them paid a man named Dion Dawson hundreds of dollars for exclusive access to the plot. Now they say they\u2019ve been scammed after discovering the access was anything but exclusive, KATV\u2019s 7 On Your Side reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cVery first question I asked [Dawson] was: \u2018If I lease this, is this going to be just me-and who I say-hunting?\u2019 And of course he says \u2018yeah\u2019,\u201d Arkansas hunter Daniel Smith tells 7OYS. \u201cWhen I get up here a guy comes out here when I\u2019m putting out corn and says, \u2018I\u2019m fixing to lease this and lock this gate\u2019 and I\u2019m like \u2018well, I have already leased it.’\u201d <\/p>\n It was around that time Smith and the other hunter realized something strange was going on.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, he calls [Dawson] on the phone and puts him on speaker phone and asks him about it and of course he hangs up and says we\u2019re a liar,\u201d Smith recalls. \u201cI showed the other guy the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n Other hunters confirmed with 7OYS that they had also paid Dawson. London resident Steve Rigdon paid $800 for two years but says no one hunts the property because of the safety hazard. He left a sandwich bag with a note taped on the gate to the property, trying to warn other hunters who might show up to hunt the land.<\/p>\n \u201cMy name is Steve Rigdon. I have [leased] this land along with 20 other people. Please call me.\u201d<\/p>\n Rigdon encountered Dawson at the gate one day. He tried to block him in and called the police, but Dawson got around him. Rigdon filled out a statement with the police, but breach of contract is not cause for arrest and is usually solved with a lawsuit instead. <\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t about getting the money back. This is about him being stopped so he don\u2019t keep doing this to other people,\u201d Rigdon says. \u201cWe might be hillbillies but we\u2019re not stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n An Arkansas man named Dion Dawson pled guilty to felony forgery in September 2014 after being accused of stealing checks from mailboxes and \u201cwashing them,\u201d or erasing certain details so they can be issued fraudulently to other people. While it\u2019s unconfirmed if they\u2019re the same man, his mugshot is a close match to a Facebook profile picture for a man who was in a relationship with a Cindy Simpson, whose name was also on Daniel Smith\u2019s lease. <\/p>\n 7OYS tracked down Dawson at a Motel 6 in Russellville, Arkansas where he threatened to call the police on the investigative team. He started sending the team emails threatening to \u201cstart causing problems.\u201d Eventually, he gave 7YOS his express (and unnecessary) permission to publish their story.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease go ahead and run it,\u201d he said. \u201cMake me rich.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n