Brian Schaller was found living in a hut made of logs and tarps, federal authorities said. He had survived on rodents and small game, the feds said.
A Louisiana man wanted for sex crimes was found deep in a bayou, surrounded by animal traps and living in a hut, the U.S. Marshals Service announced Monday.
Brian Schaller, 51, was wanted for felony sexual battery and felony oral sexual battery in Tangipahoa Parish, authorities said. He was also wanted for failing to register as a sex offender in East Baton Rouge Parish, the Marshals Service said.
He was arrested Thursday by a task force led by the Marshals Service, the agency said. The officers hiked more than a mile into swamp land before finding Schaller's encampment, authorities said.
Schaller had constructed a lean-to of logs and plastic tarps and had set small animal traps around the shack, officials said.
He had also made crude weapons, including a hatchet, and had strung tin cans on a rope as a wilderness burglar alarm, authorities said. He said he had been living on rodents and small game, the Marshals Service said.
Days before the raid, federal authorities said they received an anonymous tip that Schaller could be living off the land in the Atchafalaya Basin, according to the Marshals Service.
A task force of federal, state and local officials was assembled to search the area, aided by boats and prison search dogs, to track down Schaller and arrest him, the Marshals Service said.
"Members of the team surrounded the structure and gave verbal commands for Schaller to come out and surrender.
Schaller complied with the verbal commands and was taken into custody without incident," read a statement released by Joshua Reich, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal in Baton Rouge.
Reich told Inside Edition Digital Tuesday that he couldn't disclose where Schaller was being held. "We don't say where our federal inmates are located," he said.
