Why people tresspass

[texasjohn]

Tig, if like me you carry a phone, it probably has a built in camera. Suggest you take photos of people just as you inform them they are trespassing...then, you have proof. I like your inform and leave the immediate area approach... and if you take several photos it will tell the story if they leave or not. Too bad that asking to take a photo of a driver's license would be risking too much confrontation, but a photo of a car and plate should be some unique identification.

 

[beppington]

That's a good idea, texasjohn! And of course some modern phones have video capability, so you could have the audio recorded, too.

 

[funwithahoe]

The next guy you catch fishing, just walk over to his tackle box and open it up. Tell him you're looking for anything you can use in there because you like "just fishing" too. Tell him since he is using your land it is only fair that you can use his tackle.

Agree - I fsomeone buys a vehicle for a couple hundred thousand you would never dream of asking to use it but property seems to be free reign.

Last people I kicked off was a man/women who looked like they were getting ready to REALLY enjoy each others company. Must have been an affair cause these weren't kids and man they wanted outta here in the worst way. No confrontations just let me outta here.

 

[johnrex62]

It doesn't always take an attraction like a lake or pond to entice trespassers.

My mother lives in a small town on a corner lot, 50x120. People routinely cut the corner across her yard, passing between the shed and the house. The shed is 10 ft off the propert line and 6 feet from the house. They have to step through a flowerbed or cross the patio at her back door. They then travel across the lawn, next to her carport and along the vegetable garden to the street behind her house.

The pass through at all hours of night and day and even when she or the grandkids are in the back yard. There are a few kids that make it a regular path. She has asked them numerous times to stop using her yard and walk on the street, but they ignore her.

Recently she put up a fence between shed and house to make it more difficult. Shortly after the fence was erected, there was a knock on the front door. Two of the kids were there to ask her to remove the fence because it was in their way. :confused2:

 

[Tig]

texasjohn, I have a flip camera. It's the size of a cell phone and takes an hour of HD quality video. I used it quite a bit last weekend. Not just trespassers but for morons along my shore chasing geese with jet skis and other dumb stunts. Some of it I'm thinking about putting up on youtube for a laugh.
This is such a beautiful place 359 days a year. But 6 days a year some people need to give me a bit more space.

 

[beppington]

Time to extend the fence to around the front of the house.

 

[dmccarty]

... Sometimes it leads to curious situations - approaching housewife in ghillie suit makes me bit nervous

We have only owned our land for 10 years now. Snow storms only happen every few years and I wait patiently to get The Photo of our snow covered road....

One year we got a decent snow so I drove out to the land to see if I could find The Photo and to check on the place. I get to our gate across the road and someone on an ATV had ridden around the gate and over some survey stakes from a survey I had just had done. They then drove up the road. Found my tractor in the woods. Road around it a few times, did some donuts in the road and went on home.

To say that I was p....ed off was an understatement.

With the snow on the ground it was not hard to find the house from which the ATV came and went. So I knocked on the door.

There is scurrying behind the door. Whispers. Then the door opens and it is the lady of the house in s bath rope. We had a conversation about the ATV tracks that left her house, went up to my land, ran over my survey stakes, went around my POSTED GATE, and finally drove all over my road and spoiled my pretty picture. Ok, I may have left out the pretty picture part.

This conversation took awhile which was fine by me. I was dressed for the weather. Long Johns. Heavy wool pants, shirts, jacket and hat. I was a bit warm. She, not so much standing in the door way. :laughing: She kept inviting me in the house which I would not venture since I would drag in snow. Which is what I told her. And I was being very polite. Of course I did not want to be in HER house at all. So she had to stand in the door way with the cold.

She did take care of the problem and the son never trespassed again. These people moved out a few years ago.

Fast forward to this year. We get another snow storm. I go for a walk. I get to down the driveway to the road looking for The Photo. And what do I find?

Tracks. Someone had walked in, around the gate and left foot prints all over the place. I was going for a walk to anyway so I followed the prints. They went right back to The House. I saw the nit wits who trespassed but I left them alone. There were a young couple who were visiting their parents. The snow was melting quickly so The Photo was not there in any case so I just left well enough alone.

Maybe I am mellowing in my old age?

Later,
Dan

 

[beppington]

Do not go gentle into that good night, Dan. Rage, rage against the ... trespassers

 

[MarkV]

It does seem to be a universal problem. I don't live in a vacation area that attracts seasonal visitor nor have navigable waterways on my place that leave access. I do have a locally known 4 acre fishing pond and acreage known for its deer hunting. My problem is not with the city transplants, like myself, but the life long locals that feel they are do the right to come and go as they please. 'Good old boy' retaliation can be sever in my area so I tread lightly whenever I can. Have had people pull up and park in my drive to go fishing and tell me to my face I can't stop them because they have fished here all their life. Can you imagine parking your car next to someone's house and argue with them that you shouldn't have to leave when they tell you to? I am sure these same people would send the dogs and get the shotgun if I stepped onto their place. People really have a funny attitude about what they are entitled to these days. Kind of scares a fellow to think how that attitude may manifest itself in societies future.


MarkV

 

[texasjohn]

Well, MarkV, the only thing I might suggest after watching someone head off to your 4 acre lake to do some fish stealing is to print off a copy of the trespassing law in Georgia, hand it to them, take a photo of them on your property and audio of you asking them to leave.....then, if retaliation occurs, at least you will have established motive and identified persons of interest.

I would comment that in many countries/societies outside of the borders of the USA the attitude of society re trespassing and other things of a criminal nature is VASTLY different from here in the USA. In the greater scheme of things, it is likely we will become more like them than that they will become more like us. I must stop now else political content may creep in and the thread become tainted.