FATE - It really does happen!

Oh, I agree to a point. No problem with finding the owner or even contacting the law, but TWO PAGES of nastiness? No thanks, live away from me, please.

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Libertarindependent

Growing up in the country we knew all our neighbours and we wouldn't drive anything onto their property. If we had to cut thru their fields to walk somewhere (if the road was not the right direction) we kept to the fence lines. Course a few times we found bad fences so we'd call our friends who'd put their parent ont he phone so they'd know about it. Or if we were close to the house we'd drop by and tell them. We enevr got yelled at and more than a few tiems we found thigns that couldn't be seen by casual glances. We knew better than to ahrass livestock or walk thru crops. And this was all before i was 13 (which is when we moved away). I find people now have little respect for others property because they don't know their neighbours. We live in town right now and I have no desire to get to know the neighbours I have they're not nice people beleive me I have tried!

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I hadn't thought about drunks, but we did have a couple of uninvited visitors once that had imbibed more liquid entertainment than they should have.

We had recently purchased our ranch, and were getting ready to leave to head back to our place in the burbs. I thought I heard a motor, and looked down through the trees and saw a truck. I went down and asked what they were doing there. When the driver rolled down his window, the smell of alcohol was thick. They followed my back up by the house where hubby was working and told us that they were recently retired cops.

They hadn't entered via the road that we had a locked gate on. They had entered through the old road that we thought was impassible to cars, and came in through the bottom of the property.

We thought it was impassible to cars because it follows a cliff. There are boulders and logs that have fallen onto and across the road. Parts of the hillside have fallen away making the road so narrow in places thatwe didn't think a car could fit. These guys had smashed in both sides of their truck squeezing between hillside and boulders. They had smashed in the front of their truck pushing rocks and logs out of the way. That end of the property was clearly posted, and they ignored the postings. We now have that end of the property fenced, and the road is in much worse shape now than it was then.

We let them leave without giving them too much of a bad time. I figured that they would suffer enough when they sobered up and saw what they had done to their truck.

I told them that they were lucky we were there to let them out. A few minutes later, and they would have found us gone and the gate locked. They laughed and said they knew how to deal with locked gates. I realized at that point that we were the lucky ones, because if these drunks had rammed our gate, they could have left us a without a working gate.

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Karma would be if he had done this before and was asked not to and did it anyway and got stuck. If it was clearly marked I think he shouldn't have been there, but 2 pages of mad is overboard. Calling the police was the right thing to do. If someone was injured and left it, they could find out. If someone was casing the place, they would know you know who they are and would be watching for them.

He now knows it's private property and you don't want him there. If he was a jerk, he wouldn't have come and apologized. I do have to wonder why he didn't feel he could approach you and tell you he was stuck and ask for help or a ride.

When it comes to private property, people can be just as territorial as some wild animals.

You know, WIHH, I didn't think about it last night... but I have had folks get stuck on my place before... they came over and asked if I could pull em out... and I did. We always agreed that travelling in that area was probably not a good idea, wet or dry. Five minutes afterwards, it was over... I held no ill feelings towards them...

I knew these people. If it were a stranger, or out of state..... hmmmm... would probably react like Marcellus in Pulp Fiction, the 'bit' about getting medieval...

Sometimes it pays to be nice... and sometimes it pays to be medieval... About six years ago I caught some nighthunters, and ran em down (exceeding 95 mph in my f-350)... I tried to put the fear of ... in them. Next week they were in town, bragging to some punks about putting one over on the fella that lived down in the 'bottom'. My aunt was there to pick up her grandson for lunch... she interrupted them and asked if she meant "me"... Yes, that was him... She asked why did he let them live??? She's a good ol' Texian Matriarch, and knows how to taffy the truth, and said I'd had to cancel several people's Life Subscriptions, and never got billed by the Grand Jury... after they got a little green... she said they should consider themselves lucky. The driver came down the next day, and formally apologized and said it would never happen again.

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I don't get the whole sympathy for the trespassing yahoo who wanted to go joyriding on someone elses property (He really thought nobody owned the property? come on!) on a whim.

This wasn't someone who slid off the road by accident. This wasn't someone who took the time to figure out who his neighbors are. This was a trespasser plain and simple. Someone who didn't care whether they damaged the property (oh, of course...nobody owned it so who cares). Anyone with half a brain would have put it into 4WD BEFORE starting on a trail as described.

And if the guy knew that he was on someone elses property before he got stuck then he is a downright idiot for not going and helloing the house after he got stuck.

I think the OP and her husband are being pretty nice all things considered. I wouldn't have wasted time writing a note. And just to point out, if the vehicle was damaged as a result of him off roading (most insurance doesn't cover this) while trespassing (I would be surprised if ANY insurance would cover this) he likely would have to eat the cost.

Seeing as it is blocking a trail which is used to get from point a to point b on private property I'd just drag it out of the way...... way out of the way. And that's probably the nicest thing I can think of.

If a person chooses to trespass they takes their chances. Some people might ignore it or laugh it off and others might choose to use the vehicle for target practice or to start a bonfire (among other things). I don't see that the trespasser has much cause for complaint any way you look at it.

For those who talk about being neighborly, going for a joyride across someone elses property isn't particularly neighborly to begin with. Why do I get the sense that this person is one of those who buys a little postage stamp place in the country and buys toys that they don't have room to use on their own place but figures that this being the country it's all right to impose themselves on other folks.

Mike

for the record, I don't think you over reacted. Over reacting would have been shooting out the tires.

Why not ? and Why not?

This has been a really interesting thread, I've learned a lot.

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You've got to be kidding??! You think, you actually THINK...that it is ok to just go cruising around on someone else's property???

I'll agree with someone else on the board.....I'm glad YOU are not MY neighbor.

Seems he didn't know it was the OP's property:

About a 1/2 hour later the guy knocked on our front door. He apologized to DH and told him that he decided to take the trail on a whim thinking that nobody owned the property. When he got to the chicken coop he realize that it was our property. He tried to turn around to leave and he got stuck. He tried to lock in his 4-wheel drive but it wouldn't engage. He had to walk all the way home in the rain.


Indicates there was a lack of fence and no trespassing signs to me..otherwise he would have known it belonged to someone..

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But ALL property belongs to SOMEONE. Maybe I live in a different part of the country...but every square inch of land belongs to someone. Maybe they don't live right there, but someone owns it.

I think that if he hadn't got stuck, he would have just kept on going. He only apologized because he got stuck (and caught).

Anyway....he was wrong, even if it WAS a stupid, unmeditated mistake, and I feel the OP was right to be mad.

Makes me feel like running out an throwing barbed wire around my place so someone doesn't accidentally decide to go joy riding up my driveway. I never thought in a million years that someone would. Guess I'm too naive to live in the country....

the only car anyone left here was a 86 chevy with a half tank of gas . after 90 days the sheriff gave me a title for it and i sold it .
I cant see getting that upset about it either , we often end up with lost college kids getting stuck in our field . they meant no harm so theres no need to get upset .
I dont throw tantums about the bird watchers counting birds on our place , or a hunter retrieving a downed deer . im not going to get mad because the kids from across the creek start using the old fort i built as a kid . they arent hurting anything and its keeping them out of trouble .
lifes too short to be so high strung

Sidepasser,

It doesn't necessarily indicate a lack of trespassing signs or fence or gates. We've had random people show up on our place despite fence and gates and no trespassing signs. Some people think it just doesn't apply to them.

We are doing a lot of planting around our place and that guy backing into the woods off the trail could trash a lot of expensive plants that we expect to eventually to have marketable plantings from. We had someone (trespasser) drive over a bunch of tree seedlings a number of years back. His excuse was "he didn't know". If my property is posted I shouldn't have to tell him....

MariaAZ, what did you learn fromt he thread (just curious).

PyroDon, it is your perogative to decide that you don't mind uninvited people coming on your property for random reasons. That is between you and them. That does not excuse their behavior or make it right as a general circumstance.

Mike

When we first moved out here we had no neighbors. We live on the very back end of 40 acres. All that is at the road is a mailbox and you can't see the house. Looks something like an access road to whatever. We would get noisy people all the time and they would turn around usually very quickly when they saw the house.
Had a few arrogant ones that I had to tell to leave or bad things were going to happen.

I had 2 memorable things happen. I used to go rabbit hunting on the weekends with my beagle. We were stomping around through the trees all morning and I decided to take a break by the creek on the driveway sitting on a big rock. I chewed then and usually had remnants running down my chin.
I also wore the ratiest clothes I owned on the rabbit excursions. Even had my pants tied up with a piece of rope.
Sitting there I heard a car coming. It was a whole car load of city people. I could tell because it was a Camry and was clean and they dressed fairly nice. I put on the best "Deliverance" act I could muster and spit on there fender and asked how I could be of assistance.
The driver was stuttering to much to make out but I think it was an apology and they backed a 1/4 mile to the road very quickly only going in the ditch a couple of times.

The next time was, my wife and I were 4 wheeling through the trees and came out at the driveway and there sits a new pickup pulling a huge new pontoon boat. We both were sitting there looking at each other ?????
The driver and his wife said they were told there was a lake back here. I told him that unless he wants to leave the boat here, take the whole rig up to house and turn around and the closest lake is 10 miles away.
I don't know what they were thinking.

Don't remember the OP saying how long they lived there. I've gone onto property that was for sale or I knew no one was living on. I've also gone back and found that someone was living there and turned around and left or if confronted explained the situation and never had a problem.

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How bout folks want to use land in the country they buy some? or get a map and find the state parks. I REALLY dislike folks using my land to 4 wheel on and let their dogs crap all over. It just aint right

Beeman,

If I am interested in a property that is for sale I ALWAYS contact the owner or agent before going on the property to look around.

If no one is living on the property why would you think you have a right to go on the property? So if you are gone for a weekend (a week, two weeks, whatever) you have no problem with random people coming on your property and nosing around? Perhaps they should feel free to take something or two because it has been abandoned?

As soon as a person starts deciding that they get to make up the rules and boundaries as to what should be done with property that isn't theirs then I say that their property should be fair game for whatever rules a random person wants to decide for their property.

Why can't you respect the fact that it isn't your property? I don't understand why this is such a hard concept for people.

Mike

Not all property belongs to individuals - down here we have COE land numbering in the thousands of acres which anyone can go on at anytime as long as they are not doing illegal activities (making shine, planting pot, shinin deer). The COE joins up on private property in many places but unless the private property owner marks their line somehow, there is no way to know whose land you are on. I ride the COE land nearly every week and there are literally hundreds of old trails, roads, and firebreaks that I use. If I don't see a no trespassing sign, I keep riding sometimes five to six hours in and if I happen to wander up on someone's yard, I apologize and they never get mad. I don't gallop through yards, but occasionally I will end up in someone's back field.

Guess it is different down here - private property owners that don't want folks meandering about, mark their property every fifty feet with no trespassing signs or they have the borders fenced.

The way the OP told the story, she never mentioned having the property marked in any way so that the neighbor would know it belonged to her or to anyone for that matter (could have been state owned land or right of way). If OP doesn't want trespassers, then put up signage and/or a boundary fence to let people know the property does belong to a private individual.

We have lots of county owned and utility owned right of ways down here that people can trail ride their horses on or ride four wheelers on. Some do cross private property but as long as you stay within the right of way, no one ever complains. It is well understood that if you meet a fence, you do not cross but turn around (at least by those like myself that understand property rights of others).

Just sayin it did seem to me to be a bit "overboard" since it was a neighbor, but the neighbor should have went to the house and told the OP or whomever that the jeep was his and it was stuck and apologized without her having to track him down. That would have been the most courteous thing to do under the circumstances. (and offered to pay for any damage to her property if there was any).

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