Neighbors trespassing

I am really having a hard time believing this. You went over to their house armed? You were on horseback with unconcealed firearms and the people would not come out of the house. What did you do holler at them from their dooryard?

Just how good a gunfighter are you and your husband? You have escalated a simple trespass into a possible life and death situation. Now, what would you have done if they had come out of the house armed? What would you have done if someone misinterpreted you or your husbands movements and shot in what they thought was self defense. Why in gods green earth would you even think carrying a gun in a situation like that was a good idea?

Exactly.

And,
SSS works, as long as you can follow the instructions to the letter.

Personally, I put up no 'threatening' signs... I've purple painted and 'straight' no trespassing signs a mile away from my turnoff. Back when I had "issues" I hung a lot of dolls in the trees by their necks and legs, with tape over their eyes (it was actually for a halloween party, but being a lazy bum, never took it down).... several weeks later, some Hispanic ROW mowers were all parked at my gate, and wouldn't enter, thinking a Bruja lived here (bruja = witch). Sheriff actually called me in, wanted to know if someone was trying to intimidate "ME!"... told him no, I was intimidating others!!!

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Finally cooler heads show up. So uncle Bob subdivides and sells 10 ten acre plots off the back of the family farm. To be able to do so somebody AKA seller has to obtain the power to grant ingress and egress on the private road (hopefully only the road) Because the ground was landlocked prior, no public road access because if there was ingress and egress would not be required to sell. How and who brought the electric into these ten lots, because it sure is harder to sell recreational property without access to power and powerless land commands a drastically lower price. Do the lot owners have ingress and egress on the two track running along the power line? or is that by chance now a public road.
Do you know exactly how their title papers describe access?, you should if you own the road.
If the private road is the only easement on your property granted to these lot owners, you do have trespassing problem with your added neighbors. Make sure calmly in person they understand their access rights granted as a condition of purchase and just fence off the rear of your property adjacent to theirs so the only way to their ground is using the road. Make sure the access road is clearly marked and your homes drive cannot be mistaken for it.

Why would anyone consider buying property requiring an ingress and egress easement for access?

My favorite.

Maybe YOUR trespassers aren't armed ... Mine sure are. They also drive over fences, rip up hoses or plumbing lines from my pond..., steal firewood, steal tools, you name it, they do it.

I spent my Christmas standing guard as all my neighbors did, because of daylight robberies going on in our area. Trespassers ARE a problem...

The castle doctrine applies in my cases, as my trespassers are also armed. I know that it's not a shoot first anytime anywhere law, sheesh.

Everybody needs to take a deep breath. There's more anger in the replies than in the OP.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

just wondering how long have you lived there/?
SENDIND A CERTIFIED LETTER TELLING A PERSON NOT TO TRESSPASS OR YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP WORKS WONDERS.

"Gate and fence? Watch second hand lions and it will give you some great ideas."

WHAT? That is a MOVIE! It has nothing to do with reality! Sitting on your porch like Duval and shooting at door to door salesmen will invite the SWAT team and your butt will go away for a long time!

Please tell me how threatening signs would help George Zimmerman when he goes to trial. From what I can see Zimmerman acted in self defense, he was attacked by Trayvon Martin. STILL, he is in deep trouble and may spend the rest of his life in prison. Now lets say he had targets hanging from trees and signs saying trespassers will be shot. Would that change things? As I said, stupidity is terminal. Ignorance can be cured.

If the egress is on your land ,you can put up a gate and give the owners of the 10 acre parcels a Key. (i'm assuming it's vacant land or vacation cabins).
We had the same issues when we sold our old farmhouse and kept the land. I investigated all of the rules of easment before splitting up the site.We would never have done an easement if it wasn't for wetlands.

Second Hand Lions is one of my all time favorite movies. Just awesome. My Father, who is now age 79, used to sit on his front porch holding a gun just like the men in the movie.

We have the same problem with "neighbors" who are part time people and tresspassing. Their kids bring friends up and we hear them roaming all over our land and yet they have "no trespassing" signs all over the place. They have threatened most every neighbor around.

We had to put up gates and signs. Also, we have called and told the parents to keep the kids and their go-carts off the trails. Another neighbor had a horse that she thought could just ride any ole place. She would go around gates and over fences. We finally had to call her too. She was not happy about it but she did not ride the horse back here again.

Another trail we put several logs down to block the trail. That way the go-carts cannot ride over that section of trail.

We also painted some trees in a few places. It just shows people where the borders are. It gets attention, is pretty and we put "no trespassing" signs near it too. We just painted the lower portions of the tree trucks with rings of difference colors. It looks nice and yet - gives notice that someone "owns" the area and we hope it makes people think twice about going over that line.

Good luck - it is a hard thing. And I am sorry to say but sometimes there are "neighbors" with whom we must accept we will not be "friends." I used to think I could be friends with every neighbor and get along with everyone but sadly, there are a few people that just cannot be Neighborly.

Just do the best you can, be as nice as you can, but then move on and protect your property. Good luck.

PS: My brothers took the guns away from my Father about three years ago. He was sitting on the porch holding a gun. My brothers asked him what was he doing. His eye sight was not too good and they did not want him shooting anything. My father replied that "bad dogs" were coming on his land and eating the chickens. He had told the neighbors to keep the dogs away but they did not. My brothers squinted and said they did not see any dogs. My Dad said he was waiting on the dogs to appear.

My brothers, desperate to keep Dad from shooting anything, gently pointed out his age and failing eye sight. My Dad listens calmly and then asked my brothers if they saw the "O" in the "No Trespassing" sign he had posted on a fence post on the property line. My brothers look carefully and said maybe they could see it but it was too far away to be sure. My Father slowly raises the gun and BLAM hits the "O" right smack in the center. My brothers decided to wait another day to take the guns.

My brothers waited till the next week and then asked if they could take the guns home to clean them. When my Dad asked them why were they taking the guns even after he proved he was still a great shot, my brothers said they were taking the guns exactly because he was still a great shot! He let them take most of the guns but kept a small one "for protection."

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Geez go talk to them - just keep the guns at home. You could end up with some great friends - better than starting some kind of feud. We bought a parcel of land that had a two track running right though it - wasnt a legal easment but the locals had used it for years. when we built our house we had several people who tried to use the two track. They saw the house and I assume they knew they were driving though somebodies backyard. But we just politely told them we had bought the land and that the two track was no longer useable. We pointed them to another two track 500 feet north. Ended up getting to know a few of the "tresspassers" got some wonderful info on the area and gained some freinds. Treat others with some respect and you will get the same back most of the time.

Those aren't trespassers; those are thieves. There's a world of difference. There should be a world of difference in how the two are treated.

You can't shoot thieves either. If you do you go to prison.

We suspect that we are having problems with Amish trespassers fishing our pond when we are at work. We have put up MORE no trespassing signs and are looking for ones in German so they, shall we say, appeal to our Amish neighbors and let them know that we suspect them of trespassing.

Another idea, put up game cameras. Lots of them, and then take the pictures into the local sheriffs office making sure you also have pictures of your no trespassing signs.

DH suggested that we take out an ad in the local penny press and title it, "Trespasser of the Week" as the Amish abhor having their pictures taken and read that publication almost as religiously as they do their Bibles.

If anyone comes to me and asks permission to fish my property I would probably tell them, sure go ahead but only when we are there. Sneaking in behind our backs is akin to theft in my book and if it is a non-Amish person doing it, we would approach the sheriff with our photos. If it is an Amish, then the Community elders would be approached so they can deal with the transgressor.

As tempting as it is to put up one of the gun related no trespassing signs, I gotta agree with folks that it is just asking for trouble, plus, you are advertising the fact that you have guns in your house that are ripe for picking if somebody decides to break in.

Stay safe and good luck with your problem neighbors. I think we have all dealt with the likes at one point or another.

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I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here!

Where I live you can shoot thieves. You will not be charged.

Pancho, I don't know what country you live in, but if you live in the USA you will go to prison for shooting anyone unless you can prove that you reasonably believed that your life was in mortal danger. Under the castle doctrine if someone kicks in your front door and enters your house you may have a case for shooting them, but not necessarily.

I will guarantee you this. If you ever shoot someone your life will be forever changed.

What I do not understand is why is land owned by a person yet some feel that their land is not worth protecting?

If you had a car and drove to the store and parked it to shop and returned to the where you parked the car only to find kids in it sitting in it would it bother you.

You were not using it at the time to transport it was parked but heck it was maybe rain and the kids wanted out of the rain and entered your car. Some here seem in following their logic that no harm would have been done to the car owner so the owner should let it slide-- if one applyed the same logic they have expressed about land.

How about your money if you have money in your wallet it firmly means that you have not spent the cash there for though you have it you are not using it thus is it ok for someone to take it and put that money you are not using to use with out asking?

Where is the respect for others --one sided in the eyes of many. Anyone who has bought land knows that they did so and they have access to where the land is that they own. People when they are caught in the act of tresspassing quite often state
"I did not know it was YOUR LAND" as if that is a logical reason to trespass. Think about that statement of justication. See I find that to be a LAME excuss and a very selfcenter remark. My reason is

1. Why did they think they OWNED THE LAND?--I normally ask where they have property that they bought. When their reply makes no logic as to how they might have been confused --IE if they say that they live in another town, or state ect it is clear that they had full knowledge of what land ownership is and truly knew that they were stealing the use of someone's property.

What is wrong with private land ownership rights often times it is the private land owners responsibilities that finance via property taxes the many benefits and public services for a local. Why should a person be responsible for providing the funding for schools and ect Yet be shamed into not receiving full benefit of the land as they see fit.

Owning land in not cheap it comes with accepting the burden of local, state, and fed codes and regs. It requires and large outlay of money to buy, cover taxes, insurance and maintance. So, If you are on the side of put your gun down, let it slide, there is no real harm done. or land owners are rude or out of line to stand up to criminals. Buy the land yourself.

Kasil, I do not know where you have gotten your argument, it certainly is not on this thread. What is being said on this thread is that the remedies for trespassing DO NOT include firearms or the threat of violence.

It is suggested that polite conversation with trespassing neighbors is the first step in resolving the matter. If that dosen't work then hasher remedies are in order such as fences, gates and, or, notifying the authorities. You are never justified in taking the law into your own hands.

Those who trespass are a threat to my family they are dealt with. You do what you want on land you own. I have just cause to have a person with me who is load and ready on my property. Guns are good protection from those with out the morals who trespass.

If the trespassers injure themselves while goofing around on your property, they'll sue and likely OWN your farm in short order.

For that reason alone, you should treat all trespassers as a serious threat. Take pictures, post signs, alert the sheriff, approach them (if its safe) and tell them that they need to stay off your land, etc etc.

If you've done all this and still have a trespasser problem, you're more likely to come out with at least the shirt still on your back in case of an injury lawsuit - because you can prove that you've been doing all within your power to discourage them from being on your land.

If you prefer to sit and allow these transgressors to walk all over your property, you won't have a leg to stand on .

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