How do you keep trespassers off of your property??

   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property??
  • Thread Starter
#21  
Hmm. Just had a friend of mine who owns an excavating business offer his idea. He suggested coming up to my property with one of his bigger dozers and cutting in a steep ditch the entire length of my property where the road is along one side. He then said to build a really strong gate and put up a dummy camera with a sign next to it stating that the property is under hidden camera video surveillance.

The road that runs down one side of my property is actually a private drive, and is not a public road in the first place. However, I only own one side of the road, so I can't close off the road. That really sort of stinks too because the private road does actually connect to another county road a few miles down. The private road next to my property has several dozen people travelling on it every day cutting across to the other county road. Cutting across the private drive saves about 7 miles between two small towns as compared to taking actual county roads. In reality, all those people using the private drive are trespassing as well. My thoughts on that are that I simply will not do anything to maintain the road and it will become pretty bad before long. If it is too bad, perhaps they will simply take the public county roads like they are supposed to. The road is marked as being a private road and that there is no trespassing allowed. Unfortunately, nobody pays attention to that. I think that would actually end my trespassing problem. That would eliminate about 95% of all the traffic that goes by my property.

Any thoughts on the ditch idea? I can put it relatively close to the road since there is no road easement.
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property??
  • Thread Starter
#22  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( How about telling the DEA that some tresspassers are raising pot on your property or running a meth lab ? As far as you know /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)</font>

Hey, you know, maybe I did find some coffee filters and some antihistimine wrappers, and (uh, help me here) whatever at the end of the tire tracks. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif That just might get some law enforcement agency interested in patrolling the area. It is a somewhat remote place and the only call I made to law enforcement was met with a "we don't have the manpower" answer to ever patrolling the area.
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #23  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Also, I'm not sure if pics from a game cam would hold up in court. The ones I have seen are somewhat fuzzy and distance is limited. I'm sure there are better quality, higher priced models out there. I too have considered game cam but was afraid they would be stolen or damaged. )</font>

I would find the cheapest flash camera that I could and rig it so that it OBVIOUSLY flashed (and took a picture) of your trespassers.

Now the idea here is to SCARE them into thinking you are monitoring the property. If they take the cheapo camera, Who Cares? But they may think that there are other cameras around etc. Plant a few, and make it look good.

I don't think that trip wires would be real safe for you liability wise, dunno what to trip them with, maybe just some that could be seen without any way to trigger them would work too.
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #24  
Part of your problem is the theft of the no trespassing signs. This can cause "innocent" people to cross your land, and have something bad happen to them. In that case, I would not want to be in your shoes. In Nevada, painting a fence post top RED is the same thing as no trespassing. Check your state laws (div of wildlife or fish and game) to see if you have something similar. This will help protect you as most "idiots" would not do anything with a red post, but it is legally binding here and help you CYA (Cover your ***)

Second, have you ever tried the "nice" approach and just letting them use the place with a simple set of rules? Most "off roaders" get really biligerant when you cut them off completely. However, if you let them in and post some signs like "please stay on established roads", "no dumping", "Pack your trash back out with you" etc most will follow it, and many will self police the place to make sure it stays open. Most people probably just want to enjoy your property as much as you do. Of course, always check to make sure what liability this opens you up to.

Lastly, in the Pacific Northwest, logging companies block off roads all the time with big heavy gates and concrete barriers without any liability. Build a steel gate with a lock protector, put your signs behind it and take whatever steps the law will allow to keep them off.

Good luck,
NevadaSmith

"You know your a Nevadan when you do a double take at a sign that DOES NOT have a bullet hole in it!"
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #25  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( How about telling the DEA that some tresspassers are raising pot on your property or running a meth lab ? As far as you know /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ben

)</font>

Tell them you've found empty anhydrous ammonia tanks on your property from their mobile meth lab....
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #26  
<font color="blue"> I would find the cheapest flash camera that I could and rig it so that it OBVIOUSLY flashed (and took a picture) of your trespassers.
</font>

I'd take some patience....but what about reverse psycology:

i.e. post some blinking leds in several obvious places to make it look like you're putting in high end video equipment. Now depending on how smart or gutsy they are, two possible results [three if you can assume they might be reading this]:

A. They think you're monitoring it and search out easier targets.

B. They inspect your work, and get used to "calling your bluff" after a couple months they'll be oblivious to any still or video camera you choose to plant.

Too much patience required for my taste, but an option. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #27  
Since you only live 20 miles away, go check on it several times a day/night. It's most likely happening at night or weekends, step up security then.
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #28  
I am a property manager for my fil on about 1000 acres. We have a retired DEC enforcement officer that likes to hunt and fish he has free rein on all our propertys and also he patrols for us he also has authority to press charges if he catches ANYONE on the property that doesnt have WRITTEN permission, All the locals know him and they know the property , know its posted and now we dont have any problems. One time my FIL was hunting and he came upon someone hunting on our property he asked him who owned it and how to get permission, didnt cause a scene, went and got a State trooper went back and had the guy arrested. The guy never came on our property again and when his friends were told about it they too stayed off.
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #29  
Like Hazmat said, don't recommend anything illegal. Here we've got a couple of recommendations to make false reports to the DEA (yeah, I know, probably just joking), but making a false report to the police can land you in jail.
 
   / How do you keep trespassers off of your property?? #30  
plant poison ivy all over the gate and entrance where the problem occurs. You might not get them in the act, but they will remember where and when they got the poison ivy and will stay away for the future. Don't know where to purchase poison ivy plants, but like everything else, there is some place that must sell it.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
 
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