Stopping a snowmobile without injury

480volts · Jan 12, 2014

Did that ...... for about 6 hours worth of my time, I have a mile of river frontage, only can get a few of the spots. Once I talk to the the Sheriff I will get the applicable laws for trespassing and his opinion on what I can and can't do. Will see. It is premeditation if you put up log barriers , you are still intending to stop the snowmobiles, for that matter so is a closed gate , both are highly visible, both can cause damage. If he says no to stopping the machines with rope wound up in there tracks then I won't do it. In any case the deputy said the logs are 100% alright to use, after all there not sharpened Punji Logs, just deadfall.

Why can't all people just drive tractors for fun, we all do

Industrial Toys · Jan 12, 2014

Do what the Ontario Provincial police around here did to try and stop a Snowmobile that they thought was trying to circumvent a spot check. The officer jumped in his cruiser and rammed the snowmobile in reverse resulting in some serious personal injury!

I tell ya, our (increasingly militarized) cops are out of control! You don't do what they tell ya, and they just might kill ya!

Whenever I replace some old wire like a clothes line, we always joke around and call it "snowmobile wire" .

Snowmobiles are expensive. Even if you JUST damage a sled, you may incur the wrath of the owner. Try that in places in Northern Quebec and your house will probably burn with you in it!

EDIT: Just a further thought. Say the "chicken wire" gets all entangled in the machine, and the driver injurs himself trying to extricate said material. Oh, I can just see some "slip and fall" lawyer salivating already!

MNBobcat · Jan 12, 2014

What County are you in?

480volts · Jan 13, 2014

Anoka. To legally post land in MN you have to have your name and phone number on it, Like Industrial Toys said doing that is inviting them to harass you even further.

MossRoad · Jan 13, 2014

You even talking about it here on a public forum puts you in legal danger if someone gets injured by your plans to stop, damage, or detain a snow machine. Let's say you put some objects in the snow to damage someone's machine. An adult goes flying through your property, followed by a kid following the adult. Now lets say the adult's machine gets tangled up in the junk and abruptly stops. Now the kid rear ends him and paralyses him for life. My guess is in court, you will lose if they can prove you put junk in the snow to stop snow machines on purpose. Not only will you lose financially, but I see prison time in your future. Its just not worth it. Post the property to all legal limits in your area. Get cameras. Take pictures of the numbers on the sides of the machines. Turn them over to the cops.

MNBobcat · Jan 13, 2014

480volts said:
Anoka. To legally post land in MN you have to have your name and phone number on it, Like Industrial Toys said doing that is inviting them to harass you even further.

You're a real piece of work. It would take me all of about 10 minutes to identify your name and address and turn you in to the Anoka County Sheriff and give them these forum postings as proof of intent to harm someone. Which I still may do and I have a lot of connections in Anoka.

Stopping someone riding in a park? Seriously? You have some serious issues. You really ought to think about moving into the city.

First of all, nobody is trespassing on your property. Its not trespassing unless you post the property. Even if you post it and they are on your property, its still not considered trespassing (you can't charge them) unless you first verbally ask them to leave and they refuse. That's Minnesota law. You have to verbally ask them to leave. To wit:

trespasses on the premises of another and, without claim of right, refuses to depart from the premises on demand of the lawful possessor

You have one option and only one option. If you're that ****-bent on keeping people from recreating and having fun, then your only choice is to put up the orange snow fence around your property. That's what I do (1/2 mile of it) to keep snowmobilers from running over my young pine seedlings. However, unlike you, if I didn't have young trees to protect I would have no problem letting snowmobilers ride on my property. It does absolutely no damage to the property. I'd much rather see kid's and families out doing something like riding snowmobiles then to have them out getting into trouble somewhere. There is not much left in this world that kids and young adults can do for fun anymore.

No doubt though you won't put in the time or money to put up a fence in the fall and remove it in the spring. I see people like that all the time.

By the way, I don't own a snowmobile.

bigtiller · Jan 13, 2014

MNBobcat said:
First of all, nobody is trespassing on your property. Its not trespassing unless you post the property. Even if you post it and they are on your property, its still not considered trespassing (you can't charge them) unless you first verbally ask them to leave and they refuse. That's Minnesota law. You have to verbally ask them to leave.

Really? That's the law up there? In my mind, if I am standing on privately owned land and I don't own it, I am trespassing. And I would bet most reasonable people would agree.

480volts · Jan 13, 2014

Wow, You are really bitter. The sheriff who was out said exactly the opposite with regards to trespassing, Some how I think I am going to believe him over you. If you want to turn me in please do so, they already have my name. Another point you are wrong is the riding in the parks issue, the parks department was really upset when I had showed pictures of damage done to the banks and other areas.
Most have given truly considerate opinions as to the best way to handle the situation, and I am very much appreciate the time that they took to respond, that' s why I ask the questions on this forum. Most rational people make their decisions based on what they have heard and discussed, very excellent points have been brought up, i have not done anything other than talk to the Sheriff, which seems to be the consensus on what I should do. In any case as I have already mentioned Whatever the Sheriff dept says is what I will abide by.

You make all sorts of rash statements and conclusions, you know nothing about me or this situation.

If you want to please post your address here so snowmobiles can have a place to run free

Somehow I think you may be a minority, just my opinion

Have a good day Sir

MNBobcat · Jan 13, 2014

bigtiller said:
Really? That's the law up there? In my mind, if I am standing on privately owned land and I don't own it, I am trespassing. And I would bet most reasonable people would agree.

Yes, it is the way the law here works. I was as surprised as you. I believe if you post your property and anybody is caught ignoring the signs it should be considered trespassing. Unfortunately, here in Minnesota it requires a verbal warning regardless of signage. I found that out when I was selling a house and had a conflict with the buyer. The police informed me how the trespass laws here in this state work.

The original poster is all mad about the snowmobilers but without having put up any signage the snowmobilers have no way of knowing he doesn't want them on his property. Most snowmobilers would respect the signs.

Also...if the issue is snowmobilers running up and down the rum river and not on his property...nothing he can do about it. Its public waters.