Trespassing signs, etiquette, good & bad neighbors

[widefat]

My wife was lost the other day in the suburbs. She turned around in someone's drive, then called me. A guy came out of the house screaming at her for turning around in his drive. My thought is, what a poor excuse of a human being.

Courts have already decided, unless you have a closed gate and signs, you have no expectation of privacy for people coming up your drive and knocking on your door.

The angry gent must have been related to these folks:
UPDATED: Fauquier County makes TV news after residents fire weapons toward lost motorists | News | fauquier.com

 

[LD1]

I need to look into those things that puncture your tires if you try and back up!

I think that could get you into legal trouble

 

[snymat68]

I think that could get you into legal trouble

Motion activated sprinklers? :laughing:

 

[deserteagle71]

Courts have already decided, unless you have a closed gate and signs, you have no expectation of privacy for people coming up your drive and knocking on your door.

^ This is the rule in Nevada also. That's why my gate is closed all the time. But it is not locked - any all of my neighbors know they can come and go as they please. Same for the UPS driver, fire department, deputies, etc. Just having the gate closed keeps out most of the ones I don't want in here anyway.

Not mine, but I like this sign:

 

[Diggin It]

Skipping three pages ..... If I don't see the resident and know thy see me, or if they're not expecting me, I don't enter a property gate, fence, sign or none.

My property is gated, fenced and hedged so people can't just wander on.

 

[turnkey4099]

If he had a legitimate reason to come and talk to you why shouldn't he come on to your property. He wasn't trespassing, he wanted to see you on business. Even if it was to introduce himself and say "hi, I'm your new neighbour"

That is the way I see it also. Of course the ones who have a legitimate reason are far outnumbered by the ones that don't.

 

[dmccarty]

...

How well known is the purple stripe designation? First I've ever heard of it. If I saw a sign that was nothing but purple stripes I wouldn't have had a clue what it meant.

I doubt it was known since the law was passed a few years ago. But I keep the land posted to limit liability so them knowing the law puts the onus on them.

We had two trespassers drive their ATV right past a posted sign. No way they could miss it unless they were blind. Many people are just clueless and/or just ignore the signs.

Later,
Dan

 

[Fuddy1952]

My wife was lost the other day in the suburbs. She turned around in someone's drive, then called me. A guy came out of the house screaming at her for turning around in his drive. My thought is, what a poor excuse of a human being.

Courts have already decided, unless you have a closed gate and signs, you have no expectation of privacy for people coming up your drive and knocking on your door.

What an idiot! Who would scream at a lady turning around in driveway but an idiot.

 

[greenmojo]

Unless you have a physical barrier - A locked gate - you can expect uninvited visitors. That is life in the country. The few times I left the gate open someone unwelcome visitor always managed to dive up, and yes one was the tax assessor, one very religious person , someone looking for a dog, one guy that had some asphalt left over from a job etc etc. . .

I think your signs on your new automatic gate will help a lot. I had no unwelcome guest when my gate was closed.

Get a good gate opener or you will leave it open if it breaks and your problem will resurface quickly.
High Quality Automatic Solar Gate Openers & Accessories

If someone crosses you physical barrier, for your safety, be armed. For some reason people think that people in rural areas are trusting and gullible.

Edit, lou brought up a good point on delivery people, leave your phone number on your gate or a box for packages. We never had a problem with theft of packages from the gate, but I kept track of them with the tracking number and knew the time the UPS/Fedex delivered and the packages would seldom be left out for more than an hour. It was very quiet and I could hear the truck miles away.

I agree, the barrier is probably the only thing that works -- the plan is to have a code for the delivery drivers. Yes, we left the gate open and experienced the same, tax assessor measuring all of our buildings, driving around all of our roads taking pictures. Just a privacy killer in general.

Great link! I will read up on them, my other neighbors went with the Mighty Mule openers, but I have no experience with them at all.

 

[BigBlue1]

I guess different places have different levels of 'visitor' frequency. Personally in my almost 50 years I have rarely ever had someone come to the door (living in rural areas or in a city) here in Minnesota that was truly an unwanted visitor. Sometimes neighbors. Maybe once a year or less some type of salesperson or jehova witness type thing. No big deal. Lived on my current rural property for over three years and have had zero people come up that weren't invited, neighbors, or deliveries/service folks. If you're having lots of unwanted people coming by and they are causing issues or being irritating in the time of their arrival then maybe I could see the point of gates or being upset by people passing signs, but really doesn't seem like a problem. If you have a security issue I suppose a gate is a way of dealing with it but sure seems like a pain. Seems like an outlook issue to me...

Rob