Trespassers

[Joel/ak]

Here, sheriff's have to catch them in action. Doesn't matter if I catch them or get them on camera. Frustrating.

 

[Jstpssng]

Here, sheriff's have to catch them in action. Doesn't matter if I catch them or get them on camera. Frustrating.

All that I need is to make a complaint, the warden takes care of the rest. Hint: if you really want to see a POed game warden, let him catch somebody on camera tearing up the "No ATVs" sign which he just put up.

 

[Torvy]

I'm sure this isn't everywhere, but my experience in small-town rural America is that game laws (and some others) are enforced differently depending upon who you are. Local vs Out-of-town vs Out-of-state. Even within the 'local' group it is a bit about who you know. The game warden's kid was in my HS class.

 

[Joel/ak]

When I usually have a problem, I let my neighbor know. He's got a lot of power with the other questionable locals. Problems are usually rectified.

This guy now is new and already trying to sell his place. I'd buy it but the 1.3M asking is a tad to rich for me.....

 

[m1garand762]

The problem we have is the Amish tourism is the main revenue generation for the county. The sheriff and the game warden look the other way because the Amish make the budget for tue county

 

[JJT]

Years ago I had an issue with a local Amish kid. I stopped at his house, he wasn't home, but his father was... Dad resolved the issue and it never happened again. I find most of our Amish want to be good neighbors.

 

[sandman2234]

Many years back, I put up a tree stand on my property around 100 yds in from a well posted property line. I showed up early on opening day of buck season only to find another hunter in my stand!

He claimed the stand was his and he had permission to hunt there. I told him it was my stand on my land and I had not given anyone permission to hunt. "Prove it" was all he said as he raised his rifle!

I saw no sense in arguing with someone with a loaded gun. I turned and walked away saying "we'll let the police sort it out". I watched from a distance as he left in a hurry.

It never ceases to amaze me the nerve some people have!

I would have never approached someone sitting in a deer stand with anything other than a loaded camera! Once I saw him in my stand, I would return to my vehicle and call the local authorities! Let him tell them why he is sitting in a deer stand on the wrong side of a marked property line in the property owners stand! With more and more trespass laws becoming serious offenses, some people might decide to shoot you and disappear!
I have had them attempt to run over me with a 4 wheeler, actually making contact with my leg. They backed off and awaited the police when I pulled the 45 Colt out and aimed it at their face, where it stayed until the officer arrived. I had another neighbor holding a very bright light keeping them lit up also, so that helped. There were several of them riding 4 wheelers on my neighbors property which was posted, raising a ruckus at 2am. They had built a campfire along the creek and had it littered with a lot of beer cans and trash. I had written and notarized permission to be on that property and act in the owners place when it came to dealing with trespassers.
After years of fighting with this issue, we have slowly gotten the word out that we do mean business. However, we have not been able to stop the poaching, night shooting, and illegal hunting, mostly because I don't want to be shot over this. I am pretty sure the illegal hunting is being done by a property owner adjacent to this property, and occasional people walking in from a Church property down the creek.
Be careful is my point!
David from jax

 

[bdhsfz6]

I would have never approached someone sitting in a deer stand with anything other than a loaded camera! Once I saw him in my stand, I would return to my vehicle and call the local authorities! Let him tell them why he is sitting in a deer stand on the wrong side of a marked property line in the property owners stand! With more and more trespass laws becoming serious offenses, some people might decide to shoot you and disappear!
I have had them attempt to run over me with a 4 wheeler, actually making contact with my leg. They backed off and awaited the police when I pulled the 45 Colt out and aimed it at their face, where it stayed until the officer arrived. I had another neighbor holding a very bright light keeping them lit up also, so that helped. There were several of them riding 4 wheelers on my neighbors property which was posted, raising a ruckus at 2am. They had built a campfire along the creek and had it littered with a lot of beer cans and trash. I had written and notarized permission to be on that property and act in the owners place when it came to dealing with trespassers.
After years of fighting with this issue, we have slowly gotten the word out that we do mean business. However, we have not been able to stop the poaching, night shooting, and illegal hunting, mostly because I don't want to be shot over this. I am pretty sure the illegal hunting is being done by a property owner adjacent to this property, and occasional people walking in from a Church property down the creek.
Be careful is my point!
David from jax

I would never approach anyone with a loaded gun today. My incident happened 30+ years ago when things were more "civil". Times have certainly changed.

 

[FERLING]

Wonder what happens if the trespasser accidentally stumbles into an old dug well on your property.

Depends on who finds him first?

 

[kthompson]

We have a few acres that is home to some game. When I first began taking care of my in-laws land i would lay the tree stands down and say nothing that solved that. Probably neighbors who knew the family was not hunting it. We also have a nice pond very visible from the road. Amazed how often found people there. I was surprised how posting professional no trespassing signs worked for us. I am not talking about cheap signs but true commercial signs. Sadly, some people don't respect anything or anybody.

 

[Joel/ak]

We actually caught a homeless guy making camp. Actually my wife did, she confronted the guy and he was belligerent with her until she let our German shepherd out of the truck. He became very compliant. Our pup wanted his carcass. That was the last of that guy.

 

[bdhsfz6]

We actually caught a homeless guy making camp. Actually my wife did, she confronted the guy and he was belligerent with her until she let our German shepherd out of the truck. He became very compliant. Our pup wanted his carcass. That was the last of that guy.

How long did it take the dog to finish him off?

 

[dmccarty]

We have had ATVs trespass as well. I was in the garden one day and heard engines getting closer. Sure enough two idiots had come down a property line that intersects ours, went right past a no trespass sign that they could not avoid seeing, and drove onto our land. We had a talk.

Pretty sure I know where these idiots lived and thankfully they moved. I think they were the same morons dumping trash and letting their dogs run free. Someone, and I think it was them, dumped some very nice, heavy, large capacity shop jacks that were broken. How they broke those shop jacks is a mystery. They just dumped them on the side of a private road. Another time, they drove down a property line and dumped plastic garden trash.

There is a garbage collection center that is open to county residents with no entry charge. Back then, you did not even have to have a decal. The collection center is near the only local grocery stores so these morons spent more time illegally dumping their trash than it would have taken them to dispose of the garbage legally.

MORONS.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Vermont laws favor people trespassing, i.e. many Vermonters feel it's their god given right to trespass where they please for any purpose. The law requires signs posted every 400 feet, signed and dated annually. If you've got any real acreage, especially forested, it's pretty much impossible to meet the requirements. Plus the hunters just pull the signs down while putting up trail cams on your property.

I've managed to avoid escalations so far. I've used my grapple to place large boulders in the areas they like to park, which has helped a lot. Prior to that they would just move my junk as they pleased to park. (I'd put things like large drain pipes and such across parking areas, they'd just move them). If somebody wants to use my land, they can bloody well pay a percentage of my taxes for the privilege. Failing that, they're not welcome.

[Update: corrected distance between signs requirement]

 

[sandman2234]

I had planted about 100 blueberry bushes and was enjoying the berries a few years later. One day, I came out and someone had run over the 6 foot tall plants, and destroyed them! I followed the tracks back to my neighbors place and called him. Apparently his kids (grown adults) had brought their friends and atv's and went riding. He had given them my cell # and told them to get permission. They didn't...
He chewed them out for 15 mins so loud I could hear him at my house. He offered to make them pay, or better yet make them buy full grown bushes and replant them, but I told him not to worry about it. (He is too good of a neighbor!!)
David from jax

 

[MossRoad]

I had planted about 100 blueberry bushes and was enjoying the berries a few years later. One day, I came out and someone had run over the 6 foot tall plants, and destroyed them! I followed the tracks back to my neighbors place and called him. Apparently his kids (grown adults) had brought their friends and atv's and went riding. He had given them my cell # and told them to get permission. They didn't...
He chewed them out for 15 mins so loud I could hear him at my house. He offered to make them pay, or better yet make them buy full grown bushes and replant them, but I told him not to worry about it. (He is too good of a neighbor!!)
David from jax

That reminded me of our place. We had some reforestation done and were still battling dirt bike and ATV riders and someone took an ATV and instead of running BETWEEN the rows of planted trees, ran OVER the rows of planted trees because there were two clear paths on each side of the planted trees due to side spraying. GRRRR!!!!

 

[Jstpssng]

When I was in HS and for a few years afterwards my father had a perpetual war with kids on dirt bikes... they loved to run down through the hay field 3 abreast, just about the time he was thinking about hooking up the mowing machine. They thought it was great fun to run over his "No Trespassing" signs. He complained to the local PD repeatedly and even gave them the names, but all they could tell him was that unless they saw it happen there was nothing rthey could do. He finally had enough and told the officer that there were a lot of woodchucks around and it wasn't his fault if a kid got in the way when he was shooting. The dirt bikes stopped immediately. It's unfortunate that it came to that and now he probably would have been looking at jail time; but he did what he had to do.

A few years later I was visiting when I heard voices out in the field. Looking out, I saw 2 people coming down through the field on a 3 wheeler. As I watched they veered over, making it a point to run over a row of Christmas trees which had been planted a few years earlier. I started walking down to intercept them but they saw me coming and took off as soon as they hit the tar.

 

[ponytug]

I don't understand the lack of respect for other people, and their property.

 

[Eagle223usa]

I don't understand the lack of respect for other people, and their property.

It seems to be the new normal, sadly. The world is being repopulated with unraised children.

 

[MossRoad]

I don't understand the lack of respect for other people, and their property.

Every time you see someone toss a cigarette butt out a car window, or the cellophane wrapper from a pack of smokes, you can start there. No respect for public places, let alone private property.