Take some 1x2s and 16 P nails 8 foot long boards nails 1 inch apart along every board . Make a couple dozen of then and lay them out in the area of the yard they usually come to visit and tear up . The nail boards will leave them with a bunch of Flat tires and pushing their 4 wheelers home .Plenty of time for the Sheriff to arrive and find them in the area .
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That solved my problem very fast . Added with the camera videos , they were all prosecuted .
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@Bill33, No, not looking to injure some little kid who chased their ball into my yard.
Way to EXTREME.
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Make a call to the Sheriff him/her and explain your situation and concerns. Look for their website to see if they have individual e-mail addresses and send an e-mail too. Take pictures of the hoodlums. Most people forget they have a camera at their finger tips. Pictures with date stamps are great evidence. Take video too when they are threatening you.
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@Gary_J1, I’ve been doing all that for years now. Pictures, Secutity video, record of times and directions they travel.
Not getting anywhere with Sheriff department.
Though I’m still doing all that. Records of all this will count for something one day.
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@William377 Do you have a large parcel of land? Trying to configure your layout, terrain, and the setback of your home from the entrance to your property as to how ATVs and motorcycles enter into the property. I suppose you are out off the city limits.
Made me think, might have already been posted, but just wondering, is there possibility of meeting with a parent or the parents or school administrators of said younger perpetrators per se, if they are such young of age, in a civilized crucial convo of course?
Volunteer and or donate to local youth at risk programs?
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@Ronald150, The main problem is the ATV’ERS like to cut corners at the intersections, which we live on one, the major one where they enter from across a small bridge. They like to play games with each other and try to hide from each other behind our trees in the yard. They actually run down the NO TRESPASS signs sometimes. They have full helmets on or cover their faces with bandanas and hats.
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@Burdo, Heck most of the parents ride these ATV’S and we’ve been threatened by some of them. One time a Deputy caught one of the young ATV riders and called the parents. The father was so mad at me for calling the sheriff he threatened me while the officer was standing right there by him.
If I’m working in the yard I’ll have parents driving by and flip me the Bird or yell obscenities at me.
This is the world we live in now, I guess.
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This is a tough situation and every response requires a Cost Benefit Analysis.
One Course of Action may be to walk out to the POS when you see them and ask to talk to them. With $20.00 in your hand, ask them if “we can have five minutes of conversation together?”. Perhaps they will stop and communicate, perhaps not. Be concealed armed, try to be near your cameras, try to be recording the conversation and try to be as calm, unemotional and as patient as possible. Maybe there is a compromise to be had. Maybe you can offer to make a “safe trail” from the Bridge to wherever they usually go. Get creative. Remember in the back of your mind, they are your neighbors and they will be there as long as you own your property there. And that you can’t Punish them all!
Best or possibly the most useless thought I have is trying to arrange a personal meeting with Polk County Florida Sherriff Grady Judd. Sherriff Judd is crazy tough on crime and is not afraid to speaking his mind. Perhaps Sherriff Judd may be able to get your County Sherriff involved. Face-to-Face meetings have a much better success ratio that emails or phone calls. I have had Friends reach out to 1% Motorcycle Club members for resolution but again, there is a Cost Benefit to that approach.
I have always had a clear rule that nobody messes with my Family or my Property. As I have gotten older, I think more of the Cost Benefit Price of Action. I have chased and punished POS. I have chased, detained and then prosecuted POS that have broken into our vehicles. But, I can not change Society.
If you have tried every legal means of resolving the situation and they have failed, you should consider moving. I grew up in Chicago and at one point, my Father saw that the neighborhood was “changing”. We got out, moved to a suburb and it was amazing. Other Irish and German families in our neighborhood held on another year or two until they lost even more. Today, it is a ghetto.
Assume every communication by cell, text, email, internet post…will be used against you should something happen to any of these POS. Unfortunately, Crime is a Business for Police, Sheriffs, Judges, Attorneys and Insurance Companies. Try the Olive Branch Approach first if you can muster up the patience.
Be well.
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@Kevin_M1, been over 10 years we’ve been fighting this battle. NOT GOING TO MOVE BECAUSE OF LAW BREAKERS. We have every thing invested here and built to our retirement years, not starting over at our age. I’ve always fought for justice and believe in or laws and try hard to walk the correct line. The old Superman saying,“Truth, Justice & the American Way”.
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We all know that’s a thing of the past. “Lie, Cheat & the Woke Way”.
I feel terrible, the untenable position you’re in.
I do appreciate @Kevin_M1 approach. That type of society was 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and part of the 80’s. Reasonable conversations among the young is futile as well as some of todays adults.
I don’t like the idea of moving, in my mind that’s a retreat and bad guy wins. Take Putin for example, as soon as the entire population has left Ukraine and all the fighting is finished, Putin walks in and claims it all. Don’t think for a minute that he/they will stop!
Bad guy always wins, because we follow a set of rules that keep us sane!
It almost sounds like you have no choice. Except for moving. They say we always have a choice. This may sound crazy, but can you build a wall?
The other alternative is wait till they out grow this childish behavior, can you wait that long? High fences make for great neighbors!
I bit the bullet and installed a 6’ privacy fence. I still carry cocked, locked and ready to rock!
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Maybe I missed it, but I haven’t seen the “good fences make good neighbors” option mentioned. I didn’t think about it until @William377 described a little more of the physical layout. Trespass entry through a posted fence to a general use play area is one sort of thing. Being a short-cut with no physical barrier is something else all together — posted or not.
An attractive, visible, formidable, and hopefully vandal-resistant fence which blocks the short-cut and alternate routes is a non-confrontational and non-LE approach to declaring private domain. Worth a try if not yet attempted. It has helped us with ever-changing UPS drivers, and is fairly common in town near schools where corner cutting footpaths and trash deposits develop — and is a basic first step to private property protection anywhere rural. Hopefully, the contested area is not actually within a public road right-of-way — where the landowner has legitimate interests, but not exclusive dominion.
Frankly, I don’t understand the SO failure to act if:
• the activity actually is occurring on private property;
• trespass is causing physical property damage;
• the landowner will sign a trespass complaint;
• evidence is sufficient to ID the trespassers and time of events.
I can understand why a verbal complaint of unidentified hooligans who were here an hour ago might not become a top “crimestoppers” priority for surveillance and investigation. Maybe it’s just a lazy or corrupt jurisdiction, or maybe the complaint could be better prepared and presented.
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Yes 24/7 cameras are great i have lorex and they are crystal clear… and ive had cid… state police and county sheriff’s come to get info of break ins around my property… im known as the crazy oldman in the neighborhood… me and about 4 more have camera’s so you cant get in or out of the neighborhood without being seen… on atleast one of our camera’s… and mine will save it for 16 days before it records over… and i can save to a flash drive also…
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Ok, last resort can you start to bundle your trash in the following manner or you can start burning effigies, or you could go all Wickerman on them.
How about, did I smell a gas leak at your place? That will bring out hazmat team, or just label your trash as biohazardous! Let it smolder, but allow the smoke and stench to leak!
Start slowly, they will think you’re up to something!
Actually seems like time for some gorilla warfare and subterfuge!
Not making light, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire!
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Small claims court is cheap and effective. If you can identify the culprits sue them. You do not need an attorney in small claims court. When it starts costing them money they learn.
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Do not do the bribery for a conversation thing mentioned above ($20 for 5 minutes of your time). That’ll make the “words from a distance” response look like like nothing.
Fencing sounds good. Metal. They trash that, they get charges Opie can’t deny. You’re way too nice, imo.
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If you are considering spending money on a fence, barbed wire is possibly a more economical option.
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