How do you handle trespassing by yourself or law

Was wondering for each of you how you handled it? Do you do it yourself and talk to the person? Or document it and call the law? Not really having any issues as of late myself but in the past have used both venues. One friend will not deal with it, he will always call the proper outfit (game wardens, sheriff etc.) What other methods have you had to do like send a letter to the person baring him from being on your land?

With one neighbor I just call the law, or did in the past. He's been keeping on his side of the line as of the last few years. In the summer with being in the middle of a tourist area and with a state highway cutting though our land I never approach anyone unless I'm armed. In the winter, with the county judges being the way they are, and it being mostly snowmobilers (trail runs down the state highway ditch) not much I can do. Unless you can see their face a judge will do nothing because you can't prove that the person who the machine is registered too was on it. So the big problems are the bike tourist who thing they can just stop and camp anyplace they please (easy to deal with) and the snowmobilers.

Rick

Personally, I talk to anyone straying onto my land. First, if you come down hard on a guy, he can always retaliate when you are not around. Second, Virginia law allows a hunter to come on your land to "retrieve their dog", ( speaking of deer dogs here). This is a tight community, best not to start a land war if it ain't necessary. Game warden is last resort, but you better have your land well posted.

Just had trespasser three weeks ago. One of the weird neighbors bought a pet pig for their whacky son. Day after they bought it the son let it out at 3 AM expecting it to come back like a dog. It of course didn't. They went scouring my yard with a loaded crossbow which is illegal in my state to own. My mother was there watching the kids while the wife and I were at work. I called the cops and promptly went home. I don't take anyone on my property with a loaded weapon lightly and filed the papers against the neighbor. They had trespassed before and been notified by me it was private property and not to come back as they were not welcome. The police have been called to their house before for multiple offenses. They even went to the door and rang the door bell with the loaded weapon. Their intent was to kill the pig if they found it in my yard. My kids know where meat comes from however I would have not been OK with this taking place in my yard.

Had two guys walk out of the woods and into the orchard I run while I was actively spraying this year. I didn't call the cops on them. I figured Darwin would likely help them out for walking into freshly sprayed fruit trees with the tractor and sprayer going.

Not much you can do about it. I don't want to confront someone with a gun. You can call the sheriff or game warden, but the hunter will be long gone before anyone shows up. My woods are 1/2 mile off the road and the sheriff or game warden aren't going to walk that far. Hunters tear your no hunting signs down and cut your fences , and the sheriff can't do much anyhow unless he catches them himself. Otherwise it's just your word against the hunter who will swear he wasn't on your property.

Law enforcement in my area pretty much won't show up for trespass. I am almost always armed. I do not brandish, so to speak. I always approach in a friendly manner. I never wish to escalate a situation. Most leave when asked. A few say, "You can't own the land, man!" But I point out that I can pay the mortgage, taxes, and insurance and unless they want to contribute substantially to that sum they need to go. I always ask where they live and for ID. When asked why, I point out that they would not let a stranger into their house and neither do I and that I was planning on visiting them in the same manner they visited me. If they are in violation of something, I call the appropriate authority, usually to no avail.

Fish And Game usually won't come out for an active hunting violation. I think they are afraid of getting shot. Someone got stuck in the river and asked for a pull out. I called Fish and Game on that one and they were cited and a towing service was called. They couldn't pay the $1000 tow fee and the vehicle was impounded.

Animal control has been pretty good with trespass dogs. I had one collect the dog I shot in the sheep. He put it in the truck and drove, with me, to the home on the tag. He asked the owners if they had a dog. They said yes and insisted it was with them. He asked them to produce the dog, which of course, they could not. He asked for a picture of their dog, which they produced. He then told them where their dog had been. They denied that their dog could do such a thing. He then rolled the dead dog onto the tailgate of his truck and said it looks like your dog to me. He pulled back the lips to show the wool in the teeth. He made them pay me on the spot.

Neighbors came through the farmyard on their snowmobiles on the way home from the bar, whooping and hollering. Brother went to a couple of them the next day and told them to pass the word: Anyone who came through the farmyard at night would still be laying out there when the sun came up.

Hasn't been a snowmobile past the farm in years.

Without going into all the legalities, once a car was parked on my property off the road and I guessed they were hunting or scouting etc., so I raised the hood and took the coil wire. Needless to say they came and asked if they could use a phone as their car wouldn't start at which time I questioned what they were doing, lectured them about my property and property rights and trespass etc., and informed them I had the wire. They apologized big time so I gave it to them and they left and havent seen that car since.

PS have several No Trespass signs and use game cameras and keep a record and license plate numbers and gather and preserve all the evidence you can plus a call to police or game wardens (with good records and/or police reports or record of complaint) is my free legal advice.

DO NOT (absent self defense) physically harm a trespasser WELL DUH

John Nordhoff Country Lawyer

Property rights and animal issues can be tricky and sometimes deadly. In 1940 in SC these and other issues came to a violent end. Farmer and storekeeper had some mules get out which kicked a neighbor's calf. Calf(large heifer) had to be put down. Mule owner agreed to pay asked for price of $20. Calf owner went to store later to collect but then wanted $40. Mule owner refused, calf owner took ax handle from display and attacked store with it. Store owner after being hit got pistol and killed his attacker. Locked up store and went to sheriff. He was tried for murder, jury found him not guilty on self defense grounds. Dead man's brother and wife not happy, got their nephew, who was a policeman in a city across the state to hire someone to kill the mule owner. After the killing(for $500) the shooter got drunk and bragged about it. The police arrested the policeman and the killer, policeman confessed and implicated his aunt and uncle. Sheriff went to arrest aunt and uncle with his deputy, sheriff left pistol at home, a hired man in the house and the uncle ambushed the officers, killing both. Before he died the deputy killed the hired man and wounder the uncle. Woman arrested, uncle arrested in hospital, all tried and sentenced to death. All executed except nephew who had turned state's evidence. 20 years later nephew paroled. My first grade teacher was the nephew's wife and I remember thinking as a child how sad she looked. Lot of trouble over one calf, but there was other friction also previously. Google murders in Edgefield, SC for more details.

KEH

If they don't get a visit from someone in authority they'll figure it's okay to try and sneak back. No consequences, why not?

we have a farm on a vacant gravel road with a quarry hole full of fish within walking distance on our place many people go back there fishing poaching drug transactions etc. one spring a truck had been out cutting donuts in the beans got stuck and abandoned the truck. cousin went out and within 15 with nothing more than a piece for steel pipe the truck was demolished (one of the cousins is still amazed at how easily a car door can be sprung around backwards) then guy comes to uncles house (closest home) and wants to know if he seen who destroyed his truck uncle say no but by the mud on his truck he's pretty sure who destroyed his field. another time we were planting and another truck hung up. hooked it to a tractor and drug the truck until the tires popped and pushed it into the ditch.

Every place and every situation will be different, that's a given, so what works for one may not another. Laws certainly are different.

Personally, I've had mostly good luck with handling it myself, by just speaking with the party(s) involved, and surprisingly, even when they could just be playing me, most have been polite and easy to speak to, understand my end of it and thank me for not being really hard on them. Civil is what you call it. I have had a few jerks in the past, and a lot more traffic when I was not around, overall, its manageable, usually isolated instances but you have to realize, at least here, it comes in waves or cycles, whether its longer distance people on ATV's coming off the power lines, sometimes local with someone new to the area, it gets quiet, then changes. Its mostly someone who is local and is a new area, just the same, ALL seem to ignore the posted signs!

On the bright side, I had a polite hunter, come up to the house to ask about bow hunting, I thanked him in recognition of that, but told him, 1.) I don't know you, 2.) its full, no vacancy, and just a bit about my terms with hunting. He was nice and polite, but whether that is a facade or its real, I am not taking chances. I am thankful for what we have, and enjoy sharing a bit with friends who hunt, but I can't afford to take chances with unknowns. Did that with a greenhorn who was very nice, helpful, but ZERO hunting experience, and very green with firearms. I found a casing from a position he was in and had heard of another hunter on the other side of the field that was within the trajectory of his bullet, NOT GOOD !

My policy is to try and take care of it without the law involved, but there have been times I have spoken with them, met with one trooper, its nuisance, almost a civil matter and they absolutely hate dealing with ATV trespass. While I also do everything I can to NOT ever put myself in a dangerous situation, it has happened, I rarely take any chances, but you NEVER know what or who you will be dealing with, so NEVER put yourself in harms way for ANY reason. I figure if I can get it resolved, the law can help someone who really needs it. I get overrun, or am really concerned about it, retaliation or escalation, then its their job for sure.

That in mind, 2 absolute jerks, opened my gate and rode in on dirt bikes, toured the place, disturbed hunting at 3 of my stands. I crept down hidden and got close to head them off, they stopped and were talking about crossing this flooded area, and I interrupted their conversation. Prior to that, I did grab a bow staff I made from a tree top, as I seem to leave those in strategic locations for some reason..... He takes off his helmet and starts mouthing off! He threatens me ! I'm gonna take that stick and beat you with it he says LOL ! Says this place sucks too... so why are you here? The only thing between us is 100' and a 2 foot deep flooded area. The exchange continues and I just let it keep going. He wants a fight though, impressing his buddy I suppose, whom mind you says nothing. So he starts to take off, I follow, cuss him out, having lots of fun with it, you no good this and that..... $#!@!... he eventually turns around, stops, gets off, takes the helmet off again. I egg him on some more, then said while putting my hand up, hold on now, I had the phone on and someone listening,, hey.. did you get all that? He backs off, says that's what I thought... chicken... for lack of the vulgarities he was using.. I should have never put myself in this situation, but if it was just him or even the other guy, my odds were still good given my ability and lack of fear. I hoped he would have charged me, I always win when they do that, but thankfully he left. From now on I am armed, on the tractor or on foot, I carry my nys safe act legal rifle. I would have liked to humiliate this kid to no end, next day I wanted to go find him, he deserves it with a mouth like that, but he left, I closed the gate and followed to listen in on where he went, he is local. There's a known drug house over that hill too, so I have to be cognizant of that element now.

Now, the place is conspicuously posted, and if there are significant problems, then I use counter measures, that give me the upper hand. Lets just say I don't use boards and nails, no booby traps or anything of that sort, but you will get flats, I will find you, so will the law after that. The law is clear about the land being posted, the owner has reasonable expectation that an outsider will obey the signs and stay out, if they do not, its one them whatever they encounter.

That's how I deal with it.

Yes John, the voice of reason here, but boy did I come close 2 weeks ago, see the above. Never have I encountered more of a jerk than this mouthy kid blatantly trespassing in my presence like it was his right or was owed to him. He busted the darned gate open too, well unhitched it from what held it closed, as it was chained and wired, darned power company was supposed to put their locks on the gates here, guess I'll take them to task on that.

Cell phones are nice had mine in the palm of my hand video recording and caught a neighbor screaming and yelling at me on my property. He was mad because I won't rent do him. He's been camera shy since problem is he's one of the right people in town who are entitled to what ever they want

Armed all the time good ole days of the only person you would run into is a friendly neighbor are over. Law Enforcement....well it depends on how you voted and how much you contribute to the campaign.

I've got a half dozen neighbors that border my 50+ acre vacant land and I own a house alongside them. Last year, confronted 1 neighbor who I heard had bagged a deer on my property on opening day. Went over, saw the deer hanging in the barn and politely explained that I don't allow ANYONE to hunt my property and asked him to please honor my wishes. If I let one hunt, the others will want the same privilege. He kept saying "I understand" but I think it went in 1 ear and out the other. This Sunday is Opening firearm season in Michigan, so we'll see if he respects my wishes. I did fix a section of fence last weekend that someone peeled back along a pipeline easement that people seem to thing is public land. Posted fresh signs. My feeling is that I'll politely assert my rights, call the DNR poaching line if it gets out of hand, but I don't want to ruin my life arguing over a deer.

Many years ago I had riding horses. I got a lot of respect when I was sitting on a 1000 lbs. horse and asking hunters to leave. I won't do that standing on the ground.

Well I used to call the law if anything had be damaged or entry forced. The sheriff we used to have was pretty good about getting someone out. The new one not so much. So your left to enforce your rights to your land yourself. I try to be polite as possible but it sure is hard at times. If they are hunting or fishing and have game with them I can usually get the game warden out pretty fast. They like the BIG fines they collect so their service is pretty fast. LOL

About 15 years ago I bulldozed all the pond damns out on my land. I got tired of providing "free" fishing for every Tom, Dick an Harry that would walk to them. Also my insurance agent told me I could be liable if they got hurt on my land. I rebuilt a pond that is on the property line with the neighboring farm,last year. You can not see this pond from any public road or any of the neighbors drive ways or homes. Guess what??? You can see it on Google. So I have caught people two different times fishing there. The first time the two fellows had fish with them. One of them had an ID tag where I had it put in the pond. Game warden wrote them right up and it cost them some serious money in fines. The second time it was a whole family that I knew that had walked in. IF they had ASKED I would have let them in but since they did not I just asked them to leave and not come back. I was not going to make a butt of myself in front of their kids.

All the ground is posted no hunting and no fishing. It only slows down the honest ones the others just use the signs as target practice. I bring the cows up to the pastures close to the house for the two weeks of deer season here as the fools shot cows here every few years. Then myself and my sons try to be around the farm in the early mornings so we can stop them before they get started.

It all is a big pain!!! I have a very low opinion of the hunters we have around here anymore. The coon hunters cut my fences so the dogs can get through. They all open gates or damage gates that are locked/chained. They love to drive around fields that are not fenced too. Had a nice hay field seeded two falls ago. We got plenty of rain the week before Deer season. I got a rutted up hay field for my TROPHY from deer season. I just disked the field under and started over the next spring.

So DO NOT ASKED to hunt at all. You had better know the family real well to asked to fish. Even then it is 50/50 on whether your going to get to go. I have paid for this land and I am not going to let people free load on it.

AHHH! The pumpkin army will invade this weekend here, too!! LOL! 4 wheelers running fence lines, cut fences, gut piles on my property. I used to go around my fence and remove deer stands. Had a whole garage full of them. I got tired, lots of work. It's a little over a mile, through some rough hill country to get to my back section. I quit trying to fight them.

All of the surrounding landowners are hunters, same as we are. We all respect each others property lines, with the understanding that anyone goes where they need to go to recover wounded animals. We all also keep an eye on everyone's property for trespassers. Don't have many problems anymore. Have a piece of public property bordering one field. Usually a reminder they have crossed onto posted land and asking them to leave does the trick. Second offense, I get nasty, and tell em to git and don't come back. That pretty much gets the message across. Once in a great while the game warden gets involved. We really don't have that many problems we can't handle ourselves. Had a bunch of kids who decided one of my fields would make a good race track for their junk cars and trucks. Got the law involved in that one. That was a one time thing though.

I used to hang a no hunting sign in my tool box at the dealership. It didn't work well either. Wonder why us citiots like a little public hunting land in the area.

This only furthers my disgust for human behavior,
and the lack of respect
that seems to be exploding exponentially.

I could relate some stories,
but don't care to relive them as of now.

On this issue, Best of luck to all.
Danny