Theft on the farm - 2

So before Christmas I posted that my tree stand had been stolen from the back of my woodlot. I set up my trail cam and two days later it was also stolen. It took me four days of sleuthing and a lot of thought, but I went thru every possible suspect I could come up with until I came to two of the three guys hunting on my neighbors land. A talk to the neighbor revealed that only ONE guy was leasing the land. The neighbor called him and it turns out he lets his son and grandson hunt along the property line. We informed the Grandpa that we knew they had the property and he said he would look into it. Turns out the grandson was poaching on our land and helped himself to our equipment. All of it was returned with the SD card erased (per agreement) and no charges will be filed. Neighbor was deeply saddened that a kid he had known all his life would do this. Feel kind of bad for the grandpa too. Everyone seems pretty happy with us for not jumping on 911. Case closed.

Sounds like the kid learned a lesson. I feel sorry for the Grandpa also, but I am glad it worked out the way it did.
Richard in NW SC

As long as all parties involved are satisfied, that's great.Hopefully he learned his lesson and things don't get ugly for him at a later date.

Sounds like it worked out for the best. A few years ago my wife and I were out for a morning walk up the road, and two young boys - probably 16 or so drove past us. We continued on and when we returned and walked past our mailbox I noticed our mailbox had been severely damaged, and an electronic driveway sensor (our house is approx. 400 feet or so up the hill) was gone. The two boys were the only vehicle that had gone by, and the mailbox and sensor were fine when we left. Something told me to take a drive and see if I could locate the vehicle. Keep in mind this is on a Sunday morning, and this is a rural community and easy to spot this vehicle. I first drove across a small low water crossing and as I suspected, I located our damaged driveway sensor in the water. We made a circle of about 10 miles and on the way back sure enough I spotted the pickup with the two boys. I told my wife to get a license plate, and I proceeded to contact the local sheriff office (had very little hope in that doing anything - you would have to know this group). About two hours went by and a deputy called stating he had the two boys stopped, and they were denying they had done anything. I told him they had two choices......they either come and settle up damages, or we could all take a trip to the office, where I would file a property damage complaint against the boys. In about an hour the deputy, two boys and their parents were in my driveway asking how they could make this right. Since the driveway sensor cost me $100, I told them I would settle for $100 if they would fish the damaged sensor out of the cold water and bring it to me. Just happened one of the boys father was a neighbor, and a local rural fire chief. I had experienced a similar incident where my boy had damaged some property, but unfortunately the property owners were not as forgiving and he ended up in court, and not only cost an attorney, but paying for way more than was actually damaged. I just feel it works out best when things can be settled without the lawyers, and courts involved, and everyone learns from the experience. I know I learned from both experiences, and try to do the right thing.

I'm sure glad to see somebody catch a one of these damn thieves, should of had you working on my case a few years ago. House got burglarized while we were on vacation...kids had coin collections, all gone except they each had a fancy mint set from the year they were born with their name on it, wife and me had a sack of silver coins including around a 100 old silver dollars and I saved every bicentennial quarter since 1976 plus we had about 6 of the new quarter books, some 2 dollar bills and a couple hundreds. Think I know who did it and the detective seemed to agree but claimed he needed 3 suspects to do a lie detector test.

Good detective work. I am glad you found out who it was and you got your stuff back.

Good: around here they issue a letter to the villain (kid) Telling him not to be on the land and can file it with sheriff or game warden. IF he comes back it elevates the charges!!!

Good detective work on your part. Good thing the grandfather didn't get defensive, a lot of folks will not tolerate any criticism of their family, right or wrong.

Had a minor expense with a chair I had built and placed on a neighbor's property This chair was placed below a rock face and sat on a shelf. From the chair I could see the fence line between the three properties. This chair was made with a five eighths exterior plywood seat. The seat was connected to the frame with 8 one and a half inch screws. Now this seat has been up there for the last twelve years.

On opening day of the deer season, I climbed up the wet slippery leaf covered hill to find that some no good had torn the seat completely off the frame. The screws were still in place. There was no sign of the former seat.

My conclusion is that the son of the new owner of the second adjoining property didn't like the fact that I could see there property and destroyed the seat. The new owner is from out of town and not the most impressive individual. Seems to think that he is better than these country bumpkins. Comes across as Mr. Big Shot.

My solution to the problem will be to place four telephone poles along the property line and erect a nice big high deer stand with plenty of windows overlooking his property. Will also have plenty of trail cams overlooking everything. I have the telephone poles that I got from the REA when they replaced them with taller ones.

May not get a lot of satisfaction out of the project, but it will be fun to pull the Big Shots chain. Might even catch his kid in the act an have him arrested for trespass. In WI we don't have to post our land. All land is considered closed to outsiders unless they have permission to be there.

As an aside, WI landowners are not liable for anyone who enters or recreates on our property. You can't set up traps to injure the trespasser. All I would need would be a picture of someone's back tag number.

You got that right! Fortunately, I have a very good neighbor who handled all the intermediary work with his old friend and the friend's worthless grandson. There is only a few days left to hunt, but they have been told they are done for the year. Funny thing...the sneak thieves ratted out another party in the process. I was informed that someone has been entering the property on the opposite corner. They cut thru a different neighbors property and have been entering my SE cornfield to hunt. I had some inkling of this already as I found tracks on the lane and someone dropped a flashlight one night. Modern folk don't believe that any of us can follow up a trail anymore. I guess I have to put an end to this but I have mixed emotions. My best yield was from that field. Mayhap he done me a service?

Hope you're having a good holiday up yonder! I have one more load for the elevator up by you...then I can ride a desk for a couple months.

(quoted from post at 14:42:09 12/29/15) Think I know who did it and the detective seemed to agree but claimed he needed 3 suspects to do a lie detector test.

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Contrary to what the TV shows say, lie detectors don't detect lies. They read blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity, but not lies. A nervous person telling the truth can fail and a cold blooded sociopath lying can pass.

You did right handling it that way, good job

While you did well for this time I sure hope the agreement also included;
You will not hesitate to call 911 if he did not learn his lesson this time and you catch him on your land again for any reason.

My neighbor has shut down hunting for the last week of the season. The grandpa has banned his grandson from the property. Of course, being a realist, it is likely next year all will be back to normal. Hunting along that particular stretch is going to be difficult for them in the future, however. I have a local police officer who has asked repeatedly if he and his two sons could hunt my property. My regular hunter did not show up this year so I think maybe I'll give the officer a call. If he is no longer interested, maybe I will get him to post it in the station.

I'm not a big believer in people learning their lessons, but have to pass along I have a good friend whose son got a job at Walmart and was letting his friends through checkout without paying for some big ticket electronics. I thought, what a worthless kid! Well, his folks disciplined him, he stayed out of jail and made restitution. That has been twenty years, he is now a respectable plumbing contractor, has about six employees, and the best I can tell, scrupulously honest like his dad. They (we) all deserve a chance.

It's good to see parents/grandparents who don't stand behind the kids, right or wrong, but let the kids take the rap.

Don't know if any of ya'll are familiar with Thomas Sowell, a black conservative columnist, also a Marine Corp veteran. He calls them like he sees them, and he's usually right.

Anyway, in one column he said when his sister's kids got to be teenagers, she called them together and said, "I want you to know that if any of you ever get into trouble and wind up in jail, by law you're entitled to make one phone call. Don't waste your phone call on me."

You handled it well Dave.