Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's just a vacation home in Mendocino County CA. We have a lot of those there. Nothing growing there except for weed (the real weed, not the snoop dog weed). I go there once in a few months.
The house had been broken in before, the last being by the infamous "red bearded bandit". But more often I find trash at different pockets of the land, suggesting people were hanging out in the woods, on my deck, etc. This is not accidental trespassing, because we are an enclosed community with a entrance gate.
I don't expect to find people in the house when I arrive next time; if at all, I think it would be seeing people on my land. So I need a plan in place to handle the situation.
if you are in an enclosed community, isnt there a security force? Ive never heard of a gated community without private security. Could you install security cameras and have an alert sent to a private security force that you hired, so they could take action against the trespassers?
It's just a vacation home in Mendocino County CA. We have a lot of those there. Nothing growing there except for weed (the real weed, not the snoop dog weed). I go there once in a few months.
The house had been broken in before, the last being by the infamous "red bearded bandit". But more often I find trash at different pockets of the land, suggesting people were hanging out in the woods, on my deck, etc. This is not accidental trespassing, because we are an enclosed community with a entrance gate.
I don't expect to find people in the house when I arrive next time; if at all, I think it would be seeing people on my land. So I need a plan in place to handle the situation.
Motion sensor lights might help. Maybe having an alarm installed with motion detectors around your deck and a monitoring service to call the cops, or the community security, if you have security. Even a loud alarm siren might help. People around the property leaving trash are probably teenage kids partying. You can set up security cameras almost anywhere these days, and they can be monitored on your phone or tablet. We have cameras in both of our garages, and on all the exterior doors of our house, which can be easily accessed with our tablet, wherever we are. You can use battery powered trail cams mounted in the trees around the places where you frequently find the trash might help you to identify who is sneaking in to your property.
If it were me, I'd carry my weapon on arrival, and if I had to go out in the night to check things out. If I caught someone on the property, I'd stand behind cover, and yell at them that I'm armed and that they'd better get the hell out or I'll start shooting. Maybe even fire one round into the ground for effect. Then you will see some folks beating feet to get the heck out.
. But more often I find trash at different pockets of the land, suggesting people were hanging out in the woods, on my deck, etc. This is not accidental trespassing, because we are an enclosed community with a entrance gate.
.
How big is the parcel of land that you rightfully control? Your "gated community" comments make it sound like you're in a sub-division, but your comments about finding remote collections of trash make it sound much bigger.
I'd be greatly tempted to have someone drop me off there for a week (no car in the drive) and just watch what's going. You might end up being surprised that your trespassers are your good neighbors, just being irresponsible uninvited guests.
if you are in an enclosed community, isnt there a security force? Ive never heard of a gated community without private security. Could you install security cameras and have an alert sent to a private security force that you hired, so they could take action against the trespassers?
It is possible that kids or friends of other owners in that community are the trespassers. Gated security is of no use in that case.
Just for the sake of anyone reading this, this poster's interpretation is way, way off. Don't follow this advice, please.
Lol how so? Please enlighten me.
I know my rights and the gun laws here. You don't have to retreat here on your own property if there's a threat unlike other states where a robber will get a paper cut and sue the homeowner for it being too dangerous for him to rob and win.
I wouldn't use lethal force but I would keep a gun on a trespasser until the cops came. What's so awful about that?
Varies on whether the person is a squatter on your land in a rural area, or if the person found a thoroughfare to which they were- cutting thru.
Post signs.
Install lights.
Tell them your property has a 25$ tour fee Smith and Wesson will be right along to give the opening introduction.
Seriously I do not recommend the tour idea. Do the rational preventative measures .
I'm assuming these trespassers are not four legged or short on bus fare?
In my particular case, I haven't seen the intruder; my property is unoccupied most of the time; when I arrive after an absence I just see garbage scattered around certain spots. I am preparing for the event when I do encounter the intruder when I arrive.
I want the intruder dealt with by the police. But in my case police is 30 min away; I think one of the below are more likely to occur:
1) The intruder leaves (seems there will be no consequence for the trespassing)
2) There is a confrontation
So I want to know how others deal with this type of issue.
Install cameras to record the intrusion and notify you of their occurrences.
I believe that at the heart of this discussion is an even larger issue. If your everyday citizen was entitled to detain other citizens against their will, where do you draw the line?
There are a lot of imbalanced people out there who would gleefully abuse the privilege. How do you distinguish between "custody" vs "kidnapping"?
I'm by no means trying to be an advocate for trespasser "rights". Goodness knows I've had my fill of the problem, mostly due to the way many of them tend to help themselves to whatever isn't nailed down.
But, I'm not quite ready to be any advocate for "the ends justify the means" mentality, either. Too many kooks out there on both sides of the fence.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Smith and Wesson will be right along to give the opening introduction. 