Sometimes things aren't worth dying for... Having approached a hunter who was trespassing on my family's land and then having a shotgun pointed at my head, it makes you think twice.
Please be careful confronting trespassers... Sometimes, the wisest thing is to observe from a distance, obtain the best descriptors you can and a license plate is very helpful if a vehicle is involved. Then make these reports to law enforcement and hope they are willing to assist you.
Please reread this and absorb it. I will say this; it is just as impossible to keep someone off your property, as it is to keep a bank from getting robbed, your car from getting broken into at the mall, or Anonymous from stealing some celebrities� personal info. The big issue here is how you handle a face-to-face confrontation, and how much help you can provide law enforcement about the particular property violation.
Is the trespassing an act of ignorance, or a lack of respect for you and your property? These two situations should be handled very differently. If it�s a father and a son with a snoopy rod, then a casual but firm conversation may be all that�s needed. If that person is obviously impaired, trying to hide when you approach them, or carrying a weapon, then I would retreat to a safe distance, and make a phone call to authorities as quickly as possible. Provide LE with as much info as possible, and certainly get the vehicle info if you can.
Well defined property lines, no trespassing postings, and controlled entryways give you a good start to protecting your property as best you can. If you�re a weekender as we are, do you make a quick drive around of your cabin/barn/property line fences and check for open doors, cut fences, or missing equipment, we do. If anything is disturbed, we stay in the truck and make a phone call.
I know a retreat may not be the most satisfying action, but having been in hundreds of very tense shooting/stabbing situations throughout my career, I always tried to be situationally aware and leave myself an exit route. Confronting a person in the woods on your property is no different.
If a violator cut your fence, or just crawled over it, then find or fix that entry location and put an additional no trespassing sign right there. That may be all that�s needed. You let that person know that you know they came in, and that it�s unacceptable for them to do so. As said, placing game cameras there may be a great option for documentation also.
And lastly, we all think we know how we would handle a face-to-face trespassing violation, but we really don�t until it happens. As a police officer, I think CJB would agree that walking into a potentially violent situation can be handled by �What the F*(& are you doing here?� or �Can I help you?� One response can easily escalate the situation and put the trespasser on the defensive, and the other may calm things down just a smidge. The two goals should be 1, to get that person off your property and not have them come back, and 2, get safely back home to your family.
Just my 2 cents
