Posted on 05/08/2005 8:13:31 PM PDT by satchmodog9
Ohio dairy farmer Frank Sutliff was grinding cattle feed when he saw them again: all-terrain vehicles shredding his alfalfa fields.
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When he shouted to the riders over the engine whine that they were trespassing, they smashed him over the head, he said.
"I went down, and they just started in on me … hit me, kicked me, broke my leg," said Sutliff, 46. "I crawled into the truck, drove back to the house and dialed 911."
One man paid a $100 trespassing fine. Another spent five days in jail. All denied wrongdoing.
Across rural America, angry skirmishes are increasingly common between property owners and off-roaders squaring off over dwindling open space.
Long accustomed to battling environmentalists for access to public lands, off-roaders now find themselves at odds with farmers, ranchers and a flood of new residents moving to the country for peace and quiet.
As Bob Buster, a county supervisor in Riverside, Calif., put it, "You have these two clashing visions of the countryside."
Nationally, millions of acres have been developed in recent decades. At the same time, use of off-highway vehicles — a catch-all term for four-wheelers, dirt bikes and dune buggies — has exploded, up 700% to 36 million users since 1976. Off-road motorized sports are now a $4.8-billion industry. According to buyer surveys by manufacturers, 68% of owners of all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, ride on private land.
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I know a guy, he owns a few hundred acres in Herkimer County, NY.
Off-roaders have torn the place up.
Only, the local doctor, across the street, raised a rucus about it.
He had to sell and move. Life became - unbearable.
So...what should my FRIEND do?
Can your friend identify these yahoos in order to A) prosecuted for criminal trespass and simultaneously B) sue in small claims court for property damages.
Of course if these people made the doctor's life so unbearable he had to move, your friend may suffer a similar problem.
Find out where they live in the city, put your tractor on the trailer, go to town and plow their yard up.
I would simply run over them with My Jeep.
What can you do. The trash wins again. This country has become all about rewarding bad behavior. Tell him to take video and photos. I don't know what good it will do but at least he can document it when he is on trial for murder. The dirt also knows the police get called and it takes forever to get to the rural areas. They can easily evade a cruiser and they know it. Police won't really bother. Serve and protect my ass.
Problem with that is when they pay their 100 dollar ticket then they come after you harder. Nice to come home and find your house vandalised or your dog dead. I say shoot them. I have learned my lesson with formal complaints to the police.
Sounds like they are the land version of jet skiers.
Y'know what a caltrop is? They work. It's probably illegal to discuss piano wire here...
Not to mention the things are not street legal here and they are the primary mode of transportation for those who wish to drink and drive. It seems unreasonable to me that 50 mph down my street is ok.
Laser pointers make brake lights come on. (or, so I hear)
Next moron on my property gets a firearm dischrged in his general direction.
Bad move: noisy (illegal within 500' of a structure in my area). Hunting slingshots are fun - mine keeps the deer away from my flowers, and I can target well enough almost to 50 yards. Does your state require a carry permit on your own property?
Buy more bullets.
Once they've been cited and paid up you should initiate a civil suit for property damage. The citation and fine is pretty strong evidence of guilt in a civil suit because they've basically admitted guilt or been found guilty in criminal court which has a higher standard of evidence than civil court.
So your friend needs to document the evidence of the damage the costs of fixing the damage, and every other harm you can imagine up. Go after the one with the deepest pockets and get a fat judgement against him.
As for the thug/terror tactics that is a tough one if you can't get LE to stop turning a blind eye to it. PITA, but you may have to install a tone of security cameras to gather
evidence they can't ignore.
Unfortunately fighting a legal battle against people who don't respect the law and seem to be getting a pass from LE and the rest of society at large is expensive and requires a lot of determination.
I fear the U.S. is devolving into third world conflict resolution of bribery, kickbacks and corruption faster than I expected.
Chest high wires, wheel traps, etc etc. It's your property.
A slingshot hit to the chest should do it.
I didn't suggest that. :) Laser pointers 'freeze' the deer too. (or, so I've heard)
As an avid enduro motorcycle racer, 4-wheeler, and member of several Off-Highway Vehicle organizations, I know that the VAST majority of OHV users are great people who not only respect the wilderness and private property, but we also have work parties to maintain trails. In fact, we motorized users do while the preppie mountain bikers don't! They trash streams and trails and never participate in trail maintenance.
That said, anyone who decides to f*** up someone elses property, including public property, needs smashmouthed and hard. Judges should be, and usually are, willing to send the idiots to fix their mess and then "donate" a few hundred additional hours to the work parties. We always seem to have a dips*** or two in every work party. In fact, we petition the judges to give them to us. We get to teach them a bit about respecting the land and each other. We do it "nicely", but they get the point. Some even come to be respectable members. We police our own.
It's the cretins who go off roading on tempting private property who have ruined the group reputation.
I have a slingshot. Never thought of that one.
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