Posted on 05/23/2022 5:39:30 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Jacob Cantu says he nixed a major land deal due to plans for an open-field gun range which would have impacted his business and family's safety. The government reportedly plans to use eminent domain to take the land and build it anyway.
A Freer man is accusing the federal government of potentially using eminent domain to take his land for "pennies on the dollar" after negotiations to buy the land fell through.
Jacob Cantu, the owner of J.A. Cantu Ranch, told Laredo Morning Times the government is potentially planning to force the sale of 30 acres of his land for around $67,500 after he refused to sell it to them for $750,000 due to their insistence on building an open-field gun range. He says this would impact not only his hunting business on the remaining portions of his land but also introduce a safety risk to his family.
..."It sounds like you play games and tell people what they want to hear and then steal the property for nothing. My property was not even the first choice."
(Excerpt) Read more at lmtonline.com ...
Government, the best thieves in the business.
It happened to me. My first house was taken by the city government. This began my absolute disgust of all things government.
Had heard the ads for ‘title deed insurance’ so many times that eventually, I called up my insurance company to ask about it, where I was already covered for it, whether there was a rider to buy that specifically covered it etc. They had no clue what I was talking about.....
Laredo Texas
Jacob Cantu, the owner of J.A. Cantu Ranch, told Laredo Morning Times the government is potentially planning to force the sale of 30 acres of his land for around $67,500 after he refused to sell it to them for $750,000 due to their insistence on building an open-field gun range.
Our county owns a gun range.
Probably for training federal corrections and law enforcement.
That being said, after reading the article it's pretty clear that this guy is trying to game the system. They want it for a customs and border patrol station and the gun range would be standard for something like that, agents have to have a place to practice. No Texan that runs a hunting operation is going to object to a gun range because he's worried about it endangering his family, that's nonsense that some Karen from Maryland would come up with. He knows better than that, he's just using it for dramatic purposes. He came up with the $750,000 asking price for 30 acres of South Texas scrub land that's almost worthless, the government came back with $67,500 which is still about 10X what it's really worth.
Basically they approached him about buying the land, he saw an opportunity to milk the government and put out a ridiculous price. They told him to pound sand and they'd use eminent domain instead. I don't like eminent domain, but as a taxpayer I also don't want the government paying $750,000 of my money for land that's worth a few thousand. I don't want them paying $1000 for a toilet seat with my money and I don't want them wasting money by getting taken by an opportunist on a land deal either.
FWIW, I know what he's doing because I've done something similar myself. I was approached about putting a road through some of my property and they made me an offer that I thought I could improve on. I named a price that was four times what they originally offered, they settled at a price of three times the original offer. I got more money than the land was really worth, and they got their road. They don't want to have to use eminent domain, it's a lot of court costs and time for them. The difference between his situation and mine is that while I named a high price, it wasn't a crazy price. What he's wanting is ridiculous for that nearly worthless land which is why they're balking. Now he's crying to the press hoping to put pressure on them to come up with more money.
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