Jesse Hardy gestures in front of his home in the middle of the Everglades, June 17, 2004. Hardy finally packed up to move, acknowledging he'll have to leave some of his belongings behind on land the state claimed for an environmental restoration project. Hardy, 70, a disabled former Navy Seal, reluctantly reached a settlement and got a check for $4.95 million last summer for the secluded property on which he's lived for three decades. (AP Photo/J.Pat Carter)
$4.95 million will buy a lot of land here in Texas full of more deer and turkeys than he ever saw in Florida.
I wonder if they are going to screw him for Capital gains .
Read this as: "I can't shoot free meat out of season off my front porch anymore."
It's hard to feel too badly for the man and his family. 5 million.
I don't know who got screwed worst. This guy who bought into a land scam in the 1970's or the U.S.Government (us!) spending 4.95 mil for 160 acres of swampland!
What a guy. We need more like him.
This sounds like gold-digging, but I have read a lot about this guy. He really seemed to want to stay on the land and give it to his child. He could have taken millions for it a couple of years ago but chose to fight the state. He lost. At least he bled the bastards for almost 5 million. Emminent domain at its worst.
Hard to take this guy seriously. He won't see turkeys on that particular road. But for $5 million he can buy swampland with turkeys someplace. Heck, that's enough for 300,000 Butterballs.
Norms Revenge, your initial post on this thread, brought back to mind one of my favorite jokes, which I have posted a couple of times to freepers before on threads with this similar topic, but it's one of my favorite jokes, and I tell it proudly whenever I am in the vicinity of one or more "tree- huggers". I hope you like it:
A scruffy, unshaven, underfed , backwoods looking individual is standing at the defense table with his public defender in a Florida court of of law, waiting for the judge to enter to begin the trial
for which he is charged and pleading guilty with killing a Florida panther.
Seated in the front row of the courtroom are his equally shabbily dressed and undernourished wife, and their four small children. All talking suddenly stops and everyone rises as the bailiff announces to the courtroom the arrival of the judge who is to preside over the trial. The judge tells the courtroom to be seated as he sits and begins the trial by reading the charges of the defendant to the now totally quiet court.
The judge begins;" Sir you are in this court of law today charged with the criminal offense of killing a Florida panther, which is a felony in this great state. I have carefully reviewed your past criminal history, of which you have none, and have also found out that the small monthly checks that you do receive for being physically handicaped, and no longer able to to be gainfully employed, is barely enough to sustain you and your family in the simple backwoods lifestyle that you have by nessesity have had to endure for the past decade.
"Since this is your first ever offense, I am not going to give you any jail time for this crime, but I am going to fine you for it, and small monthly payments will be taken out of your monthly check, untill the fine is totally paid.
Now before I send you to the clerk to finish your paperwork concerning this, is there anything you would like to say to this court?"
The frail man rises to his feet and replies "Yes I do your Honor. I did not kill this animal for fun or sport, I killed this animal to survive. The meat from this animal sustained my wife and family for over two weeks, and after the hide was sufficienly tanned, it was made in to small articles of clothing for my wife and four children. I did not waste this animal your Honor"
With hardly a dry eye in the courtroom, the scruffy gentleman returns to his seat. The judge replies " I believe you, but my verdict still stands. This trial is adjoured, and you can follow the bailiff to the clerks office to finish the legal paperwork, but before you do, would you please approach the bench?"
The defendant nods in the affirmative, and makes his way to the judge's bench. The judge pushes his courtroom microphone
out of sounds reach, leans over his bench, and softly but inquisitively inquires;" I'd like to ask you one question before you depart. What in the world does a Florida Panther taste like?"
The shabbily dressed gentleman raises his right hand to his scruffy beard and begins to rub it in deep thought as he ponders the judge's question, and then after a few seconds, gives the judge his reply.
"Well your Honor, that's kind of difficult question to answer you see, because it's kind of a toss-up between a bald eagle and a manatee........."
Why was this a land scam? He paid $60K for 160 acres on which he was able to build a home and live. That doesn't sound like a scam to me. The only scam I see is the government taking 5 million from the taxpayers to buy a shack from a guy who deosn't really want to sell it so they can tear it down and add another 160 acres of swamp to the biggest swamp America.
mmmmmmm.... I'd trade the turkeys & deer to get away from the mosquitoes. And the poisonous snakes. Oh, and $4.95 million ....??????
You know this guy?
Jesse is holding up the wrong finger.
Jesse is holding up the wrong finger.
Five million BUCKS??? He'll be crying all the way to the bank - in his chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce.
Why does he have to leave some of his belongings behind? Surely he could hire an entire moving company for .00001% of his profit? I feel badly that he lost his true dream home, all the same.
I live in a suburban development in metrowest Boston, and I get deer and turkeys in my backyard all the time. (Not to mention foxes and coyotes, also).
Is Florida swamp land really worth $30,000+ an acre? Or are the taxpayers getting screwed again?