Trespassing

Had to vent a little...

Yesterday, while at my cabin in the middle of the woods,  I hear voices up on my driveway. I drove up to see what’s going on, and find a guy holding a beer with his young daughter. At this point he’s a couple hundred yards off the public road.

I politely asked him how he was doing, and informed him he was on private property. He then looked at me like I had three heads. Thinking he didn’t get the point, I told him he just walked past three “no trespassing” signs. 

His response? “I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal”. 

Taking into account he had his young daughter with him, I was very calm and factual. I told him he’s walking right through the middle of my hunting and shooting land, and what he’s doing is illegal. 

He continued to push and said “he’s just going for a walk with his daughter”. I politely told him he should set a better example for his daughter by not blatantly ignoring trespass laws. After that, he turned around and left.

People never cease to amaze me. 

My neighbor was goose hunting his property today and found some guy had drove through his field into the back of his property (parked his truck along the back side of a brushy area) before my neighbor had got to the field and was bow hunting out back. He must of thought nobody would see his truck. He never wanted to post his property. Now its posted. People are bold.

I was out pheasant hunting on our property early this morning. I saw a truck coming down a trail with four people in it.  I asked them what they were doing.  The driver started yelling at my dog to stay away from his truck.  He then said the were looking for better access to an FMLH parcel that borders our land.  I told him to get the hell out of here.  He f bombed me, told me that I can not deny him access and that he'd be back with the sheriff.  I told him to bring the sheriff, a tow truck and an ambulance because he if I see him again he is going to need all three.  Are people really that stupid?

I can totally relate. In 1990 I purchased a hobby farm, at the end of a private road, where by land adjoined the Kiel Marsh State Wildlife Area.  The woman who owned the place prior, traveled throughout Europe most of the time so people seemed to think because she was gone...the place was theirs.  Within a week I posted a "Private Road" sign & it's amazing...more accurately disgusting that so many people continued a 1/3 of a mile past the sign, until they had to turn around, where one of my outbuildings were.  I let my dogs run loose as there was no worry of them being hit by cars.  So many of the people, obviously knowing they were tresspassing, wouldn't even slow down for a dog that ran to greet them.  The ignorance is truly sickening.  My first deer hunt...my uncle helped me construct a tree stand in my woods along the marsh.  Didn't see anything in the morning.  With about 30 minutes of shooting inn the afternoon(shot more deer within the first & last hour) as everyone knows.  So I'm sitting in my new stand, in my new woods, first time ever owning country property...anticipating crunching leaves & a big buck to appear.  Instead I hear a car getting closer & closer.  Down one of my prairie hills comes a beat up car.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Was there some kinda emergency I thought?  Guy gets out...just a blaze orange hat, grabs his gun from back seat and takes a few steps before he spots me, hope in his car and took off.  I was in shock so all I did was yell hey, WTF.  Number one, the ignoramus drove thru a field that wasn't his.  Two...there are trespassing laws in Wisconsin. Number 3 he didn't have 50% of his body clothed in blaze orange. 4...it was 10 minutes b4 closing.  5 HE Ruined what should have been a wonderful memory, me hunting from a stand my Uncle helped me position & build, on land that while I never felt I owned it...more like it was a privlidge...filled with pride that I could call it mine....the backwards ignoramus ruined it.   Looking back I wish I would have shot out his back window, but that might not have ended well.  

So I can totally relate.  As years past I found guys in duck skiffs on my ponds, atvs coming thru my woods while I was hunting and I caught a perv looking thru binoculars at my GF laying on our deck.  Practically every person who had ever asked permission I agreed to....but to those who think they can disrespect land rights, trespassing laws, basic human decency...stay off private land.  If you want to be there, ask permission.  If your denied at least you can feel self respect.  Doing otherwise negates any you may have.  

Thanks for sharing your story.   I hope you don't have years of these headaches as I did.  Take Care

My first piece of land  , the land next door was rented out for deer season one year . I had an old guy walk across 120 yards of open land to tell me I was trespassing  . Best part was there was a drainage ditch as a boundary  , and he had to cross it .

Ran into a guy walking down the logging road shortly after we bought our hunting land. He acted all conversational like he was supposed to be there. I politely informed him that he was on private property and that he had walked past at least two no trespassing signs. He said, "oh Joe musta put them up". I asked who Joe was and he told me that he was the landowner. I told him that wasn't possible as I was the landowner. He said, "oh, Joe don't own this no more? He let me hunt here for years." I knew he was full of it because we bought the land via private sale and the previous landowner's name wasn't Joe. I told him that I didn't like trespassers or liars and told him to get the hell out of there and not to come back or I'd have him fined. Fortunately I haven't seen him since. 

No group of people is worse for trespassing than the guys who run dogs for bears.  The dogs get on a trail and where the bear goes so do the dogs.  A lot of time they go 3-5 miles crossing countless private parcels.  South of 64 it is not an issue but up north it is a daily routine when bear season is going.  I now just let them on because they will do it anyway, at least they now buy me a drink if I run into them at the saloon.

I agree with beefing up the trespassing laws/fines and encourage  stricter enforcement by both police and wardens as they do out west and south... would be another source of revenue, probably help reduce the raiding of cottages and such... maybe even call to add to the number of wardens... plus a lot more other violations caught due to trespassing investigations...

Some of the same inconsiderate people hunting in the north woods, parking on logging roads so the next guy can't get through. They always have an excuse. 

This is a very easy problem to fix.  And, it's part of the reason I always have a chainsaw in the truck.

Hopefully the spring hearings topic on wardens enforcing trespassing laws pushes for warden enforcement in the future. I agree with snake, you have to get a little aggressive so they will remember not to come back. Give them an inch and they take a mile. 

Some of the same inconsiderate people hunting in the north woods, parking on logging roads so the next guy can't get through. They always have an excuse.

Good luck,

This unfortunate situation would change quickly if Wisconsin treated trespass violations with the same severity as many of our western states. Heavy fines/confiscation along with wardens being the primary enforcer of trespassing makes a huge difference. 

Unfortunately the "locals" will quickly learn your patterns and treat your property as one of their own.  Even public land will be scoured for trail cameras and tree stands when you may not be there, even when legally put up.  It is the world we now live in.

It happens to us all the time.  We have a 50 acre parcel along the county road and the two neighbors to the north and west of us (we get along with them fine) have deeded access to go through our property. All of us have done great jobs grooming a nice main road to get through and to our respected properties. All of us have clearly posted no trespassing signs and we have had nonstop idiots trespassing since the beginning of time.  People literally drive their trucks from our land all the way to the far back of the neighbor's property.  It's a little over 1 1/4 miles to get across our 50 acres and the two neighbor's 160 acres.  It's just really frustraiting.  I caught one lady walking her dog down the middle of our property during bow season.  Same excuse as above "I thought it looked like a nice place for a walk".  Also had a guy drive his truck right up to my rifle stand asking for directions to some random person's property.

In the big scheme of things, we’ve been pretty fortunate with trespassers in the decades we’ve had the property.

About ten years ago, I was cutting wood and found a mini van parallel parked across half of my driveway, off the public road. This was directly below a no trespassing sign.

I hung around to see what was going on, and eventually an elderly lady came walking back to the van. She said she thought it would be a good place to park while going for a stroll. 

I feel your pain!  I owned 40 acres in Jackson County and had constant trespass problems. I had it posted on all four sides and had a locked gate on a private road. I had found signs of someone using my tree stands with cigarette butts below two of the stands with soda and pop cans on my road. My cameras were either twisted off their original postion or the SD Cards were stolen. I made several calls to the Sheriff's Office being told that the trespassers were mostly high school kids partying. I had one Sheriff's Dept. supervisor suggest that I should be dropped off and hide in the woods to catch the trespassers. I couldn't belive what I was being told never calling them again whenever I found signs of trespassing. I no longer own the property and hunt else where not having those problems anymore. Good Luck in todays world if you own property. It appears that your land is everyones land.

oh, it is talked about...people moving from the cities, buying up land, and are pushy to the limit....there are bad apples everywhere....rural and city....but the arrogance goes to city for the most part......