Had an Interesting Night

[Steve_In_29]

Things got a little interesting here night before last.

Neighbor calls me to ask if I am home as he sees a vehicle sitting near my gate with at least one person moving around. Said he first thought it was us coming home but it had sat there too long for that so he called.

So I grab a pistol and flashlight to go investigate as he is also making his way over.

As I get close to gate (but still can't see it due to trees) my dogs alert and go running into the scrub barking. Since my stealth is blown I loudly tell dogs to, "go get them" and holler out, "whose there". Almost immediately I hear a car door close and the vehicle starts to move off rapidly. So I crank off a round to speed them on their way. I fired IN A SAFE DIRECTION and it's legal to shoot on my property in any case.

I move on to gate and my also armed neighbor gets there the same time as I do and we see the vehicle has stopped a good distance down the road (too far away for us to walk to) and appears to have at least one person walking around with a flashlight. We watched it until it finally drove off out of sight.

We couldn't really see much with flashlights so I went out the next morning to look around. Didn't find any foot prints around my gate that weren't mine or the neighbors but I could see fresh tire tracks about 25 yards further up the road where a vehicle had dropped a tire into the ditch. So that was possibly what neighbor had seen. I don't think the vehicle had dropped the tire in the ditch as it tried to leave since there were a couple footprints over part of the tire track when I looked closer.

Made me feel better as it made more sense then someone trying to scope out my (lights on) place by going over the barb wire and through the scrub on a moonless night. I'm not a drug lord or on someone's hit list after all. LOL

Still it never hurts to let the word spread that people are on the look out and armed around our places.


And before someone bitches about being a meany and just chasing people off that need help, a few months ago I had gone down at night to check out a stopped car where my wash crosses the road and yes I was discreetly armed. My neighbor's home alone wife also texted me to ask what it was as she could hear yelling and said she had her AR out in case.

Turned out to be a woman with a prosthetic leg and her special needs kid (who was doing the yelling and adding to the woman's stress) with a blown tire and no clue how to get the spare down from under her SUV. Myself and another guy who stopped got her tire changed and loaded her SUV back up so she would get on her way.

 

[Lobo2087]

you are an idiot. Not a meany chasing someone off, you are just an idiot. You fired off a round regardless of it being ok to do so on your property for no valid reason other than a car leaving fast for an unknown reason, no obvious threat to you, and you in your words wanted to speed them along. Why? because they were on a public road NEAR your gate for reasons even now you dont know? Even the 500 foot rule doesnt apply here. And before you go off on me I dont care if I hurt your feelings.

 

[cool arrow]

wow...just wow.

let me know when all of your guns are being fire-saled to pay for your attorney...

 

[TheAccountant]

Things got a little interesting here night before last.

Neighbor calls me to ask if I am home as he sees a vehicle sitting near my gate with at least one person moving around. Said he first thought it was us coming home but it had sat there too long for that so he called.

So I grab a pistol and flashlight to go investigate as he is also making his way over.

As I get close to gate (but still can't see it due to trees) my dogs alert and go running into the scrub barking. Since my stealth is blown I loudly tell dogs to, "go get them" and holler out, "whose there". Almost immediately I hear a car door close and the vehicle starts to move off rapidly. So I crank off a round to speed them on their way. I fired IN A SAFE DIRECTION and it's legal to shoot on my property in any case.

I move on to gate and my also armed neighbor gets there the same time as I do and we see the vehicle has stopped a good distance down the road (too far away for us to walk to) and appears to have at least one person walking around with a flashlight. We watched it until it finally drove off out of sight.

We couldn't really see much with flashlights so I went out the next morning to look around. Didn't find any foot prints around my gate that weren't mine or the neighbors but I could see fresh tire tracks about 25 yards further up the road where a vehicle had dropped a tire into the ditch. So that was possibly what neighbor had seen. I don't think the vehicle had dropped the tire in the ditch as it tried to leave since there were a couple footprints over part of the tire track when I looked closer.

Made me feel better as it made more sense then someone trying to scope out my (lights on) place by going over the barb wire and through the scrub on a moonless night. I'm not a drug lord or on someone's hit list after all. LOL

Still it never hurts to let the word spread that people are on the look out and armed around our places.


And before someone bitches about being a meany and just chasing people off that need help, a few months ago I had gone down at night to check out a stopped car where my wash crosses the road and yes I was discreetly armed. My neighbor's home alone wife also texted me to ask what it was as she could hear yelling and said she had her AR out in case.

Turned out to be a woman with a prosthetic leg and her special needs kid (who was doing the yelling and adding to the woman's stress) with a blown tire and no clue how to get the spare down from under her SUV. Myself and another guy who stopped got her tire changed and loaded her SUV back up so she would get on her way.

F'n Californians.

 

[Steve_In_29]

LOL I fired in a safe direction on my own property. No chance of hitting anyone or thing. Person couldn't even say who or where the shot report came from. Could have been me...could have been my neighbor...heck could have been the guy I heard shooting the other evening. No lawyer is going to take that case. Without a warrant the Sheriff can't even come past my locked gate to ask me about it.

The issue is we have scum bags out here and no reasonable expectation of law enforcement showing up in a timely manner. So night time in the boonies with no real reason to be stopped near my place on a very lightly traveled dirt road, it's better to keep them aware that it's not safe for them to try to ply their trade in the area.

I also don't need a "valid reason" to shoot on my own property, thank you very much. I am also sitting on 36 acres so it's not like I walked out on my suburban lawn with a neighbor a stones throw away.

This is also in an area where when asked about how to deal with trespassers on people's property, a Deputy Sheriff replied, "you got guns right?"

 

[Joe_Blacke]

You really don’t understand the statutes.

Yes you may be able to target shoot, but you were also threatening/intimidating and unlawfully threatening the use of deadly physical force.

 

[Steve_In_29]

Sounds like a real CA reach there given the circumstances.

Guess I should have just done the proper AZ thing and said I dialed 911 for a suspicious activity and then bitched about how I got no response from LE.

So then everyone could call me a CA pussy for not taking matters into my own hands. LOL


On edit: Even in CA out in the desert boonies people are met with guns and shot at without having the Sheriff come a running.

 

[hairygreek]

I'm glad there's somewhere you can still have a little freedom... however why not just say you're armed instead of firing a round? Whoever it is might decide to shoot back...

 

[Steve_In_29]

We didn't exactly have a conversation. Instead of yelling back "I'm just checking out my car" or some other non-threatening response to my hollering, "whose there" the person(s) rapidly took off in car. Which is a bit suspicious. It is pretty well known that most everybody out here is armed though so yelling out, "I have a gun" would be kind of a Capt Obvious thing.

 

[Steve_In_29]

By the way how many of you started yelling out the statutes in the theater during this...

 

[thom]

It looks like you need a sign on you gate that says " You are no longer a trespasser, you are now a TARGET. and leave it at that". And I wouldn't write this down about shooting your weapon.

 

[Solar_Empire]

By the way how many of you started yelling out the statutes in the theater during this...

But did he pop off a round into his lawn?

 

[redj]

We didn't exactly have a conversation. Instead of yelling back "I'm just checking out my car" or some other non-threatening response to my hollering, "whose there" the person(s) rapidly took off in car. Which is a bit suspicious. It is pretty well known that most everybody out here is armed though so yelling out, "I have a gun" would be kind of a Capt Obvious thing.

You left out the part where you said your dogs ran into the bushes barking and you yelled " Go get them. "
Wouldn't that be considered a threat ?

 

[Pipedoc]

Just because you can shoot, don't mean you should shoot. If they were on your property then maybe, just maybe. I'm thinking you need to read the chapter on responsible gun ownership again. Just my .02

 

[Steve_In_29]

By the way how many of you started yelling out the statutes in the theater during this...

But did he pop off a round into his lawn?

Sure seems to fit the bill of the previously mentioned...

threatening/intimidating and unlawfully threatening the use of deadly physical force.

 

[MarkItZero]

I wasn't there, not do I fully understand the situation this I'm unwilling to say in good conscience I wouldn't have behaved differently. However I would not be posting about it on the internet...

 

[Steve_In_29]

We didn't exactly have a conversation. Instead of yelling back "I'm just checking out my car" or some other non-threatening response to my hollering, "whose there" the person(s) rapidly took off in car. Which is a bit suspicious. It is pretty well known that most everybody out here is armed though so yelling out, "I have a gun" would be kind of a Capt Obvious thing.

You left out the part where you said your dogs ran into the bushes barking and you yelled " Go get them. "
Wouldn't that be considered a threat ?

At which point person with no bad intentions hearing that and dogs coming would most likely scream out, "hey I'm just working on my car" or some such. Jumping in the vehicle and speeding off tends to give the opposite impression.

The point was deterrence, letting them know we were on the watch and could defend ourselves. So that I or neighbors WOULDN'T have to possibly deal with them breaking in at a later point. If they had bad intentions they are reconsidering them now. If they didn't then other then a bit of a scare no harm came to them. Like I clearly stated I didn't shoot AT anyone.

This didn't happen in a city where LE is just minutes away and cops are on patrol through the neighborhoods.

I must say I'm surprised at the amount of hand wringing going on here.

 

[Lobo2087]

We didn't exactly have a conversation. Instead of yelling back "I'm just checking out my car" or some other non-threatening response to my hollering, "whose there" the person(s) rapidly took off in car. Which is a bit suspicious.

Do you think they might have taken off so quick because some idiot in the dark was yelling for his dogs to get them without even finding out what was going on? This has nothing to do with california this has to do with being a common sense gun owner and knowing when it is an appropriate time to use it which obviously from your own description of events you do not. It isnt hand wringing it is common sense.

 

[Joe_Blacke]

By the way how many of you started yelling out the statutes in the theater during this...

Clint is an actor, in a movie. In the movies they often do things that can’t or shouldn’t be done in real life.

If you have a gun for defense, then it is on you to know when you are legally justified in using it. That is for both threatening and using any kind of force. The statutes determine when that is justified, and when you can be arrested, charged and prosecuted.

So far you haven’t described a situation where any level of force is necessary, much less deadly physical force. The car was not on your property, you didn’t identify any sort of threat. From your description you simply assumed. You also discharged your weapon after any possible threat was trying to leave, and for no other purpose than to make a point.

Like it or not, it sounds like you put yourself needlessly in a position where you can’t legally justify your actions. If you can’t convince a board of gun nuts that your actions were reasonable, you most likely wouldn’t convince a jury.

 

[What]

Perks of not living within city limits.