Well I was headed home with my wife and three young kids last night. I was just trying to bide some time so the kids would fall asleep. I decided to drive down a gravel road that I had driven before to show my wife some beautiful homes that sat throughout the landscape. I was also hoping to spot some deer so the kids would light up. As I drove I noticed a guy speeding down the gravel road on a four wheeler, trailing us right before dark. There was not a single "no trespassing" sign or anything, I thought it was a public road. I started to turn around and the guy cut me off so I could not turn around. Mind you again, I had my wife and three small kids in the car with me. He got an angry look on his face and said, "can I help you!". I said, "not really". He asked the same question again in the same tone. I again replied, "not really". I did a head to toe glance and noticed the hillbilly had a loaded gun on his hip and a knife strapped to his shin. He said, "well this is a private road!". It took everything inside of my body not to run my car right into that mother. But I am trying to model good behavior toward my kids and especially my son. I told him I have three small kids in the car and that I was just driving around enjoying the view....he went on about it being a private road and such. I looked at him and turnd the car around quickly, right by him because I had no idea what he was going to do next. Good lord guys, I would never treat someone like that, especially if they had their wife and kids in the car with them. I guess the guy was protecting his hunting grounds or something for I cannot figure it out. The road is a public road and when I drove as the road split it said nothing about it being a private road. Any of you all have any hillbilly stories of guys with weapons accosting you or your family. BTW, this thread is my therapy as I need to let the event go because I just want to slap the guy silly. He kind of resembled this...
For idiots like that is why every law abiding man should have a right to carry to protect his family and himself in the event of an emergency. You never know what you may run into, luckily he was not an actual threat to your families safety. My only story is when I was 11 or 12 fishing at a community pond I was robbed for .75 cents by some dude with a knife to my throat.
Buckeye, everything in my body wanted to hurt that guy..we were stuck. I kept hearing my kids saying things like, "what is wrong?" and such but I was in the zone. You know when your spidey senses start going off that something is not right. I don't carry a concealed weapon or anything nor do I own a pistol. I didn't cuss at the guy or anything, or show much anger because my son is very influential and I do not want him watching me act like that...my dad used to act the part when stuff like that went down and I kind of mirrored his behavior over the years. It is not something I want to pass onto my kids. How hard is it to talk to people correctly. Like, "hello sir, hope you are having a good night, I am Mr. XXX. This is a private road you know. I am having a lot of problems with trespassers (white lie) lately and was just seeing what you all were up to"....then a good healthy conversation would ensue and I would say bye and "I am sorry"....but no, the guy was a nut, and the best/worst part about it is he did not realize that he had encountered someone like me...boy that guy is lucky. I would have loved to taken it to him then called the cops. But again, this thread is my therapy because I tend to hold onto things for a long time.
Whats the chances that a meth lab were in the neighborhood or maybe some weed? Drugs tend to make people real paranoid.
Not sure Jim. But that particular part of the county is about the only part of the county that is out in the middle of nowhere. Most everywhere else is developed, minus the west end of the county. The road is long, windy and butts up to a large tract of land. I have no idea what the guys problem was as like I said, no no trespassing signs, not a single no hunting sign, nothing. I was just driving along at 15 mph enjoying the houses and the landscape. Then I look in my rear view mirror and see this guy hawking me down out of nowhere. Not one pleasant look from the man or anything. I think I have come a long way in how I handle these types of events. I remember when I was around 20, my dad and I were fishing on a pond we had permission to fish. Then we notice a guy in a canoe is slowly making his way towards us. He enters into a friendly conversation with us and asks us if we had permission to fish. We said yes, such and such said we could fish. He asked us to produce a signed document. We were like "huh?". At that point he starts screaming at us and rows his canoe toward us in an aggressive manner. My dad was almost 50 at the time so I told him to step to the side. As his canoe touched the bank I told the man I was going to drown him in the pond if he tried to lay a hand on me or my dad. He acted like he wanted to come on up out of his canoe and do something, but he chickened out. See how years of training by my wife have made me a better man?
"Any of you all have any hillbilly stories of guys with weapons accosting you or your family." Well he didn't have a weapon nor did he acost my family but it's a funny story anyway ... I came home one evening to find a guy sleeping in the living quarters of my horse trailer :huh: I lived in the middle of nowhere so I asked what the &*$# are you doing? :uzi: He explained he was hungover and had been left stranded by his buddies so walked down the road and found him a place to sleep it off. He was actually pretty polite and he even made the bed before he started the 6 mile walk into town BTW, you did the right thing bud, walking away is hard to do sometimes but it's alot safer when you got your family with you
not to be taking sides on it, but, consider the possibility that he may have a real problem with folks trespassing/poaching on his land and he is actively tryin to discourage the behavior... in other circumstances he might be the nicest guy you've ever met... I tend to agree that he came across a bit strong on it though just keep in mind he may have a darn good reason for bein a bit of an ass on his land... he should have marked the road private though
let me also add, down where we hunt in AL some folks have taken to setting up meth labs on remote property, particularly land that isn't theirs... apparently meth labs require a fair bit of privacy to operate and doing it on someone elses land reduces the risk...
I completely agree. But a man with his wife and 3 young kids in the car. What do he think we were capable of doing? I would have had no problem with him stopping us if he had just been polite and explained the situation. Even my wife did not see any signs on the way in or out.
Yeah, with the wife and kids in the car the fella went a little to far in my opinion, you did good in front of the family. Well done. this guy sounds like a loose canon.
NC, I don't know. If I had to guess after last nights encounter, I would have to say it is probably private. It is a long gravel road with some monster homes on the ridges that extend off to the left and right. I have driven the road before and I just like the scenery. I sometimes drive it on my break at work just to relax. Maybe you guys are right, maybe people are really stealing things off his property.
Either way, it seems like you handled the situation pretty well. I would do a little research before I ever went down there again. But then again, I might just forget about it and go find another nice road to check out. It's probably not worth messing with...next time, it could get worse.
Seven, I checked the county tax records. It seems that there are 8-9 parcels of property on the road. Half of them are owned by one man and his wife. I guess that is the guy that accosted me last night.
i don't think that means the road is private though unless there is some kind of provision in the tax record that stipulates it...
Some roads like that are private, it is just that anyone who owns a home own that road has the right of way to use the road. Likely he is the guy that maintains it, but everyone that lives there has the right to use it. Doesn't excuse his rudeness.
That is a pretty crazy story, the only thing I had had come close was a guy trying to stop my buddy and I from spotlighting around his house. We never even spotted his land, we just drove past to get to a farm that I had permission to hunt. At first he tried telling us it was a private road and I laughed at him and said it wasn't and drove off. After that he would follow us on a 4 wheeler past his driveway back to the farm we had permission to be on. Once this didn't stop us he decided that his best course of action was to wait for us with his buddy and son (maybe 8 years old) and run into the middle of the road and moon us... then try to start a fight. This all ended one night when we took another buddy of ours (he is a big dude, about 6'5" and 300lbs), the guys drove a quad into the middle of the road in front of us and stepped off and starting walking towards the truck, thats when my buddy hoped out and asked if the guy had a problem.... he got on his quad and never had another problem with him. We talked to the landowner of the farm past his place and he said the guy was a real tool, there was a piebald in the area and he didn't want anybody hunting any of the property around his.