We finally arrested them!

[adkRoy]

First of all, I want to thank the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department for their help. I would never hesitate to call these guys for help.

On Friday we had a snow storm dump 5 inches in the morning. My Brother went over in the afternoon after the storm stopped. Prime time for deer to come out. When he got there, he found very fresh human tracks going across our field. He quickly got into a tree stand that he could see most of the fields on our farm. He wasn't in the stand 3 minutes when this yahoo tresspasser comes out of the woods 20 yards away from him. My brother yelled at him that he was tresspassing and he was going to have him arrested. The guy ran across our field and onto our neighbors land. My brother quickly got down and ran back to his car and called my dad and I who in turn called the sheriffs department. He then drove down the road to where the guys car was parked and noticed there were 2 sets of human tracks entering the woods. Well my dad, the sheriffs deputies, and I all got there the same time. We explained to them what was going on. after about 10 minutes here comes the guy walking down the road. At first he denied he was on posted land, then he said he had permission to hunt the land and thought it was owned by our neighbor who is a farmer and doesn't own the land the guys first tresspassed to get to ours. Then he said him and his buddy were driving around when a buck crossed the road in front of them and the jumped out and followed the tracks into the woods when my brother started yelling at him and he figured he better get off the land since it wasn't his. (DUH!!!) Well he got charged with tresspassing and we had to go down to the county sheriffs office to give statements to have them prosecuted. The deputies waited for the guy's buddy to come out of the woods while we went down to the station. They charged him with tresspassing and last we knew they were doing background checks for violations such as tresspassing, or any game violations. The deputies were very friendly, helpful, and they were all hunters and fisherman and totally understood how frustrating a situation like this is. We made new friends with the deputies and even invited them to come icefishing with us this winter.

[devil-man]

Had you seen these guys on your property before?
I was hunting at a friend's place yesterday and also encountered a tresspasser.
He took out of there so fast, it was like someone shot at him...

[adkRoy]

We've seen them around. The one guy has a relative that lives just around the corner from our farm. This ain't the first time they've been out "road hunting".

[adkRoy]

Well we had the sheriff's deputy out to the farm again. I pulled into our drive way the other day to do some shed antler hunting and it was loaded with roofing nails scattered all over it. The guy we had arrested for tresspassing just had his day in court a few days earlier. Now we can't prove it was him but we have no other enemies and it seems like a cowardly thing this guy would do. Luckily I did not puncture a tire. On the plus side we are going to use all of our free nails we got to build a new ice shanty this summer.

[Chucker]

Time to set up a trail camera at the end of the driveway 

[adkRoy]

Just found out from a state trooper, the fine for tresspassing in NY State is $250 and/or p to 15 days in jail.

[roonie]

is it legal to road hunt where this incident happened??

[adkRoy]

No!!!!!

[slt]

Just an observation here, I've noticed in many of your post that tresspassing is of great concern to you. What are the laws pertaining to access? Are most folks restricted to public lands? Is it difficult to gain permission to hunt privately owned property in NY?
 I too own a farm and my property isn't posted and I have not had many problems. This is not a judgement but a question.  Here in Maine we seem to be losing lots of property where traditional access has been granted. Some places are large tracts owned by folks from out of state so I don't see the harm in allowing hunting but then I don't pay their bills so I won't tell them what they can and cannot do with their land. The biggest loss here in the southern portion of the state is from sprawl. Large tracts of property is being carved up into house lots and purchased by people looking for their piece of the American dream and these people are usually not hunters. This doesn't make them better or worse than anyone just different. I choose not to post my property 'cuz people that hunt need some place to go and there seem to be enough deer here for all of us.  In all fairness, the amount of hunters in my "neighborhood" for lack of a better term has dwindled significantly from the late 70's when I started hunting but I digress...
Most of the northern portion of the state of Maine is privately owned with huge tracts owned by paper companies who allow access. We are heavily dependant on the good will of landowners here in the southern portion. While a large amount of land is lost there are still numerous small woodlots and acerages that can be hunted. Written permission is NOT required to hunt private property here but it is always a good idea to ask. There are of course restriction as to discharging firearms and the proximity to residences, but if it isn't posted it is considered open. Just wondering how the rules and traditions work in different parts of the country. It just seems that in some places privately owned property is guarded by the owner like the military guards top secret bases and not so much in others. 

[Bailbuster]

SLT,Be thankful, Once you leave Maine ,NH and VT it is really tuff.Land is closed you need land owner permission to trespass.It is getting harder to gain access unless it is a WMA or National Forest.Leasing and big bucks  and TV is to blame i think.We hunt Ohio and we are lucky to have a friend that has a very large farm and a couple of smaller farms that we have access to.But everything around is leased or just closed. BB
.

[hoythunter]

i post mine because i hunt it and dont want any body else hunting on it .i also lease my neighbors land. i also post it for legal reasons, you cant sue me for gettin hurt on my land cause you dont have permission to be there

[adkRoy]

In NY you need to have permission to hunt private land.  We post ours because it is only 65 acres and My family and I hunt it. We pay taxes, we put work into improving the land.  We hate to see that work destroyed by people who vandalize our ground blinds or tear up our fields. Also we don't want to get shot on our own property.  There is a lot of public land to hunt around us. There are a lot of farms that all you have to do is ask.  Most people do ask but its the few that don't that are ruining it for the rest of us.

[wardhillbilly]

I dont blaim you for posting your land as an owner you have every right to.  it sounds like your a farmer we have a farm in mass that we post also but people dont relize it takes a lot of work to run the place an quite a few people work for free during the year  so it is posted so they have a place to hunt   it is a few idiots who come on the property that we have the same problem with that dont get it  we are not trying to be jerks but thats how it has to be done

[avhnt9365]

In the part of New York where I am from, well at least where I hunt, we own 8 acres, and the three neighbors below us own a total of 100 or so. For ten years we never posted ours and they never posted theirs, we knew that we couldnt hunt certain parts of their land so we stayed away from it. Well the land below us was sold to a feller from down in the city or New Jersey, down that way Port Jervis I believe. Everybody got along before, now this jackoff posted his land and wants everybody to keep off it. Thats fine. OK. I will. We are bordered by state land other than the private property. He had his buddies come up and help him build his camp, he lets them stay in his camp but wont let them sit on his property, screwed up or what? He is burning his bridges left and right, we hold the only access to his camp. He drives accross stateland now, cut his own path out and everything. The bunny cops dont know that yet though. They might find out soon.

[halfrack33]

that sucks. glad to hear he was caught. a guy took a 185 lb buck off my private land last year that i rarely ever go to and he didn't have permission to be there. he was a "friend" of my dad who thought he had the right to go on our privately owned land. no way to prove it by the time we heard about it...