Rural intruders--is anyone seeing this?

Melissa Swartz
Melissa Swartz Posts: 270 ✭✭✭
edited November 2020 in Other News

My husband is part of a forum of hunters. He saw a post from a guy in rural North Carolina. My husband went hunting with the guy and because of that, knows that he lives in a very rural area. The guy was saying that in the past week he has had two separate incidents of men coming onto his property. He found one in his shed; the intruder ran off. Another intruder was trying to steal a turkey and there was a confrontation.

Is anyone else having problems with intruders?

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Comments

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    While I live in a small community, it is quite rural, but nothing going on here out of the ordinary. Everyone is quite vigilant as now there are requests from the provincial government asking people not to travel anywhere unnecessarily, including to second homes or summer cabins.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Melissa Swartz Survival experts have warned about this symptom. I'm afraid your story sounds like the first stages of societal breakdown, akin to looting in the cities. That is why people have been buying guns to protect themselves against this possibility. Your friend needs to make sure that the local sheriff is kept informed. Most likely it is a local group of people.

    It has been happening in cities for awhile, if you remember the banned Rainbow member who reported that type of activity because she lived in an area that the homeless had decided to occupy.

    We need to get the country back to work! People got in fights over toilet paper....

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    There have been rashes of thefts for many years in Manitoba. Usually it is cars, atvs, snowmobiles & such, but I have heard of goats, cattle & sheep also having gone missing, a few thieves being caught in the act. I don't know that I have heard of bird thefts. Lately, I'm hearing less about any new thefts.

    @torey I had heard of others in the past in BC losing chickens & other birds to two footed predators. These incidents were quite common, I understand, when a farm or acreage was close to a more populated area or if the property had a public/allowed walking trail or former walking trail through it. I have no idea if things are worse there right now as that poultry forum sadly shut down recently.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    I agree with @shllnzl . Keep the local sheriff informed. be prepared for the intruders to return.

  • lmrebert
    lmrebert Posts: 363 ✭✭✭✭

    My daughters friends chickens were stolen, sad because she uses for eggs and they are her pets. They live in a rural area of SoCal. @shllnzl what do you mean by banned rainbow?

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    Yep, in our area after the bushfires, lowlife scumbags were caught on properties they thought were empty after people were evacuated but not burnt out by the fires. People who did stay to protect got on social media to alert others and the police did manage to arrest a couple of them. Even in this social isolation era, some are still trying it on. It beggars belief that some people think they can touch something that is not theirs. It makes my blood boil, I'm not a violent person but if I found someone up to no good on my place, I would spray a can of whoop ass all over them!

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 My mind has difficulty comprehending how evil people can be, even after all these years.

    @lmrebert Remember @Rainbow who wrote the long, strangely punctuated discussions? She of the rainbow designed garden? She told many stories of people breaking onto her property stealing everything, including plants. Apparently, homeless migrated to her area and set up shop. She also told of questionable people who lived across the street.

  • An
    An Posts: 42 ✭✭

    We have not yet experienced this. We hope it will not happen, however we are preparing for it anyway.

  • greyfurball
    greyfurball Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭

    I live a half mile down the street from an old military base which was always used as training grounds, mainly 3 seasons of the year. Or when we end up in another "war" or military exercise anywhere in the world this base is often used for training procedures before any unit(s) are deployed.

    Also, when the US govt, needed housing for many types of operations for temporary arrangements they would often use the facilities at this base for that particular situation. So we have had groups from different countries housed here until the final arrangements were made for these types of situations.

    So whatever the scenario, being this is a rural area and a rural base, security is not very tight (if you can say there is any at all) and many of these individuals just walk on and off the base any time they desire. And every one of us in this area know when we have a new group arrive, we also have a new rash of unwelcome visitors. Actually, it's pretty much only curiosity which drives them off the base since there is nothing much to do there. And then it is curiosity which makes them "come for a visit" for the same reason.

    So yes, we seem to get a rash of unwelcome visitors many times a year some times because boredom will drive many people to do things they normally would not think of doing.

    I can't say it isn't inconvenient but it is just something which we learn to accept if you live in this area. But then certain precautions must be made depending on which group is currently in residence down there.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 That is horrific. I can hardly believe people in a small community would be that awful. Makes me sad. 😱

  • lmrebert
    lmrebert Posts: 363 ✭✭✭✭

    @shllnzl oh ya... wait, banned, she got banned? hmmm. I really never read her stuff.. I struggle with impatience so I couldn't make it through her posts but WTH got her banned, I never thought of "banning" LOL weird

  • Melissa Swartz
    Melissa Swartz Posts: 270 ✭✭✭

    @shllnzl  I agree that this type of stuff can be an indicator of societal breakdown, which is why I was wondering if it's spreading. Sounds like most are not seeing any new or unusual activity.

    @Megan Venturella  It is sad that this type of thing happens even when times are "normal".

    @judsoncarroll4  My brother in law has some land and his tractor was stolen a few years ago. The people in that area seem to take anything that's not permanently attached. They had to break chains to steal the tractor. I believe he got his tractor back, too, eventually.

  • bcabrobin
    bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭

    We live rural on a dead end road and have neighbors with big guns but closest one is 175 yrds. I have been trying to think of all the ways someone can steal animals. And try to fix those. We have thorny tree and blackberry vines. Anyone from this area KNOWs not to take from local people, all you have to do is listen to the gun fire on any given day. There's a white deer here and it was made known what would happen to you if something happened to that deer. What's the kind of area we live in.

    PA has the law you can't leave a dog outside in the cold/hot so guard dogs are out.

    Roasters can only do so much. We have one that doesn't let the Fedex or UPS guys in the driveway, he just stands in the middle, the mail lady just drives around him.

    Would love to have a donkey! They are great coyote killers and loud enough EVERYONE will know someone is on our land. If anyone wants to drop one of they would be welcome.

    I know as food supplies drop and the longer people are out of work they will be stealing to get by. In stead of stealing stop at the house I'll give you a meal.

    Was wondering where Rainbow had been.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @bcabrobin I don't know that I donkey would announce people predators, or even other predators. When my parents' donkey took off after something, there was ears back and charging, but I don't remember any noise. Guinea fowl would announce visitors and anything unusual that startles them.

    Donkey babies are the cutest.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Geese, particularly ganders, make excellent guards. They will go after large dogs, coyotes and people, even big people. I have even seen them attack vehicles that come into their spaces.

    A neighbour has guinea fowl and they most certainly do kick up a fuss when there is something or someone strange in their yard. They come right over to check it out. Not sure if they are guarding or just extremely curious birds.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @torey YES! I had forgotten about geese! They are used to keep people out of some large brewery compounds, so my husband said. It would be very effective unless someone wants to take home a lot of geese for supper and can do that before being caught by the owner. 🙄

    The guinea are only curious. They have been known to occasionally attack hawks coming in for a meal, but are not reliable enough to protect much of anything aside from being deafening. Haha! I love my little flock of them.

  • csinclair461
    csinclair461 Posts: 159 ✭✭✭

    wow, sad stories. It’s sad, but good tohear ideas on how to protect property. I lived in a neighborhood that was developing more Problems with vandalism and theft. My yard mostly was victim to people throwing garbage in it. Most disturbing was wondering if the garbage had been tossed over the fence or if people had been entering our yard. Guess we had it good!

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I had a next door neighbor once who loved to have loud parties outside on Sunday nights when the rest of us were trying to sleep before work the next day. We just covered our ears and tried to ignore the noise just because we wanted to be good neighbors.

    One day I walked over near the common wall with that neighbor and realized I had all of their barbecue garbage laying around: bones, crumpled aluminum foil, drink cans, etc. I guessed that the party guests were trying to make "baskets" into the trash can near the wall while in the dark. That was enough for me! Every piece of garbage was thrown back over the wall into their yard. I hoped that it took them a while to pick it all up.

    A different day, while the sun was still out, I discovered a pile of melting ice on my grass about 10 feet away from the wall. I never did figure out how someone could jettison cooler ice that far out.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There have been occasional thefts all over our rural community and our near neighbors. And even in the larger cities around us. Not uncommon unfortunately. However, I see them likely to get much worse. Not only as more folks come out from the cities, and/or get recreational properties out in the more rural areas but also as situations worsen from the financial fallout of this crisis and other issues.

    Friends of ours have even had horses cut with some type of blade and cattle shot by folks on the side of the road just because they wanted to. Not even trying to steal the meat or anything, just people being cruel because they could.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    So far its just been the normal stuff in our county. At least that is all that is getting reported. Listening to area radio stations on the way to and from work is pretty much the same there as well. I did see that some one was stopped by our state troopers going 143mph on a 65mph highway in our state.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Crises show us the true nature of the people around us as natural tendencies get magnified. Makes me want to go out and hug the good, kind and generous people. Whoops, not allowed to do that!

  • Lesley
    Lesley Posts: 28 ✭✭✭

    We're in rural France, all quiet in our neck of the woods - so far. However there's talk of unrest in cities, if the news is to be believed. Hope you all keep safe.

  • seeker.nancy - Central Texas
    seeker.nancy - Central Texas Posts: 795 ✭✭✭✭

    It's mostly rural where I am, just outside of Waco proper. There are the occasional thefts and such but there are also a couple of Facebook groups for this neighborhood and a watch is set up right away. I rather doubt anyone on our street does NOT have a gun...or way more lol. But the neighbors have been nice and we are nice to them and that makes it much safer. I do now lock my back door even during the day. I used to leave it unlocked because I am in and out to the garden and such. Then about 6 months ago(?) people were reporting someone trying the back doors and in one case it was not locked and a guy walked right in. It was not pretty. And while I have no doubt our lab would attack someone busting in, if they have a gun all bets are off for the dog sadly. Honestly, in close quarters I prefer a knife. They might rush you if you have a gun but not as much so if you have a big, sharp knife lol.

  • Owl
    Owl Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Guinea fowl are excellent watch birds! Hard to poison (I would think) and loud as all get out! I grew up next door to a farm who’s owner fancied the African and rare species. He had guineas and peacocks that announced every movement at our place and his too. They roost in the treetops at night and eat a huge number of ticks so they might be of help to some folks, (shoot!) I might even get me some, come to think of it! We are well prepared if anyone wishes to trespass here and I wouldn’t hesitate.

  • Leediafastje
    Leediafastje Posts: 97 ✭✭✭

    I'm lucky to have no reported thefts in this neck of the forest.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    I'm sorry she was banned. I grew up with a lot of first generation German immigrants... I hate to generalize, but their communication style can certainly seem argumentative. You get used to it though and they are generally good folks... people are people... some good, some not. I tend to like eccentrics, as I certainly fall into that category. But, I can understand how some might take offense.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin
    edited April 2020

    @Melissa Swartz I was sorry, but not surprised to know that issues you mentioned happed in NC. My family has lived in NC for well over 300 years.... and a lot longer than that depending on which roots of my family tree on explores. I've lived in 5 states. I can attest that NC tends to be unique among our neighbors in particularly high crime statistics, extremely low educational standards and test score, high rates of drug abuse and we are usually around the top of the list when it comes to Welfare, Disability and Medicaid, domestic abuse, dog fighting, gang activity, incarceration, obesity, diabetes, heart disease and crooked elections. There are cultural and historical reasons for this... reasons I won't get into... but there is a reason my family farm was sold.... it just got too dangerous to hold on to. I guess I should mention that it has nothing to do with race, BTW. It is more just the culture of NC and seems to be the same whether you are in the "majority minority" eastern part of the state, the almost entirely Scotts-Irish Appalachians or the big cities in the middle, where most folks have moved in from up north. It is just NC.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 I too felt sorry that she "left". Rainbow had a lot of knowledge, meant well, but certainly came across as argumentative in the written word. I ignored the argument tone; I had a harder time tuning out the excessive bolding and punctuation. (I am one of those people who wants to correct spelling on posters and such.)

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    @shllnzl I agree. Clear communication solves many problems before they even start.