what kind of trouble can u get in if the cops catch you offroading where u shouldnt be?
such as an abandoned building with a huge lot with a bunch of mud hole way back. ?

 

if it doesnt say no trespasing any where then idk... maybe disturbing the peace??? but there cops they will find some bs penal code to get you for

 

thats what i was thinking. Its just theres no legal offroading withing an hour of my house and i just gett the urge to at random times. there are plenty of offroading wooded areas around here though to go play in that me and my buddies have been but i get worried each time

 

Why take the risk of going somewhere when you can get caught? So, it doesnt say no trespassing, you should know where you should and should not be. I am not trying to be an *** but I do not like the thought of someone off-roading on lets say my farm just cause it doesnt have a no trespassing sign everywhere.

 

you can get a criminal tresspass warning.

 

If you **** the cops off enough around here doing illegal off-roading, they will impound it. Kinda all depends upon what the land owner wants to do.

 

Is this a trick question or something?? Trespassing???

Do you own it? No.
Did you obtain permission to be there from someone who does own it? No.
End of story.

 

If you don't want to drive to a legal spot then sell the truck and buy a car or lower the truck.

 

so just a warning?
theres a lotta 4wheeler/4x4 trials that are already made around here. so the cops have told a lot of the 4 wheelers theyve caught to just head home and it doesnt seem like it bothers them to much since they are already there you no?>

 

yeah i wont go near like a farm or anything and i absolutley get your point. these trails are already there we arent making our own, they are back in the woods behind buildings in our industrial parkway where they havent built anything yet.

 

If you do go out there, just make sure you really look everything over. You dont want to get stuck back where ever you are gonna be.

Just to give you something to think about. If my boss caught you on his property, he would have no problem shooting at you or your truck right on the spot. Someone wheeled on his property once and he went out there with a metal pipe and beat on the guys hood alittle.

 

yeah i totally understand the risks. its hard to explain the area. and i always bring some other trucks incase of stucks.

 

A trespass warning is nothing more than the cops being nice. Its like a warning for speeding. And don't count on it. That is like driving 85 on the highway and saying "well the cops will probably just give me a warning". And just because someone on R-F says they got a warning, doesn't mean you will unless you happen to encounter the same police officer.

It is not neccessary for signs to be posted. If there are signs posted, it increases the degree of the crime. But just because there aren't signs doesn't mean you get to play dumb and pretend you didn't know.

Simple Trespass is generally used when you are on land that you shouldn't be on without the intent to cause damage. Simple trespass is usually a mail-in infraction and not a big deal.

Criminal trespass is generally used when (a) you were actually told not to be there or (b) you were told to leave and remain or, (c) there are posted signs or fences that you disregard or, (d) there for the purpose of hunting/fishing.

If you weren't damaging anything, simple trespass could be applied and it isn't a big deal, kinda like a speeding ticket. But if you are making a mess of the place or any of those other criminal trespass stipulations apply, it will be a misdemenor criminal appearance in court. The criminal stuff is on your record for the rest of your life. I don't care if it gets dropped or expunged or whatever. It is there and will always be there. It will come up in a background check. And when you fill out a job application that asks if you were ever arrested or convicted of anything, you still have to check yes or you're lying on the application.



Unless your state still has some form of castle doctorine, a property owner can not take offenssive or defensive actions that will cause harm to the trespasser unless it is defending yourself/others from the trespasser attacking or threatening to attack. Trying to scare them away or teach them a lesson by shooting at them, firing warning shots over their bow, beating them or their vehicles with pipes, etc are not allowed in most states.

 

i appreciate the depth of information you have supplied me with.
It mostly seems to depend on the police officer and mood of them around here in situations like this where we go. It probably isnt worth it.

 

thats what i did :D

 

Out here BLM is who mainly patrols the desert. They gave me an OHV closure ticket. Not worth the hassel.

 

there is no such thing as a "legal" spot to go wheeling or quading anywhere in my state. It just doe not exist. Everyone in my state who goes 4 wheeling and riding (atvs) anywhere but their own property is doing so illegally. It sucks, but thats how it is. There is no where you can go peacefully, we ride and wheel in woods and powerlines far away from anyones land, but the dep officers bother us from time to time with truspassing tickets. It depends on the cop, but usually they throw all sorts of non-sense tickets at you.

 

Actually there used to be in my town. It was great. But people abused it, caused damage, and bothered the neighbors so it got closed down about 9 years ago. So there was one legal place in CT.

They aren't non-sense tickets. You knowingly broke the law and did so knowing that the DEP can easily bust you. In doing so, you got busted. At what point is the DEP offier doing his job, which you made very, non-sense. It isn't the police officer's fault that Northeast Utilities didn't give you permission to go wheeling on their land.

 

Johnny Law breaking it down!!!

 

thanks, Matt... for dropping by and typing all that out and explaining it.

...saved me some end-of-the-day typing.

Matt has it exactly right, folks... if it's not your property, and you don't have permission of the property owner to be there, then you're trespassing. For all you know, the landowner could have some prized dirt collection, "completely untouched by the mechanized world", that you would have ruined (destruction of property) simply by rolling over it in your truck.

The short answer is: buy your own property to go 4-wheeling on... and, if you've got a business acumen, you might realize that buying up some property and opening up a wheeling spot for the folks in CT would be a good start-up business for you...

 

Well you are probably right but he did it. The guy with the Jeep filed a report but there was nothing the cops could do about it.

 

I have seen several "Tresspassers Will Be Shot" signs.

Not the joke signs with the survivors will be shot again crap.. This is Texas.

I only went where I knew others went without hassle..

 

That would be awesome, but I think its safe to say that most of the people that love going off-roading couldn't afford to buy a large piece of land, I would love to, but I am 20 and I know of many people around my age who wheel and could not afford land either. Wheeling and riding is a hobby and somehow becomes a part of your life, its something to do on the weekend and when there's no where legal to go and you want to wheel, you it up some trails and risk getting a ticket. I say nonsense tickets because I know of trails that we spend alot of time on that are in the middle of nowhere, no houses or roads around just miles of wide open trails in the woods where we are not bothering anyone. There is no one out there ever accept for atvs and trucks. And of course, occasionally dep officers just to get people in trouble and give out tickets. I was stopped by an officer while it was snowing out, we were riding quads on the roads and he told us he doesn;t mind, just stay off of the main roads and be safe. He was cool. Then theres officers that are on a power trip and throw every sort of fine they can and get your vehicle towed. For what? Why? you know?
And there was a spot that a guy owned in middletown ct on mount higby, the guy owned a crap load of land and charged 20$ for a day of riding on his land. He got shut down in a couple of months by the town. They dont want us riding anywhere.

 

Texas is a "hold your ground" state. A person who has a right to be in a home, business, or vehicle may use deadly force to stop someone who has or is attempting to break in. There is NO obligation to attempt to retreat, in fact it specifically says you do not need to try to retreat first (hence the name "hold your ground". There is no obligation to announce yourself, announce your intention to kill the offender, or otherwise think of another way out of it. You are also immune from civil law suites by the idiotic family that spawned the moron you have just shot.

This does not apply to the outdoors. Firing on people who trespassing on LAND or chasing them around with a cast iron pipe and beating on their cars is not covered, at least on what I have read. Therefore I would assume the conventional laws of self-defense apply.

 

Aint worth getting caught. We had a couple of coaties get nabbed by the park rangers in my senior year and they got hit with over $15,000 worth of fines each. They were active Coast Guard stationed in Cape May.

My buddy's grandpop asked the ranger why he didn't give them a break, they are just kids and they're in the coast guard. His reply was I did. They should have gotten over $50,000 and 3yrs.

What none of us knew was there was/is some kind of rare bug in that part of the forest. It's an endangered species, and they killed a butt load of them.


Lucky for me and my friends when we seen where these guys were wheeling we bailed. Smart enough to know it was a bad idea I guess.