This was a great idea. Those people who had off leash dogs responded to a simple whistle and point, we were in heaven. 2 creek crossings for Rock to splash in and drink out of, and we are miles from the nearest person.
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| Rock with his 'human' shadow overlooking the big 'city' |
They were tossing rocks down. One of them was halfway down trying to get down safely while his buddies tumbled rocks and snowballs down the slope. Several rocks tumbled by us, within 10 feet, before we had backed up.
The slope they were on is to the left in the picture, to the right is another slope that leads to a few houses. Guess where a lot of the rocks were going... yup, down into someones yard.
Impact marks from some of the rocks. Just think what would have happened if we had gotten hit. The one guy who was coming down (and not very gracefully) finally made it down and took off down the road. I was on the phone giving out descriptions of the perps to city and county dispatch at the same time (they weren't sure who should respond, so I h ad to fill them in on that too). Once the perps at the top stopped with the rocks, and climbed up and over the ridge Rock and I hauled ass to catch the perp who had climbed/slid/tumbled down.
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| Rock and I see our target, hard to miss his pink shirt. |
The guy in the hat ended up being the homeowner (who had fired his pistol into his backstop in hopes they would stop. I took this picture in case the kid got into a car and drove away. The sherifs office responded fast and it ended up being 8 kids in total that were involved. I only could pick out 2 that I saw actually tossing things and pink shirt guy ended up with no charges since I never saw him do anything but panic for his life.
As the deputy was walking back to me and the homeowner, I figured the kids learned the lesson and wouldn't do that kind of crap again. Then one of them, one who I picked out and described to the dispatcher as tossing rocks, looked over and smiled at me shaking his head. Foolish, there isn't anyone on this planet who can intimidate or scare me anymore.
The deputy told me that we would all go in front of the DA, my word against theirs (they were climbing up and the rocks just came lose...). I said good, I'll see them in court, I'm tired of people doing whatever they want without thought of the consequences. Reckless endangerment, class 3 misdemeanor, and while it might get dismissed it's proving a point. The DA might be surprised when I show him these, plus many more photo's. The deputy will interview all of the kids again, separately over the next 2 days (and since they were all apparently minors, in front of their parents) to see if the story changes. Then he will let me know when to be in court. I'll be there.
Those 11 or so rocks in the flat area weren't there when we walked up, and we watched/avoided them all come down. They knew people were down there, pink shirt guy yelled up telling them I was on the phone watching them (thats when they bailed out). I'm hoping they get community service at least.
Apparently anywhere I go (city to county to national forest in this case), trouble finds me. Situational awareness, patience and an aggressive demeanor. Thanks for teaching me that Dad.
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| Rock said zzzzzzzzzzzzzz, after all that. |
maybe he'll ( the DA ) can have some cop into brow-beating a confession out of one of them to nark on the others.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anything will happen, perhaps a stern talking to from the DA, but I'm hoping they get community service. I took a few dozen photo's last night to disprove the story that they walked up the slope and the rocks were dislodged on accident.
DeleteWhen I get pissed, I do a thorough job.
Regarding trouble finding you: you pay attention, and others have no thought for anyone besides themselves. That equals trouble; finds me like that, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for standing up & doing what's right.
Thank you, more of us need to take a stand when we can, especially when it's stupidity that can easily cause serious injury, death and/or property damage.
DeleteWell, I never drag the cops into anything I get involved in. The one time I did, they got all over me and told me I was the one who should be charged. After that, I just look at them as a potential source of trouble, but not of assistance.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about there, but here you have to be really careful. If you get Billy Bob put in jail for spotlighting or throwing beer cans out the window, his entire extended family of 203 people will be looking for you day and night. So it has to be some serious stuff before I get into it with people, and when I do I make sure they don't know who I am.
As an aside, the kind of things you are having to put up with is why I live way the hell out in the woods, and I don't go where there are other people. If I run into others in the woods, I move on. Random people you just cross paths with tend to be utter morons that range from aggravating, to outright dangerous.
I understand the reluctance, I'm reluctant but I felt someone had to take a stand and since the only way to do it is via. LEO, then that's what I did. I even took your advice about going elsewhere to get away from idiots, and still had to deal with it. Without these kids it would have been the best dog hike all year.
DeleteLiving where you do, and the people around your area (Billy Bob), I understand the retaliation aspect. It was the same when I was a kid, but if I ever got in trouble for this kind of thing it was game over.
Luckily it was only game over one time, then I was the prodigal son.