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Teenagers breaking into backyard


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Introduce one to the Castle Doctrine and the rest will never return.

I was that kid back then, having a shotgun aimed at me, and racked, cured me in a damn hurry. In the present day Castle Doctrine era I'd most likely have been killed. Put up no trespassing signs, work from home, park your car elsewhere, and confront them while armed and they'll get the hint.

 

Edited by ShaggyBevo RIP
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I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but the general rule used to be that property owners aren't liable for harm to unknown trespassers, however, the trend has shifted to something more resembling strict liability for most premises liability scenarios. Trespassers will just sue, go for policy limit, and the insurance company will want to wash their hands of it ASAP.

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Does it make a difference in general trespassers vs breaking and entering or bulgary?  Not sure if breaking locks qualifies as breaking and entering though, do you have to have an intent to steal?  I can see general trespassing as having some protection as it's not always clear that you are trespassing.  Breaking locks kind of takes that away though.  It's strange that you can kill an intruder, but would be liable if you only injure them, or they injure themselves.  Are castle doctrine homeowners on the hook for funeral costs?

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12 minutes ago, Eastwood said:

I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but the general rule used to be that property owners aren't liable for harm to unknown trespassers, however, the trend has shifted to something more resembling strict liability for most premises liability scenarios. Trespassers will just sue, go for policy limit, and the insurance company will want to wash their hands of it ASAP.

This is true.   I know of a situation where a guy when he was a teen  jumped into a trash dumpster to avoid being caught by a property owner or the cops and somehow set the thing on fire.  The guy's family sued and the insurance company set up a trust fund where he got I think he got close to $100k every Jan 1 for I don't know how long.   He ended up being no where close to disabled for life and in fact I think he even held some odd jobs.   But he continued to get  in trouble with the law including crashing a brand new Ford Excursion into my neighbors home in our old neighborhood after a night of heavy drinking.  To top it off , my former neighbors were law enforcement, so strike two for this idiot.   

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Does it make a difference in general trespassers vs breaking and entering or bulgary?  Not sure if breaking locks qualifies as breaking and entering though, do you have to have an intent to steal?  I can see general trespassing as having some protection as it's not always clear that you are trespassing.  Breaking locks kind of takes that away though.  It's strange that you can kill an intruder, but would be liable if you only injure them, or they injure themselves.  Are castle doctrine homeowners on the hook for funeral costs?


The answer is: it depends. Them being children, legally speaking, complicates it. And not all crimes are equal, obviously. A burglar in the middle of the night in your home is vastly different than minors busting a lock to hop into a pool. That scenario probably won't even make it to court. Insurance will just cut a check.

This whole scenario is why a lot of teenagers suck. OK, they jumped in the pool, being rebellious, fine. They knew that they were wrong, got caught, but instead of just laughing it off and appreciating that the cops weren't called, they have to take shit personal and lash out.
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9 minutes ago, Eastwood said:


 

 

 


The answer is: it depends. Them being children, legally speaking, complicates it. And not all crimes are equal, obviously. A burglar in the middle of the night in your home is vastly different than minors busting a lock to hop into a pool. That scenario probably won't even make it to court. Insurance will just cut a check.

This whole scenario is why a lot of teenagers suck. OK, they jumped in the pool, being rebellious, fine. They knew that they were wrong, got caught, but instead of just laughing it off and appreciating that the cops weren't called, they have to take shit personal and lash out.

 

So it's more or less insurance companies just settling to be done with it?  Keeping with the facts in this scenario kids breaking locks/cutting chains to get to the pool would the homeowner likely be liable in a trial decision? 

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So it's more or less insurance companies just settling to be done with it?  Keeping with the facts in this scenario kids breaking locks/cutting chains to get to the pool would the homeowner likely be liable in a trial decision? 
Depends on the jury. An attorney could get up there and accuse the homeowner of knowing that children were capable of getting into the pool, that the homeowner knew the pool was dangerous, but did the bare minimum to keep the children out. The attorney will accuse the homeowner of not caring about the childrens' safety and only caring about limiting his own liability. Won't you, dear jury, please think of the children? After all, what is insurance for if not this exact scenario?

And you'll have 7 mothers, 2 stay at home dads, 1 college kid with a paralyzed brother, and 2 people who hate insurance companies on the jury. It all sounds silly when you talk about it on the internet, but it happens every day all over the country in a variety of tort cases.
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Drain the pool so they have a bitchin bowl to shred gnar in. Then show up and totally serve their asses with a couple of ollie 180 nose blunts. They'll be too afraid of getting totally served again to come back. 

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22 hours ago, Rimbo said:

Apparently the teens in question refilled the pool, so draining isn't necessarily the answer. I assume you want a quick resolution, so waiting for amoebic dysentery to do its work in a pool that's not properly chlorinated is out of the question.

My recommendation is to get cameras, and once you get notice that they're in, call the police. This is criminal trespass. Call the police every time they're found in there, and use the cameras to find them every time.

Amoebic Dysentery is a great band name for an Indian (dot) metal band 

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2 hours ago, Eastwood said:

Depends on the jury. An attorney could get up there and accuse the homeowner of knowing that children were capable of getting into the pool, that the homeowner knew the pool was dangerous, but did the bare minimum to keep the children out. The attorney will accuse the homeowner of not caring about the childrens' safety and only caring about limiting his own liability. Won't you, dear jury, please think of the children? After all, what is insurance for if not this exact scenario?

Can't mention insurance in Texas (or pretty much anywhere else that I am aware of). It is actually a pretty annoying problem because often times juries just assume the injured person had health insurance and will just be getting double. Juries don't understand that healthcare providers and insurers usually have enforceable liens against any proceeds recovered in litigation.

Anyway, the answer here is that whether you'd be liable depends on the facts of the situation. It isn't a simple "yes, you will be liable" scenario. The correct answer is that you may be liable in some situations and not liable in others. Eastwood is right though, insurance companies will often payout if the issue is severe enough just to resolve the issue for a known price. 

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12 hours ago, ztejas said:

Drain the pool so they have a bitchin bowl to shred gnar in. Then show up and totally serve their asses with a couple of ollie 180 nose blunts. They'll be too afraid of getting totally served again to come back. 

 

 

Edited by mulletpelini
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23 hours ago, zork said:

know your water table before draining the pool in full, matey.

  Hide contents

popped_pool.jpg0

floating-pool-edited1.jpg

 

Many years ago I foreclosed on a development project, on a slope in the Hollywood Hills.   Unexpected rains came, we didn't have proper erosion control in place, and mud got in the pool on the home downslope.   Totally our fault.  When the tenant called (not the homeowner) I assured him that we would  cover the cost of cleaning the pool and remedying any other damage.

He took matters into his own hand and decided that HE would clean the pool and send me a big fat bill for doing so. 
Step 1, he rented a pump and drained the pool.  Step 2, the pool lifted just like the one shown above.

Motherfucker sued me for the damages that he caused.   

We ended up paying $5,000 or something, and the homeowner got royally fucked by his tenant's stupidity.

BTW, tenant was a B actor action-hero Fabio-looking fuck.   He did a couple of shit movies.  

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On 6/6/2019 at 1:18 PM, Gil Bang said:

Many years ago I foreclosed on a development project, on a slope in the Hollywood Hills.   Unexpected rains came, we didn't have proper erosion control in place, and mud got in the pool on the home downslope.   Totally our fault.  When the tenant called (not the homeowner) I assured him that we would  cover the cost of cleaning the pool and remedying any other damage.

He took matters into his own hand and decided that HE would clean the pool and send me a big fat bill for doing so. 
Step 1, he rented a pump and drained the pool.  Step 2, the pool lifted just like the one shown above.

Motherfucker sued me for the damages that he caused.   

We ended up paying $5,000 or something, and the homeowner got royally fucked by his tenant's stupidity.

BTW, tenant was a B actor action-hero Fabio-looking fuck.   He did a couple of shit movies.  

Come on, dude. We need names.

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That's some brush with greatness; his only credit looks like fuckin' Oscar material:

Best of the Best: "A team from the United States is going to compete against Korea in a Tae Kwon Do tournament. The team consists of fighters from all over the country--can they overcome their rivalry and work together to win?"

 

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On 6/6/2019 at 1:18 PM, Gil Bang said:

Many years ago I foreclosed on a development project, on a slope in the Hollywood Hills.   Unexpected rains came, we didn't have proper erosion control in place, and mud got in the pool on the home downslope.   Totally our fault.  When the tenant called (not the homeowner) I assured him that we would  cover the cost of cleaning the pool and remedying any other damage.

He took matters into his own hand and decided that HE would clean the pool and send me a big fat bill for doing so. 
Step 1, he rented a pump and drained the pool.  Step 2, the pool lifted just like the one shown above.

Motherfucker sued me for the damages that he caused.   

We ended up paying $5,000 or something, and the homeowner got royally fucked by his tenant's stupidity.

BTW, tenant was a B actor action-hero Fabio-looking fuck.   He did a couple of shit movies.  

there are probably some memes of these films still over on shaggy.......who knew there were so many fans of scat films over there

 

and the OP needs one of these covert blackhawk 12.1

 

https://www.cabelas.com/product/COVERT-BLACKHAWK-WIRELESS-TRAIL-CAMERA/2574891.uts

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When I first got married, we bought our first home in an older neighborhood and had an issue with teenagers messing around our property. One night I just happened to be in the backyard when I heard some teenagers climbing on top of the privacy fence. It was one of those brick ones and they would climb it and walk on it. My golf clubs were near the backdoor so I grabbed a putter and ran to the flowerbed near the fence and squatted down until the kid was about to make his way up the fence.

It was dark and I only saw two hands and the top of a head when I Samurai chopped down on the top of his head. It was very satisfying.

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13 minutes ago, Clackles said:

What’s the statute of limitations on admitting to hitting a kid in the head with a putter?

I called the cops afterwards and told them what happened, one of them laughed and the other gave me a WTF look when I told the story. Apparently it isn't against the law to club teenagers with a putter for trespassing.

 

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It’s pretty crazy that in Texas a person could trespass on your property and under certain circumstances be killed without legal percussions or break his ankle and get a big cash award from the homeowner.  I can see why people get shot. Can’t take the chance that they stub a toe 

 

I like the the idea of mega doses of chlorine to make it unpleasant to swim. 

Good luck. Maybe borrow an angry dog?

Edited by Lhorn
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I called the cops afterwards and told them what happened, one of them laughed and the other gave me a WTF look when I told the story. Apparently it isn't against the law to club teenagers with a putter for trespassing.
 


Reminds me of a high school story.

It was bulk trash week in the winter so everyone in the neighborhood had a bunch of bagged leaves out on the curb. My friend and I are out cruising around late at night and we pass by a friend’s house and notice his car is parked out on the street. We get the idea to bury his car in the trash bags of leaves. I stopped counting at 150 bags. Apparently he saw us putting the last few bags on his car and didn’t realize that it was us, so he called the cops. We were long gone by the time the cops showed up. Our friend told us that the cops couldn’t stop laughing when they showed up.

I went by and knocked on his door several months later and his mom answers and started yelling at me before I could even open my mouth. Apparently bulk trash would only take a certain number of bags a month. It took about 4 months for them to finally take them all and all of the grass near the curb was dead from having the bags sit there for so long.

I live in the same neighborhood now and laugh every time I drive past that house.
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On 6/5/2019 at 10:05 AM, bernorange said:

Do you have a "No trespass" sign posted on the fence or around the property?  They aren't expensive and it couldn't hurt.

The fact that we need signs when the trespassers are breaking the locks on the gate is pure lawyers bullshittery.

( we need to) Stop acting like the motherfuckers don't know they are in the wrong.  They fucking know.

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12 hours ago, luke duke said:

 


Reminds me of a high school story.

It was bulk trash week in the winter so everyone in the neighborhood had a bunch of bagged leaves out on the curb. My friend and I are out cruising around late at night and we pass by a friend’s house and notice his car is parked out on the street. We get the idea to bury his car in the trash bags of leaves. I stopped counting at 150 bags. Apparently he saw us putting the last few bags on his car and didn’t realize that it was us, so he called the cops. We were long gone by the time the cops showed up. Our friend told us that the cops couldn’t stop laughing when they showed up.

I went by and knocked on his door several months later and his mom answers and started yelling at me before I could even open my mouth. Apparently bulk trash would only take a certain number of bags a month. It took about 4 months for them to finally take them all and all of the grass near the curb was dead from having the bags sit there for so long.

I live in the same neighborhood now and laugh every time I drive past that house.

 

 

when I was a kid there was a family that took a lot of shit from everyone and one of the things we used to do was get bags of grass and when their car was in the street we would drive by and slam the bags into the car so it buried it in grass

people gave this family so much shit that sometimes you would drive by and someone else had already done it before you could

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21 hours ago, Lhorn said:

It’s pretty crazy that in Texas a person could trespass on your property and under certain circumstances be killed without legal percussions or break his ankle and get a big cash award from the homeowner.  I can see why people get shot. Can’t take the chance that they stub a toe 

It ain't just Texas

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It’s pretty crazy that in Texas a person could trespass on your property and under certain circumstances be killed without legal percussions or break his ankle and get a big cash award from the homeowner.  I can see why people get shot. Can’t take the chance that they stub a toe 
 
I like the the idea of mega doses of chlorine to make it unpleasant to swim. 
Good luck. Maybe borrow an angry dog?

Well, I know that folks once heard a story about how that totally happened...that’s not the law on Texas.

A property owner owes no duty to a trespasser. The owner has to refrain from intentional/grossly negligent conduct (you can’t set a deadly trap, that sort of thing). But that’s it.

If the trespasser is a child, then an owner can owe a duty if his property constitutes an attractive nuisance. A swimming pool meets that standard...BUT...having a fence and a locked gate satisfied the duty. In short, if the OP has locked the gate and the kids decide to bust through it, it doesn’t matter if they all drown. The owner met his duty. The owners insurer might decide to pay a claim made by a drowned trespasser, but that’s the insurer’s call. The owner isn’t liable.
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I might just buy about 15 bpackages of Rit bright blue dye... just for my own entertainment value.  Then post on the neighborhood website "If your kids are blue today, it's because they have been breaking into and vandalizing my back yard!"  Problem solved!

I get the concerns over further vandalism.  Odds are it's late at night and there is some stuff worth video taping and posting on Surly.  PLEASE!!!!!

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