AnonymousBy an edhat reader
We’ve been renting a house on the Westside for over a year now and we keep having neighbors help themselves into our backyard. Our front yard does not have a gate separating the back so anyone can walk around the side of the house into our private backyard.
We have security cameras installed and on more than one occasion we’ve seen who we assume are people who live in the neighborhood, walk to the front door and around into the backyard. One appeared to be picking fruit from our trees. Just last night two people appeared to be corralling our next-door neighbor’s cats while looking at delivered packages left on our porch.
We’ve never met these neighbors and are unsure exactly who they are or where they live. It’s weird we even have to ask, but how can we prevent this from happening? Each time we’ve been out of town or not home and noticed the camera footage later.
A shotgun
Do what everyone else does. Locked gates and fences. Cameras. I like @2.12’s idea of motion activated sprinklers. And of course, motion activated lights. How about a trip wire with a bucket full of paint above? People can be so rude.
Rusty nails sticking out of 2x4s
Bear traps.
Obviously that’s a joke, but just in case the humor isn’t understood: NO traps. Might have “incidental catch” of some poor skunk or opossum or raccoon or someone’s pet.
Gate is an obvious solution. Sadly people need boundaries, so set them!
Don’t forget to mark the property legally. I had a mobile home on the East side and found someone in my backyard that jumped the back fence. I called the cops but they said there was nothing they can do because I marked the gate but not the back fence. Sometimes S.B. cops seem to not want to write police reports so they can claim crime is down. They visited my meth dealing next door neighbor weekly but almost never created paperwork ?
A gate AND a guard dog are in order. I know a man in Santa Paula who bought a property that had been vacant for years, an old avocado orchard. He built his home in it, fenced it, and got German rottweilers. Then he went over to the neighbors, who had been harvesting the avocados for themselves for years, and told them he had bought a big backhoe. Maybe they thought he was going to offer to let them borrow it. But he clarified that if they came onto his property again his rotts would kill them, and he’d bury them to fertilize the trees.
I’d always recommend talking before calling the police or posting signs. Could be something very benign. We’ve got a big avocado tree in our backyard. When the kids were little they used to set up stands on the street to sell them. Ended up with a few regular customers who would knock on the door when they needed them. Got to where we just told a few to go back and pick them and then they’d leave a few bucks for the kids. Granted, it’s a unique type of person (hippies) with looser boundaries than most who goes this route for produce instead of just buying it retail. Could be the people in your yard had some kind of arrangement with a previous tenant and don’t realize a different person lives there. What about putting a friendly note on the tree asking them to stop by and introduce themselves before continuing to go in the backyard?
The guy in your story should be reported for making threats. At least get it on record so when he does something, and he seems likely to do, the case against him will be easier to make.