# Stay off my lawn!



## Reddinr (May 6, 2019)

So my wife and I live on  a rural road and have made the road edge look better and easy to maintain with a strip of what we like to call grass.  Our house is way back from the road.  We are in an HOA and are responsible for keeping the brush cleaned up back to a certain distance from the roadway.  Over the years, from time to time persons we refer to as "yahoos" like to have some fun with their 4x4's and do a little off-roading, usually at night, probably after a couple of weekend beers.  We're not the only ones that enjoy cleaning up the ruts in the grass afterwards.  Other neighbors have similar problems.  

Because we're nice and lawsuit averse, we've ruled out elephant traps, spike strips, paint bombs and what have you.  We've kept those ideas in a category of "fun to think about".  A year or more can go by without incident or a just couple of weeks or months.  We suspect teenage boys having some good fun, later replaced by other teenage boys that get to that same certain age.  But our ~60 year old backs are getting tired of mowing over the ruts and filling them in.   One year we put some manure piles out there for a while to ward them off.  Then we spread it to kill two birds with one stone.  It worked but it is quite a bit of work each time.

I thought about welding together some tank-trap like things but that got vetoed by dear wife.  I guess I see her point.

Anyone have ideas for some low cost, low effort, safe and effective means of repelling yahoos?   There's probably about 400 feet of it to protect.  All the real ideas we have come up with require extra weed-wacking around barriers which, did I mention our 60 year old backs?  Now the tie in to machining.  The less effort I put into this problem means more lathe time I have.


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## Reddinr (May 6, 2019)

Part of the problem area.  The rest is similar.


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## MontanaLon (May 6, 2019)

I had a friend, ahem, who had problems with people running over his mailbox. He made a nice decorative mailbox base out of steel that was shaped something like an upside down plow. The point of the plow was about 9 inches above the surface of the ground and the bottom of it was imbedded in concrete that went about 3 feet deep. It was all purely decorative of course, not designed with any mal intent. After the first couple of oil pan donations, the stupidness stopped.


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## rwm (May 6, 2019)

How about stop strips? Not too dangerous. But that might just anger them and make them come back for more. I suppose a fence is the only conventional solution.
You could take the high-tech direct route and get a motion triggered camera and get the tag number.
Robert


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## RJSakowski (May 6, 2019)

I can empathize with you.  Over the years, I've dealt with a number of similar situations.  I have a third of a mile of road frontage and we have to deal with beer and soft drink cans tossed on the roadside.  More of an issue was when some (I assume) youths were making the rounds with paint ball guns.  When that stuff dries, it is almost impossible to get off.  They would hit the house and vehicles.  I've also dealt with neighborhood kids stealing gas.  Mailboxes take a hit, literally.  I have mine mounted on 4" sch. 40 pipe so at least if they hit it with their baseball bat, there will be a repercussion..  It's been a while since our box was last hit, knock wood but if it happens again, I'll make my own from 1/8" plate.

I don't have a good solution.  I have threatened to get a cougar to live on my porch roof.  One thing that I have realized is that if you let them know that you are upset, it seems to encourage additional vandalism.  I would suggest that you set up a trailcam or two and get some images that may help you identifying the culprits.   When we used to deal with poachers, my advice to the was I know where you live and unlike the sheriff or the game warden, I don't need evidence.  Any additional incidents and I'll just come looking for you. You will find that talking to the kids parents is an effective way to deal with the problem.  If that doesn't work, the sheriff will help.


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## Superburban (May 6, 2019)

How about a sign reading "Video surveillance in effect" or similar?

Or perhaps a motion detector solar powered light mounted in the trees.


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## David S (May 6, 2019)

How about a sign stating the area is monitored by camera.  But don't bother with the actual camera, or put up a fake one.

David


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## Reddinr (May 6, 2019)

RJ  Yes.  It is frustrating.  About 99% of the folks that live out here, including the teenagers are just great.  It just takes the few to make things difficult.  We've been thinking about the trail-cam idea.


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## markba633csi (May 6, 2019)

Lighting, perhaps motion activated so you could make it portable, would probably work best. Maybe a sign too, for the ones who can read
M


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## Latinrascalrg1 (May 6, 2019)

I had a neighbor whose neighbor on the other side kept running over his very well manicured lawn on purpose so that he could park 2 vehicles side by side on a 1 car wide driveway with a sidewalk next to it. On top of driving on his lawn any passengers then walked all over his flowers through bushes to get to out of the car.  Finally after repeated requests and being mr nice guy he buried a few semi sharpened (actually would be considered blunt but served its purpose) pieces of rebar under the surface. They were deep enough that a person walking across them would never know they were there but the weight of a car pushing down on that blunted tip was enough to cause at least 1 flat tire that finally seemed to have gotten his point across loud and clear! 

As for your case maybe put up a few of those ranch style post fences with a large bolder or 2 placed strategically so that anybody driving across that area would be sure to cause damage hurting their parents piggy bank.


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## Cadillac (May 6, 2019)

A row of nice heavy boulders


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## pdentrem (May 6, 2019)

The city placed boulders between the ditch and the fence of the cemetery, no issues since. The real problem is dealing with the HOA!


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## jwmay (May 6, 2019)

I dont know much about an HOA, but surely they have some ideas. I mean you pay dues for something, right?


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## kev74 (May 6, 2019)

An M1 worked well for Clint!


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## Superburban (May 6, 2019)

Reports to the police may also get some help.


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## Reddinr (May 6, 2019)

Gran Torino, great movie (and car).  That was my first car in High School.  Paid $500 for it I think.  Worked on it constantly.  It was not beautiful but it was a great ride.

Our HOA is pretty informal here.  All volunteer with no gung-ho types.   Many of us have done a stint on the board.  We pay a small amount of dues but it is mainly for maintaining the roads.  I'm thinking maybe boulders are the way to go but a pain to mow/trim around.


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## Superburban (May 6, 2019)

Here is another idea. Easy to trim around.









						How To Make Fake Rocks
					





					www.swimmingpoolsteve.com
				








__





						FauxRocks Selection - EHS Sales Ltd.
					






					ehssales.ca


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## Reddinr (May 7, 2019)

Bookmarking the fake rock site...


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## Flyinfool (May 7, 2019)

I have a similar issue. I am on a corner. People like to turn the corner short and drive across my yard. I added a ~400 lb rock to the corner of my lot. About every 4-6 weeks I have to put it back where it belongs and pick up car parts. It has a lot of different colors of paint that has been rubbed onto it. I am now shopping for a 1500 to 2000 lb rock to put there so that cars can not move it so easy. 

I have also used the pieces of re-bar with a spherical radius on the end set down to ground level. With a round end I can claim that I was trying to make them as safe as possible. Round will easily penetrate a tire, even the tire of a semi size truck.

The other thing that has worked real good is to plant some rocks that are about a foot in diameter. Unless it is a lifted, or modded truck this is more that the available ground clearance of most vehicles. I have a line of those spaced about 8 feet, I then planted Tiger Lillie's (also known as Day Lillie) along that line. The plants look nice, require no trimming as the mower can pass under the leaves, can handle getting run over once in a while, and completely hide the rocks. When someone tries to go thru them they end up getting hung up to where they often need help getting away. The rocks also do wonderful things to the bottom of the vehicle. I did have one person that called the cops and insisted that a ticket be written since there was significant damage to her car. After much insisting by her, the cop did finally write a ticket,,,,,,,,,,,for trespassing. Then she was really unhappy.


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## projectnut (May 7, 2019)

One of our neighbors who lives on a corner lot had a problem with the kids cutting across his lawn in their 4 wheel drive trucks.  He tried all sorts of things like a small fence, warning signs about cameras and more.  Nothing seemed to work so finally he bought a small tree at the local nursery.  He planted it in the spot they always went across and to "help it grow straight" put several earth anchors around it with cables going to the trunk of the tree.  It took about a week before one of the kids tried to take the shortcut.  When they did they got a nasty surprise.  The tree was destroyed, but so was the oil pan, transfer case and transmission of the kids truck.

Earth Anchor:


			https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/fencing/fencing-accessories/earth-anchor/858708/building-materials/fencing/fencing-accessories/earth-anchor/858722/p-1530858525847.htm
		


The kids parents were more than upset and tried to sue the neighbor for the damage done to the truck.  The judge not only didn't decide in their favor, but ruled that they were liable for the damage done to the tree since it was well within the boundaries of the lot of the neighbor that planted it, not anywhere near where a vehicle should be traveling.


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## Superburban (May 7, 2019)

Where I grew up, there was a house down the street, that had the same issue of people driving across their lawn. He tried many things that did not work for long. He even got a large boulder, and someone dug up his lawn, trying to push it. They got it moved about 50 feet, and had the lawn all dug up. You could see the driver tried form several angles. This was back in the 70's, before cameras were reasonable enough for the average joe. He did get a couple of sets of the low voltage lights, and routed them about 10 feet inside his lawn. Funny thing ism those flimsey metal stakes they came with, sucked big time, so he used 12" or so pieces of rebar, set into concrete to hold the lights. 2 or 3 kids tried to run over the lights, and learned how to change tires quick before the cops arrived. It was over a year os more that no one else tried, then I moved, so cannot tell the ending of the story.


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## Reddinr (May 7, 2019)

Looks like boulders are in my future.


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## eugene13 (May 7, 2019)

Reddinr said:


> Looks like boulders are in my future.


Good luck


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## MrWhoopee (May 8, 2019)

This is a cautionary tale. Years ago I was having lunch with a steel salesman. He told of a client who lived in a rural area and became tired of having his mailbox vandalized. He purchased a 6' piece of 4x4x1/4 wall steel tube, sunk it in the ground supported by and filled with about a yard of concrete. He then clad it with wood for aesthetics. The next incident killed the passenger and hospitalized the driver.


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## mattthemuppet2 (May 8, 2019)

As long as the mailbox was built at the correct distance from the road then it's not really any different from a street light or telephone pole. If some idiot wraps themselves around a telephone pole, no one blames the phone company for putting it there.


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## Nogoingback (May 8, 2019)

MrWhoopee said:


> This is a cautionary tale. Years ago I was having lunch with a steel salesman. He told of a client who lived in a rural area and became tired of having his mailbox vandalized. He purchased a 6' piece of 4x4x1/4 wall steel tube, sunk it in the ground supported by and filled with about a yard of concrete. He then clad it with wood for aesthetics. The next incident killed the passenger and hospitalized the driver.




A cautionary tale for drivers, or property owners?


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## JimDawson (May 8, 2019)

MrWhoopee said:


> This is a cautionary tale. Years ago I was having lunch with a steel salesman. He told of a client who lived in a rural area and became tired of having his mailbox vandalized. He purchased a 6' piece of 4x4x1/4 wall steel tube, sunk it in the ground supported by and filled with about a yard of concrete. He then clad it with wood for aesthetics. The next incident killed the passenger and hospitalized the driver.



Mine is built the same way, only it's 3/8 wall 4x4 tube, sunk in the ground about 8 ft, but no concrete.  But to hit it, you would pretty much have to go through a power pole and my chain link fence first which are closer to the road, about 30 ft away.


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## jbolt (May 8, 2019)

I can vividly recall back in my youth doing something similarly stupid on a dirt bike and being rewarded with a peppering of bird shot. Message received loud and clear. You didn't dare tell anyone either to avoid the half hour lecture on how stupid your were and serves you right. How times have changed.


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