msmith1199 wrote:
bigdogger wrote:
I was going to clarify that the shotgun comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but the more I though about it, the more I realize it is pretty close to true. If a stranger was parked in front of my home, I absolutely would confront them, and I probably would be carrying a weapon, which is totally legal. I am on my property, and as long as I didn't directly aim it at someone, I am totally within the law. Since I am not an idiot, I would know if someone was hiding inside. I would bang on the rig loudly and frequently, along with informing the cretins inside that it is in their best interest to move and move very quickly. The police would be called and I am 100% sure they would be on my side, parking laws be damned. Since I would swear to the officer that I know someone is inside, if you didn't answer the door, the officer would be duty bound to enter the rig to perform an emergency welfare check. When they find you alive and well, your troubles will have just begun. You could be cited for failure to comply with a lawful police order and will be a prime candidate to for a search looking for illegal contraband.
It would play out like this in countless neighborhoods and towns everywhere. People are concerned about their safety and the safety of their children. Some weirdos living in an RV are not going to be welcomed in nearly any neighborhood. Stick to the truck stops, the Walmarts,, the rest areas and all the other acceptable free locations.
If you really act like this, you run the risk of elevating a potentially harmless and innocent situation into a shooting which could land you if not in jail, at least in years of endless court battles. What happens when you run out there to confront these obvious outlaws and they see your gun and they get out their gun and things go downhill from there? Turns out once all the smoke clears that the outlaws in the motorhome were really your neighbors in-laws who dropped by for the night on their way to Quartzite to spending the winter?
Guess the neighbor's inlaws would learn a hard lesson that you don't confront a homeowner on their own property, at least in Texas. Maybe you people live in neighborhoods different from mine, but there is NEVER a strange RV or Camping unit, or out of state van parked on the street in front of any house in our neighborhood. If the neighbors had someone visiting in an RV, it would be parked directly in front of their house, probably with an electrical cord running to it. They would also let those around them know what was going on. There would never, ever be a reason for an unknown vehicle to be parked in front of my house. And if one should appear, it will be investigated and if it has no business being there, which it wouldn't, it will be moving on down the road.
