I'm either running into more and more idiots...or my age is making my patience wear thin when it comes to the run of the mill "jerk" property owner. I don't know which.
I run into most of these "guard dog" owners out in rural areas working for the electric co-op. Now granted, thievery is big in sparsely populated regions, so I don't mind answering questions. Most of the county deputies know our trucks and don't even stop anymore...unless they think the reporting party is watching. Then we just "window to window" for a few seconds and it's done. Also, every time we enter private property we either attempt a contact (number is on the work order) or door knock. If nobody is around, we leave the vehicle on the R/W and enter on foot. And we all wear safety-vests for some reason...we're either trying to look like a deer hunting party, or someone's afraid we will get hit by traffic in the middle of the woods.
Anyway, I was by myself last week; on the road side of the fence digging up a front pin and this fella makes a bunch of noise and raised hell with me. There is no electric primary to the property yet, and even though a trailer house has been moved onto the property, I didn't expect anyone to be there. And he's carrying a .22 rifle (Ruger or Mossburg)... which actually never gets pointed in my direction, but it upped the ante quickly.
First round of his feeble spew was about his property going to the center of the road. I called him by name (again, on the work order) and corrected him...his deed was actually written from the R/W...He calmed down a little, but then had to get into a quasi-politico-patriot diatribe about eroding personal freedoms...yadda yadda...a man's home is his castle..blah blah. He wanted me to know he's the kind of guy that would shoot first, then ask questions.
All well and true I told him, and explained that's why I always try to remain in the R/W...where my rights get exercised. And then I asked him if he still wanted power to his house. He said yes. I then showed him his contract with the co-op (with his signature) that allows agents and assigns (magnetic sign on my truck means I are a "assign") to enter his property to 'erect and or service electric service and all the appurtenances necessary'...he quieted down a little more. I told him I was well within my responsibilities to walk away and make sure it's a good thirty days before I come back...and the co-op's new policy is NO new service until R/W is obtained...I could make it a good long time before he gets to watch tv.
I asked him what he did for a living. He said he was a mechanic at a car dealership here in Norman. I asked him if anybody had ever held a gun and asked him what he was doing under the hood of their car? I made my point pretty clear to him. He finally settled down but never apologized for being such an ass.
I'm glad I will be retiring soon. People are getting so sensitive about other people it wouldn't surprise me if a postman or a Fuller Brush salesman gets shot just by walking up on someone's porch. It scares me a little.
But I am proud of myself for seeing details quickly. Although I didn't say anything to him about it, I noticed his .22 rifle didn't have the little nine round magazine that slips in on the underneath side of the rifle in front of the trigger guard. I've got one at the house just like it. He might have had one round in the chamber, but that's all...I guess maybe if he had missed he could have used it as a club....
...idiots...
paden cash, post: 362322, member: 20 wrote: such an ass
I am so glad that guns are not an issue for me.
(Not trying to make ANY statement about gun laws, etc, please don't take it that way. I'm just happy in little old Tasmania)
Fortunately, our encounter today was much friendlier than that. Doing a simple elevation certificate on a tract where we provided everything in January of 2015 to the owner so they could build a spec house above the dreaded AE Zone that touched about the east five feet of their lot in town. Just enough to get the attention of the nationwide computer folk who alert lenders to the possibility of bad news.
As the fellow came around the corner of the neighbors house his first words were: What are you doing?
My immediate response was: Oh, I bet you're Mr. Rogers.
That caught him off guard. Yes, he was Mr. Rogers but how did I know that. I explained how we were working on behalf of the buyer, Mr. Olberding, who was in process of buying the new house from Mr. Rogers' son. Both buyer and seller live about 100 miles distant. The senior Mr. Rogers then became very friendly and even went to his truck to get his overhead door activator so I could get a quick measurement of the attached garage that couldn't be determined from the exterior. Later he told me, surprise surprise, that he used to work some with the county engineer doing survey work all over the town and that he had run the dumb end of the stick during his several years in the military.
In Mr. Rogers' town the percentage of population with his specific ancestry is less than one percent. In his particular neighborhood it is far less than that. Plus I new he lived in the second house to the north of the one where we were working from conversations last year with his son. I'm sure his attention was focused in our general direction at the time we arrived as the house between his and the one we were working with had an ambulance with flashing lights parked in front of it when we arrived. It took off about five minutes after our arrival and about one minute before his appearance on the scene. I appreciated his Neighborhood Watch senses kicking into gear.
I just can't understand why seem to hate surveyors so much .Like we're gonna put their yard in our truck an "steal their property".
JTLAPOINTE, post: 362329, member: 11401 wrote: I just can't understand why seem to hate surveyors so much .Like we're gonna put their yard in our truck an "steal their property".
It's because they don't understand what we do and they assume we don't know what we're doing, either. Generally, the louder they are, the less they know about surveying.
One of the most memorable experiences for me was an adjoiner lady who walked up behind me while surveying in a recently platted subdivision and yelled "What's that?!" Having already been warned about her I didn't say much. I told her I was surveying her neighbor's property and her fence was about 5 feet on the neighbor. She said she already moved the fence once, and I asked why she didn't move it to the property line. Then she proceed to tell me that my client's property didn't extend all the way to the right of way (which it clearly did), and that the property behind her "didn't belong to anyone". The more she talked, the more obvious her ignorance became, and she finally left me alone. My client who was listening from afar, seemed to get a real kick when I told her that if she removed the stakes I was going to send her a bill for putting them back. The truth is, I'm usually very nice to people who approach me, and I feel bad about being rude to someone, but when they're clearly looking for trouble, it's hard not to oblige.
One of the most tense moments I've had doing benchmark recoveries was at one that had originally been at the ROW fence line out in the country. Somebody had built a house there in recent years and removed the fence, with lawn all the way out to the gravel of the road. I found the disk at the surface, brushed some grass clippings off it, and took a picture. It was late enough in the afternoon, under some trees, that the flash went off. Out came Mr. Homeowner, very red faced, demanding I get off his property and not pausing long enough for me to offer any explanations. I left quietly, without completing my tie measurements, and didn't remind him that I was in the ROW. I considered myself lucky to get away without being detained for law enforcement to arrive.
I deal with this all the time Paden, or at least it feels that way. Most of the time I can just let them vent and run out of steam, give them the old 'Look, I'm just a working stiff surveyor trying to collect a pay check to feed the children', and 'no Sir, I don't work for the gubermint, so relax'. That doesn't always sooth their rage when I explain I'm about to wipe out all the trees between their castle and the road, but I wasn't the one that cleared right up to the ROW and bit over. I try and shrug it off and not let them get under my skin, but occasionally ... I learned long time ago I have an angel riding on my shoulder. Every now and then she'll whisper in my ear to jump out of dangers way or just simply leave post haste. Some times I don't even know yet why, but I've learned the hard way to listen that angel, jump and save the why questions for later. It's a pretty safe bet I'm out-gunned anywhere I go and I don't get paid enough to have to shoot it out with some whack job off their meds. Nope. No Sir. I keep that angel close and bug out the moment the hair on the back of my neck goes up and that angel whispers to me, 'time to beat it brother'.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
The guy I almost hate more than the ignorant and angry adjoiner, is the old guy who thinks he knows everything there is to know about surveying and is mad because you got a different distance than he did pulling his 100' tape up and down hills and around trees.
JTLAPOINTE, post: 362364, member: 11401 wrote: The guy I almost hate more than the ignorant and angry adjoiner, is the old guy who thinks he knows everything there is to know about surveying and is mad because you got a different distance than he did pulling his 100' tape up and down hills and around trees.
I remember someone on the old board said an adjoiner told him he had measured the line with his 100' garden hose.
C Billingsley, post: 362366, member: 1965 wrote: I remember someone on the old board said an adjoiner told him he had measured the line with his 100' garden hose.
I thought that ol' feller used a banjo:-D
DDSM:beer:
C Billingsley, post: 362334, member: 1965 wrote: It's because they don't understand what we do and they assume we don't know what we're doing, either. Generally, the louder they are, the less they know about surveying...
I've also noticed that most people see in others what they know about themselves. In essence, a liar is always worried about being lied to...a thief is always worried about someone stealing from them, etc. And like my Mr. Bigmouth, he's so worried about HIS personal rights probably because he has trampled all over everybody else's. Plain and simple.
I'd like to think at the Pearly Gates ol' St. Pete is gonna have a clipboard and be asking a lot of questions and making people sweat....when I get there he's just gonna wink at me and hold the gate open...as he says "git on in there, Paden...we've been waiting for you!"
How does your light shine?
I do not fault a fellow for measuring with a hose, the one that gets my goat is the owner who was informed where their property lines are and/or the potential for future development by their real estate agent when it is clear that they were lied to in order to make the sale.
Full disclosure, I have never had to deal with a garden hose stretcher.
party chef, post: 362370, member: 98 wrote: ...Full disclosure, I have never had to deal with a garden hose stretcher....
Me neither...thank gawd.
A few years ago I did have to deal with a property owner that just would NOT believe my rover could locate anything with any accuracy. With his 25' carpenter's tape to "check"...we measured around his patio and I told him the dimensions. He quieted down after that...but he still didn't like it..:pinch:
While chatting with Mr. Rogers he told the story of helping with a survey involving a lady who was POSITIVE she already knew where the boundary was located. The surveyor's line didn't agree with her opinion by about four feet. The surveyor informed her that she was incorrect. That's when she informed him that she wasn't going to pay him a penny until he put the line in the right place. Mr. Rogers reported that to the best of his knowledge the surveyor never did get paid for that job.
The one I've been getting most recently is the client or neighbor telling me that the lot line is right here (no line of occupation/fence, whatsoever). My survey must be incorrect. Turns out there has never been a survey in the area. So I'll ask how they know precisely were their lot line is when they never had a survey. That usually draws some very interesting responses.
ontarget1, post: 362383, member: 9989 wrote: The one I've been getting most recently is the client or neighbor telling me that the lot line is right here (no line of occupation/fence, whatsoever). My survey must be incorrect. Turns out there has never been a survey in the area. So I'll ask how they know precisely were their lot line is when they never had a survey. That usually draws some very interesting responses.
My wife's third ex husbands great great uncles cousins grandmother said.......
C Billingsley, post: 362366, member: 1965 wrote: I remember someone on the old board said an adjoiner told him he had measured the line with his 100' garden hose.
When I was a party chief; a client called my boss and said I shorted his 50' lot by 2'!
when the boss asked how'd he determine that; he said went to the hardware store and bought 50' of rope...o.O
The old addage: There's always one more A@#$^@#e than what you counted on. I've always liked the height of summer here in Houston, those worthless pos can only get so far from the air conditioning. You're almost safe if you can stay in the direct sun far removed from any source of shade or a/c.
R.J. Schneider, post: 362388, member: 409 wrote: ....those worthless pos can only get so far from the air conditioning. You're almost safe if you can stay in the direct sun far removed from any source of shade or a/c.
That's so funny...but true!
I had contracted inspection services and contract management from an engineering firm once-upon-a-time on AP runway improvement. These projects were paid like 90%-10% Federal/State Aeronautics Commission. The Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission had a pain-in-the-ass "watchdog" engineer that would come out on the job once or twice a week and make my life miserable. He was, in a manner of speaking, inspecting the inspector.
I would always find the hottest and sunniest place to stand and let him chatter. One hot July day (in Durant, Oklahoma...temp 100å¡ - humidity 110%) I kept him by the (asphalt) lay down machine for a good two and a half hours in the full sun. It almost killed me. When he left one of the guys had to give him a ride back to his car, he was too weak to walk. He didn't show back up for a couple of weeks...and always stayed in his car after that.
Found out later he had left the air field that day and driven himself to the "doc-in-a-box" in Durant with heat exhaustion. The project engineer I was working for later accused me of "trying to kill the poor guy"....