Problem

[Ronny Good]

About once a week, someone in our neighborhood gets turfed. We are in a development about a mile off a main road. Our place got it twice this month. The people drive down the sidewalk, then do a doughnut and down over the curb. With the ground as soft as it is, there are some huge ruts. Reports have been made with the authorities, but it's not like they are going to post an officer to watch the neighborhood over such trivial stuff. My question is, how the heck do you catch these people? I got a couple of

2x4x10's that I screwed a bunch of 3" screws through, and spray painted them black. I was going to lay them out in the yard, but I'm afraid someone walking their dog might get their animal hurt. What's a logical solution to catch the perpetrators? Some type of stationary video camera? Thing is, they may not turf our place again, but someone else in the neighborhood.

[Joseph Meehan]

I would think a few 2x4's rigged on edge would rattle them rather well. Space them about 18 inches apart.

[Clark Griswold]

I would put up a camera set to operate with a motion detecting light. Then you'll get the bastard. You could also put up boulders painted white.

We had the same problem in a brand new industrial park. Took about 8 months to catch the turf wrecker. It was the security guard that was driving all over the grass. Fired the guy on the spot.

[Greg O]

Re-land scape your yard, use big rocks in the appropriate places. Greg

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

I don't know how serious you are but there is one way to stop it forever. i had a uncle one time that had cars running through his front yard when they got drunk and did now want to stay to the road and take the short cut across his yard. He went to the scrap yard and bought him some rail road steel rails and dug a 6 foot hole and put a rail road steel rail ever 2 to 3 feet apart with 18" sticking out above the ground. If you crossed his yard you had to hit the rails. For Legal reasons he put a yard plant by everyone of them and called the plant protectors. After 3 drunks hitting them and having to call a wrecker to come to lift the car off the rails and get the car off the rails which all three got DWI tickets also. He had no more trouble with this. Also the cars insurance had to replace the plant protector and have the yard land scaped again.

One item of interst here is the 18" is the point where the steel takes the engine out of the car. Also if you talk to the fellow at the scrap yard he will cut the rails in 7 1/2 foot pieces for you. also a 1/2 ton truck will not haul more than about 8 -- 7 1/2 foot section of rail.

There was one that tried to sue him for having rails in his yard but by Texas state law you can't tell the home owner what material he can use to protect plants with. Now if he called it a car stop with no plant next to it , you could sue him for the damage.

At the scrap yards, scrap rail road steel sells for about $5.00 a 100 pounds.

TURTLE

[m Ransley]

If your neighbors have the money surveylance cameras will do it, but motion detecting may not trigger record for 2-6 seconds by then he is gone. You just monitor all night. It is the same guy, look for grass and mud on the tires of who you suspect. Or put out large rocks. Obviously it is one car you are looking for.

[Norminn]

Don't install anything that might injure innocent passersby. That is inviting far worse problems. Ask municipality to install a couple of signs - slow, children playing, or a speed limit. Folks in my condo sometimes miss the driveway - same ones whose guests drop beer bottles on the lawn.

[Doug Miller]

[snip]

Yeah, sure, that's gonna fix the problem, all right.

"Hey, Joe, let's give this guy a yard job!" "No, Bob, you see that sign? There might be kids playing there!" "Yeah, you're right. Guess we'd better try somewhere else."

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[dadiOH]

Land mines