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Land Thief |
 Suddenly
a pickup drove onto our new property where I was camping and a very angry
man jumped out. Another man was in the cab. He told me he was sending a
herd of cattle into our land with three big mean bulls entering
first.
I immediately wondered how my little children would do if they were charged by a bull. I asked him why he was so angry and he blew up with many ugly curse words. I asked what I had done to cause this anger. He said that I had pushed his fence over and planted trees on his bosses land. The hundred year old fence was easy to push over. I wondered how it could hold any animal from coming in. He said his boss owned thousands of acres and we had pushed over a fence and entered his property. I softly told him the survey posts on my land were my guide for where I placed my trees. This made him explode. It was obvious that he did not want me on my newly purchased land and that he had driven on it many times to check on the cattle. |
| I hurried out to find electric fencing and spent money I
really needed for the children yet I did not want them trampled. While I
was out trying to put it up, a farmer friend from our church showed me how
to get the thing grounded. The angry cow hand showed up again threatening
to harm us. He was shown the survey post but he claimed the old fence was
the boundary. We learned that he could steal our land from us by
"adverse possession" which is a legal way to steal the land of
others. If your fence is on their land 7 years, that land can become
yours. Some move their fence a little each year to steal from others. I
contacted lawyers in the area for help and they all had worked for Dr. B
and had conflict of interest.
When I heard the cattle that night, I prayed. We were just camping and did not really have a safe place. The farmer informed me that a little electric shocking device would never hold back a herd of cattle or any bulls. I knew that only God could protect us and the new little trees. God did just that. He prevented the cattle from coming onto our land. |
| Our new friends at church heard of our predicament and
volunteered to dig holes and plant a sturdy fence on our property line
from survey post to post. There was an area of about three acres involved.
A nice strong group of men with shovels and post hole diggers and wire
clippers and all the tools they needed came to put in a new strong fence
with the wire we bought.
This seemed to add fuel to the growing anger in Dr. B's heart. He showed up promising to take us to court for trespassing. He threatened to chop up our new fence. He was so angry, my husband saw how serious our situation was. He instructed me to get on the phone and find legal help immediately or call the police. We learned from lawyers that this is a legal way that many people steal land. As we prayed about the whole mess, we were impressed to offer this man six thousand dollars as a purchase agreement. We ended up paying twice for those three acres out in the woods. It made Dr. B. happy. It was drawn up as a "Quit deed" and never really became legal although we went through the motions and he received his six thousand dollars. His lawyer said there was a problem with the paper work at the court house for they were afraid something had been done dishonestly. Dr. B. said maybe we could be friends. And thus the battle ended right there. We were so thankful. We love peace not war. |