I was 10 minutes late leaving for work. I was running a bit behind because i was still recovering from the flu and i felt like death but there were patients to be seen and i wasnt feverish so i had to get my butt in gear, take a cold and flu pill for the massive amounts of snot coming out of my face, put on a mask, and go to work. I was standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth when i heard a series of crashes followed by revving engine noises and a frenzy of barking. The noises sounded way too loud to be in the distance and i knew a vehicle was where it wasnt supposed to be. The question was, was it crashing into my property or the neighbor’s property? The dogs Continued to bark and the engine continued to revv. So i grabbed my keys and purse and drove out to the side of the property where the noise seemed to be coming from. The fog was thicker than i had ever seen fog in my life. The fog lights were making a star pattern in the dense fog. The words “pea soup” wouldnt have done it justice. It was so foggy i was afraid to drive the car over to see who was making the commotion, but something told me to do it so i did. When i got close i switched the high beams on and tried to take a look. There was a very long suv looking thing. I knew it was either a chevy suburban or a ford expedition. It was dark colored. It was trying to turn around in the tight space between my neighbor’s gate and her intercom on a metal pole. I waited for a few seconds and just sat there observing him or her. They were repeatedly attempting to turn in the tight space and it was causing the car to make more frantic engine noises. This might not be the behavior of a sound person. If i just ran through a fence in the fog i would park, then call 911 or go knock on the home owners door. I was deciding whether i should confront the person. I didnt have a gun. I didnt know if they were drunk or high. They were driving erratically. Visibility was already low. What if i got out and they just ran me over, either accidentally in their hurry to get unstuck or on purpose so i couldnt report them? I decided to turn around and go back to the house. If they were a reasonable upstanding adult they would likely follow me and then knock on my door to chat. The porch lite was on and the gate was open. I turned around and went back to the house. I parked and went inside, locking the door after me. Nobody ever knocked on the door. I didnt leave for work. I waited for the sun to rise. Then i went and had a look at what was done. Upon further inspection i realized i needed to call the cops. I called and they said they’d send a deputy out.
Three cops from one town over showed up. Two of them were way more interested in establishing who i was and when i was born and why i didnt call immediately when it happened while i was trying to tell them i could show them where the guy went in the fence and plowed deep into my property hitting several trees and snapping my pecan tree at the base. The two guys didnt want to get to any of that yet and they didnt want me to leave the spot i was standing in. The third guy asked, “which direction is the place he went in?” I pointed. He left. I was talking to the two guys in my driveway for a long while before they let me go show them where the car had gone through my fence. It had hit a cedar tree, plowed through the barbed wire and metal stake fence, taken out the wire fence around the pecan tree, snapped the pecan tree at the base, and hit or run over three more cedar trees on my property before coming to a stop at the shed fifty feet from my bathroom. The person left behind two tail lights, a mirror, and a window and a bunch of tire tracks in the mud. When i showed the two officers the one officer that had disappeared was already looking at everything. The larger one of the officers that had asked me to stay in the driveway told me multiple times that i should have called right away, i should have gotten the license plate, and since i didnt get the license plate number, theres probably no chance they’ll ever find the guy that did it. The quiet skinny officer that had disappeared to examine the crime scene like a detective called the other two officers over. He said, “they left a mirror behind. We can use the mirror to get the make and model of the vehicle and because the paint on the mirror is black, we know that the vehicle we’re looking for is black.” He pulled his phone out and after a bit of time he announced that we were looking for a black chevy suburban. He then pointed to the tire tracks in the mud, “with extra wide tires.” I was impressed. I wanted to hear more from this officer. He was like a bloodhound. I was really digging his conversation much more than the other officer’s. To their credit, both other officers let this guy lead and jumped on the band wagon. They started writing stuff down. The skinnier deputy said, “i know a guy down the road who owns a black chevy suburban with extra wide tires. Lets go pay him a visit. I bet you his car is missing some pieces right now.” So, they explained to me that i was to fill out this statement on this piece of paper and just cross out the part where i state i understand my rights and i understand that im being arrested because that part doesnt apply to me. They said, “we’re going to go down the road here and pay this guy a visit and then we’ll come back to your property afterwards and let you know what we found out.” So i went back in the house, wrote my statement, and waited for them to return. The bloodhound deputy said it was a class b misdemeanor because he hit and fled the scene of the accident. The larger deputy asked me if i wanted to press charges. I said that i did because he really destroyed a good chunk of my property and i was going to need to fix the fence and he didnt even offer to help or say sorry for mowing down my pecan tree or doing varying amounts of damage to several cedars.
An hour later they returned. Two deputies stepped out and the larger one said, “well its good news. We found him and his car is indeed missing two tail lights, a mirror, and a window.” He said they were poking around on his property trying to get a look at the vehicle and the guy came out and said that he was just about to call them and he knew why they were there. They told me he claimed he was going to come back and talk to me and i just called the cops too fast (the dude reiterated this story later) 3 hours after the incident happened. I dont know whether i should believe that bit. Its possible he was waiting dor the fog to clear but as the cop pointed out, usually when people are afraid to confront the home owner themselves or they’re worried its too early to wake them, they at least call 911 and report what they’ve done, saying they’ll ho back with a police escort for mediation or once the sun clears the fog. This man made no attempt to contact the sheriff’s office, nor did he leave a note or knock on my door. So i dont want to sound cynical but i wasnt born yesterday either. If he hadnt gotten caught, would he have really returned and fessed up? We’ll never know. I have my opinions but we’ll never know. They informed me that i had two options. I could press charges or i could tell him id drop the charges if he fixed the fence and we could agree on a timeline and the cops would suspend the charges until that date and if the fence was fixed and satisfactory by that date the charges would be dropped, if not they’d issue a warrant for his arrest. I immediately said, “yeah if he’ll fix the fence i’ll drop the charges. I’d much rather be made whole than him be punished.” They said the bloodhound was going to be bringing him up to my property to collect his car parts. They asked me if i wanted to meet him. I said heck yeah i wanted to meet him and shake his hand. I didnt want anyone on my property without meeting them first, especially if we were neighbors, we out to make things square and shake hands before he stepped foot on the property. They took me to him where he was already collecting his things under the supervision of the bloodhound. I had plans to bring them a plate of sweets and a card thanking them, wishing them a merry christmas, and with a prayer for their continued safety while they did their jobs, but once i realized what i had was likely the flu i figured i had better stay far away from them and not touch things they were going to eat. Maybe ill send them an easter platter and a card then. Anyways, we shook hands and the officers introduced us. Originally i think he thought i was making a big fuss about nothing. I have two acres. Most ranchers have 100 or more. I think he thought he went through a fence and hit a few of a thousand cedars and what’s the big deal? I saw the surprise on his face when i told him his tracks stopped fifty feet from my house. He had no idea there was a bathroom just behind those cedars. Originally he made it sound like i called the cops needlessly for something tiny. Later that day he discovered that he’d plowed through my orchard and had a walk about the property and realized how close he had come to the shed and the house and then he apologized via text. I could note a clear shift in his vocabulary. I think he was genuinely remorseful when he realized what i was talking about. He had done more damage and taken more risk than he thought, and i could understand that if you thought you went through a ranch fence that was already falling apart and hit a few pesky cedar trees, you wouldn’t feel as bad as if you crashed into a city neighborhood. Well, he said he’d have the fence fixed by the end of the day if i’d drop the charges. I agreed but i wrote in my statement that i gave him 7 days because i felt that was more reasonable. I asked him to shake on the agreement. He extended his hand. I gave him a firm shake. His hand was cold, dry, and weightless. It was strange and it told me i needed to watch him, take him with a grain of salt. You can tell someone’s motives from a handshake. Luckily, his main motive was going to be to avoid jail, and my main motive was to have the fence fixed so no more cars could come careening towards the bathroom now that the trees in the way were weakened or plowed down. So, our motives were going to coincide or align. I told the cops they sure were nifty. The younger one laughed. The larger one said well it doesnt always work out like that and i said it never works out like that, and he said hey, hey, hey sometimes it works out like that. Then they both agreed it wouldnt have been possible without the help of their comrade, who i have nicknamed the bloodhound deputy, who knows everyone and all their vehicles in this area. They took my statement, the younger one gave me a business card with a number to call and drop the charges if he builds a fence, they told me i should call if i have any more problems. The man left to get fence supplies. He promised to put wood posts where i had metal stakes, 6 of them. I was thrilled with this offer. I went to work with quite the story to tell the weekend staff. The man fixed my fence while i was at work and asked me to inspect it. I told him id inspect it when i got home from work but from the picture he sent it looked beautiful. Upon arriving home i saw he did a really good job. I texted him that it was beautiful, he was a man of his word, i appreciated him, and we were square. He told me to have a good night and thanked me. I told him to have a good night as well.
I called the sherriff’s office and made sure they knew he fixed the fence to my satisfaction in a very timely manner and i wanted to drop the charges. They wrote my new statement in the file pertaining to the case number. He avoided jail. I got my fence fixed. The pecan tree, rip, is no more but thus is life. I do have two piles of black glass in the orchard that im unsure what to do with because it cuts the trash bags, but, i have more pressing issues to worry about at the moment. It can sit there for a while.
I did end up giving the dogs lamb treats because all their barking convinced me i needed to go out and shine high beams on the intruder and had i not done that, i never would have been able to tell the deputies it was an extra long dark colored car with no bed and my presence wouldnt have been there to deter him from picking up his mirror or tail lights before leaving. The dogs could tell i was proud of them and they had done a good job. They were very pleased with their performance, alerting to the presence of an unscheduled intruder.