The story has been all over the news since Deb was the first to tell me about it — a Venezuelan illegal who’s schooling his social-media followers about how to “invade,” occupy, and ultimately take legal possession of “abandoned” houses they don’t own and didn’t earn.
This brazen theft of private property involves invoking the common-law principle behind “squatters rights.” Most Americans are clueless about so-called “adverse possession laws,” which are on the books in all 50 states, and about how difficult it can be to boot serial squatters.
There is a legal remedy, of course, but often that process can take months or years to play out. Meanwhile, squatters continue to live in (and usually destroy) a house to which they have no true lawful claim. Hell, they’ll even sell off possessions they find inside the home.
Some property owners take the law into their own hands. Some hire vigilantes. That doesn’t always end well, but who can blame them?
Every American property owner is vulnerable to theft by squatting illegals. (Say it with me: “Every state is a border state.”) If you’re a landlord with unoccupied properties, or if you own a vacation home or retreat, I strongly encourage you to thoroughly secure it against invasion and actively monitor it.
Now here’s something you may not have considered — we’re not just talking about houses, outbuildings and other structures. Squatters can invade and occupy undeveloped land as well.
And that’s where this madness intersects Deb and me and our American Life on The Mountain. We have 20 acres here, all but an acre of it (give or take) undeveloped and difficult to access. Still, we don’t want to wake up one morning to find illegals camped on our property.
Honestly, the chances of that happening are incredibly slim. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’ll blissfully (and ignorantly) dismiss the possibility that it could. We’ll account for it and adjust our vigilance accordingly.
It’s another reason why we cut trails and establish patrol circuits.
I do predict that we’ll see illegals try to exploit squatters rights in remote areas within, say, 15 miles of here. In Ozarkansas, it’ll be a FAFO thing — if the invaders even get this far, they’ll be dealt with harshly. As a local fella once said to me,
“I’m the law on my land.”
And so here we are, all of us, living in an America we never thought we’d see. Put your affairs in order, People. Take a side. Make your decisions now, so you won’t have to make them when (not if) the shit hits the fan.
“It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.”
Frédéric Bastiat, from The Law (1850), a passage addressing taxation but appropriate in this context as well
A medical issue unrelated to the bug Deb’s been battling began to bedevil her yesterday, requiring a trip to a walk-in clinic in Mountain Home today, plus a couple of prescription meds to handle it. It’s not the sort of thing likely to put her in bed or keep her home from work, but it had to be dealt with.
Sorry to be cryptic. That’s all you get.
I did the driving. I have to confess that I was off my game, not at all sharp. It took a Snickers and a Monster mid-trip to keep me going.
Since we had to be in Mountain Home anyway, we made the most and best of it. A visit to the vape shop. Harbor Freight for three freebies — a 24-pack of AA alkaline batteries, a 25-foot measuring tape and a 200-lumen LED flip-light (looks like a wall switch). Browsing a couple of secondhand stores while waiting for prescriptions that took way too long to fill.
On the way back, curbside pickup at Walmart. This was our first pre-eclipse run.
It was a pleasant enough day to be out and about, though surprisingly chilly (low 50s). We got our daily dose of Ozarkansas wildlife a half-mile from Home — seven whitetails and three wild turkeys, including a pair of good-sized toms in full strut.
The dogwoods along our road are beginning to bloom. Wild cherry trees are fading, but redbuds still are going strong, simply dazzling.
Such was our Saturday.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB