HOA Karen Reported Me for Hunting on My Own Land — The Wildlife Officers Asked Her to Leave
Chapter 8
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Officer Carter recorded the change in her statement and asked whether the board had approved the wildlife complaint. Patricia said the board had discussed my conduct informally. Officer Brooks asked for the meeting date, the minutes, or any written authorization. Patricia could not provide any of them; she said the board trusted her judgment.At that moment, Mark's phone began ringing. Officer Brooks asked Patricia to place the call on speaker.Mark answered, sounding uneasy. Officer Brooks identified himself and asked whether Mark had entered my property with Patricia earlier that morning. Mark paused before admitting that he had. He said Patricia had asked him to help identify the boundary and that he believed the HOA had a legitimate concern.Officer Carter asked whether he had seen my deed or the county survey before making that decision. Mark admitted he had not. Then she asked whether he had authorized Patricia to tell the wildlife department that the HOA controlled my land. Mark immediately said no.Patricia turned toward the phone. "You told me to handle it," she said.Mark answered that he had told her to gather information, not submit a report containing accusations.Officer Brooks asked whether Mark had reviewed the message before it was sent. Another pause followed. Finally, Mark admitted that Patricia had shown him the shortened video, but not the complete recording.That detail explained why the complaint sounded so serious while omitting the most important facts.Officer Carter closed the email and handed the phone back to me. "The evidence is becoming very clear," she said. "But we still need to determine what happened after they entered the property."I opened another camera file from the creek. The footage showed Patricia and Mark standing beside the old stone marker, pointing toward the field. Then Mark placed something on the ground next to the boundary post.Officer Brooks leaned closer to the screen. "What did he put there?" he asked.I enlarged the image, and the answer appeared in plain view: a fresh orange survey flag planted several feet inside my property line.Officer Brooks asked me to pause the video, and I froze the frame with the orange survey flag clearly visible beside the stone marker.The flag had not been there the evening before. I knew that because I had walked the fence line while checking the gate, and the ground near the marker had been undisturbed.Officer Carter asked whether I had placed it there myself. I told her I had not. She asked whether I had given Mark permission to mark the boundary. Again, I said no.Patricia quickly stepped forward and claimed the flag was only temporary. "We needed a reference point," she explained.Officer Brooks looked at the screen. "A reference point for what?"Patricia said they were trying to determine whether I had moved the original marker.Officer Carter replied that the proper way to resolve a property question was to request an official survey, not place a new marker on someone else's land. She then asked why the flag appeared several feet inside the legally recorded boundary. Patricia said the county map was probably inaccurate.Officer Brooks asked Mark whether he had placed the flag. Mark was still on speakerphone, and his answer came slowly. He admitted that he had pushed it into the ground after Patricia told him the old marker was not in the correct location. He said he had not intended to change anything permanently.I explained that intention did not erase the fact that they had entered my property and altered the visible reference point without permission.