To report this guy to the police

[bagpuss90]

Just been speaking to my mum , her and my dad are both in their 80s . Both enjoy walking nowhere too challenging. Anyway she told me they were out walking yesterday and accidentally wandered into someone’s land. Dads not great at reading maps. She told me the land owner was very verbally aggressive and threatening towards them. Told them if they didn’t turn back he’d he’d kick their arses off his land . Dad apparently tried to ask for directions and got sworn at. Told them if they did it again they’d wish to god they hadn’t. Mum was quite upset. Okay they shouldn’t have been there. But AIBU in thinking this is really no way to speak to an elderly couple and totally OTT ? Should I report him ?

Totally out of order, and please remember the first few responses to a post do tend to be extra and harsh, interestingly.

I totally understand how upsetting it must have been for your parents and why you want to help in some way to teach him a lesson, but complaining to the police about him is seriously OTT. The police have limited time and resources as it is - I'd prefer they spend it dealing with actual crimes rather than hurt feelings. Try to put it aside as a one off unlucky encounter and let karma do the rest.

Sometimes farmers don't signpost the rights of way through their land, and it's easy to get lost (there is a notorious one near me - doesn't like that there's a right of way so doesn't mark the paths, then shouts at people who are lost. This is arable, not livestock).

People get lost, even very experienced map readers and walkers.

I do appreciate that many, many farmers and owners of private land are really pissed off with ignorant, entitled idiots, but to shout abuse at anyone, but especially an elderly couple who cannot have looked at all threatening is disgusting.

I work at a place where walkers sometimes mistakenly come onto the land and the owner sometimes bellows at them, but it's not something I'd be happy to do myself. Usually I just ask people if they're lost and redirect them to the path and they go off happily enough. If it's older folks and they've trudged up the steep field and look knackered, then I ask if they need a sit down or a cold drink, offers that have been accepted. The owner knows I do this, btw, and is fine with it.

No move on just remember there's lots of horrible people out there who have no idea how to conduct themselves and are rude and unpleasant. Just pity them.
Your parents sound way nicer.

I work for landowners. If someone is on their land they are advised they are on private land and directed towards the exit. No fuck off required or threats. Jesus...the very fact you seem to justify the action says a lot about you and your manners.

Honestly if your dad is so bad st reading maps, he's lucky this is the worst that's happened.

I can use Google maps but sometimes you can’t get a signal and even when do and it shows where you are, trying to work out where you go and picking out what is and isn’t private land or where hedgerows or fences are don’t show up.

....in case anyone missed the point in this fatuous and disingenuous post, @liwoxac is suggesting that you find someone who's willing to commit grievous bodily harm as revenge for the bloke being unpleasant to your mum and dad.

Which is very sensible and grown-up advice, and does not in anyway constitute encouragement to conspire in the commission serious violent crime.

If this happens a lot then the signs to keep them off the private land and keeping them on the rights of way are clearly missing or obscured.

Maybe walk around to see where people are going wrong and he won’t have to spend time shouting at people.

Where does it say that?

If this happens a lot then the signs to keep them off the private land and keeping them on the rights of way are clearly missing or obscured.

@Kennykenkencat, it doesn't happen a lot, but when it does it's simply that people are looking at the view rather than the signs. Can't blame them either, it's a fabulous view.

report him for what ?? Just curious, seems he wasn't the most pleasant male, but doesn't appear to have broken any laws, or committed a crime that I can see, so why waste the time of a valuable emergency service.

i just find it incredible that anyone can think it’s okay to threaten to kick an elderly couples arses

What is your verdict on this bloke @QuestionableMouse ? i don't know about his map-reading skills but I wouldn't say a love for your pet necessarily means you deserve death. Otherwise that would be quite a lot of us

But maybe you think differently. Do tell.

www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/uk-world-news/walker-found-dead-believed-carrying-26342024

Threatening behaviour is a crime!
Perfectly reasonable to ask people to leave your land but in the circumstances his aggression was unreasonable and unnecessary.

Sounds like a massive overreaction on the part of the land owner, and makes me wonder if he is engaged in something dodgy and afraid of being discovered. 🧐

Are you in Scotland or England? As there's no trespassing laws in scotland

What kind of area had they wandered into, OP?

Might be worth checking if they were actually on his land. I was checking out local public rights of way during lockdown (one of which went through a farmyard courtyard) and the farmer set a dog on me which bit me. I reported it to the police, and the Ramblers, and both informed me that the public right of way was still valid, but the farmer had blocked it off and was trying to close it. It was a constant battle with the council.

I fell walk locally and in the Lakes and Peaks every week. Paths and PRoWs go through all kinds of property to get up to the hills and fells - gardens, up driveways, etc. It's the owner's responsibility to keep the path clear, and visible, and maintain things like stiles (for which they get financial assistance). Most people are great about it - even the woman who said hello when she was hanging out her washing in the garden in her dressing gown one sunday morning last summer. But there's a small subset of landowners and farmers who really don't like it, and they try all kinds of tricks to make sure you get off their land - either by demolishing PRoW signposts, growing weeds over the path, re-routing the path away from their property, or just by being aggressive and frightening.

Quite a few people here obviously haven't had any dealings with the police recently! They won't do anything.

You can give them video evidence of an actual assault along with a statement from a witness. If you are lucky they might follow it up, but then they won't do anything.

This is why people go on behaving so badly, they know they can get away with it.

Farmers often use fields dotted all around an area, not just as one mass of a farm. We have one who has to herd their sheep through the middle of the villae to reach a different field.

The point is, he didn't want them there and it's his land.

Yes, he was a dick about it, no question, but for all they knew he could have been about to turn a muck spreader on or something!

If I was a police officer I would wonder why what made a young man be so aggressive towards two people who clearly constituted no threat and would want to check that everything on his land was above board for the well-being of the community
I agree, the man's response was disproportionate....what is he hiding?

I don't agree with how he behaved but I don't think you would get anywhere with the police to be honest as your parents, although not intentionally, were the ones in the wrong