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Highlands Today

Strangers Apparently Can Trespass

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By KATHLEEN WALKER Guest Column

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2008

I wonder if the residents of Highlands County are aware that a total stranger can park his or her vehicle in front of your house, come on to your property without your permission and take an animal, and the police will not do a thing about it? Yes, this can and did happen to me.

A stray cat showed up at my door about a month ago. I am an animal lover and I cannot stand to see a hungry critter, so I began to feed him. I have two house cats who are well cared for so I was afraid to let this stray cat into my house. I fed him, made a little house for him on my front porch and cared for him. I intended to take him to the vet when I had enough money to pay for it.

My great grandson fell in love with this cat, he named him Boots. The two of them would sit on the porch rocker for hours together. Because Boots wasn't a house cat, he roamed a bit but he always came here for food and love. Heck, I see cats and dogs roaming this neighborhood all the time.

Yesterday my son saw a car stop in front of my house. A man got out, came onto my property, picked up Boots and put him in a cage in the back of his mini van. My son and I went out and asked the man if that was his cat, he said very rudely "He is now!" When I asked him what he meant by that he became aggressive and told me he was taking the cat and that's all there is to it.

The lady with him then opened her door and began to tell me that she had been visiting my next door neighbor a few days ago and saw the cat. My neighbor supposedly told her that the cat did not belong to anyone and that she could have him. Ergo, these people just came onto my property and stole the cat. Granted, I did not have a collar on him and I have no legal rights to him, but they had no right to be on my property.

They drove off with the cat. The lady's final words were curse words at me. My son got their license number and I called the police. I have the officer's name but will not put it in this letter. The officer ran the plate on his computer, asked me to come out to his car and identify the pictures he pulled up. I told him those were the people who took the cat.

The result: The officer told me that I had to go to my neighbor and get the phone number of the woman he identified only as Vivian. I asked him about my trespassing complaint and he told me there was nothing he could do because the people were no longer on my property.

I did as the officer requested. I went to my neighbor's house when she got home from work and knocked on her door. I saw her run into a back room and hide; she did not answer the door. Shortly afterwards two officers arrived at my door and told me there was a complaint against me for harassment. Hello! I only did what I was told by one of our "county's finest."

No report was filled out about my complaint. Nothing was done about total strangers coming onto my property without my permission. Where is the justice? Who is protecting us from people who come onto our property? No one, that's who.

I called the sheriff's office and asked to speak to Susan Benton about the problem. I got a clerk who claimed to write down all of the information and would relay it to her. Again nothing was done. A word to the wise, don't count on our sheriff to protect you from intruders.

Kathleen Walker lives in Sebring.

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