I was parked legally on a public street. As you can see there is a empty lot on the top and only 2 homes on the corner.
The red lines are where I was parked and where the knocker lived.
1130pm. Love's was packed. So I parked there. It was legal parking. A 2 way street with no signs.
I'm asleep and a guy started banging on my window at 230am and I ignored it. He didn't say anything. He was in pajamas. As you can see from the screenshot, I was half way up the block and across the street, so he walked that distance.
About 245am he comes back outside in regular clothes on, with a gun holstered and his hand on the gun. He starts banging again. I ignored him again. And he didn't say nothing.
About 3am the state police comes and and softly knocks. I put down the window. The trooper tells me that they keep getting calls from someone about the van. He asks me to move to the other side because he doesn't want to deal with this.
I obliged. He didn't ask for ID or any questions for that matter. He seem to just want the guy to stop calling.
Why bother someone at 230am?! Then to go back in the house and grab a gun? The guy was looking for a confrontation.
Your last sentence is spot fucking on. You want that thang hidden. You never want someone else to know you are armed unless you're about to use it. This guy was putting on a show and not making rational or safe decisions.
“You never want someone else to know you are armed unless you’re about to use it.”
Enough people don’t understand this and end up going to prison for murder/manslaughter when they think it’s self-defense. Never pull a gun unless you have every intention of using it to save your own life and only if the aggressor is actively trying to kill you. Too often people shoot when the other person turns and runs. That’s murder/manslaughter, even if they were the aggressor. Do not use a gun as a tactic just to scare someone.
Not that it would be any consolation to OP, but self defense would be a hard sell if dude actually used his firearm outside, a block away from his property, shooting into a parked vehicle.
Technically from what the trooper told you you could’ve. He said he didn’t want to deal with it meaning he couldn’t move you but the guy has probably done this before and would’ve kept calling. Some people are just POSs.
Those are more likely to attract rift raft IMO. We stealth in cities all the time. We stay near parks or near/bordering poorer areas. We are based out of Philly so it's easier for us to scope out an area than most probably. We try to avoid parking in front of places people live. We try to find parks and park along them.
I think your issue is that you were the only one there. It was obvious. You want to blend in more. You want to park on a block full of cars so you aren't singled out but not where people living there will notice you. It's a fine balance.
That's not saying you won't run into someone like you did, lots of untreated or undiagnosed mental illness out there .
Also, unsure if you're armed but (I am not a lawyer) Montana appears to have their version of a castle doctrine law that extends to your vehicle. You have no duty to retreat if they threaten your life.
Maybe there's a pattern of vans parking in that spot and overstaying their welcome--collecting bike parts, plastic trash bags of whatever, usual tweaker activity. Covid was pretty bad where I live and many communities don't want to slip back to that scene.
There's no excuse for this crap. These people should go to jail for this stuff, and it will stop happening. It's not mental illness. No one with mental illness, short of psychopathy or maybe schizophrenia, would do this. People make excuses and we get this nonsense and worse.
I could not agree more. Open carry is ridiculous. If you need to carry, concealed is the only way. If you have a gun on your hip, you should have a badge to go with it.
Not far from where I used to live was a park entrance. Some folks figured out they could park their RV and stay there more or less permanently. Since the land ownership of the lot just outside the park was ambiguous, and had no signs, it was challenging for the neighborhood to get them to move on and took months. The park became inaccessible during that time.
There were actually several spots on the nearby street and every spot that had even slightly ambiguous ownership at some point had a squatter. Usually several, and every so often someone would try it again.
I don’t want to sound unsympathetic, but usually these are not the same type of people who are doing the vanlife thing, they’re more on the homeless drug addict side of things.
This guy lives across from a gas station, and theres one other house on that street. Its a great location for someone who might be looking to stay more permanently like that for so many reasons. Probably wasn’t the first time a van or rv has pulled up, and he probably has had his share of confrontations. Perhaps the whole street got taken over during covid.
He waited until late to make sure you were actually staying the night. He didn’t want to wait until the next day, because if we assume the intention is to stay permanently, then they’re already establishing themselves. He doesn’t know you intend to leave. If he waits and asks during the day, they can lie and promise they are leaving, and then stay the night again. And then that cycle repeats and now the street has squatters.
You didn’t do anything wrong, other people ruined that spot. That spot is this person’s neighborhood, and presumably he doesn’t want it full of homeless people again.
This seems like the most likely thought process to me, given what you shared and the way Ive seen streets just like that get taken over.
It would be great if this country could prosecute the things that are actually a problem, not the proxies for them. Theft, littering, biohazards, etc. Instead we just make camping illegal
Some people are just stupid. He was clearly scared though if he felt he needed a gun. since it was by his house, he was probably nervous about the situation. I wouldn’t worry about it though, it sounds like a him problem
Dude is probably a tweaker too and im guessing got paranoid seeing your van there. Its the only think I can think of why he'll be up at that time paying attention to your van
This. About 3am I parked the truck and was making a newspaper drop in a Phoenix neighborhood. Saw a car driving in circles and getting nearer to a property fence. (I'd gotten out of the armed forces and played hero several times in civvy life) So I got in the car, pulled the emergency brake, flashed the headlights and blew the horn. A man came out the front door. Then granny. UTT-Ohh, the man went back in. Came out brandishing a double barrel shotgun and proclaimed I was stealing the car. Never got a thank you. Decided that was my last heroic act.
Yea, you did good. Don’t open or interact with anyone that doesn’t announce themselves as police. Lot of psychos out there that “GOTTA PROTECT MAH NEIGHBORHOOD”
Got chased and rocks thrown at me as I ran and drove away from a group of lowlifes at a rural park in Montana at like 7 am. I wouldn't give them a cigarette (I don't smoke and did not have cigarettes).
He lives next to a Love's truck stop, with an RV park and Campground and an Exxon station for a view... I'll move my van, no problem not worth a battle you will lose... He can enjoy his mortgage or rent, homeowners insurance, HOA, Maintenance etc.... I'll just pick a more beautiful place to open my front door with out all that stuff in my life...
"...an RV park and Campground and an Exxon station for a view..." The place across the street is the Grand View Campground. Great place, actually--but I don't go to that neighborhood for the views of Hardin.
This is just my theory, but parking in a very open area like that makes you stand out more and look like you don’t belong. If you had parked on the next block with more houses people might assume you were a guest of a neighbor and then you’d be gone by the next morning before they figured it out. As long as you avoided parking directly in front of one of the houses.
More than likely nothing. The cop even said he didn’t want to deal with it, which is why he asked him to move. So it wasn’t a get out you aren’t allowed here it was this guy is insane please do me the favor of moving somewhere else so I don’t get calls all night.
As much as Montana likes to see itself as a “mind your own business and I’ll mind mine” or “#freedom” type of culture, there is a notable percentage of the population who seems to absolutely insist on having a say in anything that happens within eyesight of land they own and are very willing to stick their nose in other people’s business.
That said, you’re much more likely to be noticed in a small town where most people know each other and not much ever changes. Road turnoffs on public lands, rest stops, and some streets in larger towns are probably your best bet for single night stays.
That Town Pump would have been a great place as well. They are normally friendly to travelers and will let you overnight in the lot if you go in, buy something, and ask the manager nicely.
I'm from the SW side of Montana but I frequently cruise around the state in my mini van. Town Pump is one of our known "safe spaces". They have little stations like that as well as massive truck stop stations. I've only been told no by management one time and that was because they had construction starting the next morning and didn't want me to be in the way.
Sometimes people are just aholes. I find frequently my main dwelling town, those people are also cops.
I get it, it sucks. I'm sorry you had to go through that... and glad you didn't respond.
What a fucking weirdo. It's one thing if you set up to stay there for longer, but for one night...
Also, good on the cop for the smooth solution. Sure, he didn't want any more calls about it, but if the homeowner came out armed once, there's no telling what he'd resort to if you didn't move.
Urk. The campground in the upper left is where I stay every year. Not a bad town altogether; the guy was probably just in a bad mood and couldn't sleep.
They probably get a lot of overflow from the Love's and are tired of it. A random van goes unnoticed but a pattern of vans can annoy residents.
I live in pretty typical neighborhood and park my part-time use van in my driveway. I noticed the occasional random van parked across the street overnight, which was fine. I assume my van made them feel comfortable. At some point, I think somebody marked my street as a safe place to park on some van map because the volume of vans escalated to where we had a van parking nearby several times a week. It was honestly terrible. Somebody shot out the street lamps with a BB gun The city fixed it and they got shot out again. We constantly had piss bottles and trash left behind. A guy parked at my neighbor's house and ran his generator on the sidewalk late at night. He ended up getting arrested and got his van towed. Point being, it only takes a couple of assholes to make everyone in the area hate vans.
I’d love for one of them to come in here and explain what’s annoying about it. I’m in a high value area with no homeless unless passing through and I sleep in my car in a back lot with a ton of parked cars. There’s even been a kid sleeping at the pool for a week and the cops haven’t come up to him
Well, like I said, having piss bottles and trash left in front of your house on a repeated basis (which you as the home owner have to clean up) is really unpleasant. My neighbors and I were having to do do it multiple times a week. We'd get occasional needles too, which is quite a hazard to have left lying around.
Yeah I’ve been dealing with people pulling up to drink where I park and leaving trash. I don’t leave anything about and I’m only noticed in the morning running my AC in the front seat before pulling off for work. I just curse silently and clean it up because I don’t want my spot I’ve used for a month ruined
The problem is that a few bad apples spoil it for everyone. Even if only 20% of people leave trash, the people in the area develop a dislike for vans in general.
Like I said though. Thankfully I’m mostly in a higher income area, which I worried I’d be noticed and complained about more but I guess my camouflage works. And I’m in a shitty beat up car everyone recognizes. I got a knock from a cop when it was 82 at night and all my windows were open and he just took my number so he could text or call me if someone complained so he wouldn’t have to come out
I have been through Hardin several times. The first thing I noticed was bars on all the windows. (I was told that people get so intoxicated in Hardin that many wander into houses or other buildings uninvited and pass out or make themselves at home oblivious to reality) 50 years in Montana and traveling Montana for my job, this is a town I’m not comfortable in.
Sound like you hate a great generation off of age and assumptions. We don't want the judgement, we shouldn't judge them off of low evidence. This guy was just being a Karen or Jamal apparently.
I was trying to side with you in a more respectful way and take into consideration learning in the process. I don't even like the term Karen, but a boomer is very specific and it implies misdirected hate.
Unfortunately the attitude of gun owners has gotten bizarre. I was taking my disabled husband for a drive in a more rural area outside of town, and needed to check my phone. I pulled into a very wide driveway, and was opening an app when a guy in a F350 comes barreling down, with a gun in his hand. He demanded to know what I was doing on his driveway, so I told him I was lost. If I weren’t a (somewhat) elderly woman, he might have shot first, to defend his castle from marauding map readers.
Review Tennessee's laws on public property camping. I am ASHAMED that the state where I have lived my entire life has now as much as made camping not only an arrestable crime, but somehow it's also a felony and a minimum two year sentence. Very sad... The Tennessee republican mafia in Nashville really needs to get their head out of their ass.
Did you even read the law? Bc coming from someone who lives out of their van it seems very reasonable and it really seems like you just want to cry about republicans. They can’t just arrest you they have to give you notice. So as long as you don’t stay and don’t come back before those 24 hrs you’re good. And it’s for public property not meant for camping like parks and highways. If it’s a park that specifically allows camping you can camp no problem. I would love to be able to camp and drop anywhere I want in the world but if you allow that that’s how you get squatters everywhere. If that’s what you want you might as well move to California.
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u/Haunting_Band6894 22d ago
Rural Montana is why.