Funny, but with a serious side.

Hell Law, you are still on topic here brother. That is what this whole thread is about.

What I find amazing is when listening to these situations, I wonder how many actually make it into a statistic. I'm betting that for every ten occurrences, maybe one makes it. Kinda scary....

 

Tonight I will tell you all about a drawn weapon situation that happened 4 years ago in Buena Vista, CO with 2 friends, my then 4 year old daughter, and my youngest dog. I need more time for that one.

Keep the stories coming on what people have tried to access your home or property. Good stuff.

 

Funny you mention that.....The "other woman" in my bedroom. Sleep with her, travel with her, I lube her up. I'm a cheating bastard, but my wife understands the romance in it.

 

So for the drawn weapon story while Jeep'n.



Here was our site at the trailhead. There are a couple trails in the area, but this particular one you better be pretty hard core. I was about to start my current build, but even I wasn't going up this trail. There is no mistaking this trailhead. This will clue in later.....

We set up camp, moved our tow rigs and trailers in an organized fashion to minimize theft. We started a fire in the pit at the bottom left of this picture, had a beer and set out for a night run on a little easier trail that ws closer. By this time it was pretty dark and around 9PM. Now I'm not as fast as the other two members of the crew that night. I had my dog and my daughter in the bottom right. This turned out being a good advantage that I took a while getting ready.

What you don't see in this picture, is behind the photographer is a steep cliff wall. No going anywhere. We all lined up next to this wall before we were about to leave. I was still strapping in my kid, when all this went down.

A dodge truck came up the road and stopped by the camp. It was very dark out, and they did not see us by the wall. One got out of the truck. At this time, one of my friends started his Jeep and drove over. He has a very nice Jeep and is usually the ice breaking conversation. Three young men got out of the truck. One was very young. The other two had obviously been drinking, but I am not their daddy or a cop. Hell, I had a beer in me as well, just like my other two friends. This probably stopped 3 people from dying this evening. That simple. So we will call them idiot #1, 2, and 3. Their excuse was to walk up this trail and go shooting using flashlights. First off, who does this? We figured they were up to no good.

My friend that confronted the truck first is in a Special Forces soldier (we will just say he spends a lot of time in the water) and still had a portion of a base sticker on his Jeep before military installations went to ID only. Well of course, one of the drunk idiots was a Marine, idiot #1, and a very cocky one at that. He just assumed my friend was Army since there are a few bases in Colorado. Idiot 1 just would not let up on asking what he did in the military. Well my friend kept his composure and just didn't answer. Idiot #2 and 3 were still asking him about his Jeep. I didn't have a good feeling about this, and neither did my other friend that was over talking with me. Then it happened.

Idiot #1 just got out of control, tried to get my friend to come out of the Jeep to fight. He wouldn't get out. At this time, my other friend went back to his Jeep and stood by. One thing led to another and what really got my attention was a 1911 loading a round into the chamber. I knew things were going bad quickly. I could not see this, but Idiot #1 went for a pistol and lost the draw. Knowing my friend had a loaded weapon, not pointed at him yet, still would not shut up. Well idiot #2's fat ass thought he was faster, and he also lost the draw. I could hear him tap the soft top door with his 1911 and saying "little late to the party aren't you?" Until the day I die, I will never forget what came out of his mouth. Now, a .45 ACP weapon is being pointed at Idiot #1 & 2 and still....idiot #1 would not shut up. My friend, told both of them if they went for any weapons again, they would be sounding like a gut shot Mountain Lion on the ground.

During all this, my other friend positioned his Jeep and turned on the lights to night blind the idiots. It worked well. He got out of his TJ and dropped down and put the aim to idiot #2, I had the drop on #3. I told my daughter to lay down in the tub of my jeep and cover her ears. I was not sure how this was going to play out.

Idiot #3 started walking over to my Jeep and I told him to stop. He was close, but couldn't see I had a pistol aimed at his chest. He said "wow, not so nice over there." and I responded by saying "It isn't any nicer over here. Get your dumb &%$# ass friends in that truck and leave before you are all killed." He quickly moved back over to the others, got into the truck and started driving in reverse. Idiot #1 & 2 were shocked and went over to the truck and left. Idiot #3 wasn't as stupid as I had thought. I found out later that wasn't his truck, but by doing what he did, it made the other two follow and possibly saved their lives.

I wish this was the end of this story. Well obviously our night run was over. There is no way in hell we are going on an easier trail, but much longer and further away. We could come back to three totally destroyed trucks. We took shifts that night watching for the Idiots return.

Morning came, and nobody came back. My trip was totally screwed since I was not running the hard core trail that the other two were going to do. The trail is about 1/4- 1/2 mile long, but can take a good portion of the day. It is easier to jog off the trail that drive. Well anyway, I told the other two I would be fine with my daughter and dog. We re-positioned the trucks again, and they left. If anything went down, I was to put two rounds in the air and they would come on foot. My one friend on this trip had the same style weapon system as me, so total I had a few rounds . Well an hour past and my daughter was sitting by the fire and an XJ Jeep came creeping up slowly. Sure as stink on shit, it was Idiot #1 & 2. I didn't put two rounds up in the air yet, because they had not seen me and I wanted to see what their intentions were. They got pretty close to the trucks and one of them seen me with my pistol by the bumper of my truck. That XJ flipped around so fast and took off. They had bad intentions again if you asked me. The Jeep they were in couldn't even do the gatekeeper, let alone the trail. No business going up there again. What bothered me is not seeing Idiot #3. I assumed he was on foot, but where? He could not come in behind me.

The crew came back and they were totally shocked they came back.


Anyway, we posted our trip report on a common 4wd club forum and talked about the problem we had. I received a PM from a Jeeping friend I had not seen in over 5 years up in northern Colorado. Idiot #3 was his son. That weekend a Colorado Naxja run was going on in the Buena Vista area. His son went down by himself to join the other Jeeps. He was 17, almost 18 years old. I discussed with idiot #3 father about what happened. I guess after they had left, he was so freaked out that he just got in his Jeep and drove back home to Fort Collins. His dad was wondering why he came home so early in the morning. Well this kid didn't know anyone and just jumped into the truck with Idiot #1 & 2 and run into Johnson's Village for some more beer. He didn't know these guys very well, and after that night wished he never had. So that solved were idiot #3 was.

To this day, the only reason my friend didn't drop these idiots was due to having an alcoholic beverage in his system, and might be in question for his motives. That is it. This happened so fast but yet felt like a slow motion movie. Timing is everything I guess.

That night is one for the books.

 

I hope for the same. Some things that have changed for me:

-Where I hang out with friends. This for some reason helps...tremendously.
-Check area events going on in the area I'm going. You might find this funny, especially from a Jeep/off-road guy enthusiast, but I have never been to Moab during Easter Jeep Safari, and never plan on it. The crowds, high price of everything, the theft....etc. The list goes on. Our crew hasn't been back to Moab since 2012. A great place to have fun, but go prepared and watch were you stay.

I'm actually pretty surprised as well everyone walked away whole that evening. I don't have many friends, but the ones I do have are the "salt of the earth" kinds. The two friends I had that evening with me showed me a few things. One, be prepared. Two, I have the best of friends and there is not much we wouldn't do for each other.

 

Thank you, she gets stroked often...LOL

 

You aren't lying. Felt like I ran a 13.2K. I hope something like this never happens again. Amazing what a little alcohol, PTSD, and don't GAF can do under special circumstances. To be honest with you, I think idiot #1 wanted to die. He was even yelling it when they were leaving. I have a family member that is very mentally ill from Iraq. They tried to get back to normal life, but just can't. This person has attempted killing themselves several times, can't handle crowds of people and has difficulty dealing with life. Some people just can't process the bad data and it effects everyone differently I assume. I have my own demons and deal with it differently than Joe Blow does. One of my favorite era's of American History is the WWII. What that generation went through and survived is amazing. (labeled the greatest generation) Thinking about this time, I wonder how the men and women dealt with such horror, lived with it and moved on?


The only way I can explain it for him....he is used to it...LOL. Funny what someone can get accustomed to though. One a serious note thought, he doesn't enjoy hurting people and is one of the most caring persons I know.

 

Yes I have. Pretty amazing. Damn shame that movies can't be better about capturing the whole story. Then again, movies would be a series then. Lol

 

Amen.

I have done the same Law when it comes to friends. Quality over quantity for this guy.

P.S., I like your friends saying and could be used in different situations....like marriage and dating. lol

 

So a little update on this. So before I told you guys about this little incident out in Buena Vista, Colorado, the idiot #3 reached out to me on FaceBook. Remember I knew his dad. We actually finally had the conversation about that night....















I’m thinking I want to give him closure on that night, and he sounds sincere...but there is an angel on my shoulder telling me not to.

We will run into each other eventually, we do the same hobbies and run the same trails.

 

As always Ron, wisdom beyond years sir.

 

The only way you would catch me in Massachusetts is if I died and someone shipped me their on accident.

 

Job made you decide on moving East?

I have found there are more gun friendly states on the right coast than originally thought. On the flip side, states like NJ, NY, MA, MD, CT just turn me away from a visit out that way.
Places I would like to visit at some point is MA, PA, VA, NY (upstate NY), NC/SC, GA. The history is so rich, and I’ve only seen the beauty in pictures.