I have to say I am loving the thread and can't wait to know what happens next on a number of the stories. I have to say I find the stalker/bully story worrying I had my own experience with a psycho-stalker-bully, although not nearly as bad as this bloke sounds.
Generally I'm not bothered by the dark, there are a number of places on Cannock Chase that bother me at night or during the day (and I don't mean the doggers), found out from a retired local bobby recently one of them has a grim history. It has been the scene of a couple of suicides a murder victim was found there and a girl was raped there in the 1950s and again in the 1970s (totally different incidents) all in a 200m square area. Thing is the bloke could have been spinning a yarn, to be honest I'm not that bothered if he was, but I prefer to avoid it during day and night, alone or part of a group.
The biggest dramas have been with humans, most recently a couple of yocals with a rifle. Some friends and I have permission to use some forestry on the Welsh border and myself, another friend - lets call him 'Bob', were spending the weekend with my son living in lean to's by the bank of a stream in this forestry. We had spent a nice day and night in the campsite which was well off the beaten track and had spent the day roving and filling our bellies with all sorts of loveliness we had brought with us. All day we had noticed a landrover lurking around the tracks, but presumed it was from the shooting estate next door. Around dusk we heard the landrover return, crawling around the tracks on tickover. Followed by the unmistakable crack of a high powered rifle and another one, and another etc. etc.
Landrover blokes were on the track uphill of our position firing down towards us, we were in a sheltered hollow with about 200m of very dense forestry block between us and them, so fairly safe but pretty ****** off. No mobile signal so no calling the police, so what do we do? The land is strictly no hunting of any kind and the managers don't let any shooting take place either (it's leased from the church), come to think of it the only vehicles they allow are their own wardens and the emergency services.
We calmly but swiftly packed kit and prepared to bug out down the stream course (providing best cover from fire), but first leaving the son (who was pretty shaken) with 'bob' (who is military). I stalked around to the track to get the reg plate of the landrover (and see if I could get signal). Sure enough it was the landrover from earlier with a couple of lads in their twenties, drinking beer and shooting at sheep with a pair of hunting rifles from the landrover. One was firing from the passenger seat while the driver would sit out of the driver's side door and fire from over the roof. I couldn't get signal but got some good photos of their faces, their rifles (Browning A bolt according to the police) and their number plates as well as 45 seconds of video of them firing and killing sheep. When I returned to the camp we had a quick conflab, and bugged out along the stream. However after about 500m down the hill along the stream, we heard the rather worrying sound of them getting closer and the crack of rounds passing overhead (the stream bed was bit like a trench so they would have had to stand about 5m looking down at us to get any nearer). I'll be honest we both had the bows off the packs and arrows knocked as we made our way to the car, my son had finally twigged that it was perhaps more serious than we had indicated. If it had been just me and 'bob' we might have tackled them, we were so angry. But a 9 year old has to take priority over temper.
Handed photo and video to the police, land owner and the farmer who had lost 18 of his sheep and several more missing. Police traced the landrover to a farm about 50miles away but the owner was not one of the two shooting. The two men were arrested and had their FACs revoked and guns taken by police. However they got suspended sentences for aggravated criminal damage and banned from holding any guns in future. They also asked for various other sentences from burglary to possession of class A drugs to be dealt with at the same time. They had to pay a load of charges and damages plus a fine for driving without insurance. They had denied everything until the police showed them the photos and video.
The police were brilliant and didn't seem to mind we still had our knives on our belts while when we rolled into the cop shop to make our report. They were very interested in what we were doing and had a go with the bows when we walked them around the wood later (now minus young 'un). We see one of the policemen around the area quite often. He has even stayed for supper with us at our campsite.
Fingle
Generally I'm not bothered by the dark, there are a number of places on Cannock Chase that bother me at night or during the day (and I don't mean the doggers), found out from a retired local bobby recently one of them has a grim history. It has been the scene of a couple of suicides a murder victim was found there and a girl was raped there in the 1950s and again in the 1970s (totally different incidents) all in a 200m square area. Thing is the bloke could have been spinning a yarn, to be honest I'm not that bothered if he was, but I prefer to avoid it during day and night, alone or part of a group.
The biggest dramas have been with humans, most recently a couple of yocals with a rifle. Some friends and I have permission to use some forestry on the Welsh border and myself, another friend - lets call him 'Bob', were spending the weekend with my son living in lean to's by the bank of a stream in this forestry. We had spent a nice day and night in the campsite which was well off the beaten track and had spent the day roving and filling our bellies with all sorts of loveliness we had brought with us. All day we had noticed a landrover lurking around the tracks, but presumed it was from the shooting estate next door. Around dusk we heard the landrover return, crawling around the tracks on tickover. Followed by the unmistakable crack of a high powered rifle and another one, and another etc. etc.
Landrover blokes were on the track uphill of our position firing down towards us, we were in a sheltered hollow with about 200m of very dense forestry block between us and them, so fairly safe but pretty ****** off. No mobile signal so no calling the police, so what do we do? The land is strictly no hunting of any kind and the managers don't let any shooting take place either (it's leased from the church), come to think of it the only vehicles they allow are their own wardens and the emergency services.
We calmly but swiftly packed kit and prepared to bug out down the stream course (providing best cover from fire), but first leaving the son (who was pretty shaken) with 'bob' (who is military). I stalked around to the track to get the reg plate of the landrover (and see if I could get signal). Sure enough it was the landrover from earlier with a couple of lads in their twenties, drinking beer and shooting at sheep with a pair of hunting rifles from the landrover. One was firing from the passenger seat while the driver would sit out of the driver's side door and fire from over the roof. I couldn't get signal but got some good photos of their faces, their rifles (Browning A bolt according to the police) and their number plates as well as 45 seconds of video of them firing and killing sheep. When I returned to the camp we had a quick conflab, and bugged out along the stream. However after about 500m down the hill along the stream, we heard the rather worrying sound of them getting closer and the crack of rounds passing overhead (the stream bed was bit like a trench so they would have had to stand about 5m looking down at us to get any nearer). I'll be honest we both had the bows off the packs and arrows knocked as we made our way to the car, my son had finally twigged that it was perhaps more serious than we had indicated. If it had been just me and 'bob' we might have tackled them, we were so angry. But a 9 year old has to take priority over temper.
Handed photo and video to the police, land owner and the farmer who had lost 18 of his sheep and several more missing. Police traced the landrover to a farm about 50miles away but the owner was not one of the two shooting. The two men were arrested and had their FACs revoked and guns taken by police. However they got suspended sentences for aggravated criminal damage and banned from holding any guns in future. They also asked for various other sentences from burglary to possession of class A drugs to be dealt with at the same time. They had to pay a load of charges and damages plus a fine for driving without insurance. They had denied everything until the police showed them the photos and video.
The police were brilliant and didn't seem to mind we still had our knives on our belts while when we rolled into the cop shop to make our report. They were very interested in what we were doing and had a go with the bows when we walked them around the wood later (now minus young 'un). We see one of the policemen around the area quite often. He has even stayed for supper with us at our campsite.
Fingle
