Blog 3401 – 02.24.2025

Privacy Versus Security

We live in a world where cameras are monitoring everything, where Big Brother is always watching.

A couple months ago I wrote about how a game camera on our property near Bon Wier, Texas captured the image of a two-legged dear that turned out to be a young local teenaged boy named Bobby who was attracted by our “sweet pond” to wander onto our property uninvited when the local schools were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Neither I nor my son Jay were angry at Bobby we just wanted to make sure he did not get hurt on our property first for his sake, but also because we might have some liability. Wild boars have also been captured on our game cameras and that “sweet pond” could potentially pose a drowning hazard and so we posted “No Trespassing” signs put up caution tape across breaks in the fence line and made sure after identifying Bobby through local Facebook friends that Bobby was personally warned to stay off the property by his friends and family. I’d like to meet Bobby someday and personally invite him to a cookout on the property when we get a place fixed up on it for cookouts and gatherings of friends and family. I do not consider him an enemy but extended family that I would like to get to know.

We now have cameras monitoring the front of our home at both entrances. A couple of years ago someone stole the tailgate off the back of my pick-up truck parked right in my driveway. It cost me seven hundred dollars to buy a used one at a salvage yard and replace it myself. That prompted me to start backing it up to the house and to put up a motion sensing light on the front of the house and a camera on the side door aimed at the back of my truck. Neither will prevent theft, still I hope they will encourage thieves to find an easier less monitored target.

Like many Texans I own a shot gun and several hand guns. One of my hand guns is a Taurus Judge .45/410 and in addition to Colt 45 rounds it is also capable of firing .410 shotgun shells. They make 410 shells with rubber shot which are not lethal, yet hurt like you-know-what if you are hit by one. They also make 12 gauge shotgun shells with rubber shot and they too are non-lethal.

I do not want to kill anybody, just to warn them off. If the camera and the motion detecting lights are not enough, a peppering with stinging rubber shot I hope would do the trick. The twelve gauge pump and the Taurus are also loaded with lethal rounds so home evaders beware.

My daddy taught me, “Son, don’t ever point a gun an anyone unless you intend to kill them.” I am perhaps a bit more diplomatic than my dad, but not much, security cameras, warning lights, a non-lethal shot or two, but then daddy’s rules would definitely apply.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White