Private property may seem like a simple concept, but certain people seem to struggle with boundaries.

When a trucker turned a prized pecan grove into his personal parking lot, he caught an expensive lesson in paying attention – and parking fees!

Read on for the full story!

You can’t park there. Ok, you can, but it will cost you.

My parents had this problem with a guy parking a tractor-trailer on their land. He lives right across from one of their pecan groves.

The grove has well-spaced trees all in neat rows. The grass is mowed super short, and the ground is really flat.

It looks like an ideal place to pull your rig if you don’t know better. The ground is so flat because they use mechanical harvesting.

Any damage to the ground is kind of a big deal.

Bumps and grooves can cause the machines to leave pecans lying on the ground.

A 2-inch deep groove from a big truck like that can hold thousands of dollars’ worth of pecans and will until it is fixed.

Oh, and you have to get them up by hand. It’s a big deal when someone screws with your livelihood like that.

So the guy parks there one time. They get it — he probably doesn’t understand he is causing so much trouble.

So the dad goes over to explain, and the driver seems to understand.

Dad goes down, explains the damage he has done, tells him the grove is private property, and not to do it again.

Dude, we’ll call him Dude, agrees and apologizes.

Dad goes home and fixes the damage midweek.

But lo and behold…

Next Friday, there is the truck again, same spot.

Dad, not about to put up with this, calls the sheriff’s department. A cop comes, and the truck moves. Dad fixes the damage midweek.

Next week, no truck. One week later, the truck is back. Repeat complaint for trespassing to the sheriff.

Finally the driver’s motivation for these repeat infractions is revealed.

Dude claims he forgot. He drives over the road, and his Home Depot, where his car is parked, is 30 miles away.

It is convenient for Dude to forget because he saves gas and time by driving his employer’s rig and parking it on my parents’ land. Also, he doesn’t get nailed if his cab isn’t clean, and no other driver gets assigned “his” truck.

There are plain motivations. Dude clearly does not forget every time he is home, but this is what he claims to the deputies sent out on the complaints.

His parking continues, so the sheriff takes action, but not enough.

After seven times the sheriff’s department is called, he FINALLY gets a trespassing citation. No fine is levied.

Dude drives his car two weeks in a row. Following week, truck is back.

At this point, my dad has fixed this damage so often he is keeping a tractor and blade on the property so it gets done faster and easier.

He calls the sheriff yet again. The sheriff himself comes out this time.

The sheriff explains why this is a tough case.

The truck leaves, and the sheriff comes to see my dad. He says the enforcement problem is that it is hard to explain to a court the harm when pictures hardly show any damage.

Dude always apologizes and moves the truck when deputies come. The sheriff says getting Dude for trespassing under those circumstances is going to be tough, but he is on this and will see it through for my parents.

He adds that his office is 30 miles away, and there aren’t that many deputies to be out patrolling, etc.

But he does give the dad a good idea…

And then the sheriff, bless his little elected heart, says, “But if there were something different, like a theft of services going on…”

Cue malicious compliance.

The next day, signs go up on 80 trees in a row (8,000 feet; they are 100 feet apart). “Semi Parking. $500/hour. Prepay. Violators Will Be Towed.”

Of course, the driver falls right into the trap.

Dude doesn’t pay the signs any mind. Dude does, however, pay the tow truck and deputy quite a bit of mind.

He comes running and screaming, waving his arms as they are hooking up.

Before my dad called to have him towed, everything was documented, including having the sheriff himself drive by and take several pictures of the truck parked with the clearly visible signs.

Everything is put on hold while Dude’s employer, who owns the truck, drives out.

Then comes the punishment.

After 3 hours, Dude’s boss gives up and writes a check for $7,800 to cover parking and tow truck fees.

That actually covered the tow truck, all the repairs, printing the signs, and beer for about a year for my dad’s Tuesday poker gathering. Salut.

Dude, who still lives there, does not park in the pecan grove. His boss payroll-deducted his checks for two years.

This story was nuts!

What did Reddit have to say?

This commenter decides to take a page from this pecan farmer’s book!

This truck driver seems to know a thing or two about private property – and common decency.

Who would have thought this truck driver would have fallen into the trap so easily?

This user doesn’t understand why it took so much to get this trespasser taken down.

What started as a shortcut ended with a long bill.

In this case, the path of least resistance lead straight to the tow yard.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.