I Bought 9,200 Acres of Private Forest—Then Caught HOA Karen Running a Massive Hunting Permit Scam! — Transcript

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1. 0:00You have no right to be on this
2. 0:01property, Ethan. These men answer to me,
3. 0:05not you. Pack up your things and leave.
4. 0:08>> I had spent years saving every dollar to
5. 0:10buy the largest piece of land I could
6. 0:12afford. Now, the lake, the forest, and
7. 0:15every trail across those 9,200 acres
8. 0:18were legally mine. The previous owner
9. 0:21had decided to sell the entire lake
10. 0:23forest after decades of managing it. I
11. 0:26bought the property outright, and the
12. 0:28deed gave me full ownership of the land.
13. 0:30The first morning I arrived, I thought I
14. 0:32had finally found peace. But that
15. 0:35peaceful forest was about to become the
16. 0:37center of a massive dispute. I allowed a
17. 0:40limited number of hunters to access
18. 0:42designated areas of my property. Every
19. 0:44permit was registered, every payment was
20. 0:46recorded, and every visitor had to
21. 0:49follow the rules. Then Victoria Hayes
22. 0:51arrived, claiming she represented the
23. 0:53neighborhood association near the
24. 0:55northern boundary. She acted as if the
25. 0:58entire forest was already under her
26. 1:00control. Victoria demanded that I stop
27. 1:03issuing hunting permits without her
28. 1:05association's approval. I explained that
29. 1:07her HOA had no authority over my
30. 1:10privately owned land. She began telling
31. 1:12hunters that her association had issued
32. 1:14a new set of mandatory hunting passes.
33. 1:17Those passes look convincing, but
34. 1:20something about them immediately seemed
35. 1:21wrong. By noon, dozens of hunters had
36. 1:24arrived, all carrying passes that I had
37. 1:27never approved. Victoria was collecting
38. 1:29money while telling people they had
39. 1:31permission to hunt across my property. I
40. 1:33looked closely at one of the passes and
41. 1:36immediately noticed that the property
42. 1:37map was wrong. The documents listed
43. 1:40access areas that did not even belong to
44. 1:42Victoria's association. That evening, I
45. 1:45compared the fake passes against my
46. 1:47official property survey. The evidence
47. 1:49showed that Victoria had been selling
48. 1:51access to land she did not own. The more
49. 1:54documents I examined, the worse the
50. 1:56situation became. Hundreds of hunters
51. 1:59had apparently paid for access using
52. 2:01passes that were never authorized. I
53. 2:04counted the documents and discovered
54. 2:06that Victoria had distributed more than
55. 2:08400 fake hunting passes. She had turned
56. 2:11my private forest into an unauthorized
57. 2:13hunting business. I contacted the state
58. 2:16wildlife enforcement office and
59. 2:18explained what was happening. I told
60. 2:20them I had evidence of more than 400
61. 2:23unauthorized hunting passes. The next
62. 2:26morning, two state game wardens arrived
63. 2:28at my property. They listened carefully
64. 2:30as I explained how the fraudulent
65. 2:32permits were being sold. I showed the
66. 2:35wardens the original property deed and
67. 2:37the questionable hunting passes. Daniel
68. 2:40Brooks quickly realized that the
69. 2:41documents required a much closer
70. 2:43investigation. The wardens visited the
71. 2:45registration event and began checking
72. 2:47the passes against property records.
73. 2:50Several hunters confirmed that they had
74. 2:52paid Victoria for permission to hunt on
75. 2:54my land. Daniel approached Victoria and
76. 2:56asked her to explain where the hunting
77. 2:58passes had come from. For the first
78. 3:00time, her confident attitude began to
79. 3:03disappear. The hunters explained that
80. 3:05Victoria had promised them access to
81. 3:07several private hunting zones. Many
82. 3:10believed the passes were legitimate
83. 3:11because she had presented herself as an
84. 3:13official representative. We walked the
85. 3:15property boundary and confirmed that the
86. 3:17hunting areas on Victoria's passes were
87. 3:20not hers to authorize. The official
88. 3:22survey made the ownership dispute much
89. 3:24clearer. The investigation continued as
90. 3:27the wardens reviewed the documents and
91. 3:29payment records. Each new piece of
92. 3:31evidence supported the conclusion that
93. 3:33the passes had been issued without
94. 3:35authorization. The warden stopped the
95. 3:37unauthorized registration event and
96. 3:40secured the remaining documents.
97. 3:42Victoria could no longer sell hunting
98. 3:44access for my property. After reviewing
99. 3:47the evidence, the wildlife enforcement
100. 3:49office began a formal investigation.
101. 3:52Victoria was asked to account for the
102. 3:54hundreds of passes she had distributed.
103. 3:56The investigation led to Victoria's
104. 3:58arrest over the fraudulent hunting pass
105. 4:00scheme. She was taken into custody while
106. 4:03the authorities continued processing the
107. 4:05evidence. For the first time in weeks, I
108. 4:08could finally breathe without worrying
109. 4:09about the fraudulent passes. My land was
110. 4:12protected and the investigation had
111. 4:14reached a major turning point. I met
112. 4:17with the hunters who had been misled and
113. 4:19explained the situation. I wanted
114. 4:21everyone to understand the real property
115. 4:23boundaries and the rules for future
116. 4:25visits. I worked with a surveyor to make
117. 4:28the property boundaries clear and easy
118. 4:30to understand. Every trail and access
119. 4:33point would be properly marked to
120. 4:34prevent another unauthorized hunting
121. 4:36operation. From the overlook, I could
122. 4:39see the lake, the forest, and the trails
123. 4:41that I had worked so hard to acquire. No
124. 4:44association could simply claim ownership
125. 4:46of land that legally belonged to someone
126. 4:48else. The case moved forward through the
127. 4:51legal system as the evidence against
128. 4:53Victoria was reviewed. The hundreds of
129. 4:55fake passes had exposed a scheme that
130. 4:57affected hunters and private property
131. 4:59owners alike. I bought 9,200 acres of
132. 5:02Lake Forest, and I learned that
133. 5:04protecting your property means knowing
134. 5:07your rights. Would you have stood up to
135. 5:09Victoria? Tell me in the comments where
136. 5:11you're watching from, and don't forget
137. 5:13to like and subscribe for more HOA
138. 5:15stories.