Is My Place Being Scoped Out?

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jazzy

jazzy

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weird question but something thats been bothering me for the last month.
i live way up in CO mountings, very rural, unpaved roads, some houses on 5 acres plots--nothing fancy but quiet and good neighbors.

iv e been here over 12 years, some fencing close to the house to keep the dogs in. locked gates, 2 dogs. all neighbors are good and we all know one another and help each other. good people.

im a night owl, usually stay up late but every night aorund 11-12pm when its nice i like to go stand on the porch and look up at the sky and just talk to God. just a habit i like kinda saying thanks for a good day and what do you want me to do. talking to a friend ya know? i probably look silly but i like doing it. the porch faces the south end of the property, tree line, no one lives til that parcel nect to me but after that is a cabin with some nice folk. .

one night a couple weeks ago i went out and did my Hui God, its me thing and, as i stood on the porch looking up at the sky. icould see a single red light aimed at my direction. it was obvious

ive never seen such a thing. it was a solid red light, not like light shining in some animals eyes---a real red light.

i pretended to not notice it and just acted like i do talking to God and enjoying the sky. while tring to keep track of it with my peripheral vision

now, i got bad eyes, wet mac and cataracts and dont see good, but i could see that. it stayed on me for awhile, seemed to blink off once, like something moved but that was just an instant and it came back on in like 2 seconds. i still watched out of the corners of my eyes and pretended to not notice.
.
i felt like i was being watched or m,y place was. i just acted like i do every night it-- was out there may be 10 min . i was curious if it would shut off a, move or disappear but it didnt. it just stayed aimed at my direction.

art that time of night the dogs were inside sleeping, maybe i should have called them out and see if they picked up anything. i decided to act normal and just go inside but have been thinking of what to do if it happens again.
ive gone out every night since, just like normal---havent seen it again.

its just too weird. so i was wondering g if someone was scoping out the little community here or maybe playing g with a new night scope or what?

why would there be a red light coming from the woods aimed in my direction close to midnight just watching? i told a friend aobut it and he went out to that area and walked around looking for some sign but its all pine needles on the floor. he couldnt tell if anyone had been there.

if there is some logical explanation id likew to hear it.
never seen it before and so far havent seen it again.
it is just sort of bugging me.
 
Could it have been a parked car, in the distance, with a taillight visible through a gap in the trees?

I have a lot of weird light issues here. I'm on a hill, in dense trees, above a sparsely populated valley. At night the trees are of course invisible, but light from the valley can come through in small gaps. With no points of reference, I can't tell if its a small light, ten feet away, or a bright light, ten miles away.

I've gone all Defcon before thinking someone was standing in the bushes with headlamp, when it was a porch light two miles away before.

Could be something like that.

I may make a post on this someday, but something I've done is install 'reference reflectors' around my property, little squares of reflector material stuck to trees at know distances and angles so when I'm looking out in the dark and see 'something' I have an idea where it is in reference to the landscape. You can only see them looking outwards from my place, so they are invisible for anyone else. As you may know, anything reflective is hyper reflective to LED light so even a small headlamp will light up the reflectors, making them easy for me to see.

As for IR lights, the IR light on my gen 1 nighvision scope is very visible to the naked eye, as are the IR illuminators on my security cameras.
 
If you keep a journal or heck, write it on a calendar, date time.. If something comes up later you have a reference.

I tend to notice unusual things happening around here and it's usually someone up to no good or later I might hear "X" happened that night... Most of my neighbors have cattle, oddly enough cattle bawling when they shouldn't be is usually my first clue something is amiss.
 
My thought is that it may be an IR illuminator, basically an
IR flashlight, used to inhance night vision devices. Depending on the wavelength some IR illuminators are highly visible and can give away where a person is observing others with a night vision scope.
 
Did the light come from your property or a neighbors? I'm more aggressive than you. I have a very powerful flashlight. I would go back into the house, get the dogs up and out, and light up that red light with my high power light. And, I would be armed. I might shoot a round into the air also. Don't be afraid in your own home on your own land. Confront what is worrying you or you will get no peace.
 
How far away do you think it was? And, was it moving?

Sometimes, around here, people who are doing something they shouldn't be doing, will use a red light at night because it doesn't interfere with night vision. Poachers will do it, thieves will do it, also meth cookers will do it.

Whatever it might be, I would go scout the area in the daylight and try to see if I could find out what's going on...
 
jazzy said:
as i stood on the porch looking up at the sky
Click to expand...

It sounds like the light was in the sky not on the ground.
I would think it was a drone of some type. Maybe a neighbor with a new drone looking to see what they can see at night.
I would have shined my high-power flashlight on it.
I would ask the people that live in that direction if they know anything about it.
 
Jazzy I like your style, staying calm and focused, not letting on that you noticed the light. Personally I would find some thing to line the spot up with, ie triangulation if possible, and went to investigate in the daylight.
 
thyankyou for the suggestions., some things to think about

the red light came from the next parcel over, undeveloped, owners live in another state and never come., just pine trees and rocks. next to that parcel is the last one, a cabin with an older couple. standing on my porch looking in that direction all ive ever yeen is a glimpse of their porch light, up and to the right. cant see their place, just heavy rees all around . no real road, the cabin people drive a dirt track along side my property to get to their place and it dead ends, just woods. where my property fence line ends, beyond that is a good 5-6ft of rocks and dirt then heavy trees that cover most of that parcel. that red light was definitely close to my fence line. if it was more inside the parcel id not see it cause of the heavy trees.

from my back proch looking sout towards that parcel and treeline is a good 60 yards according to a buddy who checked it out for me.

wasnt a vehicle as someone including dogs would have heard-responded. very little traffic around here, peothere le pay attention to an unknown vehicle.. if a vehicle had come tcabin guy would have asked them what they were doing there as its private property.and told us about it . everyone warns eash other when they see something or someone not part of the norm. ,


there are several trail cams around here, lots of people have them, i have one in back of property but to the east. im familiar with their light signatures. this did not look like that.

the height of the red light was as if someone was kneeling---was not someone standing up. it did not waiver or move like walking, it was fixed and only sort of 'blinked' once--as if turned off and on or turned facing down for a couple seconds. just stayed focused on my place. after aobut 10min i went inside puzzled. now

i wish i was smarter and either called the dogs out or after going inside then go out thru the basement door to see if it was still there a nd sat and watched IT..


im leaning towards someone getting some new equipment and trying it out. with all the woods around im surprised theyd sit and watch my place, im boring. if i see it again maybe ill wave-.but then--maybe its smarter to not let someone know you kn ow they are watching, lol

thanks for the good ideas and thoughts. im kinda disappointed ive not seen it again, ive got a a kids nightscope type of thing, i draqgged out all ready to use it if my friend comes back. and im going to start writing things down on my calendar, thanks peanut

thanks again everyone.
 
No idea where you live, except Colorado mountains. Are there many 5 acres parcels around you? I know there was a lot of land divided up by Fort Garland into 5 acre parcels. Like your area, there were many absentee owners. People would get a shipping container dropped on their land and then load them up with preparedness items. I used to read the blog of a guy who had one of the parcels. Because there were so many absentee owners, people would come, break it, take what they wanted. This doesn't sound like what is going on for you, but being out in the middle on nowhere, you have to watch out.

If it were me, I would go over where you think the source of the light is and scope it out. Maybe drive around or have someone drive you around. Also, ask others if they have seen anything or maybe know anything.
 
hi WG,
im near westcliff but up in the mnts.
i had someone go check out where i saw the light, heavy pine needle covering on the gournd, no obvious signs of footprints and no tire tracks. all parcels are either 2.5 or 5 acres. majority are y old retired people, no families with kjids or teens running aorund. just us old farts.

ive heard about people getting some land and sticking a trailor or container on it, there are a couple in this general area so far ive not heard of breakins but its something to keep in mind.
 
There are some, especially here in the mountains that are paranoid of possible future state of things that go out and do night manuvers to improve their skills such as night navigation, etc. Also as mentioned before, possible poachers that wandered to close to housing. Stay safe, and always be prepared.
 
I was going to say the same as Spikedriver - I'd put up some trail cams (or better, if possible) near your property line, facing that way. Even though your friend couldn't find any signs of activity, I'd still want to be sure no one is over there that shouldn't be.

Bottom line: trust your gut. A red light in the woods on undeveloped property is not a naturally occurring event. If you saw a red light, then someone was there - either at the time you saw the light, or at some point to install some sort of equipment that emitted the red light. Talk to your neighbors about it - don't hold back information that may be important to them, too. Someone may have knowledge that will put you at ease about this whole thing ('oh, that was me, checking out some night equipment' or whatever). Or you may give confirmation to someone else's concerns or experience in other parts of the neighborhood.
 
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it only moved once, as in a n off-on blink in a few seconds.

after talking with some folks the consensus is somebody playing with some new equipment---but neighbors are concerned about someone wandering around where they dont belong and will be keeping an eye out.
i really appreciate everyonbes input, youve helped me look at it in a differetn light and some thoughts to pass on the the neighbors. you guys a re great.
 
If it was someone wandering around, it would behave totally differently. Whatever it was, it was not handheld from your description.

If something like this happens again, try to get a range estimate on it. You can do this by walking at right angles to it several feet and seeing how, or if it moves. A close object will appear to move, a far object will not. If it's a light shining through trees, the way trees will block, and reveal it as you move also helps give you an idea of what you are actually looking at.
 
This is a reminder we could all take a moment to go through our own security. Something I've thought of for my situation that might apply to yours. I get a lot of hunters out here this time of year. They have hunting clubs and lease hunting rights on private property of many land owners.

There are a couple turn outs close to the farm I've thought about monitoring with game cameras. They've finally gotten cheap enough for me to afford.

"Turn outs" - like a spot in front of someones gate by a road, Just enough room to park a car.

Monitoring spots where people could park and snoop around on someone else's land, including mine seems like a good idea for several reasons. It'll help me separate hunters/vehicles who belong from those who don't.
 
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Peanut said:
This is a reminder we could all take a moment to go through our own security. Something I've thought of for my situation that might apply to yours. I get a lot of hunters out here this time of year. They have hunting clubs and lease hunting rights on private property of many land owners.

There are a couple turn outs close to the farm I've thought about monitoring with game cameras. They've finally gotten cheap enough for me to afford.

"Turn outs" - like a spot in front of someones gate by a road, Just enough room to park a car.

Monitoring spots where people could park and snoop around on someone else's land, including mine seems like a good idea for several reasons. It'll help me separate hunters/vehicles who belong from those who don't.
Click to expand...
Be careful most guys pee on their tires before going in the woods. Just a thought about where you put your cameras. 😂
 
RidgeRunner said:
...I'm more aggressive than you. I have a very powerful flashlight. I would go back into the house, get the dogs up and out, and light up that red light with my high power light. And, I would be armed. I might shoot a round into the air also. ...
Click to expand...


Whoa there! Why let "them" know that you know?!?!?!? Jazzy now suspects but "they" don't know he knows. They lost the element of surprise and Jazzy has gain it! Jazzy can now take steps to confirm and prepare a surprise for "them".
 
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