We had a houseful for a delightful Xmas and enjoyed the 72 degree day mostly sitting out on the patio. On Sunday my buddies bride and mine decided to go for a hike. Eight miles north of our community is a new Robson adult community, SaddleBrooke Ranch. There about 75 new homes surrounding the golf course. Now this community will ultimately be over 12,000 homes with additional golf courses planned so naturally they own thousands of acres of high rolling Sonoran desert. The entire project is fenced with 4 strand barb wire with signs every 50 yards stating clearly "No hunting or shooting". A nature trail, inside the fence follows the perimeter of the project for several miles winding through the washes. The land outside of this project is State Trust land where hunting is permitted.
As the girls were walking along the trail they heard the occasional bark of a distant shotgun which is not all that unusual as the dove and quail hunting is pretty good. They were a couple hundred yards past the last house when they heard the roar of a very close shotgun. They were looking around trying to figure where and just how close the shots were originating from when the dirt on the trail a few yards in front of them exploded from another shotgun blast. My bride screamed at the top of her lungs "There are people here". Now these jackwagons had to have seen them and were firing directly into the subdivision, through the posted fence in what I can only guess was their idea of fun. This was not a case of spent pellets dropping out of the sky but a deliberate shot across their path.
They saw a couple of guys off in the brush no more than forty yards away as the they fled the area. By the time they hiked back out to the car the idiots were long gone. I wished they had called 911 but given the lack of response from Pinal county sheriffs the last time we had a gun incident my bride figured "what's the point".
We've talked to other neighbors and they too have reported people hunting/shooting in proximity to homes with virtually no response from the authorities. I guess they figure by the time they get there the miscreants have exfiltrated the area. I wish I had been there as I would have been armed. My response would have been to loudly announce that the sheriff had been called, that I was armed and would return any further fire as we fled. It is hard to imagine anyone being that STUPID and I am just glad that the girls were able to flee uninjured. I'll be taking up this incident with the corporate offices of the developer for all of the good that will do. What in the hell is wrong with some people???