California Surveyors Forums

Has anyone ever heard of someone being prosecuted for violating California Penal Code 605? Any cases actually resulting in conviction?

605. Every person who either:
1. Maliciously removes any monument erected for the purpose of
designating any point in the boundary of any lot or tract of land, or
a place where a subaqueous telegraph cable lies; or,
2. Maliciously defaces or alters the marks upon any such monument;
or,
3. Maliciously cuts down or removes any tree upon which any such
marks have been made for such purpose, with intent to destroy such
marks;
--Is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Never seen it prosceuted. Sheriffs and other law and code agencies view this LAW as a joke !

The replacement of the monument (position) falls directly on the concerned citizen. The vandal walks. . . just about every time.
This includes competetive Survey companies removing and purposely placing someone elses monument in an errant position.

Best case of justice I witnessed (uh er didnt really see) was when the "good guy" got hold of the pipe and smacked the "vandal" in the butt with it.

He still paid for a resurvey . . . but that was a good one.

"Good"

Never herd of a prosicution!

Have seen many of them plowed over by Contractors, but they were not malicious so it's ok, I guess.

It is only a matter of time for the Geo Cachers "The Bad Ones" to tap into State Land Records for section corners, so they can rip'em.

A thread was going for awhile about locating section corners for recreation, could you imagine that info being posted on Google? Bad, very bad!

Many years back (when working private), I was contacted by a landowner to reset a corner they said was destroyed by a neighbor. I calc'd up the position, traversed in off the street monuments to set it, dug around and listened, found it buried under 2 1/2 feet of new fill. Was within a few hundredths of record position and appeared undisturbed. They took the neighbor to small claims court and were awarded the amount of my fee (The judge had called me on the phone to question my involvement and was apparently satisified with my answers).

Sounds like a fraudulant judge, unless there was some dialog between neighbors . . like "hey, make sure you relocate that property corner before you put all that fill dirt in "

That's probably the way it went down.

I did realize earlier today that should a person be legally filmed, removing a monument, a prosecution could probably stick.

I'll bet us surveyors fees are cheaper than attorneies and court costs.

I also now understand why some of those copper plates are missing from old concrete monuments. They were there just 4 years ago ?? hmmmmmmmm
These survey layoffs are starting to get personal !!


Bart Tender

I know here in the City of Anaheim we are starting to see Monument Lids, monument caps and bench mark caps disappear...

with the tweekers around the north central valley, i'm surprized that lot corners arent removed and sold for recycle.

I did have a "doper" crew workin for me, . . . .took 6 bundles of rebar to the recycler. I found out that 64 corners were never set by that "special" crew, on a subd. because they went to a guys house to play music and smoke dope. they sold the "iron" to cover their dirty deed.

is there a penalty for when other surveyors remove a monument because they think it was set improperly ?

Ive seen that a bit in my time.

"olde tymer"
"good"