Okay. Do you have your driver's license on you for what crime? There's no crime. Is your Is your registration? How much is the distance from the center relative right away? Does it look like I have a tape measure? Who pays the taxes? The county. Welcome back to the Lackluster channel. In August of 2024, Lance was driving down US 421 in North Carolina. He was unfamiliar with the area as he resides in Florida and needed to make a phone call and check a few messages on his cell phone. As he approached the Penderly Fire Department station 31, he figured it would be a good spot to pull over to use the device as the road he traveled upon offered few conveniences. As he pulled into firehouse 31s, he notices two yellow no trespassing signs staked in the grass and immediately turns around. This is important later. After pulling his vehicle forward onto the public easement, he put it in park and began his business. And about three minutes later, a Pender County Sheriff's deputy pulled into the driveway and parked behind him. And as she approached the truck, Lance began recording. Do you have your driver's license on you for what crime? There's no crime. I just have to identify you from Can you dispatch fire department to 20? Is your Is your registration? It sure isn't. What's the reason you're running my tag? What's the reason you going to run my tag? For what crime? For what crime? Am I being detained? Am I being detained? Am I being detained right now? Yes, sir. For what? Crime? What crime are you detaining me for? Okay. No. No. What crime are you detaining me for? Deputy Morgan has now detained Lance. Immediately after her admission that there is no crime. There's no crime. I just have to identify you from As they wait for backup to arrive, Lance pauses the recording to save space on his phone. And a few minutes later, Deputy Harish arrives and after speaking briefly with Deputy Morgan. He approaches the driver's side window at Lance's vehicle. What's going on? I don't know. I came up here using my iPad. Apparently, they called the sheriff's department on me. Okay. Okay. I'm trying to find out why I'm being detained. Cuz trespassing? No. No, it's not trespassing. I'm on public property. But it's not public anymore because they just got taken. This is a easement, correct? This is a rightway. An easement is completely different, right? An ement. Where am I sitting at? Where am I sitting at right now? You're sitting in the parking lot or No, no, no. This is a easement. This is a ementure applies to utilities. Okay. Underground easement, right? If you want What's here? What's here? Underground utilities for underground does not apply to this that runs all the way across. No, it No, it doesn't. Actually, it's it's How much is the distance from the center of the road to the rightway? It actually depends on where you are. Okay. So, what's the distance right here? Does it look like I have a tape measure? Okay. What am I being What crime am I being detained for? I just told you trespassing, sir. I was never told to leave. Okay. Well, that's why we're here, right? The fire department is here asking for us. Okay. Okay. Again, I pulled up here to use my iPad. I Are you going to let me talk? No, I'm not. Give me a second. Let me explain. No, no, no, no. You don't need to explain it. Has been broken into repeatedly. That has nothing to do with me. Okay. If they don't know you and they've been constantly broken into, does that not seem suspicious? When was it broken into? When? Yes. It's been constantly broken into because this isn't a used facility. Okay. Right. It was a volunteer department. It just got transferred over. There's a lot going on. So, how am I supposed to know that? You're I'm telling you that, right? So, that's why it got called in the way it did. So, again, if I'm sitting here using my iPad on an easement on public property on public property. This isn't public property. How is it not? Is this public property? Who pays the taxes? Who pays the taxes? The county. So, do you mean you can tell me you can come up to the county? You can sit at the Absolutely. So, you can sit at the jail? Yes. No, you cannot. You don't think so? Not at Get your sergeant out here? The sergeant's already on the way. Okay, that's good. Yeah, it is good. We'll be right back. Now, what am I being detained for, ma'am? I already told you for the third time trespassing. I was never told to leave. Do you see the yellow signs that say no trespassing? I didn't go past the signs. Still here and you did. There's camera footage of it, so please continue. The interesting thing about public easements is that they're easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection for almost every county in the United States. Not to mention, most law enforcement cruisers utilize a computer aided dispatch system, and most of those have their local GIS or geographical information system loaded directly onto the device, allowing the officer to identify who owns a specific property, what land might be private, and yes, even where the public easements are located. Combined with GPS, visual landmark recognition, and common sense, most people with half an IQ point can identify where property begins and ends with an accuracy of about 1 meter. Does it look like I have a tape measure? When we look at a map, Lance is parked here and based on the GIS survey, he is clearly on the public easement. How much is the distance from the center road to the rightway? It actually depends on where you are. Okay. So, what's the distance right here? Does it look like I have a tape measure? In fact, the land is not even owned by the fire department. I was even able to do that for this very encounter from more than a,000 m away because the GIS survey even has a measuring feature. Using it shows that Lance could have been parked up to 55 ft away from the center line of the road. Do does it look like I have a tape measure? But concerning those two no trespassing signs that Deputy Harish pointed out earlier, as you recall, they are clearly never passed by Lance. And despite Deputy Harish lying about having video footage of Lance, the signs also happened to be placed on the property line in accordance with the public easement. An easement is completely different, right? And of course, to top it all off, no one, not even the deputies, have asked him to vacate the area. But even if you were to throw all of that out the window, the property belongs to a volunteer fire department which is run by a nonprofit organization and works with the county to provide their service. That being said, many firehouses have community rooms available for citizens to conduct meetings. And though at the time 31s was still under a remodel, it opened its doors to the public just 2 months later and held an open house in January of 2025. Now, because it is a volunteer department, the land is private property. But there'd be no way for Lance to know that as number one, he lives out of state, and two, they've covered up the volunteer fire department sign with a sign that omits the word volunteer. To the general public, this looks like public property. And that's still beside the point that Lance never entered the property. But what makes this matter most unforgivable is the fact that two untrained officers failed to use the many resources available to them. Right here. No. No. What crime are you detaining me for? Lied about having footage of Lance trespassing. Do you see the yellow signs that say no trespassing? I didn't go past the signs. It's still here. And you did. There's camera footage of it. So, please continue. And couldn't drop their ego long enough to allow Lance to be free from their unlawful detention. and instead he was falsely arrested for pulling off the road to use his cell phone in consideration for his own well-being, the safety of others, and the law. He was falsely charged with failure to ID and criminal trespassing, but the failure to ID charge was dismissed by the judge at his arraignment. Do you have your driver's license on you for what crime? There's no crime. I just have to identify you from No, you don't. In my experience, North Carolina sucks. It is one of the few states that requires a court order to obtain body cam footage, and the sheriff's department and county attorney is refusing to provide Lance with police reports, footage, or other discovery. The state is also one of the few that doesn't have a time limit for a speedy trial, and Lance's next hearing is in 7 months in October. Until then, there's not much more to do. So, I'll provide an update when that time comes or if anything happens in the meantime. Until then, I'd like to know what you think of this encounter. So, let me know in the comments down below. And if you have a story, use my form to submit it. And of course, if you like this video, be sure to check out another one linked on your screen. [Music]