Minuteman Project: October Weekend 4
I arrived at camp around 7:00 and headed out to the Naco line. The line had already been set by Whiskey-Alpha so I found a post to sit at and began to listen.
During the night, Montana spotted a red light on Border Road. We called out on the radio to see if it was one of us. No one responded, so we called Border Patrol. After a while, it became clear that the red light on the road was in fact a Minuteman. When Border Patrol arrived we apologized for the mistake. Thankfully they were in the area already anyway so it wasn't a big deal. To the best of our knowledge that was the first and only mistake so far, but it is bound to happen at some point!
Just before calling in the line for the night, Post 12 saw a couple across the border looking like they were preparing to cross. They had seen the volunteers at Post 12, so they just sat there and waited. We decided to have Post 12 pull out early and park up the street. The idea was to allow the couple to cross, and keep an eye on the area from the next post.
Well we waited for a while but no one was seen crossing. Before we left we notified Border Patrol that there was a couple there who might cross when we left. The next day we got a report that two had been caught right there in the area after we left, but it was not clear that it was the same two.
We met at camp the next day and discussed with the volunteers a plan that we were going to try. Now every night we would leave at the same time. Tonight we were going to let half the line leave on time, and keep key positions in place for a few more hours. We had been getting hints that illegals would flood across the border as soon as we would leave, so we decided to see if we could catch a few in the act. Unfortunately, while discussing the plan, we noticed a suspicious person listening in on the conversation. We suspect that this person may have passed our plan on.
That night, Post 12 saw two cross the border almost immediately after it got dark, and Border Patrol was notified. Only minutes later, the next post down saw a cow cross the border! Border Patrol was not notified.
As the sky got darker, the Volunteer at the post with me thought he saw someone with infra-red to the east of us. It was unclear which side of the border it was coming from so we did not call it in. After watching it for a while we finally figured out that it was actually two different things. We did in fact see infrared from a night vision illuminator, but it was one of us. The other thing we were seeing was just someone smoking a cigarette- is it AMAZING how bright a cigarette looks in Gen 3 night vision! That one took us a while to figure out. Thankfully this time we didn't report ourselves to the Border Patrol.
We continued to listen to the noises of the windmill in the distance and watch the rocks grow on what looked like the surface of Mars. Suddenly we heard a noise across the border- JUST across the border. We both took looks through the night vision but could not see anything. Then we heard it again! Still could see nothing. Then we heard noise north of the border, about 100 feet to the west of us, but still could see nothing, so we didn't report anything. About 5 minutes later a group of coyotes began- well, whatever you would call that noise they make... Most likely what we heard moving was one of the coyotes.
During the night, Montana spotted a red light on Border Road. We called out on the radio to see if it was one of us. No one responded, so we called Border Patrol. After a while, it became clear that the red light on the road was in fact a Minuteman. When Border Patrol arrived we apologized for the mistake. Thankfully they were in the area already anyway so it wasn't a big deal. To the best of our knowledge that was the first and only mistake so far, but it is bound to happen at some point!
Just before calling in the line for the night, Post 12 saw a couple across the border looking like they were preparing to cross. They had seen the volunteers at Post 12, so they just sat there and waited. We decided to have Post 12 pull out early and park up the street. The idea was to allow the couple to cross, and keep an eye on the area from the next post.
Well we waited for a while but no one was seen crossing. Before we left we notified Border Patrol that there was a couple there who might cross when we left. The next day we got a report that two had been caught right there in the area after we left, but it was not clear that it was the same two.
We met at camp the next day and discussed with the volunteers a plan that we were going to try. Now every night we would leave at the same time. Tonight we were going to let half the line leave on time, and keep key positions in place for a few more hours. We had been getting hints that illegals would flood across the border as soon as we would leave, so we decided to see if we could catch a few in the act. Unfortunately, while discussing the plan, we noticed a suspicious person listening in on the conversation. We suspect that this person may have passed our plan on.
That night, Post 12 saw two cross the border almost immediately after it got dark, and Border Patrol was notified. Only minutes later, the next post down saw a cow cross the border! Border Patrol was not notified.
As the sky got darker, the Volunteer at the post with me thought he saw someone with infra-red to the east of us. It was unclear which side of the border it was coming from so we did not call it in. After watching it for a while we finally figured out that it was actually two different things. We did in fact see infrared from a night vision illuminator, but it was one of us. The other thing we were seeing was just someone smoking a cigarette- is it AMAZING how bright a cigarette looks in Gen 3 night vision! That one took us a while to figure out. Thankfully this time we didn't report ourselves to the Border Patrol.
We continued to listen to the noises of the windmill in the distance and watch the rocks grow on what looked like the surface of Mars. Suddenly we heard a noise across the border- JUST across the border. We both took looks through the night vision but could not see anything. Then we heard it again! Still could see nothing. Then we heard noise north of the border, about 100 feet to the west of us, but still could see nothing, so we didn't report anything. About 5 minutes later a group of coyotes began- well, whatever you would call that noise they make... Most likely what we heard moving was one of the coyotes.
posted by Calan at 13:05
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