Private security for a neighborhood is luxuriously nice, but you know something shady is going on when the guards are chasing people out on a jog. That said, a marathon runner in Austin, Texas, was out running as part of their exercise routine when they entered a new development near their home. They were simply going to run a loop around and then continue down the trail elsewhere. However, during their job in this new-ish and fancy neighborhood, they were approached by a private security vehicle.
The guard driving stopped the runner and told them to show their resident ID. Obviously, they don’t live in the neighborhood, so they don’t have one; that’s when the private security patrol becomes aggressive. “He pulled his security car a little too close to me and he firmly told me I had to leave or I would get trespassed, and that this was a private community,” the runner recounted in a Reddit post. They were on their way out of the looping area anyhow, but the guard drove after them, following them all the way out of the neighborhood.
Confused and somewhat annoyed, the runner checked with their local county office to ask about the roads in that area, and sure enough, all the streets and sidewalks are public. In other words, what the private security was doing was unlawful. And since their tax dollars are going into the funding of the streets, they wish to run there again, seeing how it was a nice neighborhood. “But if I am given a hard time again, might as well put the mall cop in his place,” the poster remarked, asking Reddit users what they thought about whether any legal actions should be pursued moving forward.
“Since the roads are owned by the county, you have every right to run on them, resident of the neighborhood or not,” reads the top comment. Everyone else said more or less the same thing: run where you want on public roads, and if the security guards harass you again, call the police. The streets and sidewalks are free for public access, so anyone enforcing otherwise would be “acting illegally.”
In the end, the runner is more than determined to stand up for themselves if they get shooed out or chased down again by some shady, bogus security. As the poster says, “It’s wild that they would spend money on that stuff to try and keep people away from roads and trails that the public pays for, so only they can use it.”
