Strange Days, Strange Photos

Ranchers & Game Camera Surveillance

In Kinney County and many other spots along the border area ranchers are tracking trespassers on their property with game cameras. They know to adjust where the cameras are located, on the basis of tracks and foot traffic through their property.

Images of hot and tired illegal aliens passing through in groups have become almost old hat as the crisis has progressed. But, over the past several months unusual photos have begun making the rounds in the community, encouraging all manner of speculation.

This image is a pretty typical example of what many area ranchers are used to seeing. A group like this one can be expected to cut down every fence between them and their goals, and possibly also break into and loot every structure they see. Any vehicles they find left unattended may also wind up getting stolen. It was put out on the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office facebook page 2 days ago.

This smaller image is from a game camera in Northwest Kinney County, on the Price Family ranch. It was published in late June by the Uvalde Leader News, a small, daily newspaper, one of the few you find still publishing daily in the region. It shows a woman who was left for dead on a Kinney County hunting ranch. She managed to find a stock pond, and build herself a small shelter out of twigs and branches. After finding the camera, she began praying for rescue and survival, hoping it was one of those that provides live updates to the internet and its owner. It was not. Even so, she managed to survive about 12 days alone, long enough for a father and daughter pair of hunters to find her, and bring help. She is one of the very lucky ones— most illegal aliens in her circumstances simply die of thirst and exposure. Look closely at the photo— it shows a temperature of 102 degrees. The woman told authorities the group she was traveling with took her cell phone away from her, before leaving her there. She said she was trying to reach Houston, where her husband already is.

And finally, there’s this other photo taken on property owned by another local rancher in the Southern part of the County, back in late June. It is not at all like any of the others commonly seen. So far, no one has been able to identify this individual, or come up with a likely explanation for his presence on private property. Note the cellphone in his hand, and the expensive camel-bak water supply he is wearing as a backpack, to say nothing of his non-typical skin tone. Speculation has ranged in the community that perhaps he is simply some thrill-seeker, to others guessing perhaps he is working for a cartel, mapping a smuggling route. Neither seems especially satisfying as an explanation, but the photo stands out as an image unlike all the others people have been seeing on area game and surveillance cameras.