"Did anybody tell you the landowner gave permission?"
Eli hesitated. "I was told the HOA controls the common boundary area."
"That's not what I asked."
The younger man looked down at his boots. "No, sir. Nobody showed me a permission letter."
James took photographs of the work order and the stakes, making sure the existing fence and landmarks were visible. He showed Eli a copy of Whitfield's survey on his phone and pointed to the monument that marked the actual boundary. This was not a matter of a line drifting because of an old measuring technique. The work order had moved a recorded property boundary to create land for a trail that the HOA did not own.
"I'm going to ask you to stop work and remove any stakes you've placed inside my land," James said. "I'm not blaming you for coming to the address on your assignment. But now you know I haven't authorized this. If your company believes the boundary is different, a licensed surveyor can explain that position through the proper process."
Eli exhaled, relieved not to be facing a confrontation. He called his supervisor while James remained several feet away. The exchange was brief and uncomfortable. When Eli hung up, he said they would remove the stakes and leave. James photographed the same places afterward so there would be no dispute about what had been disturbed. He watched the truck drive away, then called Harlan from the pasture.
"She's trying to move my property line on paper," James said.
"Send me everything," Harlan answered. "Especially that work order. And don't let anyone alter the old monuments. If they genuinely dispute the boundary, we handle it through evidence, not lawn stakes."
Harlan contacted Corley Land Services and requested the basis for its proposed line. Dennis Corley replied that the document was only a preliminary assessment prepared for planning purposes, not a final certified boundary plat. That distinction mattered, but it did not excuse the crew's entry onto James's property without permission. Harlan submitted a complaint to the relevant professional licensing authority for review, carefully describing what Corley had actually signed and what he had not. He also informed the county that no Whitfield landowner had authorized a survey on that side of the recorded boundary.
James could have removed every stake and returned to his horses, content that another nuisance had ended. Instead, the incident sharpened a question he had already been asking: why was Patricia so determined to create a trail on land she did not control? A public walking path might increase the appeal of houses on the eastern edge of Palmetto Crest. It might also connect the community to a pond and mature trees that existed long before the houses were built. But Patricia had repeatedly presented the alleged shared boundary as an expense, not merely an aspiration.