ROLLING PRAIRIE, Ind. — An Indiana man could receive time behind bars for allegedly driving across a farmer’s field on a snowmobile and damaging some of the crops. Brett Schuler has been charged in La Porte Circuit Court with Level 6 felony criminal mischief.

Under a state law adopted in 2014, trespassing on a farm in Indiana can be upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony if there’s anywhere from $750 to $50,000 in property damage.

It’s estimated that Schuler caused roughly $2,000 in damage to soybeans that were still in the field he cut across on Nov. 11 near Indiana 2 and 600 East near Rolling Prairie in the northwest part of the state.

According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Schuler told conservation officers he and a friend were riding their snowmobiles when his friend’s snowmobile broke down.

Schuler said he was heading back to a truck and trailer parked about a mile away when he decided to cut across the field on his snowmobile out of convenience, DNR said.

He did so despite knowing there were soybeans in the field still waiting to be harvested, according to DNR. He was confronted by the farmer and another individual about being on private property without the landowner’s permission.

Schuler was approached three days later by conservation officers, who were able to track him down from the registration number on the snowmobile visible in a picture of the machine taken by the farmer.

According to DNR, Schuler in 2021 was issued a warning ticket for operating a snowmobile without landowner consent.

He could face anywhere from a six month to 30-month sentence.

The frequency of trespassing on farms was among the reasons cited by state lawmakers for making such acts a felony based on circumstances like the amount of damage and whether the suspect has a prior conviction for being on a farm without consent of the landowner.

La Porte County Farm Bureau President Mark Parkman said snowmobiles during the winter along with passenger and off-road vehicles in the summer are a common site in his fields in the Westville area.

Parkman said trespassing is an obvious show of disrespect especially when there are crops in the ground that can be damaged from vehicles doing things like donuts.

“Most people are respectful but like with anything you have somebody that just doesn’t care and they think they have the right to do whatever they want,” he said.

Parkman said some drivers even go into fields when corn is reaching maturity. “You can’t even see out your window because the corn is so tall but it happens frequently,” he said.

Parkman said he’s not sure what else can be done to get a better handle on the problem but feels the best solution is people thinking twice before acting on their desire to be an intruder.

“I don’t know too many people who would be happy with people driving in their yard. And, as farmers, most of us feel like that’s private property. If you haven’t asked, you should not be on it,” he said.