He had been licensed as a process server in Laram County for 11 years. He had been hired by the Sentinel Ridge Estates HOA to post a tow notice on the 2009 F250 in my driveway. He drove up the Callaway Ranch driveway in his 2015 Ford Ranger at 3:00 in the afternoon on a Thursday. I was on the porch with my father. Reed Hallagan parked at the foot of the driveway.
He did not come up. He walked to the F250. He had a manila envelope in his hand. He had a roll of clear packing tape. I walked down the gravel toward him.
I was in jeans and a Carheart jacket. He looked up. He said, "Sir, process server. I have a notice from the Sentinel Ridge Estates Homeowners Association." I said, "Mr. Halligan, this is not Sentinel Ridge Estates property.
This is private Callaway family property in Laramie County. You do not have authorization to post anything on this vehicle or to enter this driveway. He looked at the Manila envelope. He looked at the F250. He looked at the badge clip on my belt that he had not noticed before.
The small magnetic badge of the 90th Missile Wing Commander, which I wore under my jacket on weekends out of habit because my father had always worn his retired general's identification clip the same way. His face changed. He said, "Sir, are you Air Force?" I told him I was the wing commander of the 90th Missile Wing. He stood very still for a long moment.
He said, "Sir, I am going to drive back to Cheyenne and inform Mrs. Pendergast that I will not be posting this notice today. I would also, with respect, like to give you the envelope so that you can file it as evidence with whatever office is going to need it." I thanked him. He handed me the envelope. He drove away.
I opened the envelope at the kitchen table that evening with me. The tow notice was a fabricated document on Sentinel Ridge Estates HOA letterhead. It claimed the F250 was in violation of section 8.4 of the Sentinel Ridge Estates community covenants and was scheduled for involuntary removal by community affiliated towing services within 48 hours. Sentinel Ridge Estates actual recorded covenants did not include a section 8.4. I checked.
I had a phone call with my daughter Enes that evening. Inz was 27. She had been a Coast Guard officer for 5 years. She was good at federal regulations the way her mother was good at federal sentencing guidelines. She listened to me read the tow notice over the phone.
She said one sentence. Dad, the HOA does not have civilian tow authority over Laram County land. The community affiliated towing services language is a fiction. Whoever drafted that document was relying on a non-existent Wyoming statute. I told her I had reached the same conclusion.
She said, "Dad, get mom involved on the legal side. Get AFOSI to interview Pete formally. The next time Briany escalates, she is going to call someone with actual authority, which means Cheyenne police or if she's lost it completely, fear security forces." The moment she calls security forces, the federal predicate locks. I told her I had been counting on it.