Posted by NCWayne on February 18, 2012 at 21:10:28 from (69.40.232.132):
This goes a bit beyond being scared but to get to the meat of the question, here's the short version of a longer story I was a bit player in Friday afternoon.
Buddy of mine with several properties has had ALOT of stuff stolen from him in the past year or two in the way of both good items and scrap. That's not including the damage done to three of his machines where people stold the radiator out of his 25B BE crane, butchered the wiring harness on his 952HD Liehberrer, and vandalized a 988 CAT loader to the point that he's now scrapping it to fund getting the other two machines repaired. He said he's estimated the cost to him to be about $53,000 between the scrap and replacement value of what was stolen, the cost to have replaced the 988, along with the estimated repair costs to the other two machines. Basically he has taken a BIG hit, caught and prosecuted numerous people on various charges related to theft. He's already on a first name basis with the DA from all of it, and basically he is getting sick and tired of the whole deal......
That said he caught yet another thief trying to steal a 5000 lb drop ball from him yesterday. I had just passed by earlier, headed to look at a machine for a customer, and saw the truck and trailer setting beside the road, but assumed it was the scrappers doing the 988 since it was right beside where that machine sets. When I came back by about 30 minutes later my buddy was beside the road holding a three pound shop hammer and a set of keys. Standing beside him was one of the scrappers, and there was a third guy, with his kid beside him, setting on the trailer.
Turns out the guy on the trailer had pulled over on the side of the road, unloaded his Bobcat, and was at the top of the hill, on the other side of the road, trying to get the dropball loaded in his bucket to steal it. Needless to say my buddy more or less went into the cab with him, snatched his keys, and got in a few whacks before forcing the guy out of the cab. He said the only thing that prevented him from beating the guy to a pulp was looking up and seeing the kid standing there on top of a rock watching.
When they got to the bottom of the hill the guy 'excused himself' for a minute and stepped off the edge of the road, dropped his pants, and stripped off his boxers. Seems my buddy had literally "scared the $hit out of the guy"....
There in lies the question of, "What's the scardest you've ever been...". Personally I've had a few minor frights in my life, but never anything like this....LOL One thing about it, now my buddy has lifetime bragging rights that he literally 'scared the $hit' out of somebody...LOL... I don't think we'll ever hear the end of that one...LOL
This is turning out a bit longer than planned but to continue the story, fast forward a few minutes and the cops get there. Not only did they not cuff the guy and take him away, but they also let him go back up the hill and get his machine, and leave. They did say they would try to get the DA to file charges but couldn't make any guarantees because the guy claimed he 'had permission' from one of the scrappers to get the stuff. So, because he had a 'plausible story', as well as a couple of other things like he never actually got away with it, they said they really couldn't take him in as it was hard to prove his intent. Too the value of the ball wouldn't have been that high anyways since he was probably planning to scrap it....IF in fact he intended to steal it.... Funny thing drop balls are typically high manganese steel, not plain old carbon steel, and most junk yards I've talked to over the years won't even buy them... if they really know what they are looking at that is. All in all everything we were told by the cops was really just a bunch of BS of you ask me....They could have cuffed the guy, put him in the car with the kid watching. Maybe then the kid would have grown up knowing the consequensts of stealing instead of thinking it was 'just an adventure with dad'.
Given what they were saying I asked the cops what would happen if I decided to steal the guys machine or his truck, with the intent to take it to the scrap yard. There the value of both wouldn't have been but a few hundered dollars as scrap....I was told that even if that were my 'intent' I would still be nailed to the wall for grand theft auto, and/or whatever they decided to call it for stealing a machine....all based on the actual "value" of the object stolen........EVEN if my INTENT was to scrap the items like they were claiming for the thief.... Seems like nowdays the value of an object is determined by the thief, not the person who owns it.... Again it all sounds like a bunch of BS to me.....
Funny thing, a neighbor who fit the description of the alleged scrapper the guy 'got permission from' dropped by after the cops left and said he had seen the red truck a few days before cruising around casing the place. Said when they saw him and his BIL they took off the other direction. We figure the guys must have thought that the two guys they saw were the scrappers and since he didn't see them there on Friday his story was safe because no one was there to deny it if he got caught.......
Just though it was funny that the guy was scared as badly as he was...LOL...especially given that he had "permission to be there"...Not to mention him being allowed to leave. We kind of speculated on wether it was because he had his kid with him and the cops didn't really want to deal with that, or wether he smelled so bad from his little accident the cops didn't want him in their car......
Either way none of us could understand how someone gets caught red handed stealing, regardless of what it was, and not get arrested. How could he have showed any more intent than he did, how can you think it's OK to take anything from property not belonging without even knowing who the owner is, who in their right mine thinks a scrapper is going to let you have 5000 easy lbs when they are having to work cutting up a macine to get sellable scrap themselves.....And worse WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND TAKES THEIR KID WITH THEM WHEN THEY ARE STEALING STUFF?????????????
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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