My husband told me a sort-of-funny story today. He works at a place where they fix trucks and sell tires. They have a back lot that several truckers have the key to so they can sleep out there from time to time. Truckers sometimes have a hard time finding a safe place to sleep. It seems like they have their beds with them, how hard can that be, just stop somewhere. Well, I guess if you park your truck next to some other truck you can siphon his diesel while the other guy sleeps none the wiser. It happens in truck stops, and lots of other places don’t really welcome trucks parked overnight. That little bit of information really doesn’t pertain to the story.
A couple of weeks ago two of the truckers told GD that someone had been driving around in his lot, suspicious-like, and they got a plate number. GD called a connection and got the name and address of the owner. He told the police, but they weren’t inclined to do much about it, so I suggested taking a company pickup to his house and driving into his yard and sitting there a while then driving off. It would scare the crap out of me.
Of course a couple of days later some tires or rims or something went missing. GD has a building to store tires in, but he has many more tires than fit in the building. He keeps most of the rest of them in a chain link pen but through the years people have cut the wire or the padlock, in fact entire truckloads of tires have driven off. Truck tires cost maybe $400 per tire, so if you can steal them you can fence them for quite a bit.
A little eye candy for those of you not so interested in mermaids.
GD’s business is in an industrial park with about seven or eight other truck or farm related businesses. The police think it is too far from town to patrol often, and thieves have caught on. So the business across the road from GD got broken into last night. The guy stole a bunch of brake pad cores. (don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what they are, I don’t either) So Matt, from across the road, called around and found out that someone had sold the scrap metal dealer about the same number of brake pad cores today. They had pried off the rivets that hold the brake pads on, which would take some time and effort. For the time and effort of stealing them, and removing the pads, the guy got paid $.25 per brake core. If he stole 30 that would be $7.50. The scrap dealer said he would keep an eye out for this guy. I hope it is the same guy and they can nab him, but if he has any brains he won’t steal brake cores again.
Now I am off to check prices on game cameras from Cabela’s. How expensive can they be, and why doesn’t GD have one up?
Oct 14, 2009 @ 23:21:00
I don’t know how rural the area is, but I would hope that with all this going on, the police would see fit to patrol a little more often!
Oct 15, 2009 @ 07:18:00
Of course~ we know~ the camera will cost way more than $7.50. Check with the thief~ he might be able to get it cheaper for you.
Oct 15, 2009 @ 10:29:00
People are crazy!Good luck finding an affordable camera. It should be really large so people can see it!
Oct 15, 2009 @ 10:31:00
@WildWomanOfTheWest – @bethro78 – I actually haven’t looked yet, but GD pointed out that somebody would probably steal the camera.
Oct 15, 2009 @ 10:34:00
not if you post it high enough, like they do at gas stations. They put them up that high so that they can’t be easily stolen. They use them more as a deterrent than actual video footage. They use the smaller, less visible ones for surveillance. In fact, you could probably get a huge broken one that doesn’t even work and put it up really high somewhere visible so that even if someone did get that bold, you weren’t out a ton of money b/c it’s broken. Also, I would love to see their face when they realized that after they stole it. ha.
Oct 15, 2009 @ 10:45:00
The thief would qualify for the Dumbest Criminals program on Real TV.
Oct 15, 2009 @ 14:33:00
The police never seem to be that helpful to small business owners. It’s very frustrating. We’ve had things stolen from job sites and it’s just a joke to do a police report. Thieves don’t always do the math, do they! And I bet it was drug related, which is just another argument for reforming drug policy in America. Do you think that’s on the list right after health care reform? (-:
Oct 15, 2009 @ 15:31:00
A camera sounds like a wise investment. Good luck!
Oct 15, 2009 @ 19:05:00
$.25!!! That’s just sad. A camera sounds like a good idea.
Oct 15, 2009 @ 22:49:00
All that shiny chrome, YeeHaw!
Oct 15, 2009 @ 23:09:00
@prairiecowboy – Gotta love the X Ones!
Oct 15, 2009 @ 23:33:00
Hey I know what brake cores are! Do I get a prize? 😉 Man, that person is desperate. An awful lot of work. Maybe he could use that initiative to, I don’t know, GET A JOB!