look, youve already tried doing this the right way and nothing happened. whoever the neglectfull individual was he certainly doesnt have a care now, so you better go get it. if you were waiting on a ***le or paperwork you can almost bet that the previous has lost it or never had one to begin with. you better go get it!
Here in Kentucky (or back home in Texas) I'd drop by the Sherrif's office and find the deputy that patrols/watches that area. He might know things others don't
And now you see why I have 4 locks and 3/8 cable through all 4 wheels on my car trailer. If it does not belong to you...on your land...or have been given to you with some sort of do***entation...then it is stealing. You must at least sense this or you wouldn't have asked the question. It sounds like the moral question here is ..just how close to the guys house does it have to be before you call it stealing. How about 1/4 mile. Its a 1/4 mile from his house in a field and you can not see anyone...ahhh...its an orphan and you would be doing the land owner a favor by climbing his fence and taking it. But what if its only an 1/8 mile...and you can see his farmhouse...he is not sitting in it so he must really not care about it and since you would take it home and love it then by manifest destiny it should be yours. Heres my favorite...right next the farmers barn he has a chicken coop. Inside, covered with chicken-**** is a 34 coupe ex g***er. Man, if that farmer doesn't care anymore about that piece than that then he doesn't deserve to have it. So, when the farmer and his wife are at church you drive in and pull down the end wall and haul off the little coupe...man it even has a 3 deuce flattie with a top loader in it. You have done the public a service by saving a piece of history and deserve a citenzenship award. I can not tell you how many times over the years I have been in the middle of trying to buy a car from a farmer when the car turns up stolen...before I am able to close the deal. The farmer thinks I did it...and says he will shoot me the next time he sees me on his land. Yea...a real moral dilemma here. Take something because it is there and you want it...or find the "rightful" owner and purchase it........ hummmm.
Work out a deal ASAP with the rightful property owner. The owner of the real estate either wants it there or not. If not, he has the right to allow you to remove it but we are not done yet (ever had a car towed). How can this guy expect a property owner to care for his cars into perpetuity? Once in your possession you can rack up towing/service/ storage charges very quickly. The one holding the ***le can either pay up or the car can become yours through legal means. Keeping cars on others property or storing cars can really get out of hand. My younger brother once ran a moonlight paint shop out of our Parent's garage. He had a customer bring over a car for some light bodywork and a paint job. The guy kept changing his simple mind midstream during the project and the next thing he knew the car was gutted, he was out of money, and there was no end in sight for finishing the car. The damn thing sat in the garage for three years before being ****oned up enough to go out the door and my brother barely made minimum wage on the job! In Iowa if we were running a towing service and this thing were legally towed in (the property owner must order the tow), it goes something like this. Lets see thats 1095 days at $20 per day or $21,900 in storage fees alone plus the tow. Now the owner either cares enough about the cars to be aware of their disposition or suffer the consequences, lives tough, **** him. ALL of my **** is on my property, do I need to triple lock it? **** no. Anyone that leaves his or her **** ****tered around cannot expect someone else to care for it! Know anyone in the towing business? They may be willing to help you out.
The Bank or Sherriff whoever is selling it will be more than happy to have you clean it up. Junk (old cars) on a property will not improve the sale price at auction time. I picked up an Es*** coupe one time by doing this. 1 phone call and I had had a faxed permission paper in hand. I have "liberated" parts (no tee pee around) and i just don't feel good about it.
Please re-read my posts, Godzilla. Show me where I said anything about a moral dilemma. I said I wanted to know a LEGAL, MORAL, way, of saving those cars. I have also stated that there was no way, repeat *NO WAY* I was going to just show up with a trailer and haul them off. I've had people e-mail and PM me and tell me they would like to know where they are... possibly so THEY can just show up with a trailer... and I won't tell anyone where these cars are. They are somewhere between San Francisco, and Portland. If I can't get them legally, and be able to sleep at night, THEN THEY WILL GO TO THE CRUSHER... Godzilla, can I possibly make it any more clear for you????
having been in the car business forever i'll tell you what i'd do. steal it?? absolutely not. wait for ALL the ******** laws to work in your favor??? ABSOFUKKINLUTELY not!!! show up with a trailer in broad daylight. if anybody asks what you're doin just tell them you had a deal to buy the t & you're here to pick it up. this is not a lie. it's not exactly the truth either. chances are they'll just let you have the old piece of "junk". if nobody is there just take it home. begin IMMEDIATELY to find out who is handling the property & ask if they have any paperwork on the old cars on the property as you bought one a while back & just picked it up. act like you know what you're doin. the worst that could happen is they'll make you bring it back. sometimes it's easier to ask forgiveness that permission. i own 2 "abandoned" vehicles & have ***les on both...mel
I think the "lot cleaning service" approach is probablythe best one...for two reasons. #1. so the owner fell off the face of the planet. in the event you "liberated" said tin with permission, it is legally yours. (and there is no telling what else is laying in the weeds. ) #2. so you don't want the 39. grab a buddy with a pick up that does want it. don't just clear the cars, CLEAN UP THE PROPERTY! any way you can show a labor amount equal to or greater than the cost the original owner asked (before limbo or not)means you now own the s****. think of it as a mechanic's lean. but I stress clearing the lot. if the company selling the land has any reason to get upset, and find you still have the vehicles mentioned, they can at least be a pain in the ***. (and again, there is no tellin what's in the bushes and weeds. ) you can make this work in your favor. but I would do it quickly. the general public is getting more and more savvy on the value of old cars (piles or not) and when all else fails, wait for the proper time, (for example the company involved alreasdy has someone that does this service for them)and buy it from the OTHER s**** guy. for this to work, you are gonna have to make at least one buddy on the inside. the sales agent, property manager, someone currently has this on thier plate. if you ask politley,and they say no, move to plan B. which is find out who does the work for them, what kind of beer do they like, which is thier favorite dead president, on and on. even if this fails, there is yet another approach. Joe Schmoe not only does not have access to a crusher, and probably does not know how to get in touch with anyone with such a capacity. unless they torch the cars apart to get them into the back of a truck, you can figure out where they went ( a steel yard here wont take an entire car. they will however take a car that has been "divided" into three peices) find out where they went, and Ironically enough, if it is a junk yard, they probably won't have much interest in the roadster anyway. (not much car there from a junk mans perspective) but the 39 might go. (rusty or not, if it rolls, a junk guy sees parts for sale.) if you follow all these steps, and do everything in your power do do this right, I don't think anyone here would condem you for doing what I did mentally while writing this letter. which is put a big silly sign on the side of a rented dump truck and went and cleared the land. reguardless of who was watching. high noon with two or three buddies all wearing "wayne and garth" wigs. just me and a brush hog, doin' the work involved...what do you mean,officer? this isn't 413 evergreen terrace? well darn it, I guess I should stop mowin then,right?....
I have been in contact with a Real Estate agent friend of mine, whose office actually are the ones that are starting the auction proceedings. He knows about the cars (and there are quite a few, but the only ones worth anything are the '26 and the '39, (and that '39 is a "see to depreciate" kind of deal, the rest are mid-70's Chevy trucks that are missing everything but a rusted-out cab, etc) and he has no interest in them, so, I'll let him do whatever he needs to do, to get me legal, honest access to the cars.. If that means waiting until the auction is over, and mentioning to the new owner that he knows a guy that would be happy to take a few pieces of s**** metal off the property for him, then that's what I'll do. If the new owner contracts with someone else, to take everything, then I will find out who that other person is, and see if thery would be interested in losing a few pieces of that scap metal. Failing that, I guess the car-eating machine might get them. They are NOT worth losing my honesty and integrity over.
Re-read my reply...the moral dilemma is with the range of replys you received. In a nut shell I was trying to express that "anyone" can not just drive down a road...see a car and like it...or a part that is need...and pick it up (unbolt...cut off...or dig up) and take it home...as some had expressed. This aint the wild west. I am sorry if you read something...or anything else into it...not intended As I said...over the years I have had cars stolen before I could get them bought...I have bought cars and had parts stolen off of them before I could get them picked up...and even had sheet metal taken right off a car stored in my freaking back yard. So......there is no additional clearity need on behalf of my understanding or regard for the "cowboy" mentallity that approves of taking something just because it is there and it is wanted (AS EXPRESSED BY OTHERS). My comments are meant for the peanut gallery...not intended as a personal afront...not intended to provide any devine guidance or offer directions thru the legal wranglings that someone will have to go through to get...or what ever the autos in question. I hope THAT is clear. As for you and these car parts....do what ever you think is best...I am sure it will work out fine.
Man, some of the guys here worry me. There is NO way you can ever rationalize just taking a car off of property you don't own. That is theft, I don't care what you say about saving it from the elements or whatever, it's still THEFT. Where I use to live in Illinois there was an antique dealer/gas station/conv. store owner who advertised a lot in the papers about doing free appraisals at the owners house. My wife's Uncle made the mistake of showing this guy some pedal tractors he had stored at an unoccupied house he had on one of his farms. Sure as **** his favorite (and most valuable) pedal tractors were gone not long after. He was able to get one or two back, but not the others. I guess this guy figured since no one lived there, and since the property was for sale, he could claim them. There is a special place in Hell for ****heads like that. Nik
I always worried about that. I had an appraiser come to my house once, said he'd get back to me in a week and I never heard from him again. Makes you wonder if you just gave a thief the grand tour and showed him where the good stuff is at. He was a local car guy too.
I dont know how you guys do it in MO but up here in North dakota we TAKE IT. no one knows its there and no one really cares. but once they know its there they everyone cares and no one wants to sell it cause, "they are guna do someting with is some day." Take it and do your thing with it!!!!! 39
NOTE TO SELF: Add North Dakota to the outlaw territories........ Are you guys.....[who post that you should just steal the car] ,capable of understanding the -SIMPLEST-basic concept of what the act of stealing really is?
Guy's.....this IS a public internet forum......why not just buy a T shirt that reads "I steal stuff. Please shoot me"
I tell yah what, if any of you ***holes are caught in my front yard trying to dig up my 28 sedan planter, I'll ****ing shoot you. Un****ingbelievable
For those of you who don't define this as "stealing" try "looting" instead. Or "tomb raiding" or "grave robbing". Or "vandalism".
There was a time when I didn't have a problem "salvaging" abandoned things that were dumped on someone's property, didn't think of it as stealing...most of the time people who own the property dont give a **** if you haul abandoned things off or not, and then there are a few who think a rusty back half of a 32 vicky (abandoned during WWII after the front half was made into a hay hauler) with a tree growing through it, rusted away half way up the fenders, complete with black widows and red wasps, oh..and centipedes...is worth killing for. It's better to be sure and go about it the right way, it will keep the law off your back, and the lead out of your ***, and tailgate. Besides, paperwork you get when going through the proper channels will help you as far as getting a ***le, like mentioned here a few replies back... tech tip: Bondo doesnt fill buckshot holes well unless you weld them up first.
I still have a truck that I found in a barn over 25 years ago but only because I went to the owner in the next county and asked. If I had just taken it out of the barn even though the house had been gone 20 years before and the closest house was over a mile away, I would not be able to show it to you now because the past owners son (now about 70) saw the truck for the first time this summer and would have done something about it if he had not known how I got it. He even told me things I didn't know about it. Turns out he was very young when his Dad bought it and tore it apart to make a wagon out of the frame 60+ years ago. Now I can give him a ride in the truck when I get it running and might even let him drive it if I can talk him into it. As for the ones that would just "go get it" I better never catch you in my back yard. I would love to have those cars too but I was raised better than that. Always ask first, someone cared enough to keep them around this long.
Dave you are a good and honest person don't jepardize it for some old tin. I have seen a alot of nice tin get crushed but that is no reason to steal it. See you soon Tex
I had a repairman come to our new house to work on the spa the last owner left behind, and with just moving in I had all sorts of parts and stuff in the house. I didn't think nothing of it till he started asking if that was a such and such, and did that fit a such and such motor. Made me pause after knowing what my wife's Uncle went thru, but it turned out he was just a good old boy who was into cars. Nik
Where I grew up, in Illinois, land just kind of rolls along forever and ever. A farmer's plot of land can stretch and sprawl all over the county. He could have an old tractor or car body on his land, and that thing could be four miles from his front porch. Does that make it any less his? Maybe he grew up riding on the running boards of that car. Maybe it was his old man's first car. Maybe he was concieved in the rumble seat. Does he owe us an explanation for letting it sink into the ground on HIS LAND? ******* it. That's none of my ******* business, unless HE decides it is. Don't like the reason I have something "sitting around" my yard? F@%k you! Try to take it; I'll put a bullet in your head, and the cops'll pin a medal on me. Or maybe I'll just bury your *** under that old coupe. We all want cool cars to ride around in. That's what brings us where we are now. There's enough legitimate steel to go around. Trust me. If an owner doesn't want to make a deal, that's HIS world. Not mine. If he can't be found, move on to the next car. There's a great deal out there, just waiting for us all. 26Tudor is being a MAN about this situation, and I'm proud to see it. Some of you *******s are so off track here. Some of you sh*theads would have been pig-feed back home. And rightfully so. The wild west worked both ways. Just my $.02.
Actually, with the post he made in this thread... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83991 it appears he's hit a snag in getting the cars! Hopefully someone gets them eventually... Too bad 26Tudor had to give up on the quest!
Not that it matters, and this years too late, but an update- The cars are gone. I have a friend who is the County Code Enforcement Officer, and I had him pay a visit to the property, just to "look around" He said that all that is still there is a burned out school bus. I hope somebody retrieved them, and did it legally, and I hope they didn't end up going to the crusher. I know the owner of the one junk yard in town, and I had asked him to PLEASE contact me, any time, day or night, if either of the cars showed up at his yard. They didn't. Ya win some, ya lose some. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.
---------------------------- ----------------------------------- I thought you said the '39 was almost not worth saving? "More time/expense than the car is worth"?? To me, that '39 coupe looks way better than the T. Mart3406 ============================
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