So I get to the shop about 11am yesterday, was going to work for a couple hours before going to Milwaukee to hang with an old friend. Go to open the front door of the shop...not locked...was when I left Friday night. Walk in, smell smoke, freak out that something is burning. Look around a bit, nothing really out of place. Go to the back corner of the shop, notice that both my overhead doors are unlatched and the back window is broken out. Still looking around to find out what is burning and see this big ass box thing in the lift bay behind the Jeep that was in there. Doesn't really click as to what it is but notice white powder all over the place and my torch setup was moved. So I call 911 and report a break in right away. Then I start looking over the unit laying torched apart on the floor. What the hell is this thing, it is not mine. Well, it is an older large change machine. Here some fucking losers stole it from somewhere, break into my shop about 2am and use my torches to cut it open for the goodies inside. They blew off my extingusher when the machine must have caught fire. Good thing they did not burn my shop down! Now the cops show up right away and they it was almost comical how useless the Oshkosh police are as they didn't barely even want to take a report. They also had no clue as to where it came from, but it sure as hell is not mine. So I start looking around. Losers took a brand new circular saw and ALL MY CRAFTSMAN SOCKETS!!!!!! Assholes. Probably took a few other things also, but I have not figured out if anything else is missing yet. So I load the coin machine up in the police truck and they take off. They had no clue where the thing came from or what and certainly did not make me feel safe to be a resident here as they were pretty much useless investigators. So I go next door to the bar to talk with the owner, maybe they saw something. Tell her the story and slap down a handful of susan B dollars on the bar telling her to watch for these to come in as they theives have a lot of them now from the machine. She looks at me, picks up her phone and calls someone. Asks them if they were missing a change machine, they say yes and gave us the name of the person who probably stole it. So come to find out, the plant two doors down(100 yards from my shop) had the machine stolen from some past employee Friday night. Cops took the report on third shift but the loser first shift guys had no clue about it when they came in by me?!? WTF!!! So I call back to the officer who handled my deal to give him the tip. He says he is waiting for the report of the theft to be typed up and tells me that he will take care of it tomorrow!!! What a bunch of shit, why the hell can't they go to the guy's house and question him right away, my stuff is probably long gone by now and any evidence is also. I am sure the guys had fire extinguisher all over their shoes and clothes. This really pisses me off as the county cops would have taken care of this right away. Oshkosh PD is a joke, why even have police? Worst thing is that if they do catch the guy and recover my tools, I won't be able to get them back until the guys appear in court which could be 6 months down the road, while I sit without tools. If anyone finds any Craftsman SAE 1/2" drive or 3/8" drive SEA and Metric sockets in red or gray Hanson socket trays, they are mine and I want them back. Some of them have MGR engraved on them or SHOP engraved on them. So here is my deal. If there is anyone local here that finds my stuff, I will offer a cash reward to get my stuff back. Or if you know the guys who did this, I will not turn them in if they return all my stuff and pay me the $40 it will cost to replace my back window. Life sucks right now.
shitty feeling huh. I own a shop and i have been broken into four times in five years. the first time they cleaned me out. took about 10,000.00 worth of stuff. They cought the bastards and I get a cool check for a whopping 34.00 a month.
This is the reason I have an apartment set up in my shop. I stay here a lot and have invited a couple of guys that were trying to get thru the window to "Come on in". Most of the thieves leave me alone now, but you never know when some one is gonna get real ignorant.
Dude, that sucks! When were you gonna fill me in on this? I'd go down to Mr. Money USA and check out their stuff, to see if anyone tried to pawn anything. How bullshit is it that the police don't care enough to do anything about it. Stealing a change machine and breaking into a building is pretty serious shit. Yet they get all pissed off when you take the law into your own hands. I'd say security cameras would be a good idea, but hell, the cops wouldn't do anything if they had a picture in their hands. Only good if you want to go bust some heads on your own.
Get this one last week I went to the bay area to stay at a freinds. the next morning I drive home taking the levee rd. I drive thru isleton and get pulled over. the cop wants to search my car and i agree??? he seems to be taking a awful long time as nothing is in my car except a back pack with a change of clothes. he lets me outa his car and says he is gonna let me go with a warning??? i get back to my car and notice i left my wallet on the passenger seat when i gave him my id. I had $600 in it I check it now there is only $300... i was shocked so i call the dept... you can geuss the rest one cop town LOL
You need an alarm system or a bigassed fuckin dog man! Sure sorry to hear that, humans suck sometimes.
Big ass dog works, most creeps would rather move on to the next victim than tangle with a pissed off dog.Or goin' and recovering your stuff on your own and handin' out some good ole street justice works as word gets out that steelin' your stuff is a free ride to the county hospital.That's what Louisville Sluggers are for when your not playin' ball.
That sucks man. I hear you on that. Get a dog (German Shephard I prefer, screw a pit bull like most people try to get) and then get you a .357 Magnum or a Mini 40 (these hold AK 47 rounds but very little recoil) and then some security cameras. So when someone trys to break in the camera will catch the theif and catch your dog eating the bastard and then catch you shooting the bastard and the cops with THEN have a reason to come check it out and handle it... They might not handle it exactly like you wanted (meaning taking him to jail) but he will sure be going to the hospital or a hole in the ground. Or you can just take the dog route. Whichever is easiest.
The big dog will not always work--I had 2 Chows chained outside my shop-- They let one go and stood on the others dog house to get in the window where they helped themselves to $1500 bucks worth of my tools.So, yes I had watch dogs---They watched the thief take my shit!!! The bad part is it had to be someone I knew to get close to the dogs.I can understand the anger--Hope you find the stupid suckers. PS---Now there are 2 pineapple gernades with trip wires in there---I don't have to feed them,but can't get anybody to help me work on anything!!!! But,nothing else is missing either.
Go to the local pawn shops. Probably too late now but oh well. Also even if you find the tools there they wont give them back. That is why I hear people say that you should spray paint the ENTIRE tool in a hot pink or some gay ass color that way you know it's yours from a huge distance. And then on something like a nail gun or such you open it up like the cap on it and scribe in your name and number or something and that way you go to the pawn shop and tell them "hey that is my tool and you can even open that back cap up and my name so and so will be in there with this number".
Hey we NEED the cops! Who else is going to harrass the citizens & give out speeding & lanechange tickets in order to pay their fucking salary ( & yes so that THEY can steal from uss too!). ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" America - made in China! :-(
If the big ass rabid dog's don't work, a 12 gauge with some rock salt does the trick...I'm not a laywer, I just play one on TV!
Oh, be warned to those who fuck with my shit, I WILL find out who did this and get my revenge. Just noticed they also stole my BRAND FUCKING NEW 1/2" electric $175 impact wrench. Cops absoluetly are useless around here. They basically had the name and address of the person who probably did this and didn't even bother to go track them down!!! WTF?
Hey Cliffy... That all sucks man.... You need to get the word out you intend to brake somebodys face...... Oh by the way I hope they did,nt steel my unpayed for compressor did they???? DAN... Check will be in the mail tomorrow
A couple of assholes tried to break into the store I work at a while back. They cut the phone lines. They boke down the back door and that set of the alarm that they thought they had disabled. They got nothing. So, the next day the dopey sheriff has a couple of it's guys there taking pictures and throwing that yellow tape all over and marking the ground with those little tents with the numbers on them, etc. So, Inspector Clueso or maybe it was Barney Fife, comes into the store to buy some Plaster of Paris to make some plaster casts of shoe prints, except Barney buys dry wall mud instead. Hey, I didn't attend Bob & Wally's Detective School, what would I know about crack crime scene work or that they can't read the label. So, they try to make casts, but the shit never hardens and three days later, the yellow tape is still up and the little tents are still marking marks in the mud and they go back to handing our speeding tickets on the highway and life goes on. Steven Wright said, Pizza gets to your house faster than the cops
either you're full of shit, or not very bright. i am NO friend to thieves, but boobytrapping your shop with grenades will land you a much longer sentence behind bars than a thief. i suppose it never occured to you what might happen if there's a fire and the fire dept responds? i can't wait to hear you claim you have your shop "safely" boobytrapped. with that said, if i catch any thief on my property, they are likely to end up with a few lumps of lead in em, if you are there, and thus your life in danger, the law will be on your side. it's the law here in colorado, they're pretty broad in their definition of "in danger"...cases have been tried where someone was shot through a front door, and someone who was shot after knocking and then turning and starting to walk away from someones door. in Cliffy's case, i'd show no mercy to the thieves, they could have burned down your whole damn shop! the irony is, of course THEN you would have gotten a real response from the police and insurance. of course i've used the "i won't press charges if i get my shit back" line too, it worked, the thieves got caught(by a friend), i got my shit back, they got their asses beat, AND turned in to the police, having to do time and pay restitution.
Story will get a lot better tomorrow, I am heading down to speak in person with officer dumbass and his supervisor. I am going to get this solved as they have all the evidence they need AND the guy's name who broke in. I will be heading to the news paper and TV stations right after if they blow me off.
Good luck. The dog idea sounds OK, but in many places these days, if someone breaks in, and your dog bites them, they sue you...and win. What a great country! You have the right idea with the cops. All public employees work for you the taxpaying citizen. If they don't do their jobs go over their heads. If the supervisors don't help go to the chief. If the chief don't help go to the commission, then the council, etc...the lazy cops are betting that you aren't pissed off enough to see it through. Keep after it, lazy public employees give all public employees a bad name.
I'll check the local Pawn shops in Fondy tomorrow were close enough that they might try to pawn the stuff "out of town"...I'll let you you know what I find....FUCK the police my house got broke into 3 years ago and they caught the punks that did it ! they all got a slap on the hand ... but when I go to recover my stuff they make me feel like a criminal .....trust me on this you wont know what they all took unless it's laying on the ground in front of you and the cop is asking you why you didn't list it on the police report.... fuck'n ass holes....oh man now i pissed again.
RAY---Don't get too excited--- the gernades are dummy's but you & I & now half the earth are the only ones that know that---SHHHHHHHHHH. The crack heads don't know and will not take the chance that I might be crazy enough to wire the whole 48 x 90 shop. Sorry if I freaked you out.It worked after I showed them to a couple of the neighborhood hoods---now I have spider webs across my door when I go to the shop and more important I have tools when I get there.Works for me!!!!
Big dogs are great for the yard trust me a got a pretty mean pit bull. But have you tried to get insurance with a dog in the yard they will tripple your rates just cuz you got a dog and a pit bull $$$$$$.But they dont help the shop much I got a helluva alarm now and some serious criminal cage type bars wich should keep about anybody out and a big dog in the back. Thought I got it all covered untill my neibors who own an import shop got a flaming gas can through the window nobody broke in and stole anything just burned the damn place up good. Yikes scarrrrry. Maybee they just did bad business which they did but now theyre closed GOOD I hated the import fags next door but nobody deserves that shit.
Bad thing about pit bulls is I've had 2 friends that had them for guard dogs around here---the damn thieves took the pit bulls and didn't steal anything else.
sorry about the theft. I had about $3500. worth of aluminum stolen from my garage. the only 2 people besides my self who know the aluminum was there was a friend, not no more and my brother, I can not prove it was my ex friend, but I know it was him. We grew up together I know him for over 40 years, he was out of work and I needed my house painted and when i had the garage open to show him where the paint was, he saw the aluminum and made a comment about " hay you can get a lot of money for this aluminum, it was not my aluminum it was my brothers. he started the job. and I tried to get a hold of him to finish no answer. I open the garage door and 1/2 the aluminum was gone I called my brother to see if he took it. could not get a hold of him. The next day I got a message from my ex friend saying he was there but had to leave to pick up his son from school. at that time my brother called and I asked him if he took the aluminum he said no, I then opened up the garage and all the aluminum was gone. I tried calling him and left a massage and he would not call me back. so I went over to his house and asked him about the aluminum and he gave me some bull~shit story. I have not talk to the asshole since. that was over a year ago what go around comes around, and he will get his someday and it will not be me that gets him I would rather see him in jail.
example #2343249 of that cops generally suck. Similar incompetance with my robbery story. But they literally will pull a U-turn an almost run peolple off the raod to get them for going 40 in a 30. I saw that twice last week - I couldn't believe it, friggin Mario Andretti goes in the grass on the other side of the street to get this guy on a 4 lane road!!
Yeah I had the same thing happen years ago: There was this *large* pothole on the right side of the road in a right-hand curve. Been there for years. My standard technique was to go to the left of it if there was no traffic; straddle it (with my right wheels running through a very rough area) if traffic was coming. One day I started to go left, & a string of traffic came around the curve, so I wipped it over to the right so as to not freak out the oncoming traffic (even though I had plenty of time & would not have been over the line). Well low & behold the third car in the traffic was a ROSWELL (Ga.) cop - He locks it down nearly sliding sideways & causing everyone behind him to lock it down & nearly hit him, whips it around (with all the traffic behind stopped) & comes after me. Well of course he was in front of me when he locked it down & I had had several experiences with the Roswell assholes before so I knew he was going to stop me, so I was waiting on him on the side of the road. First words out of his mouth "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"! The asshole took me to jail, & while I was there ILLEGALY searched my car RIPPING OUT THE HOOD PIN CABLES. When I got out of jail (paid a $17 bond) there was this little pipe that I had in the car sitting in front of me on the counter. After I paid my bond I picked up the pipe & walked out. ;-D Had to go to court & found guilty (of RECKLESS DRIVING!) even with pictures of the pothole & a full explanation of what happened, & had to forfeit my $17. Oh yeah the next week they fixed the pothole... ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Pardon my driving; I'm reloading.
My first experience getting shit stolen: I had a dunebuggy & a lot of other parts along with toolboxes in a personal storage building in Doraville Ga. in the mid '70s. (They allowed you to work on your cars there at the time.) Some of the parts were frontend sheetmetal for a Vega. I was introduced to someone interested in them (had wrecked his Vega) by the name of Hugh Snipes. Showed him the parts, but he didn't have any money so said he'd get back to me. A week later the Vega parts & my top box - WHICH HAD BELONGED TO MY DEAD FATHER ( & had a LOT of his old tools including some GOLD PLATED LINE WRECHES) - were stolen. No who do you suppose stole no parts except for Vega shit & my toolbox??? Think the cops even bothered to check out the lead? HELL FUCKIN' NO!!!! ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Headline: APATHY RUNS RAMPANT - Nobody cares.
Thanks, that means a lot to me. Stop by anytime your in Oshkosh for a cold one!! I did go down to the cop shop today, spoke with one of the higher ups who took it VERY seriously. She even wanted me to file a formal complaint, but I refused and said that the officer just needed a talking to. The officer who was smoking in his car is getting in trouble for that and also for blowing me off and telling me he would take care of it tomorrow... I also went next door to talk with the owner of the missing change machine. he accused me of being involved since it wound up at my place!?! He also told me the police had still not contacted him over the complaint that he had called in. But I did get a call from witness protection today, the detective is coming over this afternoon to start the investigation. Nice of them to do it after all my stuff is LONG gone.
The Jalopy Journal
