Hot Rods Thieves

I'm still pissed about my '55 Chev gasser being stolen in 1971! And never recovered! With all my Snap-On tools, and tool box in the trunk!

 

The scrap yard i deal with seems like they try to keep it on the up and up. People will scrap anything tho. Ive seen a turbo off of a 7.3 that wasnt even dirty sitting next to the office door. Looked like it came outa the box. I asked about it. They said you'd be surprised what people throw away.

 

That's a pretty good example of how regulations should work, you know, for the benefit of everyone decent and peaceable and further it hurts of no one (except petty thieves). As opposed to the stupid shit.

 

Thieves not only take the things you work hard for but they also take something else from you. Your piece of mind.

 

I worked at a junk yard for years, the one I deal with now is the same way. They try to do the right thing but the bad guys devise new ways to cheat the system. We had to keep the good stuff behind. We’d call the cops to check it all out once in a while. If anything fit anykind of description we gave it to them. I think the should handle thieves like they do in the Mid-East. You steal you loose a hand.

 

To the O.P. get the name of the detective that is assigned to your case and stay in touch with him. With $30,000 worth of goods stolen this isn't nickel and dime. See if they will go to the yard and pull the video and look at their records for the day. While the yard may refuse you access the police will be able to get that info through legal means. There's a decent chance the scumbags may be frequent flyers that they may be familiar with. Good luck with everything. Can't imagine what you're dealing with.

 

Before I moved to Pennsylvania, I scrapped stuff at 3 different scrap yards. They were on the up and up. You presented your drivers liscence before the transaction, and they kept a record of the transaction. It didn't help me when some dirt bag came down my145 foot long driveway, into my yard and stole my 1932, and 1934 radiators, the police weren't much interested in checking with the scrap yards, so I did it myself. No luck, as there were about 10 scrap yards in a half hour drive.

 

Salvage yards could care less. About 10-12 years ago I spotted a semi trailer loaded with cars pulling into one of our local salvage yards, on the top was a barn fresh decent 34' Ford sedan! I offered the guy in the office $6000 cash! He wouldn't budge! Said it was against company regulations and such! Stupid, could have made more off what I offered him, I even tried to do an under the table deal, he wouldn't hear of it!

 

Cameras, cameras, camera’s. Cheap these days. Also motion detectors with light and sirens, cheap. I know this is too late for the OP, but the motion operated devices will deter thieves and the cameras will show who attempted to steal. Also keep your place dark at night! Lights give thieves the light to do their work! Thieves hate darkness as the have to have a flashlight to see and it stands out real good at night and makes a wonderful target. Also as we age shot guns work great for old eyes.






Bones

 

I was at the local U-Pick-It, or Booger as I call it, yesterday. There was a 2005 Ford F-150 in the Ford row, looked like it could have driven into the yard. This truck had a perfect interior, not a single dent, and the engine and tranny must have been good cuz some yahoo used a sawzall to cut the core support and front sheet metal out of the way since all the bolts were to bothersome to remove. This is in Arizona, we don’t have rust, the yard here just doesn’t care what these hacks do to the stuff. It’s all going to get shredded in less than a month. It kills me when I see a transmission pulled out of what was a driving car before it got to the yard sitting upside down without its pan because some “tech” needed a shift solenoid! A $1000 tranny reduced to $160.00 a ton by a moron! And it is a societal problem, “WE” caused this, we all are guilty in some way, some more than others. So sad….
End of rant, please delete if needed.

 

Yeah, bones, I have heard that shotguns are good for the eyes, I also heard they can make you laugh.
I keep my yard dark, motion lights around the shop, good for seeing a bear at night as well.

 

Yes on the cameras and ditch the damn lights. People think the lights keep thieves away but it just helps them and bye bye parts and tools

 

Up here you can’t buy a complete car from the auto wreckers .

but there are a couple scrap yards ( or metal recyclers )that seem to get older junk cars in frequently.

they will put them up for sale in there front yard for a short time before shredding them.

they had a 68 Lincoln years ago when I had my 69, I asked about buying it, all the tags are removed and they cut the door hinges off.

the tags and ownership get destroyed, and they have to make the car “ irreparable “ so cutting the hinges off the car becomes a costly repair and makes the car essentially parts.

I passed on buying the car but did snag some trim and interior bits for 50 bucks or something stupid.

 

Guys often state what they would like to do to thieves, or see done.
Well I would like to share an account of a couple of thieves getting
there just deserves. In the late sixties a fellow from our area had a nice set of wheels stolen from the front of his then new Nova. 1969 if I recall accurately.
Now let me tell you a bit about my friend Leon to put things in a perspective that can be properly appreciated. Leon was and is a large lad. one of those fellows that just has natural bulk. Not fat or especially muscular in appearance. Just wide and thick. Also ungodly strong as well. Leon is a very quiet and unassuming fellow. All business in even as a kid.
He builds outstanding hotrods and racecars. To give an example, one time in high school a couple of "tough guy" bullies were giving Leon grief on
the outdoor rec area. He told them to stop because they were pissing him off. When they persisted he grabbed one and rammed his head into the brick wall of the gym a few times rendering him unconscious. Then he shoved the other fellow against a tree and literally crushed his body between himself and the tree until several fellows pulled him away. Result, two hospital bound tough guys. So one evening we were entering the local
pool hall to shoot a few games and Leon spotted his recently stolen wheels
and tires on a car parked at the place. He went inside and barrowed a flash
light from the proprietor to examine the wheels closer. He then showed me
his identifying mark he had discreetly placed on the wheels when he installed them on his Nova. I asked him what his intentions were now.
"He said I am getting my wheels back" and walked inside the poolhall. I
figured he would call the police. Not so, Leon asked the bartender who
owns the red Chevy out side rather loudly. A fellow who was there with a buddy responded with a who wants to know reply. Leon said," you have my
wheels on your car and I want them back." Now Leon and myself were often
thought to be brothers because we were similar in stature and both had
blond hair... at the time. I was thinking here we go. The bartender said take
it outside guys. As soon as we walked out the door Leon told them to start removing the wheels and he would let it go at that. Of course thing went straight to hell from there. A soon as the fellows balked Leon went to work on both of them. After they received a thorough drubbing from big Lee
he made them remove the wheels from their vehicle while hovering over them threateningly. About then the cops arrived and checked the whole situation out. The cops examined the wheels and verified to their satisfaction what took place they asked Leon did he want them arrested?
Being the laid back kind of fellow he was said he was satisfied getting his
wheels back. The two thieves were rather knuckled up. The cops
gave them assurances of what would happen if they had to deal with
them again. The thieves walked away because they now had no wheels on
their ride. That was New Orleans in the sixties, things are different now.

 

I have a rather rambunctious dog named Hank. He's very protective of his ppl and their property. And fast as greased lightening...add to that alarm system I have in Hank, my collection of 'forestry tools'. I'd feel bad for anyone caught in my garage/house looking to steal anything.
Good luck on getting any of your stuff back. 30k is a lot.

 

Sorry for the OPs loss of property, that truly sucks. Advice I’ll offer is don’t procrastinate on a security system thinking it was a “one time deal”. I’m going through this right now (but vandalism) on our road. About 2 months ago sometime late on a Saturday night/early Sunday morning 3 or 4 cars (my kids included) all got the back window smashed out with a piece of concrete cinder block.
Figuring it was just a random act of stupidity by some younger kids being assholes I pretty much put it out of my mind.

Well, last week, same thing.
So the past few days I’ve been looking at reviews, etc on outdoor security cameras, the information is kinda overwhelming for those that don’t have experience in the field, but ask questions on different sites and I’m about to make a decision tonight to spend some $$ and make a plan to set things up.
Had I done this a few weeks ago I’d probably already know who did this.

 

Sorry to hear about your loss, I am sure a lot of what you have lost you have had for years and basically become part of you and sure some have sentimental value to you. With a bit of luck the ARESOLES will get caught but sadly you will be lucky to get back much of what you have lost. Just a word of caution if you were insured and get paid out. A company I worked for had the workshop was brokrn into and all the guys tools were stolen. The company replace the lot and two weeks later the same thing happened as the thieves guessed that the tools would be replaced. I was lucky as I was mobile and my tools werer in my wagon at home.

 

^^^^ Yep, just what I was getting at.

 

I always wanted to catch a thief, thinking that the world would be better if I could eliminate at least one and that our rural area would be a tiny bit safer plus thieves being on notice that we rural guys watch each other's backs and are not restrained by legalities. Two years ago, a guy pulled in my driveway with his car filled with Model A headlights, hoods, etc.---stuff that would be easy to steal and some chrome garnish moldings from a '40 Ford coupe. That he would know where I live, who I was and that what I have and do was extremely alarming. He was pretty sure what the A stuff was, but not sure what the '40 stuff was. There was a story about his deceased uncle, etc. The guy's candor and sincerety was down-home convincing. So I engaged in easy, comforting conversation with him to keep him here and encouraged him to tell me more. My friend, Eric, was here and looked at the stuff, then pulled me aside and said that it all belonged to our mutual friend Ralph. Eric could hardly contain his rage. So I bought the A parts at a bargain price and told the guy I may have a buyer for the garnish moldings if he would give me his name and phone number. He did. Meantime, Eric called Ralph and the sherriff with the info, car description and license #. Eric was right and Ralph positively identified his parts, even telling me over the phone where certain damage was to the hoods and how and where the headlight wiring was butchered by the thieves (instead of just un-plugging them). So it felt so good to get Ralph's parts back for him, he's a good guy. We never got the '40 parts back and the sheriff, of course, wasn't allowed to tell me what happened to the thieves.
Interestingly, about ten years ago, I asked a local sheriff what might happen to a thief if I caught him before the law got here, and to put it mildly, he told me that some unfortunate and unexplainable things happen to thieves before the law can get there and it's none of his concern! I love rural Missouri.

 

I should have said that including rural Missouri, I also love law enforcement., justice, liberty and America.

 

My son talked me into installing cameras around my house after some fools went down my quiet street one night and went through every open car. Even though these lo lifes only got a handful of change from my truck, I still felt violated enough to get a good camera system with night vision up to sixty feet and it wasn't that bad price wise. Like my grandfather used to say the thing that costs the most in life is regret.

 

A buddy of mine and I like setting thieves up and booby trapping them. I can't mention the good ones publicly.

One of the recent ones that's tame enough to mention is this one: My buddy was having his flags ripped down every week (Some people can't stand free speech). I grew some ghost peppers that were so hot that if you got any on your hands they'd burn for days.

We soaked that flag in a concentrated concoction I made that would stick. It was the last flag stolen.

 

I leave half a bottle of Jack with secret flavours among the best bits .

 

Saw a lot of creative thievery when I was stationed at Clark AB, PI years ago. I had a beater OT 1969 LeMans that had no door locks (they got punched out before I ever owned it), used to leave it parked near one of the gates and walk home form there because the off base roads were so bad. Started finding things moved around in the car (seats, visor down, ect). Long story short, I fixed that problem by placing rat traps on/under the seats, in the glovebox and console, and I NEVER had a problem again!

 

I put up cameras that were quite obvious (not intentionally obvious, the cameras in the kit I bought ended up being quite large. I live in a subdivision). I then noticed a kid in the area (didn't recognize him) taking a VERY obvious interest in my house. I may be wrong but I attributed this apparent new interest to this kid thinking my house holds something super valuable otherwise why would I bother installing such an elaborate camera system. Nothing ended up happening (I was not broken into) and I haven't seen the kid in a couple of years. That being said, my next install will be way less obvious from the street.

Recently a building at a drive-in movie theater in my area was broken into and the thieves/vandals damaged the cameras and possibly the system itself. Interestingly, these cameras recorded to the 'cloud' so any footage taken before the cameras were destroyed was saved off site so even if the dvr and camera system is stolen/removed entirely, the footage is still retrievable by the owner. THIS is huge and definitely worth looking into.

One other thing to think about ... if your cameras catch something going on in the neighborhood (a break and enter but not to your property) and you dutifully hand over the footage to the police and the police show an interest in said person (who ends up being a father who lives the next street over) yet the police aren't able to convict or they are able to convict but the penalty is an absolute joke (thank you Canadian justice system) ... you should be prepared for an increase in attention from the sack of shit who lives the next street over as he now most likely knows who supplied the video footage. Do NOT ask me how I know From here on out, my video footage is to protect MY property and mine alone ... unfortunately that was learned the hard way and it unfortunately also makes things easier for the human garbage out there as they needn't worry about me going to the police with any more footage. I have now become a focus of the piece of shit to the point that even his wife is taking pictures of my house and camera system. I don't believe I have seen the end of this story yet. What can the cops do? Not a thing

 

You have to be careful these days. The thieves have a strong union. I have read of cases where the property owner laid some "creative" booby traps that injured the poor thief and he sued and won. Part of the rational was that the booby trap could have injured some innocent person.

 

A real damn shame. Hope your house insurance kicks in something. Was at local scrap dealer a few days back, and had to show drivers licence even though I just had 4 brake rotors. Been thinking of installing cameras at my house, now I wil.

 

I brought a car in to scrap a few years back, they wanted to see my license, to see if it matched the car title. But this yard also had an express window, for bums that showed up with anything they could fit into a shopping cart. No ID was checked.

I know one guy (ex hubby of a coworker) who was taking metals off his loading dock and scrapping them, he brought them down with the tags and certs attached to them. He and the yard owner both got 18 months in the cooler.

 

I own a seamless aluminum gutter company. I take in a lot of scrap, they need my tag #, drivers licence, and they take a picture of me. And will only pay me with a check. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Meanwhile the crooks walk in with five dollars worth of stolen copper pipe. No questions asked and get paid with cash. The people that own the scrap yards are bigger crooks than the common thief.