Last Saturday my wife and I are garage sale shoppin' and I drive buy an old house with boxes piled in the front yard. Sticking out of one of them is a two carb intake with carbs and cleaners. I stop the car and go look, it's an Offy ( Ford 6 I think) with two singles. This was not at a sale. The house was abandoned and I asked a couple kids riding thier bikes who the stuff belonged too. They pointed to the house next door. No one home. Dammit! Left a note. No call. Went back next day, Guy says it's not his stuff and people have been carrying stuff off all week. Of course the intake was gone. I got to thinking about this after reading the OKC Thievery post. Just for a second I thought, hell I should have just taken it. But then I would have been looking over my shoulder for a long time. I hate thieves. When you break it down, all crime just about revolves around taking something that doesn't belong to you. Even murder is taking a life that's not yours. Not sure why I needed to tell this but my integrity is still intact and I don't even own a Ford 6.
that's a shame...whoever took the intake probably doesn't even know what a car is and trashed it....you did the right thing though
George, I like you more already and I don't even know you My shop was burglarized and most of mine and my employees tools taken--no help from the police. My 65 Skylark conv had the wheels and tires yanked while it was sitting on my car trailer. No help from the police. My car trailer was stolen from in front of my shop. Two tongue locks and an electric jack--it just vanished. No help from the police. The picture window in my motor home disappeared(I didn't bother calling the police) My bicycles were taken from my front yard. You get the picture---I HATE a fuckin THIEF I too have been in similar situations, and I AIN'T an angel, but I just can't take somethin if it don't belong to me. It's just not RIGHT.
You're a better man for leaving the intake.I hate a thief worse than just about anything.Over the years,they've cost me a 52 chevy pickup,a car break-in that cost me all my tools when I was in school,and a helluva lot of shoplifted stuff from my business.I've passed up some great deals on stolen stuff,too.I figure that if I buy something I know is hot,then I have no excuse for bitching when my shit is stolen.I'm pretty damn particular about who can come into my garage,too.Got some big locks on my shit,too
My guess is some guy's gonna be pissed when he gets back from wherever and finds his wife split and left his stuff out in the yard.
There are some GOOD folks left in this world.... A retired 65 year old friend of mine went to Charlotte AutoFair ( on one of my spots ) and sold some old parts and pieces. Saturday night he went into a cafe to eat. He was there about 10 minutes and a sailor walked him to him and asked him if he was Ronald Miller......and he said yes....the guy handed him his wallet with ALL the cash still in it. The wallet had sliped out of Ronnie's pants while driving his van, fell on the pavement and he had not yet missed it....... This guy is on Social Security so you know he was happy to get his money returned...... well over $500
Some NHRA, IHRA, Busch, and Cup shops don't have signs on them. Neither does mine. In fact, the windows are covered up. This way, we don't have to put up with people coming in and looking around for things to steal later on. Whenever I see someone near my shop who looks like they have no good reason to be there, I carry a weapon and surprise them, and we have a talk after I take their picture. Here's one of them: Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
It might of been the find of the year, but you have gained "Good Karma" that will last alot longer than the pain of missing out on the Offy stuff. Your a dynamite guy, G.V. Joel
About 6 yrs ago, while my wife & I were building our house, some scumbag ripped us off for about $8000 worth of tools and materials. We had worked hard, did without, saved every penny possible to start the house. Really set us back. I now keep everything locked up, a gun by every door and a portable spotlight in the bedroom. We live in the country. So far all I have killed is a few smelly skunks but every noise I hear at night gets investigated. Theives and liars are the lowest form of life.
At first read, George, I agreed with most of the posts here. Then I read again, and came to the conclusion the stuff was placed in the yard bacause it was not considered valuable enough to keep. In our neighborhood, if any of us want to get rid of something, he or she places it at the curb. You would be surprised at the number of folks who just cruise around looking for any thing. In college, dorms are furnished in this manner. I think you should have taken the manifold. It is lost now, and you would have scored untold points with a HAMBer someday. Just another view of the story. Jim Jim
[ QUOTE ] ...In our neighborhood, if any of us want to get rid of something, he or she places it at the curb.... [/ QUOTE ] Here too, but there's usually a "FREE, pease take it" sign on it, and it's AT the CURB or in the alley next to the trash cans, not back in the middle of the yard where youactually have to trespass to get to it.. I think leaving it is/was the best policy. Good Karma on you.
[ QUOTE ] George, I like you more already and I don't even know you I agree you did the right thing man...
In NYC and Brooklyn, folks stack all their trash and unwanted junk on the curb for removal Monday morning. obviously there's lots of obtanium on the ground, free for the taking. still, it feels kind of funny to run off with stuff. on the other hand, my old girlfriend bought a couple of lots here in Marathon, and on one of them was a '46 Ford 2-door sedan, obtained by a local nogoodnik for peanuts who later abandoned it. the bad guy in question is a lousy, larcenous punk who ripped off his friends and split town, leaving the Ford. I made inquiries, found it unlikely the bad guy would return. now, I suppose I could have left it alone to be further chewed up by time, the elements and vandals, but I grabbed it and secreted it across town. no guilt here, yet I fully subscribe to the death-to-thieves mindset. tools, cameras, money, you name it, I've lost it. karma comes back, though- I found a wallet containing $200 and sent it to the rightful owner and some years afterward dropped my checkbook in a supermarket parking lot and it was found by a customer and returned. I guess the point is sometimes stuff is abandoned and unwanted and likely to be scooped into a dumpster, and that possibility sucks compared to making use of the unwanted thing before it gets tossed into oblivion. murky...
GV I've past up a lot of bargains and better over the years for just the same reason. It always comes back around, hardly no one ever cheats me or even trys and I never feel guilty about the little that I have. Its just a shot in the arm to hear of someone not workin' a hustle once in awhile, instead of always hearing about someone being ripped. Someone once said you don't have to stand tall in this world but ya gotta stand. Keep standin' bro.
I figure if it's sitting at the curb next to the garbage cans on trash day or if it has a Free sign on it, it's fair game. Otherwise, leave it where it lays. A few years ago my brother was cleaning out and re-stacking the stuff in his garage. He put some boxes of parts right outside the garage door in the driveway. We went out to the back yard to bring a hood around and some guy was loading the boxes in his van! Guy says, Oops, sorry, thought you were throwing this stuff out. Needless to say, he put the stuff back. As we were re-aranging stuff we constantly had to keep stopping to tell people it wasn't a garage sale. Every time you turn around there's another guy with some of your shit in his hand saying "how much for this"? You did right, you know it, and we know it.
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