I would have driven by and called the police from my cell phone when I was out of sight (but still close enough to watch). Charlie Stephens
Even moving to the country doesn't help, my father-in-law went to town a couple of weeks back and came home to missing locks on the gates and two utility trailers gone. He is in the country on 13 acres and the trailers were hidden behind his dump truck. He was only gone about 1.5 hours. Whoever got the trailers had to be watching them for sometime and knew that he would be going to town for his weeky chore run. The police department took his statement over the phone and never even came out to the house to look. We are installing video recording capability this week and will be monitoring it closely. I have a '39 Mercury parked 10 feet from where the trailers used to sit.
I know Charlie but things happen so fast you dont think about it till later. I was so juiced up and shocked to see someone scampering around my house that all I could think about was intimidating this person enough to just get him to leave and not come back. You always read about crap happening to other people (like past HAMB stories) but you never really expect it to happen to you. I hope my story is a pretty good lesson for other people to be prepared as this crap is happening everywhere!
x2! Life Member of the NRA. Funny how fast a sidearm will make tweakers/thieves/scumbags piss their pants.
Wow -that sucks and sorry to hear about it. You know someone around their knew about the trailers and your father-in-law's schedule. That one does not sound random to me. I think I would be driving around looking for signs of these trailers and heaven help who you guys find! I am in the same boat as I work way in the back in my garage and if someone wanted to break in the house or come up the driveway I would probably never see or hear them. I am seriously looking at putting up a camera or two and hopefully putting a monitor in my garage so I can see and record who comes up to the house. Cant be any more expensive then a good security system and I wont have to pay monthly fees. I am also thinking of getting another dog as well as going to my dad's house and bringing back a couple of the guns that I have stored over there.
The system we ordered has 8 cameras that can be on all the time or motion activated and stores data on a DVR. It cost less that $500. We suspect it was the druggie neighbors who just happened to install a new gate at their drive entrance and started locking it the day the trailers disappeared.
Around here they are breaking in and stealing copper pipes and electrical wire. It seems to be on the news just about every night. And catalytic converters seem to vanish a lot too. I know of a guy who does pick up scrap. And he isn't sticky fingered. But for every one that is good, who knows how many are bad?
I also recommend the video cameras with DVR recording. We have them and it helped me prevent my wife from calling the cops. My wife came home one day and was livid that someone had stolen her decorative holiday flag from our front yard. I told her that it just doesn't make any sense that someone would steal a flag that I was embarrased to put up in the first place. So I went to the video and it turns out that around noon that day it got real windy and over a 30 minute period the flag slowly worked itself loose and blew away.
My neighbor came in one day to a car in their driveway and as soon as she got out of her car another woman came rushing up asking questions like happened to the OP. Turns out she was working her away from the downstairs back door ... and it worked because she went to the upstairs door after the strange woman left. Then all at once a guy came running out of the basement and took off down the street jumping into the car which they'd just moved around the corner. If the homeowner hadn't come in when she did I guess they would've cleaned her out. As it was the cops caught them with a bundle of $2 bills and some jewelry. The great part was the homeowner taking out after them in her car ... she tracked them all over the place while reporting location to the PD via cell phone.
Guys -would you happen to have any links or maybe send me a PM on the camera systems. I think that is the way I would like to go. I would really appreciate it-thanks.
That neighbor lady is incredible! It's nice to hear of one for the good guys. I too thought it was strange that this guy had nothing in his' truck but he is scrapping. That's why I think he was either trying to get in my house or casing it to see if any neighbors would react, etc.
One thing that helps is use a regular guy for scrap. I've used the same for years and he's a top fella, especially when you get to know him. He actually brings me scrap to view before he weighs it in and got many a nice treasure of him in the past. Not the sort of guy you'd mess with, he's a monster both in name and stature and well known by all the scrappers. Think shaved mountain gorilla, covered in tats, put in overalls and in a bad mood. Seen him pick up a longblock the other day that took 2 of us to lift, to him it was like a tin can and just threw it in his truck!!! Scary but there's a bloody good reason he's called Monster!!!! So the others know not to bug me for stuff as i tell them, "Monster gets my scrap" they know its his and soon bugger off. Do that enough and they won't even think asking or getting near your driveway any day soon. If he catches folk ripping him off on his patch he deals with them and i heard a few stories off him and it didn't sound too good. It kind of looks after itself this way and i'm helping out a licensed guy to make an honest living and pay taxes. Most aren't licensed, aren't a business and are on state benefits. You just need a Monster!
http://www.costco.com/Common/Search...e=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US Also if you have a home alarm you can add an auto dialer function. It will call your cell phone (actually upto 4-6 phone numbers) and play a recorded message if your house alarm goes off. This is a one time expense and you do not have to pay a monthly monitoring service.
These are similar to the ones offered by Sams Clubs in price and brand. My neighbor is self employed and works from his home so he is a big part of my security. You have to drive past his house (and pistol) to get to mine. I let him come up and hang out in the shop and help him out on his cars from time to time. A good neighbor is much better than a security alarm that the police take an hour to check out.
Yep, big dogs help but concealed carry permits do a better job especially when your shirt is hiked up and hanging behind the butt of a Glock 9 MM. In Kentucky we have the "Castle Law" which gives you the right to protect yourself if you feel threatened. It's for anti car jacking as well.
Once these guys "go to prison". (most have) there is nothing the "average person can do" to intimidate them.. that is, unless you beat them to the ground and jerk their pants down and ....... THEM RAW.. Most these morons are on Meth real heavy, shooting poison into their veins. Life is cheap.. yours or theirs. The local thief, I told him I'd break his legs and hips up real bad and he could not get around so well.. something that means something to him.. It's hard to get over there to get your BUMP when you have to be rolled by hand in a wheelchair. .
I had almost the same thing happen to me. My driveway is 1/8 mile long,and I found two jokers in a truck in front of my house one day. As I was coming up the driveway,they tried to drive around me in the grass,so I was already pissed. I blocked them with my van and got out,and they gave me some BS about selling gravel. I pulled out my phone and took a picture of the driver and a picture of his license plate, making sure he got a good look at my .38 when I lifted my shirt. They haven't been around here since that day.Always made me wonder.
thanks for the link -i will definitely check it out. I do have good neighbors but they are both in their 80's and go to bed around 7 PM I am the guy that tries to keep an eye out for them. It's been working good so far but I think I am going to add the camera system just in case.
I actually have a big ol' German Shorthaired Pointer/Lab mix that is around 90 lbs pounds. He was in the house and I am sure waiting for the guy to try and come in. Would have been a nice surprise for him. I am actually thinking about going out and getting another dog, a camera system and possibly being armed so I should be allright. If that's not enough I am going to have to move out in the country then!
Nice move-that's how you handle things nice and cool like Wish I had done it like that but I guess the adrenaline took over as thoughts of other peoples houses getting robbed at 3 PM in the afternoon in my neighborhood and how suspicious he was just made me want to get him away from my house as quickly as i could.
Remember, he doesn't know that you didn't get his plate number and that you haven't turned it in to the police. One thing I learned from experience is to jot down plate numbers. When I'm selling something and people I don't know come to my place to look , I always make a point of writing down plate numbers.....even to the point of doing it in such a way that they know exactly what I'm doing.
Worked in a Tireshop a long time ago. And we also sold bateries the old bateries we put behind the shop. At that time you didnt get much for the batteries . One day a car with a trailer pulled in behind the shop but nody came in. After a while i go and take a look through the back window And there was this fat ugly white trash woman from a wellknown family of scumbags. She had stolen all the batteries .And the stupid slut had loaded the all in the rear of the trailer She had tried to back out but the ground was covered with ice and she had jackknifed the car and trailer and was stuck against the wall and some big tractor tires And gues what !!!the stupid bitch came in and asked us to help her!!!!!!!!!!!
just a barking or growling dog has kept me from getting ripped off.short story ,i had my junkyard deliver a motor,told him to put it near the garage door as my driveway was dirt.forgot i always leave the gar door ajar a little for ventalation plus the dog can peek out and keep an eye out front.the motor was out by the road when i got home.he wasnt happy.one thing certain about theives,when one fades away theres always another to follow .
And dont forget about tow truck drivers they steal alot of stuff too pretending to look for a address.
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