Thieves

I'm with you completely.

When my younger stepson was in high school my wife and I found out that he and his friends had been playing the exciting game of "mailbox bashing." That's the one where a bunch of teenagers pile into a car and charge through a neighborhood smashing people's mailboxes.

We grounded him, and a few days later, as luck would have it, another bunch of teenagers bashed our mailbox. So I made my stepson install the new one, while I stood by and watched. An afternoon of digging with a shovel, mixing and pouring concrete, sawing lumber, etc. cured him of mailbox bashing. At least I think so - though he later found plenty of other ways to drive my wife and me crazy.

I'll never understand why some people - especially young people - get turned on by making nuisances for people they don't even know.

Next Halloween put a few bricks in your mailbox.  

I knew a guy once who was subjected to a similar sport: garbage can tipping. On the evening when the neighborhood's garbage cans were put out by the curb for collection, a Ford Maverick full of teenagers would come thundering down the street. Every time it came to a garbage can, the passenger door would fly open, knocking the garbage can over and dumping the contents all over the street. This happened on the evenings before trash pickup day for several weeks.

Then one day my friend quietly filled his garbage can with concrete blocks, and sat down on his porch to watch. The Maverick came roaring down the street on schedule, leaving the usual trail of trash in its wake. Then the door flew open and hit my friend's garbage can. The door busted off its hinges, the driver lost control, and the car careened into a house across the street.

The cops accepted my friend's explanation that he'd just needed to get rid of a few concrete blocks, so he'd put them in the garbage can. The teenagers (or their parents) had to pay for all the damage - which was considerable.

These days, your friend would probably face a lawsuit.

Don't feel bad about your incident. My friend who I have known 30+years had his wife's jewelry stolen by his son's BEST friend! Both kids grew up together and were like brothers.

The police traced the stolen jewelry from the pawn shop to my buddy's wife who was unaware she had about $10K in jewelry missing from her hiding place. Since the kid (20 years old) roamed the house as a family member, he  took advantage and ripped them off. He also did it to several other friend's families.

Under the Florida Pawn Law, the victim has to reimburse the pawn shop to get the property back then try to collect from the thief.  In this case, the thief's father stepped up and bought back the jewelry and was returned to the owners. The case is pending in criminal court now.

i hear ya brother!  it's floping bullsnipe, but that's what terd-napkins like to do...

no need to be sorrry to rant 10-4!

CodyJ

So this evening was Halloween and I go buy 5 bags of candy for these kids that come around the neighborhood.  I'm glad to do it.  Its nice to see families walk around and have fun.  So why why does some fool have to ruin it by stealing things off my porch.  They stole a candle and the glass pumpkin holder I placed the candle in.  I mean what the hell!?!?!?   I give you FREE candy and some creep has to steal from me?  Its not like it was super valuable but still whats the point!?!?

So I dont know about you but this is about the biggest pet peeve I have.  I just cant stand thievery no matter what it is.  Why would you take what someone else worked for? Because you don't want to take the time or money to get the stuff yourself?  You think its funny?  Does it make you cool?  I also had my truck broken into and found it halfway down the driveway with the door open a year ago.  Thankfully the construction workers who showed up across the street scared the dudes off.  I owe them big!

Sorry to rant but this just pisses me off sometimes...  

I believe it's called "peer pressure". Seen it too many times. I'm just hoping that my grandkids don't succumb to it once they're old enough to experience it.

At a previous retail store I saw a mother walk in with her four younger children, all wearing backpacks. If you've ever worked in retail you know that more than likely that a backpack equals one thing. That lady walked right over to the t-shirt aisle with her kids. Everyone in the store was busy so we couldn't go over and visibly watch what happened. But when they walked out their backpacks were bulging and there were easily at least 20 tags stuffed under other t-shirts.

To me the saddest part of what happened was not that she stole, but is that no matter what any good role model in their lives are going to say, their mother used them to steal merchandise and they are going to think it's acceptable behavior.

At my current job, the few shoplifters we've actually been able to legally prosecute have been younger in age. But a vast majority of the people who steal merchandise (and if you've worked retail you know what I mean....though you may not be able to legally do anything, you KNOW who stole what) have been older, 30s-40s.

The bike thief who stole over 15 bicycles from my college campus a few years ago? He was in his 40s. The laptop thief? He was in his 30s.

Does this younger generation steal things and have a lack of respect? Absolutely, you know what else I've noticed as well though? So does the older generation. I've been disappointed numerous times by peers my age, and by no means is what I'm about to say a justification for those actions...but there are many in the older generations that have no respect for other people as well, and that, I truly do not understand.

Even we as modelers are not immune. I've been around online model sites since 1995-96. Once upon a time at another model site, a well known member used to have fellow model club members over to his house. One visitor to his house, who was a fellow club member, so not a total stranger, began stealing some of his more esoteric model items.

The thief was eventually found out, returned some of the items, and vanished from the modeling site. I'm not sure how it was discovered, but I think it was process of elimination and online sales of some unique items that tipped off the victim.

Another incident was a moderator of a site who would sell stuff to folks from the forums. Too many similar "lost in the mail" stories and some guys who were taken for hundreds of dollars. One overseas buyer lost around a grand. I didn't think much about it when asked for advice by a member. You know, give them the benefit of the doubt.

It was after a couple other private messages with the exact same worries that I put two and two together. I was like, "didn't you just contact me about him?" when I realized it was a different guy with the same problem. I contacted the site owner and he was booted. It was then that the flood gates opened and more people opened up about being taken by the same guy.

Bad thing was that he was the guy who directed free samples to volunteer reviewers.

One night, years ago, a gang of persons unknown drove down our street and slashed all 4 tires on every vehicle they could find parked on the street.  No reason, just " having fun," I guess.  Far as I know, they never caught the morons..

I did catch this thief in action the other night at work at the end of my shift... but there was no victim willing to press charges...

plasticjunkie

Don't feel bad about your incident. My friend who I have known 30+years had his wife's jewelry stolen by his son's BEST friend! Both kids grew up together and were like brothers.

The police traced the stolen jewelry from the pawn shop to my buddy's wife who was unaware she had about $10K in jewelry missing from her hiding place. Since the kid (20 years old) roamed the house as a family member, he  took advantage and ripped them off. He also did it to several other friend's families.

Under the Florida Pawn Law, the victim has to reimburse the pawn shop to get the property back then try to collect from the thief.  In this case, the thief's father stepped up and bought back the jewelry and was returned to the owners. The case is pending in criminal court now.

We have a program down here that we're implementing through our HOA (or at least trying to get the neighbors to embrace it) where you record your serial numbers and document your valuables, and then get show it to a police officer and you get a "Valuables Documented" sticker to put on the front of the house. If a theif steals your stuff and then tries to sell it at a pawn shop, they now know that your stuff is traceable and that they can be caught when the pawn shop owner checks the list of stolen goods against the lot of items. It's a good way to let criminals know that, at least for resale in a pawn shop, your stuff is "marked goods".

Alas, I feel for you fellas, I too have been robbed before. In the middle of this year, my family and I want away fro the weekend to go to a cousin's 21st birthday, we left for MELBOURNE on Friday, (my sister and I were the last ones to leave that Friday because we had to go to school) and I accidentally left the wheelie bins out the front of our house. Anyway, the weekend was fun then, that Sunday afternoon, we pulled into our driveway, and saw some trails of white paint on the road, then we saw some cardboard boxes on the road. Then, we pulled into our driveway, and saw that the garage door was open and my dad's prized Holden car was stolen! Upon entering our house, we saw that the thieves entered our house through my bedroom window, and stole both our TVs, laptops, our PlayStation, and (unbeknownst to us) the spare key to our other car. Anyway, they came back that night and stole my mothers car as well! They have all been arrested and both our cars returned to us, but it was just shocking.

After my mother's funeral several years ago, we had a small gathering at her house. Only family was invited. After everyone left, my son came to me and said that someone had stolen three dollars that he had put on the buffet. I had seen it there myself earlier in the evening. A family member who steals from the grandson of the person who had been buried earlier that day is just a piece of pond scum. Suffice it to say I don't bother with what's left of my family anymore. The good ones are all gone, the rest, who cares.

When I was in boot camp, there was a thief in the squad room.  He was finally caught in the act and one of our squad mates stuck a bayonet thru the thief's hand - nothing turned up missing after that.

Thats the way to take care of it!  

My friend Don was a tank Captain in the Guard and he built 1/35 tanks during down time. Someone started taking the finished ones and Don found them in a Private's locker.  The private got a few punches of justice after that.

Shoplifting In California will now be a misdemeanor as will a whole host of other crimes since prop 47 passed. Any thing that can be stolen will now be fair game as property crimes and any other "non-violent offense" will cease to have any actual consequences. Even stealing guns with values at less than 950 dollars will be a misdemeanor. Pray that where ever you live, this doesn't happen to you as they say it will be an example for other states to follow. The only people behind bars around here will be law abiding citizens. See more and more bars on windows and doors here all of the time. Starting to look into what it will cost to get mine.

Football practice in high school...yeah, way back. Someone was going around stealing money out of pockets, while we were out practicing. So, a good friend put razor blades on his pockets (carefully). The perp wasn't hard to catch. He was the guy sucking his fingers, trying in vain to stop the bleeding. Justice.