# Thieves



## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

I just had a solar fence charger stolen between yesterday morning and this morning at the farm I have leased; no one lives there. I sure hope they got one hell of a shock out of it. I think I should go check the local pawn shops, I just wish I had the serial number. I never even thought that anyone would steal something like that.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Not trying to "one up" you, but scrappers got one of my a/c units behind a store building I own. Took the thing apart for the compressor and the coil. Gonna cost $3000-4000 to replace it and they may have got $30 at the scrap metal yard. GA passed a law a couple of years ago that requires someone to have a HVAC license in order to sell those items at the scrap metal yard, positive ID and they take your photo. But, as with all things like that, there are ways around it.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

RockmartGA said:


> Not trying to "one up" you, but scrappers got one of my a/c units behind a store building I own. Took the thing apart for the compressor and the coil. Gonna cost $3000-4000 to replace it and they may have got $30 at the scrap metal yard. GA passed a law a couple of years ago that requires someone to have a HVAC license in order to sell those items at the scrap metal yard, positive ID and they take your photo. But, as with all things like that, there are ways around it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wow.

Years ago when I was building houses in Colorado I had a insurance agent tell me that someone stole a bunch of windows that had been installed into a new home over night. Some people are real brazen.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

I know how it feels to have thieves visit. Lately I had a 12 volt fuel pump with gallon meter taken from my portable trailer mounted fuel tank,150# rear tractor weight that was on a wooden pallet & a cattle water trough float.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I wonder if someone really needed the charger of if they stole it to pawn? Not just everyone knows what a charger is. I hate to think it was a fellow farmer but times are changing.

I have a friend who had his pasture gates stolen. He chained the hinge end to the post. It happened again so now he just has old junky gates made from old corral panels.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

Now I have the neighbor to the west of me stealing water; had to have the ditch rider lock the headgates. He would open his headgate and then I would not get any water. My suspicion is that it could be the neighbor to the west that took my charger, but I can't prove it. He is the only one that would have any need to come on to the property because his water has to come through me.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Have a neighbor steals a few ft of ground planting over the line.When I've planted first he planted over the top of mine and ran the sprayer to what he planted and killed my corn.

The step sons are there now actually doing work on that property and have the eq there with RTK to set posts on property line.There is only 1 post now on end of field the others were fiberglass rods with flags and they are long gone.

The neighbor rents it from stepsons uncle.He is paying a stupid high rent or I'd be farming it.Or just making him pay more rent yet.


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

You need a few signs --- "This property protected by Smith & Wesson"

Just saying!


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

CowboyRam said:


> I just had a solar fence charger stolen between yesterday morning and this morning at the farm I have leased; no one lives there. I sure hope they got one hell of a shock out of it. I think I should go check the local pawn shops, I just wish I had the serial number. I never even thought that anyone would steal something like that.


You can set up your face book market place it will alert you when a fence charger comes up for sale


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Where'd I hear in some parts of the country that theft under $500 isnt even prosecuted as a crime anymore?

Last time I had stuff stolen, the cops thought it was a big pain in the ass to file a report. One spilled fingerprint powder all over my floor and the other basically said "there's no way we will ever catch them".


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

Well - when the cops won't do their jobs it's up to us, the citizens, to take justice into our own hands. I bet that'll raise a few eyebrows with the lazy cops that are out there.

A little vigilante justice goes a long ways as a deterrent to future illegal activities.

I bet somebody running for sheriff in that town would get pretty far on just running on bringing thieves to justice.

Did they actually lift any strange fingerprints?


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Nope
They're useless mouth breathers in a pretty blue uniform God forbid she ever had to use a weapon.....
Now if you took matters into your own hands you'd be arrested. One thing I learned about some cops around here, they become very angry when you do THEIR job. It injures their ego.


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

A lot of cops are a strange breed. Fragile egos, inflated egos, Napoleon syndrome, inflated heads, etc.

Maybe the only thing to do is the threee Ss - shoot, shovel, shut up.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Here's my gripe with police departments. I say police departments because I think most police officers want to do the right thing, but are hamstrung by policians and police bureaucrats.

Police officer catches someone with a load of stolen goods. Takes two or more officers to file the reports, bring the thief downtown for booking, catalog all the stuff, try to research the stolen goods to see if any are on a stolen items list, etc, etc, etc. The city/county has to pay for jail cells to keep the thief, pay the police officer(s) to show up in court to testify, and if the guy gets sentenced to county jail, one more mouth for them to feed. Costs the government money.

On the other hand, that police officer can be out on the side of the road writing tickets for you and I when we roll through a stop sign at 3mph. Write about 10 tickets per shift and that's about $1000 - $2000 in the bank. A lot of counties get a percentage of those citations.

Where do you think the politicians and bureaucrats want their police officers? Yep, on the side of the road writing tickets. A police officer who tries to do the right thing by patrolling neighborhoods trying to catch bad guys gets in hot water with the chain of command when he doesn't make his ticket quota - and you better believe there is a quota.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

Years ago dad had a car stolen right out of his garage, they guy wrecked it, someone stopped to help him and he stole that guys truck. The Colorado State Patrol had a pretty good idea who it was, there was blood all over the interior of the car and they said he had to steal three cars before they could go pick him up.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

I reckon there's probably as many different types of experiences with cops as there are with equipment dealers. Dealers that have/had people as knowledgeable as Mike10 and TxJim make people appreciate dealerships; dealers such as the one that I read about on here where the customer had to take the guy to his own lot to show him a specific model DOES exist... prolly not so much.

Some cops (especially the young ones) are proactive with writing tickets because they want to do SOMETHING and that's all they really know so far. the deputy I know just had to turn in his ticket book for a new one (they change something every couple of years and print new ticket books);anyway, his only had 5-10 tickets written from it and it was the same one issued a couple of years prior. On the other hand, he just completed an investigation involving multiple sexual assault victims who were between 5-12 yoa spanning 40+ years. That deputy is a "road deputy" and still handles calls for service (dog in a tree, cat bit the mailman, domestics, burglaries, etc...) while doing the investigations that come in on his shift. He don't write 5 tickets a year and isn't expected to; none of the deputies are expected to write tickets as long as they ain't sitting on their duffs.

Good cops can have a bad day or can be preoccupied with something worse happening elsewhere (he says it is always best to try to remember that, when someone calls the law, it IS the worst thing to THEM that day and is NOT small to them.) But, on the other hand, such as there are bad equip dealers that shouldn't be dealers, there are also bad cops that shouldn't be cops.

Rockmart, I chuckled about the "quota" thing. Reminded me of the cop that said "we *used* to have a quota; *now *they let us write all the tickets we want". I have heard tell of "quotas", and the denial of such... hwy patrol claims there is not a quota, but there IS an expected activity level...ta-may-to/to-mah-to.

I just looked, and in my county, it appears there have been 469 traffic tickets and 81 felonies filed thus far in 2019. That's a ratio of 5.8 tickets per felony arrest (not taking into consideration that the felonies such as the sex assault can have multiple counts within the same felonycharge or taking into account misdemeanor arrests [domestics, thefts <$500, etc etc...]).

Some places are lucky to have a good dealer locally and some are lucky to have good cops that care about the people that they live with. In my county, I would dang sure rather get stopped speeding with a beer between my legs than to take my chances figuring a cop will not worry about me swiping my neighbor's goodies.

Mark

Wish everyone was blessed with a good equip dealer, a good hydraulic shop, a good machine shop, and good cops that understand their hurry while trying to get to one before they close. The REAL good ones may even give a "police escort" to the parts counter


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

There are some damn good cops out there.

I got pulled over by MVCE STATE cop last fall. I was overloaded beyond my registration and I knew it. I had 1 of 8 trailer tires underinflated and it made my otherwise fine looking rig look bad. He pulled me over and after he cleared my paperwork, he told me the reason he pulled me over was one of my tires looked overloaded/underinflated. He told me he grew up the son of a farmer and that hay loads are unpredictable. He told me to have a nice day, but get my tire inflated properly. He was right- a blowout would have been a problem.

He was a great guy, and reminds me of that deputy Mark knows. God Bless Him.

My opinion of cops is slightly tainted by the "local cops". They are rather amateurish and of the 10 on the force, only 2 or 3 know what theyre doing.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

glasswrongsize

Thanks for compliment but I don't deserve to be included in same sentence with Mike10. He should be in a class all to his own. The repair information that he has posted amazes me.

Jim


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