# Yellow Turd: Offically Fine



## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

I have been trying for months to determine who the finance company was regarding a Skidder that was abandoned on my land. I called the Sherriff, who told me to call the state, who told me to call the Sheriff, who told me to call the local Caterpillar Dealership, etc. No one could tell me who actually owned this piece of crap.

The Logger (whole stole all my wood) had said the leasing company would come get it in a 40 days, but it was exactly 274 days before they got in touch with me. The logger had told them it was in great shape, but the tractor is not even operable. It is literally scrap iron, and puking oil in big puddles under it.

They were "going to pick it up anyway", they said, until I told them there was a little matter of a storage fee, and the environmental clean-up. At $32 a day, today alone they owe me $8800 which far exceeds the tractors value. They balked at that at first, trying to talk me down since "$900 a month was higher than most people's rent", but I was not buying that, had did my homework, and was not backing down. The hour long phone conversation was pretty contentious, but in the end they said they were just going to abandon the machine as it was just not worth it to pay the storage fee and then try to resell it and the costs that went with that.

So on most tractor acquisitions most people say, "Look what followed me home", but in this case, the tractor never left. By default I have it now.


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

If that where mine I put it on some online auction site and see what it does . One mans turd may be another’s treasure.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

I’m not sure what homework you did, but you can’t retroactively claim an agreement for storage fees. On the other hand it sounds like you waited far longer than you would’ve had to to claim it as abandoned property. Eh, it’s yours however it worked out.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

No, I disagree--it is not yours.

If they didn't give you a letter stating their intent or they didn't sign a receipt, don't do anything--don't even start it--you'll potentially get into hot water. They'll make all kinds of claims, like "it was in perfect running condition until you moved it", or something else that'll put the onus on you. (Snakes like to do that.)

Send them a certified, return receipt requested letter describing the situation and stating that they have 30 days to remove it AND pay the storage and cleanup fees. Send copies to the IRS, EPA and a lawyer. That'll get their attention.

Hope this helps.

Ralph


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

Things must be different there because around here that is newer and better looking condition than half of the small time loggers out there. Looks a long ways from scrap iron to me even if it needed major work it is still worth some money. Equipment jockey near here just sold a Cat 525 with a blown motor and unable to test any of the transmission/hydraulics out for 12k bucks.

As for it being yours until I had some paperwork from the finance company with there serial number releasing the lien on it and transferring you ownership I wouldn't touch it.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Seems like loggers are notorious for this several years back we had a group come through here buying some Timber offering good prices and some people got paid the full amount some people got paid a partial amount and some people didn't get paid at all....


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

8350HiTech said:


> I'm not sure what homework you did, but you can't retroactively claim an agreement for storage fees. On the other hand it sounds like you waited far longer than you would've had to to claim it as abandoned property. Eh, it's yours however it worked out.


Of course you can, it happens all the time.

A repair shops get stuck with a car that they fixed that the owner cannot pay for, so it sits. The shop charges a storage fee until the car is picked up by the finance company, or they win the car in court under a mechanics lien or salvage title.

I have called the Forest Service, the State Police, the State of Maine, the District Attorney's Office, the County Commissioner's Office, and even sat down in the Sheriff's office trying to find out who financed this machine, all I got was the run-around. I even had two of my bankers do UCC Searches to no avail. So I was glad they got in touch with me finally. But even my bankers concluded that "storage fees can get expensive" and did not question it.

Under Maine law the finance company can go onto private land and get the skidder, but only if it is peaceful. Since I own the skidder more then the finance company, it will hardly be peaceful and they were told of that.

I think with all the legal problems this machine has had, they are just writing it off as a loss and washing their hands of it. I already told them I have legal council and that they can correspond with him and he will get in touch with me. Even lawyers do not like lawyers.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

This issue really blew up.

I called the Forest Service who did an investigation into the Timber Theft and brought the man to court. He plead guilty, but the judge gave him a deffered judgement. IF the man pays me in full in 6 months, his fine will be $200, but if he does not, his fine will be $2000. After Feb 26th, he must payme $1800 a month until I am paid in full, or he will go to jail...

But then he gave his land and house away to his father. This was silly because his father brokers the wood he cuts. More on that in a second, but it begs the question: IF he did not want his land, why not sell it for fair market value and repay his restitution to me? But as for his father, because they have two separate business, but work together, it constitutes Conspiracy to Commit Fraud. A second serious charge.

But it gets worse. Since I reported the logger, numerous other landowners reported him as well. Now there is several court cases working its way through court.

So now this has got the attention of the Maine Attorney General's Office.

I feel bad for the logger, but a person cannot steal off their neighbors for 3 years and not get away with it. Not in rural Maine. I witnessed to him, and tried to tell him that he cannot keep doing what he has always done, but he would not listen. Hopefully someone else can help water the seed I planted and lead him to Jesus as that is his only way out of this from what I can see.


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

endrow said:


> Seems like loggers are notorious for this several years back we had a group come through here buying some Timber offering good prices and some people got paid the full amount some people got paid a partial amount and some people didn't get paid at all....


As a logger myself I know 100x more good honest loggers than crooks, but like everything people only seem to remember and talk about the bad ones. Just like people remember the crooked farmer who didn't pay rent and mined the ground, or the equipment jockey that screwed them, or service department that charged 2x and didn't fix the problem, etc.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

RuttedField said:


> Of course you can, it happens all the time.
> 
> A repair shops get stuck with a car that they fixed that the owner cannot pay for, so it sits. The shop charges a storage fee until the car is picked up by the finance company, or they win the car in court under a mechanics lien or salvage title.


The key word here was retroactively. You aren't a repair shop. They would be required to post information about such fees in their shop and on work orders so that clients know ahead of time. You're just a dude with something left on your property. If you're going to charge storage fees, you have to inform them before you start charging them, not retroactively.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

8350HiTech said:


> The key word here was retroactively. You aren't a repair shop. They would be required to post information about such fees in their shop and on work orders so that clients know ahead of time. You're just a dude with something left on your property. If you're going to charge storage fees, you have to inform them before you start charging them, not retroactively.


Of course you can. This happens all the time with Repo people, wrecking companies, salvage companies, even renters and storage units.

People cannot just dispose things on your land without fiscal repercussions.

If they want the personal property, no matter what it is, they have to pay the land owner for the storage fee.

Just so you know: $32 a day is pretty reasonable; I actually averaged out the high's and lows to come up with the figure.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

chevytaHOE5674 said:


> As a logger myself I know 100x more good honest loggers than crooks, but like everything people only seem to remember and talk about the bad ones. Just like people remember the crooked farmer who didn't pay rent and mined the ground, or the equipment jockey that screwed them, or service department that charged 2x and didn't fix the problem, etc.


I apologize and you are correct I was basing my thoughts on about the only 3 times anyone moved into our area to buy timber . Each one of those times there was problems with people not getting money for timber . First there are not huge tracts of timber in our area . . And I believe many people were just too trusting . times have changed . There was a time when guys would drive into the farm and say hey id like to buy some trees. , You just don't see the door to door timber buyers any more ., People were vulnerable because they just did not know a lot about trees.. Maybe I should not have said loggers but maybe I should have said timber buyers . way .When I sat in court 15 years ago on a related case it was evident that many people were taking advantage of in timber purchase's in our area . Anyway I apologize and stand corrected buy your post .


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

endrow said:


> I apologize and you are correct I was basing my thoughts on about the only 3 times anyone moved into our area to buy timber . Each one of those times there was problems with people not getting money for timber . First there are not huge tracts of timber in our area . . And I believe many people were just too trusting . times have changed . There was a time when guys would drive into the farm and say hey id like to buy some trees. , You just don't see the door to door timber buyers any more ., People were vulnerable because they just did not know a lot about trees.. Maybe I should not have said loggers but maybe I should have said timber buyers . way .When I sat in court 15 years ago on a related case it was evident that many people were taking advantage of in timber purchase's in our area . Anyway I apologize and stand corrected buy your post .


I do not think you were wrong; it depends on where you live perhaps, but here in Maine 9 out of 10 loggers will screw people over. It is a cut throat business.

I can say that because I have cut wood all my life, even being a Certified Logger. I have cut wood for myself as well as other people, so I would have never thought I would have gotten taken.

Most of the time for us, we had the upper hand, and for all but one logger who cut wood on us, the rest were kicked off for doing stupid things like cutting wood we told them not to, or making their own logging roads instead of using existing ones, and stealing wood.

But Maine is the most forested state in the nation, so we have a lot of loggers, move a lot of wood, and thus have the problems that go along with it.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Ultimately I will be paid for my wood. That is because the logger got a deferred sentence, meaning his punishment is based entirely upon what he did, and he has only made things worse for himself.

This is no different then what happened with Satan and God; it is simply a delayed sentence.

When Satan rebelled against God, God (who created Satan) passed down a suspended sentence, and Satan knows it. Right now he is doing this and that, but it is not going to change anything. When the time comes, and no one knows the day or the hour, but it will come; Satan is going to be locked up.

It is the same with this logger. His delayed sentence has been handed down, and no matter what he does now, on Feb 26th, the sentence will be carried out. The sentence has been decided.

Now do not be dismayed here...

Just as with Satan and God, Satan was prideful and wanted things to be all about him, but God took that and really used it for good. Everyday God uses Satan's evil to show how loving, and good God is. Just as a person cannot describe what black is without white, God took what was meant to be selfish and shows others what truly is unselfishness is by sending his son to die on our behalf.

So it is with the logger, he wanted to steal other people's wood for his own use (gambling), BUT everyday I get to see God providing for my needs. *The real shame in all this is ME!* For generations we (as a family) have relied upon on forest as our savings account, and to see 70 acres of it gone, and no money for it, has been the ultimate in feeling ashamed of being scammed, but God has shown us that HE is our provider.

There is no question I will be repaid. The ways the laws work, even if he was to stock shelves at Walmart in Texas, he would have his wages garnished and I would get my money back. The sentence has been handed down, it is just a matter of when I get my money, and how much at a time. The wonderful thing is, I just have to be patient, and wait upon the Lord, who in the meantime, is going to continue to provide for me and my family.

Yes things look bleak now, and this is in terms of my fiscal/health situation, as well as in the evil world we live today, but one day it is going to be a lot brighter.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

RuttedField said:


> I do not think you were wrong; it depends on where you live perhaps, but here in Maine 9 out of 10 loggers will screw people over. It is a cut throat business.
> 
> I can say that because I have cut wood all my life, even being a Certified Logger. I have cut wood for myself as well as other people, so I would have never thought I would have gotten taken.
> 
> ...


 Yes the guy who cut for us said on these small jobs , he would cut the logs lay them out . have them apprised next day and we should be there for that and pay us the next day . We made the mistake of letting the cutters clean up the junk for fire wood . They loaded it on an old triaxle high side quarry truck . They did not want fire wood they drove 8 miles back the road dumped everything of then had a guy come in and pick the good logs and run . people took pictures to get them for dumping and when they showed the local cop he knew just where they were coming from . they were stealing the only wood with high value


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

This guy lives in town, only 4 miles from me, and I even went to school with him and everything, so I knew him well. He had done some NRCS work for me in the past, and did well enough. He was not my first choice, but could immediately cut the wood and we had property taxes to pay at the time.

But after all this went to court, people came out of the woodwork to say he had done the same thing to them; many cases are now working their way through court. Sadly, many were Amish families who...due to their faith-beliefs, will not take them to court. The Forest Service believes he never paid any of the landowners he cut wood off of in the past three years.

On my land, he took both the good and bad wood; about 75 tractor trailer loads of wood; 70 acres of clearcut. But I go to church with the two skidder operators and on my land no one got paid: the workers working for him, me the landowner, the truckdriver ($50,000 owed to him alone), and even the wood broker.

I know it does not sound good; a Christian taking someone to court, but that is not what happened here. This is timber theft, so just as a person would report their tractor stolen, I reported my wood stolen. In this case the Forest Service investigates instead of the police. They investigated, determined a crime had been committed, and brought charges. So it is the State of Maine vs the Logger and not RuttedField vs the Logger. This is huge becaue it is not a business vs business problem where collecting the money will be an issue. The logger; starting Feb 26th, has to pay the Maine Attorney General's office $1800 a month until I am paid in full. If he doesn't, it will be jail time. Restitution is always paid first, so I will get my money, then the state will get the fine money.

But he just had all his heavy equipment repossessed by several banks, so I am not sure how he can pay back $1800 a month. His wife has money, but she said, "his money is his money, and my money is my money", but in the State of Maine, that is NOT the case. A married couple is considered one financial entity, so if she has assets, she might have to cough them up.

I feel bad; I really do because addiction is addiction, but a person can not scam so many, many people in a town of 700 people and get away with it for so long.

I know he spent some time in the loony-bin after they took his equipment two weekends ago, but I do not know if he was really stressed and wanted to take his own life, or if he was playing the mental-card? It is silly to leave a wife and son behind for some wood; even I know that!


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

Guess I should feel lucky logging is the only real industry in this area and I can only think of one or two crooked loggers. The dozens upon dozens that I know are good guys that do good work, because they know that if bad word spreads then their work and livelyhood will dry up. Most will go above and beyond to help the landowner out if needed (last job I processed trees into 14" blocks on the elderly landowners back steps for his firewood). Job before that I used the forwarder to move rocks around for somebody's landscaping. Buddy of mine used his forwarder to pickup some round bales off a guys field because his loader tractor broke down. Guess things are just a tad different around here.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

I have never had anything to do with the logging industry, but I know of several contractors that I competed against in Craig Colorado that got to the point where they were robbing peter to pay paul. It seems that it just snowballs once you get behind; who knows why they get behind, and it really don't matter why, they just do. A couple of those contractors help put a lumber hard out of business. I even had a banker call me looking for one of the contractors; turns out he just up and left town for who knows where. I only met him once out at the lake water skiing; I don't know if they ever tracked him down. I hope you get paid, it really sucks to have it drawn out like it is going to be. Good luck.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

If it were me I would be doing everything in my power to get paperwork that says that skidder is mine. It might be a turd but its worth something. Get the paperwork that says its yours then get it running so at least it will self load. Somewill will give you a couple thousand minimum for it. For parts its worth that...


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

Pen hooker loggers are bad news.


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