I was robbed!!!

[Golden40]

Young kid (17) working 4 the contractor, stole 1000ft of romex wire and a 250ft roll from my building. I sure would like 2 spit some beech nut in that dude's eye!!! The cop's are involved but so far no proof. Please share your story's of how you've been robbed. Maybe, just maybe it will calm me down.... but I doubt it.... I guess with some kids you just can't fix stupid!!!

 

[AustinRoepke]

We got some stuff taken from our farm over by Vandalia within the last month...

And when I was younger, some guys put our tractor up on blocks, stealing the front and back wheels... and we even had duals on the back.

 

[mtwaterguy]

When I owned a wrecking yard in Oregon, I used to lose things over the fence quite often. We had a recycling center not to far away so most of the time it was aluminum and or brass items. One night over twenty auto transmissions went over the 12' fence along with numerous radiators.

 

[Gary S]

I own a Ford. I was robbed!!!!!

 

[Skin]

what the hell is a 17 year old going to do with 1000ft of electrical wire?

 

[tyreguy25]

That 17 year old is going to strip the wire and scrap the copper. Copper is VERY high right now so he will make a hundred bucks or more off that 1000 ft.

 

[cowboyjosh]

We have had gang boxes taken from new home sites that were left, although not supposed to be left over the weekend. On one job for "homes for our troops" we had every tool stolen from the site, they even broke into the locked house and took everything that wasn't nailed down including boxes of outlets, switches, dimmers, plumbing fixtures, you know all the electrical trim materials and most of the plumbing fixtures, not including other materials like door handles, etc.

I'm always bothered that some folks have nothing better to do then to screw and steal from their fellow man.

 

[blue dog]

Consider yourself lucky, many years ago on a jobsite in vegas i had a 6'x24"x5' wide knack box stolen from a casino that i was doing finish work on, that was over $10,000 loss. As far as i am concerned the only way to get that thing out of there was a forklift. Amazingly nobody saw a thing. Pan ahead to 2007, i was building 3 spec homes in west los angeles and had a conex for storage in front of the houses on the street. I show at the job at 6 am and the door to the box is wide open. The bastards broke in and cleared me out, tools, plumbing fixtures, tons of rolls of romex, electric fixtures, you name it, a empty box, worst thing was they got a miller 252 welder that i had only stored in the container for that night and it was going to go to my shop. That hit cost me over $20,000. The worst part is, to keep the jobs going, i had to go buy new tools and materials on a credit cards. Life in the big city, i guess
If i ever catching someone stealing tools from me i will be the one going to jail, for murder.
Now i keep Leo and colt with me.

 

[gules]

not my personal experience but, my cousin's new house just finished being built, they were just moving in and people stole the a/c unit off the side of the house. When the builders were installing the new unit, they had wired it wrong and the house caught fire, destroying most of the new house and property inside. idiots.

 

[Skin]

That 17 year old is going to strip the wire and scrap the copper. Copper is VERY high right now so he will make a hundred bucks or more off that 1000 ft.

the wire NEW was worth more than that but not enough to lose a job over. makes no sense. plus i dont know about your area but around here they actually ask for a photo ID and keep tabs on who's cashing in what. A kid just showing up with brand new wire [doubt he'd waste time stripping 1000ft] would get flagged immediately.

 

[HOTFR8]

what the hell is a 17 year old going to do with 1000ft of electrical wire?

That 17 year old is going to strip the wire and scrap the copper. Copper is VERY high right now so he will make a hundred bucks or more off that 1000 ft.

Not long ago here two fellows got killed whilst trying to steal cable from the Electric train network in Melbourne. Just to make some money from copper wire due to its scrap value.

 

[DIC]

My dad had a rent house that was vacant at the time ....An elderly neighbor called my dad and told him four guys took the carport of the post and were walking down the road carrying it all one piece (24x24 aluminum)...There was a scrape yard at the end of street,
They claimed they hadn't bought any thing like that.....By the time the police came out the scrape yard had already closed. They just made a report and nothing ever happened. The guys probably got $50 bucks for a carport that cost almost $3000................

 

[ColdCorona]

the wire NEW was worth more than that but not enough to lose a job over.

People risk a lot more than jobs to steal copper. It's not uncommon for criminals to steal LIVE WIRES around here! It's not all that uncommon for them to get electrocuted, either.

That kid probably traded the wire to somebody else for a bag of weed, didn't even have to go to the scrap yard...

 

[Walterchang]

Some dudes broke into a house my fiancé's parents were fixing up, they stole my pressure washer, shop vac and some gardening tools.

At my old work some guy cut a 12 inch piece of 1 1/2 of water pipe going into the building.

 

[mad57]

watch craigslist and call ur local junk yards to let them know.

 

[KEH]

Crooks stole old farm machinery from yard of my deceased old parents home next door and sold it for scrap to a nearby junk yard. I made a police report, went to junk yard, asked if he had any old cast iron implement seats, I looked in yard and found some of my stuff, which I got back. Junkyard owner identified crook who sole stuff in his name, cops arrested him. He was an old offender. I went to local magistrate and told her I intended to push the cas and wanted to be informend when case came up. Crook paid junk yard $75 which he had been paid, in court refused to name who was with him, paid me $75 damages, got 30 days community service, since this was petty theft. He also faces grand theft charges in an unrelated case. Probably nothing would have been done if I hadn't pushed things. Cops at this time were busy with a big theft ring stealing farm tractors, which they solved after a man was caught driving a stolen truck, trailer, and backhoe. Not too easy to run from the cops in that rig.

KEH

 

[Mufrat62]

When we were moving out to the rural area where we now live, we had to build an addition to our mobile home. On a stormy night the thieves stole about 40 sheets of plywood, the shingles for the 24X16 addition and the radial arm saw. Rain washed out all the tracks etc and we were left with putting in a insurance claim. On the upside my brother-in-law got himself a brand new radial arm saw. These people went to a fair amount of work to load all the stuff up.

 

[Lippyp]

Before we could move into our house we had a couple of months work to do to make it habitable as it had been dereclict for about 12 years, so we had contractors in doing some remedial structural stuff, wall ties, lateral restraints, a chemical damp proof course and so on. At the same time I was also doing work in there evenings and weekends. I got a call one morning when I hadn't been the night before to tell me that when the plasteres got there they found the back door open and someone had pinched their cement mixer and some other tools, they'd also had a couple of reels of my cable, some big boxes of nails and screws and assorted electrical fittings. ****** contractor had opened the back door that had previously been nailed shut and braced and obviously did a **** job of re-securing it so it was partly their own fault. We found the parcel shelf from a Ford Fiesta out back so they'd obviously shoehorned the mixer into the back of one and they ain't a big car by any means.

I also had someone a year or two ago steal the old McCormack bailer that had been left in the corner of my land in France, presumably that ended up down the scrapyard weighed in. My parents holiday home in France got broken into just after they'd bought it and they stole the weirdest list of stuff, not that there was much to steal as there was hardly even any furniture in there then. They took my dads slippers, a box of tampons, my dads part used bottle of aftershave and a shovel that had belonged to my late great uncle when he was a road worked between WWI and WWI, so if anyone comes across a shovel in France with WCC cast into the blade (for Warwickshire County Council) you know its hot! (not that my great uncle pinched it from work of course!)

 

[jake00]

Young kid (17) working 4 the contractor, stole 1000ft of romex wire and a 250ft roll from my building. I sure would like 2 spit some beech nut in that dude's eye!!! The cop's are involved but so far no proof. Please share your story's of how you've been robbed. Maybe, just maybe it will calm me down.... but I doubt it.... I guess with some kids you just can't fix stupid!!!

working for the contractor? fire the contractor

 

[walrus]

Young kid (17) working 4 the contractor, stole 1000ft of romex wire and a 250ft roll from my building. I sure would like 2 spit some beech nut in that dude's eye!!! The cop's are involved but so far no proof. Please share your story's of how you've been robbed. Maybe, just maybe it will calm me down.... but I doubt it.... I guess with some kids you just can't fix stupid!!!

Wasn't really robbed thanks to my dog. Had a contractor fixing up what was then my parents house. We share a driveway but their house is 600 ft further down the driveway. Insulating, siding, new deck. They got that done last thing was staining new siding. Said they were done, I went and looked and said, don't think so, I see some holidays(missed spots). The painter sends over a crew to fix it. I'm on the road working, my wife is home with our 6 month old pup. The dog starts barking and won't stop. She goes out on the deck and can hear someone in my equipment shed(tractor, haying stuff etc.) One of the painters come out and says he was looking at my tractor and that he wants me to come down and look at the work. My dog is still growling so my wife is freakin out. Calls me up and I call the contractor(not the painter he is a sub). I tell him to get over there my wife is freaking out. Luckily he can and goes right over. He tells them to leave if they are done and they do. I come home the next day and drive right to the shed and looky here, the kid was trying to steal copper I had in a barrel, oops its now in the grass beside the building, he was going to pick it up on the way out. I called the cops, was telling this story and they weren't too interested until I said the kids name, be right over he says. At that point I knew the kid was a wasted little *************. The best part is when the cop came into my house, my fluffy 6 month old golden retriever went down the stairs ready to bite the cop and almost did but I jumped up and got him calmed down. Couldn't believe it, that dog will protect my wife not sure about me

 

[cheap bastard]

There should be no such thing as "petty" theft. Hand amputation for the first offense is sufficiently light. By the third conviction, public firing squad is proper. Thieves are **** bags. We don't have a crime problem, we have a tolerance problem. Two 18 year olds were just arrested for a couple store bombings. If they are found guilty, each should have an M80 taped to his hand and ignited. There is no such thing as rehabilitation. There is a very profitable rehab industry, though. We have a constant theft problem in this area. The real reason our crime rate has dropped is that most folks quit calling the police unless an insurance claim is involved. The thieves will not even get a hand slap as there is no room to handle them. The jail makes too much money housing Chicago's "detainees" Police don't patrol neighborhoods now as they are deployed to make traffic arrests. I have watched plenty of the counties court cases. Most "minor" criminal cases generate less deterrent $ than traffic cases.

 

[bazzateer]

Build more jails, provides work for the construction industry and prison guards etc. Bang 'em up on second offence (I'm all for giving someone ONE chance). After offence number 2 they're all Bubba's boys.

 

[willf650]

When I was working as an electrician I always had a van so all tools came out of the truck every morning and put back at the end of the day. The one night I left some tools in the job box on site the place got hit. They took the iron workers torch rolled out the 150 hose and torched open everyones gang box. All I lost was a nice Hilti Rotary hammer and the gang box itself as most of the stuff still went to the van that night. My extenstion cords got burnt up. I know allot of the other trades got hit hard. Theives probably wrecked $10000 in job boxes much less what was stolen.

 

[SMKS]

Not tool related, but right after I moved to Topeka, KS I was burglarized twice. The first time they found my two handguns. They came back looking for more guns, but I had decided not to replace them. That time they didn't take a single thing, just tore the place apart.

The cops didn't take finger prints or even call me back when I let them know I found the serial numbers to the guns.

 

[BigE]

the wire NEW was worth more than that but not enough to lose a job over. makes no sense. plus i dont know about your area but around here they actually ask for a photo ID and keep tabs on who's cashing in what. A kid just showing up with brand new wire [doubt he'd waste time stripping 1000ft] would get flagged immediately.

I worked in a bad area of town a few years ago right down the street from scrappers and recyclers. Usually, they'd just melt the insulation off of the wire. Once, bums cut Bellsouth's communication line that served our plant. Repair crew found the outer insulation and a hacksaw next to where the cable USED to be. Happened twice believe it or not.

 

[Granite Guy]

My damn truck was broken into Thursday night! Normal, nice neighborhood. Back window of my truck smashed out, then they climbed through to the front seat. My theory is they mistaked my clipboard for a laptop.......then when they opened the door from the inside of the truck, my factory alarm went off....which I'm assuming is what scared them off. I'm usually a light sleeper, but it didn't wake me. They overlooked my tools in the backseat, so I'm thankful. As it turns out, apparently 15+ cars were broken into the same night within a 5 mile radius.

Back window (with defrost) for a 2008 Titan = $623 plus installation. Ouch.

I hate a thief.

 

[Ford12508]

Not tool related, but my friend's car was stolen a couple months back. Was an STI with a lot of work done to it, and as it turns out, the shop that did the work to his car employed the thief. The kid stole the car keys and got them copied and when my friend got his car back, he went into a mall a day later and when he came out hit car was gone. At the time, the engine and rest of the car basically were not covered in his insurance, because he got a complete body kit all around, and a new engine put in with a decent amount of work. He drove a POS for 3 years so he could afford this car, and it was stolen and he lost most of it when it was stolen.

Needless to say, when he found out that the kid took it, he robbed the **** out of him for his parts(what wasn't sold already) and a lot more, but still took a major loss.

Many people who have subwoofers in their cars have them stolen, because people know they are in there, and if you offer them to any kid, they are going to take deeply discounted subs. I have a very expensive amplifier in my car, it alone costs enough where I was debating between a 2.5ton Rockwell and the amplifier. I went with the amp, because I can listen to music more than I can justify having an over sized axle.

My rules include:
Watch people are not following you
Do not play music loud if you are going to lose a line of sight with the vehicle
Do NOT put stickers on cars saying "Alpine" or "Type R"

 

[Grumpy365]

I have a nice Multi ball trailer hitch. It has 3 Pins 2 that allow the hitch to move up and down and 1 that keeps the ball from spinning.

Well someone stole one of the pins last week

Why would somebody take the chance of having to deal with all the SH*T that would have transpired had I caught them?

 

[Indy_500]

My dad's trailer hitch was stolen at his work once. His truck was also broken into sitting outside of our house unlocked. The dummys never thought of opening the garage door with the garage door opener sitting right on his visor. They just tore apart everything that was in his cab (which wasn't much) and scattered it all over the ground. They were looking for subs since they tore apart my neighbors jeep and stole his 2 subs. There was many car break-in's all at the same time. Lots of subs stolen and gps's stolen. All around my area, i don't know if the person ever got caught, but man i would like to do a lil pounding to them!

 

[cowboy73]

A friend of mine got his subs and amps stolen out of the back of his Suburban at 12 noon on a Saturday. His truck was parked at the Wal-Mart. They have the guy on tape driving up, popping the lock on the rear door and putting the stuff in his vehicle. Luckily they didn't get his toolbox sitting up front.

 

[Blk63Vette]

I had a 1968 Corvette 327 350 hp. I went outside to get something out of my garage. (it was attached from house) I saw a flashlight. I grabbed my Smith & Wesson 9mm as the thief was looking under the hood of my Vette to try and start it...He had a "coming to Jesus moement"..While I called the Police to come to my house.

Police woman seemed to be concerned about me having a "firearm" with in city limits.. I asked her if she could guarantee my "protection" 24 7. She looked at me puzzled and said "No"..I said "really" and walked inside of my house.

 

[dkroth]

Do NOT put stickers on cars saying "Alpine" or "Type R"

"Type R" sticker. THAT is funny!

 

[metal1313]

a few years back a couple of morons were trying to steal my subs and amp as well as a guitar out of my bronco. they had loaded all but the sub box up but they had managed to ripped the bolts out of the floor. it was around 3am and i get woken up by a loud bang followed by someone yelling about their foot. the morons didnt think that my box may have been 2'' thick mdf, with a 16x36x3/4 steel plate bolted to the bottom. i actually used the weight to level off the bronco as the back sat higher than the front. the guys dropped it off the tailgate about 40'' to the ground onto their feet. one guy broke hit foot, the other guy actually lost 2 toes.

 

[Golden40]

Walrus, how much for the dog???

 

[walrus]

Walrus, how much for the dog???

His bite would be bad but my wifes would be worse

 

[santagary]

carpet cleaner stole my 7mm mag rifle in its case from under our bed and some tools from my garage. he came from chicago to pagosa...his father set him up in business here. he disappeared after about two weeks pillaging our little town. To his credit, he did a great job on carpet. We all recommended him to one another and discovered the theft later.

 

[ratdoggy]

what the hell is a 17 year old going to do with 1000ft of electrical wire?

He'll burn the insulation off it and sell it for $1.95 a pound

 

[NOVA87Wrangler]

Just this week I had some theft from my 87 Jeep. My tuffy glove compartment was unlocked because it only had two cheapie screwdrivers in it that they left. But they also stole my stereo out of the dash. I always buy the cheapest stereo that has an aux input on the front for my ipod because they generally only last 1-2 years in the elements. This one was from 5 years ago and has been broken for the last 3 as I'd been putting a V8 in the Jeep. I laughed about the fact that they saved me 5 minutes of removing the old head unit when I go to replace it, but then realized that they were idiots since they stole a stereo that was $50 at WalMart 5 years ago. Looks like I'll be getting a tuffy console for my bday this year.

 

[StarWolve]

My parents had a small fire in their house years ago. The cleaning service that was hired to wash down the walls from the smoke damaged employed some real shady guys. My mother left her wedding ring on the sink one day because she was running late, and that was the day they were robbed. They took her ring and some jewelry, money and old coins from a lockbox (which they had left the keys nearby) The insurance company actually investigated my parents to make sure they weren't committing fraud, but after a call from the sheriff (who was a friend of my father) they dropped that investigation and paid for the stolen items.

My sister was building a house in SC, and the contractor had just completed the insulation. My dad and sister spent the entire weekend adding additional insulation beyond what the contractor did, and that night, the thieves stripped every piece of metal out of the house. They wrecked all the insulation, pulled copper pipes and wire, and set the build back at least a week for new electrical and inspections. The builder is a single guy, and now occasionally sleeps in the garages on his sites with a .44 magnum on his cot.

All this is why I'm happy my little beagle pup likes to howl when people stop by, when cars idle in the street, or even when people walk by the house in the road (we live in the country.) My friend stopped by while on duty tonight (he's a police officer) and she let out a big howl when he knocked on the door. He just laughed and mentioned that a dog who barks in the night (plus an armed homeowner) is the best security system you can have. It also doesn't hurt to have friends who are cops and like to drive by your place a little more often than normal, just to check on things.

 

[mp23]

When I was 7 or 8 some dirtbags stole our racing go karts from the garage while I was sleeping in a tent 10 feet away. I heard but the older kid I was camping with told me to go back to sleep and that I was imagining it. My dad got them back which is a pretty good story in it's self.