Thursday, July 11, 2019

Backroads Highway Robbery

Hick made a shocking discovery on Monday. Made it by listening to his buddy who owns the storage units, who had made the actual shocking discovery on Sunday.

"I went by my Storage Unit Store this morning to put some stuff in it, and my Owner Buddy said somebody stole a CAMPER on Sunday! It was parked at the back, with the other vehicles. Somebody drove through the gate. Broke it. They hooked up to the camper and pulled it off! He saw the marks where they dragged the chocks through the gravel for a ways. Anybody who owned it would have moved them chocks. And wouldn't have crashed through the gate.

He was walking around sometime Sunday afternoon, after most of us had left, and saw that the fence was down. He noticed the camper was gone, but couldn't reach the owner until Monday. She's a retired lady whose husband died. Her sons and her take it camping. Sad thing is, she didn't have any insurance on it. I told him, 'Dang! I wish I'd parked mine up here! I have it insured for $8000. That would solve the problem of selling it!'

My Owner Buddy watched his surveillance tape. It happened Sunday morning. In the daylight. He had pictures of a white flat-bed truck pulling the camper along the side street. It made a left turn onto the blacktop lettered highway, and came out this direction. I told him I know the guy down the road here has TWO of those white flat-bed trucks for his construction company. But I don't think he'd steal a camper. He doesn't need money. But one of his workers might have had the truck. My Owner Buddy said the police know of another truck like that out the road farther. They couldn't see the plates, though.

My other buddy gets up there early. He said he was there around 5:30 Sunday morning, and that he DID see a truck pulling a camper down that side street a little later. He didn't know they were stealing it. Just thought somebody came to get their camper. I guess they'd already plowed through the gate when he got there."

That storage unit compound is really big. Here it is, from the windshield of T-Hoe, up on the hill. It goes way back to that treeline. The units are in a U shape, with some more in the middle. Vehicles being stored are parked along the back fence, by the trees. You can see the little office on the far right edge of the picture. Hick's unit row, and the side street, are on the other side of it. Not pictured.

I couldn't get a better picture while driving. I was waiting here to pull out of Orb K. Good thing the fireworks people left, or their tent would have been in the way. That's their semi trailer full of fireworks, waiting to be pulled away. You might also notice in T-Hoe's mirror that it was 93 sweltering degrees when I took this picture.

"So he has all those security cameras, but couldn't get the plates?"

"Yeah. That part at the back is fairly new, where the vehicles are parked. He hasn't got around to putting up cameras there. Not too long ago, somebody broke in and stole all the batteries out of those trucks from the company that does electric. They were insured, though. My Owner Buddy says HE has insurance. He's going to see how much he gets for that camper. He said he might be interested in buying OUR camper, to give to that lady, because he feels bad for her."

Some people are all right. Others are just no-good ne'er-do-wells.

10 comments:

  1. Can't be too easy hiding a stolen camper. i bet he gets caught.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what I said. If I was the police, I'd get a list from the DMV of people who licensed white flat-bed trucks. Narrow it down to our part of the state, then pay them a visit. I told Hick I bet it was somebody from a neighboring county, who had a buyer already lined up for that camper.

      Hick disagreed. He thought it was somebody who pulled the camper to one of the local lake lots the day they took it, where it would be inconspicuous with other campers.

      Delete
  2. I'm reminded of a story I heard about people watching a moving truck across the road from them, pulled in, loaded up the house contents and took off. They assumed their neighbour-across-the-road had moved. She hadn't. Was only away for a week visiting family.
    So it's easy enough to assume a truck pulling a camper, owns that camper. Nobody would think twice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah. You just act like you're entitled to it, and nobody is going to ask if it belongs to you. When I used to work at the insurance salvage store, we knew we had to be off the fenced lot by a 11:00, even if it took a long time to close. The owner had hired dogs to patrol the lot at night, to protect his lumber and other valuables on display there. A guy in a truck would come and put two dogs in and lock the gate, then come get them around 7:00 a.m. Nothing was ever stolen overnight.

      Delete
  3. Like joeh says, I hope he gets caught.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If he does, it will probably be because of someone bragging, or another criminal giving up the info in a plea deal. A camper around here will be as hard to find as a needle in a haystack.

      Delete
  4. Wow and I thought a purse was easy to steal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heh, heh! Sorry for your loss, but that comment cracked me up.

      Delete
  5. Somebody once told me that the best way to steal something is to just act like you know what you are doing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On the way home today, a white flatbed truck came out of nowhere, and was about to ram into me while I was making my left turn onto our blacktop road. I really wished I could have gotten the license plate number. It seems to me like a person who would steal a camper would drive like that!

      Delete