Hick's do-goody road grading has come to a halt. His favorite tractor, the blue New Holland, has something wrong with it. He thinks a wire fell off or something, the last time he parked it. We won't go into the last time he used it at this juncture. Maybe another day.
Anyhoo...he's been waiting for The Veteran to come out and help him get at the parts he wants to inspect. He's been troubleshooting some easier stuff. It's like a fire was lit under him Monday, diving right into that chore, after letting the mechanical beast cool its tires over by the BARn for at least a month now. I'm pretty sure this spur to action has something to do with the fact that a mere 12 hours earlier, I had ordered him an operator's manual. Which don't come cheap, and sometimes don't come at all, being mostly an online thing these days for a tractor from 1998-2003.
Anyhoo...with The Veteran unable to assist, and Hick having run out of things he could do while elbow-deep in the New Holland's mechanical entrails, he decided to work on the roads a little. He still has the John Deere, you know, despite promising to sell it ten years ago if I gave him permission to buy the New Holland. Sheesh! It's not like we make a living harvesting corn. We could get by without even ONE tractor if we had to.
Anyhoo...Hick last used the John Deere a month or six weeks ago, he says. It's been parked over by the BARn as well, near the New Holland. Hick tried to start up John Deere, and he got nothing.
"I thought that was weird. It always turns over. But it was completely dead. So I figured I needed to jump it. That battery is 8 or 9 years old. I opened up the battery compartment, and
THE BATTERY WAS GONE!
Somebody stole the battery out of the John Deere!"
As you might imagine, Hick is not at all happy with this discovery. Never mind that the battery WAS 8 or 9 years old, and not that great anyway. It's the principle of the matter.
"I got on our Facebook page to tell everyone what happened. How I went to drive my tractor, thought I needed to jump the battery, and found out I didn't have a battery any more. Then I said, 'I guess we've got a thief around here.' Oh, they'll all see it. Everybody out here is on that Facebook page. You'd think if someone's been robbing, other people would have been complaining of stuff missing, too.
I doubt anyone come up in here just to rob US. So it's probably somebody who lives out here and knows I've got the tractor, or a friend they've brought up in here. Like when we have the trash throwed out in the yard. Nobody who lives here would do that. But their visitors would. And I did think I saw tire tracks in the field a while back. And 4-wheeler tracks back behind the Freight Container Garage. I didn't think nothin' of that, because my buddy up the road sometimes drives down here, looking for me. But he usually tells me he was here."
"Heh, heh. At least whoever stole it got an 8 or 9 year old battery. I'm pretty sure they would have driven down in the field. Nobody's going to park on the road, walk down, and carry a battery around when they can just load it."
"Yeah. I'm gonna put up that surveillance system that Back Creek Neighbor Bev's husband gave me when I put in his new one. Then we can see who comes in there."
"Would that battery work in a car? Why would they want it?"
"It would only work in an OLD car. Or an old truck. The posts are on top of the battery. They'd have to get a part to make it work in a newer car. The new batteries have a side post."
"There's a couple of crappy old trucks I've seen down on the lower road. Why wouldn't they just steal a car battery out of a car, though?"
"Who knows why they do what they do."
"Why didn't they take the battery out of the New Holland? It's newer, and was sitting right there. You checked it, didn't you?"
"Yeah. The New Holland still has its battery. But they'd have to know how to get the battery case open. That one's tricky."
Poor Hick. It's a pity he doesn't have something like a $17,000 Freight Container Garage to park his tractors in...
Stealing a 9 yo battery out of an old tractor is almost as lame as selling dirty water cocktails.
ReplyDeleteA security camera is a good idea, probably catch a lot of wild life too. Except if they steal an old battery they would probably steal the camera.
Heh, heh! It might be the same crooks from 20 years ago, who stole two lawnmowers from beside the BARn, neither of which worked. You know what they say, once a thief knows he can rip you off, he'll return...
DeleteHick used to have a game camera mounted on the BARn. He did capture wildlife like a coyote and a fox and deer, and also a truck that drove down there one night, but nobody got out. It's the same camera we used to capture the Garage Pooper. Then Hick loaned it to HOS or The Veteran, and has never gotten it back.
The security system from Back Creek Neighbor Bev would probably be less noticeable, and less likely to be stolen.
You two have the most interesting conversations. John Deere tractors last. My dad had one and it was used for maybe 15 years.
ReplyDeleteMy hog-farming grandpa had an old red Farmall that seems to have lasted forever. I think it was from the 1940s.
DeleteHow many times do you think Kick would need to read your final sentence before it sinks in and he parks the tractors inside the storage unit?
ReplyDeleteOf course he won't be able to drive the John Deere in until he buys a new battery for it.
Of course he won't be able to drive either tractor in there until he gets rid of the junk from 18 storage units.
DeleteI have a friend in suburban Denver who has a huge yard but he mows it with a John Deere riding mower. Hmmm, I wonder if he needed a battery recently.
ReplyDeleteAha! A possible suspect! I might get to keep my Mystery, Inc. membership card after all. Thanks for the tip.
DeleteMost thieves are idiots, but I bet Hick and you feel violated.
ReplyDeleteYes, you know how that goes. But at least it wasn't anything valuable, or time-consuming to replace.
DeleteWe also feel amused, because they stole a crappy battery, and relieved that they didn't hurt the dogs, who bark their fool heads off.
Yes, we are living the same lives. I can't tell you how many times I have "encouraged" HeWho to put all of the gas cans under lock and key. He will just complain, though. You can't really prove that the gas in someone's tank actually belongs to you.
ReplyDeleteHick said there were a couple times that he suspected there was gas gone from his tractors. After the battery incident, he hoped they siphoned it and put it in a car, not realizing it was diesel gas.
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