> Several years later I had someone crawl under my truck, cut the fuel line, and after taking all the gas they could get using a piece of tape to try and hold it back in place (I actually had this in my Facebook memories yesterday), a car alarm may have alerted me to that.
Holy cow, US really is a bizzare place. With your level of wages and your low prices of gas, the value of the gas stolen was an equivalent of 2-4 hours of minimum wage labor? And yet someone went through this trouble and risked jail for it.
Not long, I left the gas station and received a call from the police within an hour or two, and I kind of remember them telling me it was only happening that morning.
> For the US I really wish we could commercialize some kind of tracker that releases fart spray, honey, flour, ink, glue, and other annoying substances if stolen.
I assume you've seen this already, but just in case you haven't.
> they would routinely encounter gas lines, cut them WITHOUT turning off the gas, and keep working
That's still done today, evidently! A few months back, there was a small gas leak in my neighborhood. When they knocked on my door to say they'd be working in the area, the repair crew leader was kind enough to indulge my questions.
I asked them if my gas would be shut off. They said no, they do the work while the gas is still on!
And they must have been cutting into the gas line because they replaced a section that ran under the street. They used a backhoe to dig huge holes on both sides of the street and then fed a flexible pipe through.
> People breaking into cars in your area are driving to their thefts? In cities they just walk down the street looking for targets of opportunity.
I've lived in multiple cities and can say that this is wrong.
I find that generally most people imagine these thefts are being done by homeless people on the streets but it's usually actually organized gangs driving in from Oakland.
Same thing when I lived in DC, organized criminals driving in from SE DC to rob the rich neighborhoods.
> The scene of my car not being where it was supposed to be was so surreal that I did not even realize it was missing the first time when I walked out the trash. I basically walked around an invisible car.
This reminds me of the street cleaning hazing ritual most newcomers to Cambridge, MA go through. I was about to call the police and report a stolen car when I saw the street cleaning sign and realized the day it specifies was the present. Either way not a happy feeling.
If I park my car and don't lock the doors, and come back to find it gone, is the story that I'm an idiot for leaving a car unlocked, or is the story that the neighborhood is unsafe?
They're both problems, but I can actually solve one of them myself. That doesn't excuse the $BAD_THING that happened, but it does offer me options for when it inevitably does.
> Well, the drilling contractor had put all his tools and toolbox inside that room, so it was full of valuable property already.
I'm confused, what's the problem here? You were getting your lock drilled. What were you worried about happening?
> Well, shit, one purpose of having offsite storage was to stash some cash and emergency supplies
What made you think a security deposit box is the solution for that, in case of civil unrest? Banks aren't even open in evenings or weekends. The boxes are intended for long-term storage of things you don't need immediately or in an emergency.
Emergency cash and supplies, why wouldn't you keep those at home? Surely you can find a good hiding place if you're concerned about people finding them?
> What happened to the shipping container? Who owned the rural property? Where was the shipping container going?
Everyone's going to feign ignorance. The container owner will say they didn't realize the container had been stolen from their property, or they rented it to someone who's responsible for whatever they do with it.
The property owner will say they didn't give anyone permission to put a container there, or that they rented it to someone else.
The destination can be just a port, and a moving company can be hired to pick up the container from the port.
(Source: my spouse shipped a lot of stuff from China, and I was horrified at how little security and documentation was involved. I can see how cars cross borders so easily.)
> I think one of the things that amazed us is that these inspectors sold out public safety on the cheap. They were not taking huge amounts. We were told to leave $10 for one inspector, and $25 for another inspector.
According to inflation, that's $40.25 and $100.62 in today's dollars. That's pretty much a joke!
>> Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance.
Two years ago, WhistlinDiesel youtuber used trail camera's and his air tags to bust his neighbors stealing from him. It took a few calls, but he got it done. He was smart and used the cops as mediators and didn't just go over and start yelling at the dude to get his stuff back.
>So he either used his own truck, or he stole a truck and then gave it back after having fenced the potatoes.
I wonder if it's possible that he ditched the truck afterwards, it was recovered unharmed, so they didn't bother charging him with that, or the article just didn't bother listing the additional charge of truck theft since the potato theft was far worse financially.
> She said she started parking in her client’s driveway after her car was broken into twice on city streets.
And just a day ago someone in another thread asked me where I (as an European) get my negative opinions on the state of security in major US cities.
In like 20 years I only heard of one person who got their car broken into here in Munich. Here is one person to whom it happened twice. Serious question, WTF is going on with your politicians, why is this so seemingly accepted that people go out of their way to avoid danger?
> That is a huge inventory. How do stolen tools get fenced?
Sold in bulk to someone overseas is my theory, way too much effort and risk selling this stuff piecemeal online or locally. You can see something similar happening with stolen cars in the US. [1]
Holy cow, US really is a bizzare place. With your level of wages and your low prices of gas, the value of the gas stolen was an equivalent of 2-4 hours of minimum wage labor? And yet someone went through this trouble and risked jail for it.
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