Getting tired of thieves

Paul Downes

Member
Messages
959
Location
Westphalia, Michigan
This past Fall my wife took my camera with her in our van and forgot to bring it back into the house. Somewhere in the next week it went missing out of the van. So I haven't been posting any pictures of late because I haven't replaced it yet. Been debating about what model to replace it with.

This past Friday our 4 month old pup went missing. She was one of the best mannered dogs I've ever had. Very friendly, yet very good about being home or just next door helping out with the calves on the farm. She was my constant companion when ever I went outside. I checked with both county dog pounds and no luck there. Every one of the neighbor farm workers were just as puzzled by her disappearance. She was real good about staying on our 2 properties. I have asked all over the neighborhood with no leads until tonight. I found out that another neighbor "found" a stray dog and took it home the same day mine went missing. This person is a relative of the neighbors so I'm hoping to "find" my dog at her place tomorrow. Maybe it's just a misunderstanding, but if she "found" my dog on our property I will be cranked. Of course it just might be a coincidence, and a different dog.

It sure has been bugging me not knowing why Mocha disappeared.
I was beginning to think that the coyotes got her. She was hysterical to watch playing with the kids. I watched her rolling sideways down a big snow pile with my young sons just a week ago, and then racing back to the top to do it again.
I never had a dog growing up. I have found them to be great assets on the farm. I know immediately when the cows get out, or someone pulls into the driveway.

Hoping to find her tomorrow......
 
I've had cameras and stuff taken out of vehicles before and that just downright ticks me off.

If that neighbor 'Found' a dog and didn't report it, well, that's just not right...

When I found our pup on my back porch on Christmas Eve, I put up 'found dog' signs in the area and reported it being found to the most local authority. Gotta try and get the pups to their owners, no matter how you feel about them...

Good luck finding your dog...
 
Paul,

Sorry to hear about your puppy. I hope you find her tomorrow. My dog (a pointing lab) took a little walk around the neighbor hood and a guy grabbed her and kept her in his house for 2 days. I happened to see him playing with her tied up at a park.

I immediately grabbed my dog and she jumped in my car. The guy told me that he hadn't seen any adds in the paper about a missing dog so he was going to keep her. :eek:(my dog has a collar with phone number and is chipped!) I told the guy thanks for watching her and please write down his name and number in case she had pups I could give him a call. So now I have his name and number if he ever tries anything again (the sleazy goober new where my dog lived). I figured this was better than decking the guy and tying him up to the park bench with the rope he had my dog tied up with.

Some people.

Let us know how it turns out.

Best wishes,

Brian
 
I agree with Brian...I hope she turns up soon. The CoC prevents me from really expressing my feelings, but suffice to say if someone stole one of my dogs and I found out who it was, I'd probably be the one getting into the most trouble with the law when it was all over.
 
I agree with Brian...I hope she turns up soon. The CoC prevents me from really expressing my feelings, but suffice to say if someone stole one of my dogs and I found out who it was, I'd probably be the one getting into the most trouble with the law when it was all over.


That's the way I feel.
I hope everything turns out OK and you find your pup.
 
Sorry if I sound sarcastic, but locks were invented for a reason. I have carried guns and photo equipment and other items in my vehicles....always. This has been in big cities and rural areas. Never have had anything stolen. I always lock and keep items covered out of sight. Kinda obsessive about it.
As for your dog, if it wasn't coyotes, just go ask the suspect thieves if they have seen your dog. Their actions will tell you if they took it. Thieves have no conscience and will make up excuses. If they took it you will probably have an unpleasant scene trying to make them give it back. Unless you can prove it is yours (implanted computer chip), I don't see a simple solution.
 
Sorry if I sound sarcastic, but locks were invented for a reason. I have carried guns and photo equipment and other items in my vehicles....always. This has been in big cities and rural areas. Never have had anything stolen. I always lock and keep items covered out of sight. Kinda obsessive about it.

Locks only keep honest people out Frank. A big screwdriver twisted in a door lock on a car makes pretty short work of getting into a car. I've Never had anything taken out of an unlocked car....
 
Locks only keep honest people out Frank. A big screwdriver twisted in a door lock on a car makes pretty short work of getting into a car. I've Never had anything taken out of an unlocked car....


Boy you have that right Brent. And I have had the bills to prove it...Between damage to the pick up truck and personal plus company items the loss was over 6 grand. Two grand of that was damage to the truck from getting in and tearing items off the dash. This was at a Days Inn that was light up daylight up outside up in Mass. They didn't get in the driver side so they went around and tore up the passenger door as well.

And that was just the big breakin...
 
Paul, I am always tired of thieves! I hope you get your pup back. A few years back we had a dog fighting ring in the neighborhood and dogs were getting stolen for bait.
I get a kick out of seeing people lock the doors on a convertible! :huh::dunno:
 
Locks only keep honest people out Frank. A big screwdriver twisted in a door lock on a car makes pretty short work of getting into a car. I've Never had anything taken out of an unlocked car....

Maybe I have been lucky. But operate on the 'crooks are lazy' theory. They will look for unlocked vehicles before trying to break in a locked car. My city experiences have been in places like Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans.
 
The company I work for owns quite a few cars, no TONS of cars, and the company policy (at least in this area) is to leave them unlock on the lots because there usually is nothing of value in them and the theif can figure that out by opening the door as opposed to breaking into the car and causing damage. :)

Hope your pooch is found, I couldn't imagine loosing one that way. :(
 
I hope you find your dog. I lost a black lab last summer. I'm fairly sure someone picked her up. I really hope she went to a good home if they did. She was a really good dog. My son (10) is still asking about her.

Kind of on the same topic. A friend of mine is a picker/collector/estate sale junkie. He has around 50,000 albums. Every year he goes to an old western film convention in NC. He's 53 and is one of the youngsters at the convention. He says it's funny how the 70+ guys come in with their cowboy outfits six shooter and all on. He says it's great watching films with them.

Anyway, he met one of his buddies there. His buddy knew one of the dealers that was setup with a booth. They asked him to come to lunch with them and he said he couldn't leave his booth for fear of things getting stolen. Their mutual acquaintance told him that he sets up for a week and leaves his booth unattended all the time and has never lost anything yet. The guy told them he had setup the week before at another convention that younger people attended and theft was rampant.
 
Oh Boy this makes me mad. Sorry to hear about your pup Paul. I hope it turns out the way you said.


As to thieves taking stuff from cars, back where i came from, it was always the car radios.

I know of one guy that took his radio out, and with a soldering iron soldered som fish hooks standing up onto the top of the radio facing with the curl of the hooh curling towards what would be the rear of the car when the radio is installed.

When the thief put his hand up behind the dash to grab the radio he was hooked in more ways than one. I wont get into any other details that followed suffice to say they never touche the cars in his yard again.:D Oh and a piece of popular sporting equipment involved as well:D

Had a personal run in with a thief back then too, was sitting in my study at home typing an email, this dude passes by the window heading for the front garden. I had huge pallasade spiked fence completely blocking access from the front.It was 8 foot high and there was still the wall on the sidewalk to add to that another 4 to 5 foot depending on the slope of the front road, so there was no where for him to go. So he hid in the bushes contemplating next move. He did not know i saw all this from the inside.
I thought i was back in the bush war, made the 100ft from my study to the gun safe in second, grab the pump action shotgun and a handfull of shells and ran out the back door to come around the side that he had entered from, wife started screaming to me not kill him cause i had let all and sundry know in the neighborhood that next time they come onto my property they going floating down the river.

This guy had already broken into the house next door and the one behind that and then jumped my fence at the back from the neighbors side. So the alarm systems were going off all over and the armed response was on its way. You could not rely on the police cause they were under equipped and the vehicles were not maintained never mind whether they had gas or not.

When i got to front i knew where he was did not hesitate to fire a shot at the bush just above his head. Never know with these guys if they have guns. He jumped up after i told him the next one was going straight for him. When the missus heard the shot she opened the window performing some more. I told the guy to lie on the ground and then had SWMBO call the real cops. When they arrived i insisted they draw their guns and hold them on him through the fence while i turn to unlock the gate.

After that incident i decide i was moving. It was our third time. Had enough of living under siege. I was working my butt off travelling the world to generate business of an export nature to create work for 150 people but if my family was not going to be safe while i was gone then i guess the people dont need jobs they can spend their time stealling from each other.:(
 
...I've Never had anything taken out of an unlocked car....

I can't quite say never, because I did lose a few things out of my Jeep one night. It was a ragtop with no locks on the door. But I've lost thousands of dollars worth of stuff from locked cars with the contents hidden from sight.
 
Well i can say i've never had anything taken out of my car. If you were to go out there right now you would find the doors unlocked and the keys in it. Also goes for the shop as i've never locked the doors since i built it 20 years ago. Now i have had the house broke into and all my gun stolen, but the doors were locked and found out it was one of my sons friends.:doh::dunno:
 
I always lock the doors of my vehicles when they contain anything of value Frank. I have NOT, as of yet, been able to train my wife to do the same.

That being said I have had locks broken and windows smashed on several vehicles over the years and yes I try to practice out of sight --out of mind with valuables.

Fact is, I grew up in an inner city were I have (1)chased down a thief and cornered him for the police and then insisted on his prosecution. (He got 2 years in jail for the offense) (2) Pulled a pistol on a guy who broke into my apartment. This one ran away and was caught by police 1 block from my place. (3) Had so many break-ins going on in the neighborhood for a time that we took turns staying up armed and with a spot light. The funniest event happened when my next door neighbor was retiring for the night and while drifting off to sleep got to wondering if he had unloaded his .22 rifle. He was very new to firearms and uncomfortable with them so he was afraid to unrack a live round. So he decided to just aim for the sand box in the back yard and fire the round. Meanwhile I'm laying by a rear window of my house reading with a small light with a good view of both backyards. I hear a shot followed by the sound of a bullet ricocheting off of metal and then see this guy running for his life. He tried to jump the rear fence but his feet didn't clear and he slammed face first into the ground on the other side. This is after running through a nasty rose bush. My friend aimed for the sandbox but hit a metal clothesline which stood next to a big rose bush of which the thief was hiding behind. The burglaries stopped from that night on.

The lead on my dog turned out false. The lady who was alleged to have rescued my dog had done no such thing. I am going to try to find the source of that rumor tomorrow. Today I went to the doctor to get a prescription for pneumonia, and have been ordered to rest a lot.
 
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