cat thief meets his maker

Here in Florida, you don't have to drag the body into your house. If you are in credible fear for your life, you can kill 'em dead wherever you are. "Castle Doctrine".

foxtrapper wrote: Nice that they used the jaws of life to lift the car to remove the corpse. Wonder how much damage they managed to do to the victims car using that tool.

not to mention time wasted. I'm sure they weren't able to determine with certainty that he was dead before they raised the car. Had I been there first I would have used his jack, the ambulance jack, cop car jack, 3 beefy guys, whatever it took to get him out from under it

foxtrapper wrote: Nice that they used the jaws of life to lift the car to remove the corpse. Wonder how much damage they managed to do to the victims car using that tool.

not sure.. might have just been like a quick air jack if done right

hopefully what was missing from the official story is that Rescue and PD did manage to lift the vehicle from the trapped victim/ thief... but managed to drop the vehicle on him an additional 5 or six times... oops

rotard wrote:

Cone_Junky wrote: Gosh. Darn. So sad. A thief getting his karma instantly. I only feel bad for his family, if he has one.

The guy was probably trying to get some extra Christmas money to buy his children coats to keep warm.

Only if he had enough left over after the crack/meth purchase.

OK so do we blame the tweekers or the scrap yards for buying this stuff. So many bronze pots from a cemetery should a guy have? How many freaking manhole covers?

A month or so ago someone in Greenville SC stole several manhole covers from along I-85 up nexzt to the median. They would have likely needed a truck and crane to get that many that quickly.

mad_machine wrote: such a shame. I would not wish that on anybody. He should have used jackstands

Sorry, but I'd have done a dance of joy if this happened to the berkeleys who stole my EG Civic.

I've had rude fantasies about having a lit cigarette handy when I happen across the guy that drilled holes in two gas tanks of my Dakota last summer to steal the gas. "Gosh officer, I showed up at the shop this morning and my truck was all burnt to a crisp. I got no idea what happened, but there seems to be something laying under it."

spitfirebill wrote: OK so do we blame the tweekers or the scrap yards for buying this stuff. So many bronze pots from a cemetery should a guy have? How many freaking manhole covers?

I recently tried to bring several cats to a yard here.. all from dead/scrapped cars or in the case of the BMW.. ripped off of the car by road construction. I was turned away. They had a 1 cat per customer limit

So I hit up several yards

mad_machine wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: OK so do we blame the tweekers or the scrap yards for buying this stuff. So many bronze pots from a cemetery should a guy have? How many freaking manhole covers?

I recently tried to bring several cats to a yard here.. all from dead/scrapped cars or in the case of the BMW.. ripped off of the car by road construction. I was turned away. They had a 1 cat per customer limit So I hit up several yards

Someone stole my Rabbit GTI while I was in Iraq; I'm sure that it got scrapped at one of the "reputable" yards in the Seneca area.

I would feel bad if it were a kid. You're supposed to be stupid when you're 16. I would feel a little bit bad if it was a young adult, you still have time when you're 20 something. But if you are stealing cats at age 47, berkeley you.

Saw that one in the news as well. Stealing cats from a Ford Taurus?

Sort of common around this part of Michigan. It has happened at several park and ride lots.

the cat on my saab disappeared enroute from ohio to NJ. The driver of the truck told me they got all the vehicles he had on the trailer at a rest stop

xflowgolf wrote: catalytic converter thief that is. "Man crushed by car during theft attempt" sometimes karma has a way of working things out.

Karma credit card was maxed out; transaction denied.

OR

If I were the cops, I would dust the jack handle for prints. Then ignore the results if they turn out to be other than the victims.All it takes is one twist of the jackhandle!

rotard wrote:

Someone stole my Rabbit GTI while I was in Iraq; I'm sure that it got scrapped at one of the "reputable" yards in the Seneca area.

Was it parked downtown Seneca behind a parts store?

mad_machine wrote: I recently tried to bring several cats to a yard here.. all from dead/scrapped cars or in the case of the BMW.. ripped off of the car by road construction. I was turned away. They had a 1 cat per customer limit So I hit up several yards

In Spartanburg County now you have to get a permit to sell non-ferrous metal. A one time permit is easy. Don't know how hard it is to get the other.

We had cats stolen off three of our Explorers at one office. Cost $2100 each to repair.

Mmmmmmmm. I do like me some cat thief.

N Sperlo wrote:

a401cj wrote: i wouldn't wish death by crushing on anybody for stealing car parts....on any of my cars. Very unfortunate

I'm funny about that. I am against the death penalty, but I'll kill to protect my life or property.

And I thought it was the Christmas season... Regarding this post and the one above about using a "gun", you realise that you can only use deadly force in an immediate life-threathening situation, right? However, since it is the time of giving, I'll send a cake to the high-security prisons where they keep murderers... It's just a car part.

mad_machine wrote: I recently tried to bring several cats to a yard here.. all from dead/scrapped cars or in the case of the BMW.. ripped off of the car by road construction. I was turned away. They had a 1 cat per customer limit So I held up several yards

Fixed

Another local variant of this (BTW - the Darwin strike that started this is about 20 minutes from where I live) is for "scrappers" to clean out all of the copper plumbing in new construction homes and sell it for scrap. In my mind, the scrap yards are at least partially responsible for this. When some knuckle head keeps bringing in cats or brings in a whole 1976 GMC pickup full of brand new copper pipe with hacksaw marks every eight feet, you know you're buying stolen property. You know full well that this clown just damaged thousands of dollars worth of property to get $20.00 to smoke/shoot/snort/drink their way through the next 30 minutes of life.

BTW - in case you're wondering, the 1976 GMC with rusted out bed, a nasty miss and no exhaust system is the official company car of scrappers locally. The high end one's will have a 2 axle trailer with at least one flat/missing tire to pile additional crap on.

kb58 wrote:

N Sperlo wrote:

a401cj wrote: i wouldn't wish death by crushing on anybody for stealing car parts....on any of my cars. Very unfortunate

I'm funny about that. I am against the death penalty, but I'll kill to protect my life or property.

And I thought it was the Christmas season... Regarding this post and the one above about using a "gun", you realise that you can only use deadly force in an immediate life-threathening situation, right? However, since it is the time of giving, I'll send a cake to the high-security prisons where they keep murderers... It's just a car part.

Castle Law

Missouri is a Castle Law state.

We had a guy here locally electrocuted trying to steal live copper wire from a power substation. The power was out for a couple hours but he won't be doing that again.

Safety Sammy Says: Crime Pays, but only if you survive.

The scrapyards pay less than the going rate for copper and don't ask questions because they know scrap is just about impossible to trace. SC recently passed a law where you have to have a license to sell non ferrous scrap. So what will probably happen is one guy will buy a license, pay nearly nothing to the methheads then sell the scrap at a nice markup. FWIW: there was a recent incident around here where some guys hooked a chain to an underground cable at a house that was under construction and tried to drag it out with a truck. They couldn't get it pulled up but they did a lot of damage.

Catalytic converters are also nearly impossible to trace. The Mercedes shop I worked at got hit for 12 in one night. The shop owner went to the local 'we buy converters' place and found a bunch of freshly cut Mercedes converters in a roll around buggy, he told the owner of the converter place they were his. The guy says 'show me a VIN and you can have them otherwise call the cops'.

Curmudgeon wrote: Catalytic converters are also nearly impossible to trace. The Mercedes shop I worked at got hit for 12 in one night. The shop owner went to the local 'we buy converters' place and found a bunch of freshly cut Mercedes converters in a roll around buggy, he told the owner of the converter place they were his. The guy says 'show me a VIN and you can have them otherwise call the cops'.

The courier service at my work had them stolen out of all their vans. They asked the police what to do. They said, "You have the right to protect your property. Shoot them. The ambulance will pick them up in the morning."

Wow, this thread made me remember that my car is unlocked sitting in the industrial section of town right now. Then it made me briefly pucker and reach for my keys.

Then I remembered Korea doesn't have meth heads ...

Seriously though, it is a whole different mindset. The longer I spend splitting time between East and West the more I think crime is a cultural thing. Well, that and the police seem to be mostly used for revenue collection in the US (at least in Nevada, where I lived) while they seem to spend most of their time actually solving crimes in Korea.