Nothing worse than a thief

I had an old Krause chisel a sitting in the weeds in a ditch for years and was going pull it out and use it for welding iron. But I come out there to check the pivot and it"s gone along with a couple rows of beans. Drove in with a tractor and took it. I know it was never worth anything but still. Nothing worse than a thief!
 
Sure they used a tractor??? Around here the junk guys are just stopping and cutting them up where it is setting an taking off. Read in one of the farm magazines where someone out west lost a fairly new field cultivator that way. Showed a picture of where the grass was brunt from them cutting it up.

If it looks like scrap iron you need to have it nailed down or some body will steal it today.

Good friend collects old single cylinder hit and mis engines. His shop always has a few setting out front waiting for him to fix or repair. Some one stole all of the ones that where outside a few weeks ago. My friend checked the scrap yards around and found where they had been hauled. Got into a big fight with the scrap yard. Even called the law. Did him zero good. He had to have a exact list of the engines and receipts where he bought them. Some of these engines may have been boughten 20-30 years ago. Also a lot of them came from flea markets. Every got a receipt at a flea market??? Long and short the county sheriff just did not want the bother of fooling with something he thought was of low value. Friend had to buy them back for scrap price.

Some one on here was talking about how some one broke into his sheds and stole a bunch of Ford motors here a while back.
 
JD Seller, when dealing with a theft one must use common sense , I had a theft several years ago and I made a report with the Mich state police first off of all the stolen items before I attempted to look in the scrap yards , I found my stuff in a scrap yard then called the trooper who I made the report with. the scrap yard then had to return "ALL" identified property as it is unlawful to buy or own stolen property. report and identify first then look for the property.
 
He did make a report first. The value of the items makes a big difference in the penalty for the thief. The valve of most scrap makes it just a misdemeanor about like a speed ticket. So the law is not very interested in doing much when the thief is just turned lose without much penalty.
 
Bad guys using heavy duty flat bed wreckers with winches to steal stuff here. Get the hook on it, pull it onto bed, and didi mau! Pull through fences, creeks, even walls. Takes only a very few minutes, difficult to prevent.
 
Hard to believe the law would allow that to happen. If a Sheriff or Chief of Police did that or allowed that to happen in Louisiana he would be committing malfeasance of office because failing to enforce the law or picking and choosing is exactly what that is. How could a scrap yard stay in business doing things like that, all the scrapyards I have ever done business with went overboard to make sure things were on the up and up, not to mention there are usually state and local laws that cover that type of thing. Your Sheriff must not be very politically savvy if he is Sheriff of a rural county and allows voters scrap iron to be stolen and sold right out from under his nose.
 
Prove you own something without pictures, title, or serial numbers. Remember the sheriff has to answer to both sides in this. Maybe I come by your place an call the law and say I own this or that. You would want me to be able to PROVE the items where mine. The scrap yard paid money for the engines. So they do not want to lose that money. My friends could not PROVE those engines where his, at least in a court of law.

I told him to just be glad he got them back for pennies a pound. His shop is on the back of his town lot. You can not see the front of the shop from the house. His pile of engines is only ten feet from the street. I have told him for years he was going to lose them to some one just driving by.

I hate a thief but you have to use some common sense in protecting what you own too.
 
I can't just walk in to a scrap yard, point at an item, say "that was mine!", and expect the police to believe me and confiscate the item. Unfortunately, you almost need to catch the thief in the act, or have documented evidence that the unit is indeed yours. Like JD says, that's awful hard to do unless you mark and catalog every item. Otherwise, it's your word against theirs.

Neighbor went to the local consignment sale a couple years back and saw a chisel plow *exactly* like his. Turns out it was his. The auctioneer's hired hand went up the road to his place, hooked onto it and pulled it to the sale. Auctioneer swore up and down that the fellow was honest and that my neighbor was a liar. Neighbor offered to call the sheriff. Suddenly, maybe a mistake was made! Turns out he was supposed to go to another guy's place to grab a plow.... "Here's your plow back sir, and sorry for the inconvenience." Probably just hauled his next ill-gotten gain to the scrap yard.
 
JD Seller , you did not say he made the report first,you stated he found his stuff and then called the law ,in my case the items stolen where sold for scrap metal but had a sellable retail value,(like your friends engines) the trooper researched and made his own value on all the items because I along with the county sheriff caught the two men in the act, the sheriff and state police both filled their own reports for several nights of thieving, both men spent time in jail and both paid me restitution for the items plus court cost and I still was able to get my items back , its illegal to own buy or sell stolen property and ignorance of the law is no excuse . MICHIGAN law enforcement loves catching and prosecuting thieves of any type because it is revenue for the county and the state .
 
Jacarlson. Best way I know is , we purchased a cheap number stamps and marked our possessions with last digits of S.S.# thereby making identification of stolen stuff for or proof. Stamp dies are really inexpensive and settles the "who legally owns it" JMHO. LOU.
 
As stated before it is best to notify the authorities first and give a description or serial numbers if possible. Also, if the scrap yard had any kind of decency they would know when something might be stolen. The one local yard here in NE Iowa has certain customers they refer to as "Doo Dahs". When a Doo Dah comes in they set the certain item aside that they brought and leave it for a few weeks. When the authorities don't call looking for anything they will then scrap the item. If the authorities do call they tell them who dropped the item off. I do not know how they get their money back but I am sure they do one way or another. They also require titles on complete cars.
Jim
 
My uncle used to take an arc welder and weld "Lund" on the inside of tongues,back side of frames and such. Takes a lot of grinding to grind enough metal away to get rid of any trace of that.
 
And, if I am correct, it changes the molecular structure, so if its ground, you can still see your weld, with acid or something, I stand to be corrected.
 
There was a thief that stole about $1000 worth of equip and about100 gals of diesel. I had a trail cam in my barnyard and his picture was on it. The sheriff knew the guy and arrested him. He spent 30 days in jail. I wasn't notified when he came up for trial. The DA said he had been ajudicated and he was free unless he got into some more trouble. Roy
 
The scrap yards I deal with in Minnesota have video of all their purchases along with a signed receipt with your drivers license number on it. When getting rid of the old wiring and plumbing materials from remodeling the house my son lives in, they also required the address of the building where it came from. It has discouraged some theft in the area.
 
Yep, lots of thieves out there. just think of all those people playing on the computer or talking on the cell phone on company time.
 

I hide mine. We have a tree around here that grows about four feet per year. I can't find my junk myself. I almost ran over a disc a few days ago that I sold three years ago. I guess the new owner hasn't been able to find it either.
 

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