It's gone

[Jeff]

I got back home yesterday morning. I've not been able to bring myself to go out and unlock the barn and look around yet. Sad.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I got back home yesterday morning. I've not been able to bring myself to go out and unlock the barn and look around yet. Sad.

I can't even imagine what that feeling will be like.....but it's gotta be done. I wish I knew of a "legal" booby trap you could install.

[Holmes]

It is such a crushing experience to go thru.   Time will help you heal but you will not forget.

[ely]

yet they say we don't need high capacity mags....

[js2743]

Jeff have you thought about the ones that was sitting at the end of your drive with the computer a while back? Maybe they was up to something to do with this then.

[Jeff]

Yea, I thought about it, but I don't think so. That was Jeremy's old girlfriend and some guy.

[mesquite buckeye]

That's one of the worst things about having things like this happening. The mind starts suspecting everybody. Try not to let it get you down. It is just a thing, after all, and can probably be replaced. Nobody got physically hurt.

Still feels terrible. I've had it happen to me many, many times. It is never OK.

[isawlogs]

 Have you opened the door to take inventory yet ???

[Jeff]

Yep. Just those two things were gone as far as I can make out.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I had my Deer rifle stolen from my truck 2 years ago. The door was locked and the gun was behind the seat.
My insurance paid $300.00 of it to go toward a new rifle. The rifle plus scope was over $1200.00. My Dad gave me another $300.00 to add to the insurance money to help. Bless him!
This really made me the maddest I've probably ever been. I still not over it and I never will be.
Now, and it's a shame I'm like this, sometimes I come home and a stranger will be in my driveway waiting to talk to me about sawing some lumber. Because of my stolen rifle, I always will be thinking this stranger was here to take mental notes of my storage buildings, etc.
Life shouldn't be like this but thieves make it that way. It's just upsetting!!!!!!!!!!

[Jeff]

That's exactly where I am now. When I see a car approach from the direction I feel my chainsaw went, or if I see people out walking that I don't know, I instantly go on alert and my mind fills with mistrust.

[Hilltop366]

Yea, I thought about it, but I don't think so. That was Jeremy's old girlfriend and some guy.

Some guy? hmmm.

I had a motorcycle stolen years ago from a barn behind my bike shop I had at the time, a few days before a young guy was looking at the bike, I thought he seemed like a nice guy but it turned out he hung around a known thief that convinced him that taking the bike would be easer than saving up to buy it.

[Jim_Rogers]

It may not be the "sum guy" but one of his friends.......

[Jeff]

Hard to say. :-\  I just have the gut feeling it wasn't them. I think she got a pretty good scare of what could happen to her that night, and I don't think they would come back. I also am pretty confident that they were only here to use free internet because she had done it before. I never took her for a thief. She was with Jeremy almost 7 years. I never liked her, but not because I feared she was a crook.

[maple flats]

Sorry to hear about the thieves. I got a note (source unknown) on my windshield last fall informing me someone had stolen my aluminum irrigation fittings. I went to check, sure enough about $1500 worth was missing, They likely sold it for scrap and got about $40. It burns me when people steal or even lie. I have a u-pick blueberry business. I use the honor system on my 4.5 acres of blueberries because I could not afford to pay someone to sit there everyday. Over the years I've gone from a small ammo box locked and bolted to each of 2 points of exit, to large, better locked boxes. After the last of those was stolen I decided to take time to hopefully make them theft proof. I dug a hole at each exit, about 5' deep with an enlarged bottom. I then poured sono tubes full of concrete with 4 rebar in each. Set in the top of each pier I put 2 1/2" diameter anchor bolts. Then I made 2 cash boxes. Each was made from 3/8" wall steel pipe, about 20" tall. To the bottom I burned 2 holes in 18" old farm disk blades and welded one to the bottom of each. Then I cut a cash slot in each with a grinder. Next I made a top from another disk blade that is locked with big locks that are shielded from bolt cutters, they can't reach in. I have not had an issue since. These are tuff enough that if the hook a chain to their bumper to pull them out, the bumper will be found there the next day. On my irrigation fittings all I could do was put up some game cameras. At my sugarhouse I also use hidden cameras, since that is 400' back in the woods on a good gravel driveway.
I just detest dishonest people, I work hard for everything I have and they think it is there for the taking. If anyone is ever caught I'll sure press charges to the fullest extent of the law. Did I mention, I hate thieves?

[Farmerjw]

Jeff, she might not be a crook when she talks about the stuff her old boyfriend and his family has, her new guy might be a crook.  So don't count them out.  Drugs, alcohol and peer pressure do weird things to somewhat normal people.

Also, maybe load things up a day ahead like you are going to be gone, leave and then park your stuff where it can't be hidden and do some watching to see if they take the bait.

[shootingarts]

Having things stolen stinks! The business I was partners in was robbed 22 times in 1970, it was on a major thoroughfare on the edge of a rough neighborhood. Found a pool of blood where someone had pretty much bled out in a corner of my building too. Backtracked them a half mile or so by the blood trail before I had to go back and open up my business, doubt it worked out well for them. Of the 22 robbers, burglars and armed robbers mixed, two were caught. We caught them, not the law.

I did get lucky about a burglar. I had my canoe stolen from my home's yard. A little asking around and I found a burglar had been busy in the neighborhood for awhile. A week later my next door neighbor's pedigreed chow puppy was stolen, $400 dollars in the early seventies. A couple days later I was visiting a friend and she mentioned a girl she knew had just showed her the most beautiful chow puppy she had ever seen. The girl's boyfriend had given it to her. I called my neighbor and told him I would get his pup back with one string attached, he pressed the prosecution of the thief! Never got my canoe back of course but I think the thief wound up with a couple years, means he actually did about a year and a half back then.

My auto salvage routinely got robbed, knick-knacks weren't worth losing sleep over. Somebody started stealing tools and equipment every holiday, many weekends. In two months someone that was obviously the same person had robbed me seven times. By the seventh time I was sure who it was. I had called the law six times to no effect and was a tad annoyed. When I closed up that evening I went and paid the thief a polite visit. I quietly said, "as you know, I was robbed last night. I just wanted you to know I didn't call the law this time. I'm not calling them next time either." I turned around and left. This guy was a member of a biker gang but I had a small reputation as a kind, gentle, and understanding person in that small city. Those thefts stopped.

I can't remember how many times I have been robbed, even the more annoying thefts tend to blur now. I have won a few times or at least made the thief miserable. The only reason most crooks go to jail is that they are too stupid to stop while they are ahead. They may commit dozens of burglaries before they are finally caught with enough evidence to convict. Some folks in a small town had the same problem, knew who the thief was, couldn't convict. This was many decades ago and they solved the problem with some rope and some railroad tracks through town. A high price to pay for a dozen or so burglaries!

Keep your nose to the ground and if you can't convict for stealing your stuff or get any of it back you still might be able to help put away the thief or thieves.

Hu

[r.man]

I've been in a similar spot Jeff and the advice given has been good up to a point but as with many other things you just have to breathe deep and let the strong feelings go or it will cause you much more grief than the actual loss.