To catch a thief.....Rant / Rave

[txsbill]

Last Monday night @ 9;30, my trusty dog alerted us to the fact that someone was outside. My wife looked out the window and announced that some guy was in the toolbox on my truck. I immediately ran out to confront the guy just as he was making his escape. I was able to get his door open and get him halfway out of his vehicle when he finally got it in gear and took off.....Get this.....He was driving a 26' Coachman motorhome....

Anyway, I ran in, grabbed my keys, phone, and pistol and went searching for him. It didn't take long to catch up to him. I then "followed" this guy for an hour with 911 on the phone the entire time. At one point he tried to stop and reason with me, but he learned that Mr. Colt and I were not in a reasoning frame of mind. He had no plates on back of his motorhome, and it wasn't until after an hour that I was able to get a front plate number. After that, I gave up since the police didn't seem interested, and quit following him. I then went to a location and waited for an officer to show up. I gave him all the info and that was pretty much it I thought.

Being an officer in my Civic Assn. I sent an e-mail alerting folks in the neighborhood about this guy. Well someone sent the e-mail to our City Council Person, who sent it to our Police chief, who sent it to the Captain of my area who had detectives come by my work and show me a photo line-up of various suspects. I was able to make a positive I.D., and they have issued a felony warrant for his arrest. Turns out the guy is a habitual offender, drug abuser, wife beater, etc. I talked to a cop I know, and he said they say they know him quite well, and should have him behind bars by weeks end.

He didn't get much out of my toolbox, maybe 200 dollars worth of stuff, but to me it's just the principal that some scumbag thinks he can just ride up and take someone's stuff and nothing is gonna happen as a result is what drives me.
He's not a very big fella, I hope he thinks the tools he stole are payment enough for the time he'll spend tossing salads in the big house....

Rant over.....

Bill

 

[fisherman]

You go boy....you are my hero!

 

[crash]

Nice job...

 

[*JOKER*]

Oh yeah?

I got one for ya...

While I was deployed, some scumbag broke into my shed in broad daylight and stole my backpack blower and 2-stroke weed wacker (complete with blade edger attachment). My neighbor confronted him in my driveway and the waste of flesh told him he was the lawncare company that was maintaining my house. My neighbor was suspicious, but the guy had all the right answers, so he went back to his house.

At this point, he saw the friggin loser go into another neighbor's backyard and confronted him again. This time, he insisted that the man leave (carrying what was unknown to my neighbor as my gear). As they were talking, a white Impala pulled up and the booger eater jumped in and they took off. My neighbor ran to his car and followed them (like you) with the dispatcher on the phone. The dispatcher told him to break off because the police were not going to respond.

My neighbor tried to file a complaint (with and description and license plate number), but Norfolk's finest wouldn't let him, stating that he couldn't because it wasn't his property! My brother called and put an end to that madness, but in the end, they still wouldn't serve a warrant because it was what they consider too petty for their work load.

 

[crash]

wHATS wrong with this world? We had an incident where one of our SCUMBAG neighbors threatened my wife to the point to where the 911 dispacher told her to go hide in the bedroom. Well 5 HOURS later the cops showed up--***! And the thing is the cops knew how unstable this person was (they moved out last week but in an 8 month period the cops were there at least 8 time I knew of with one time the kid being taken out by gun point). Well needless to say we are going thru the process of filing a formal complaint because that plain/simply is unexcusable... I thought they were here to SERVE and PROTECT!

 

[FELNTPSY]

Your the man Bill!

 

[Robert Slone]

You should have just plugged him and saved society from any further headaches.

 

[CBRogers]

Good work.

But I am suprised that once you had him out of the vehicle that you did not hold him till cops arrived. Or at least have disabled his vehicle. Seems that you had him at a disadvantage with the Colt.

Carl

 

[Kaiser8]

Good for you. I'm sure that I wouldn't have demonstrated such restraint.

 

[txsbill]

Pluggin along....

My opportunity for "pluggin" him was when he was in my driveway. I wasn't prepared at that time to do it.....After I had followed him five miles away, and he got out unarmed, I was afraid that whole "premeditation" thing might kick in.....I'd hate to be the guy in jail because I shot a scumbag without probable cause.....

 

[Robert Slone]

Yeah, I know you can't really plug 'em and get away with it. But I still say reinstate chain gangs, beans and bread, no tv, barbells, etc. and exercise should be overseen by drill sargents.

Prisons should not be the cushy home away from home that it has become for so many repeat offenders. Screw their rights.

I've been broken into 4 times - once lost enough tools to just about put me out of business. I was left with just the very basic tools I needed for work.

 

[twmattox]

Reminds me of the internet joke that was floating around:

I was going to bed the other night when my wife
told me that I had left the light on in the shed.
She could see from the bedroom window. As I
looked for myself, I saw that there were people
in the shed taking things.

I phoned the police, but they told me that no one
was in this area to help at this time, but they
would send someone over as soon as they were
available. I said OK, hung up, and waited one
minute, then phoned the police back.

"Hello. I just called you a minute ago because
there were people in my shed. Well, you don't have
to worry about them now cause I've shot them all."

Within five minutes there were half a dozen police
cars in the area, an Armed Response unit, the
works. Of course, they caught the burglars red
handed.

One of the officers said: "I thought you said that
you'd shot them!"

I replied with "I thought you said there was
nobody available!"

 

[CBRogers]

I think that I like that response better.

You could always say after the fact that they misunderstood you and that you ment to say the you shot them with a camera.

Just a thought.

But I understand not wanting to shoot an unarmed man, or the trouble that you would get into do that. And it is probably going to work out best for you this way.

I agree that maybe we should be able to get back to more homeowners rights in defending our lives and our property. Might give the bad guys a better respect for others lives.

Carl

 

[scrambler81]

A year or two ago, a guy in Franklin, NJ killed an unarmed man in his backyard, and the grand jury refused to indict him. This creep and his buddy had been robbing people all through this neighborhood for a couple of years, and the cops had done nothing to stop it. It had gotten to the point that he would just steal in broad daylight. So there he was, middle of the afternoon, stealing a quad out of a shed, when the homeowner caught him and told him to stop. He laughed at the guy, and continued what he was doing, so the homeowner shot him in the chest and killed him instantly. They tried to get him for murder, but the grand jury turned it down and he was released. Last I heard, they had not refiled.

 

[BritScrambler]

Bill you're MY HERO TOO! I hope they find this guy and throw away the key! Although I miss my former Texas home, California would take care of HIS BUTT! And (believe me) I know California has many negative issues, but for a proven habitual offender, they are GONE! Yep, three strikes (and the third can be stealing a pack of gum) and away his butt would go!

GOOD JOB TO MY BRO BILL!

BTW, I had the pleasure to have dinner with TxsBill in Houston on Thursday. And heard this story first hand, over TexMex! YUM!!! How much BETTER can it get? Eating TexMex with a SOA Bud, talking about Scramblers and Guns while drinking beer!!! AH YEAH!!!

 

[canzo]

Yeah, I know you can't really plug 'em and get away with it. But I still say reinstate chain gangs, beans and bread, no tv, barbells, etc. and exercise should be overseen by drill sargents.

Prisons should not be the cushy home away from home that it has become for so many repeat offenders. Screw their rights.

You mean like this?....

link to America's 'toughest Sheriff'

 

[Robert Slone]

You mean like this?....

link to America's 'toughest Sheriff'

Exactly!! North Carolina could use a few good men like him.