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The Mean Pettiness Of Theft
I own a travel trailer and use it to take my family on vacations. It is a great way to see the nation while still taking your home with you, it avoids hotels, and it lets you spend your nights in some absolutely gorgeous areas. Only hiking and tent camping will get you further into the wilderness. The downside to the trailer, though, is storing it when it is not in use. I rent a spot at a local storage lot. Last night that lot was raided by a team of thieves.
We got the call this afternoon from the lot manager, telling us that we needed to get down and patch things up, take an inventory, and file a police report on what was stolen. There were around 30 RVs on the lot, and nearly every one had been raided. The thieves moved quickly, smashing the window on the door, slashing the screen within, then letting themselves in. They only stole what they thought they could fence, so they left the sheets and towels, the crock pot, the iron skillet, and (strangely enough) the septic hose fittings. They tried to bust into a side compartment where I keep the hitch ball and tools, but must have deemed it a waste of time (and scrap metal dealers operate under massive scrutiny here).
The only RVs left unmolested were the obviously-older, dingier ones. My in-laws’ RV, for instance, was untouched probably because their rusty old Jeep Cherokee signaled that nothing of value was within. I lost a 21″ flat screen Samsung TV ($150 when new 3 years ago) and a $40 off-brand DVD player. They broke the TV wall mount in the process, so I would not be surprised if the TV itself was busted too. Street value through a fence: maybe $40 in all?
Cost to repair: (1) $15.00 glass panel, plus sealant, plus 2+ hours in the car to get the glass, plus clean up time. Not worth even filing a claim. I was lucky. Some RVs have safety glass in all of the windows (mine included) which made clean up rather easy. Several did not and the owners will have to be rather careful. Vacations have been ruined for many people as the RV dealership garages are booked solid right now. Several units will likely have more expensive repairs (my trailer is pretty cheap).
I’m guessing the likely fence value for everything stolen can’t have been more than $1,000; valuables are just not kept in RVs when in storage. I’m guessing the total damage to be between $3,000 and $4000. Such is always the way of vandalism.
When in high school, my own car was perpetually in the shop, meaning I got to drive my mother’s Chrysler Lebaron convertible. One night I left my $30 off-brand walkman in the car, and some jerk slashed the top for it. That was an $800 repair, for an item with a fence value of maybe $10.
I know the thieves don’t care. $1,000 for an hour’s raid probably seems like a good return to them, but then they don’t have to tell their kids and watch them break down sobbing. They don’t have to clean up the mess. They probably think that this was some sort of social justice, revenge against the fat cats. They might even boast of their munificence at not smashing the whole RV to bits – my parents’ RV was broken into once and the vandals defecated in the shower.
Yet vandalism is always so petty – minuscule and momentary gains for the thieves, at the cost of far greater physical and emotional damage to the victims. The thieves in Baltimore think themselves justified in smashing liquor stores and pharmacies, and burning senior centers to the ground. They got their fun, they had their adrenaline rush, and they got away with it. The thieves here will likely never be caught either, just as they were never caught with the Lebaron.
My expenses here were thankfully minimal, and the physical damage is already repaired. The owner of the storage lot, however, has already lost customers, will see his insurance rates go up, and will have to spend a great deal to upgrade his security and repair his reputation. That sort of damage is long lasting and never totally repairable. If the thieves just needed a quick grand, I would gladly have paid them in cash and spared us all from the mess. Heck, I could have employed them actually making things and adding to the wealth of the community.
Instead, the wealth of our community is diminished tonight, and we have yet more reasons to watch our backs and be wary.
Published in Domestic Policy
Can it be made small enough to just take out one person and not destroy your $30,000 coach? Other than replacing the door and cleaning up the mess? Video was fine.
Despite there being nothing of monetary value within, my cottage is semi-regularly broken into during the winter. Ice fishermen take furniture to use as firewood.
Yeesh. Time to buy plastic furniture.
Where are our Leftist friends to explain how the thieves were just trying to communicate their dissatisfaction with our unjust society, and that this is the type of desperation that is the inevitable result of inadequate public assistance programs. Or maybe there needs to be more midnight basketball, or universal pre-K.
I’m on the Board of Directors of non-profit that does had some educational outreach programs in inner city schools. One of our participants (we don’t have any employees, it’s all volunteers) had their catalytic converter stolen in the parking lot of the school during the 2 hour window she was in the school during daylight hours.
I had a convertible Miata for many years (you can take any derisive comments on that to the PIT) and the top was slashed multiple times. The only thing of value inside was loose change in the ashtray. A new top was about $800 and my deductible was about $500. I just stopped locking the doors unless I was in a parking garage, but then I worried about the increased likelihood of it getting stolen altogether. This turned me off convertibles for years even though I moved up in the income world and started to have secure garage parking.
Well if you place it right the mess goes on the other guys trailer, but no seriously this would be bad.
After InSTUgator told me the story of his Miata I stopped making jokes. Ask him sometime to tell it, it was a cool story.
Don’t know they don’t just call it the MX5 like they do in the rest of the world, I think the name is responsible for the jokes.
And THROUGH the other guy’s trailer too.
@skip, maybe I will. Until then, I will just say that after a while, a male heterosexual Miata driver required thick skin (and it was my only car for 13 years, though three of those it was in storage while I lived overseas).
Owning a Miata (which I still think is one of the greatest cars in last 25 years) requires the thick skin that allows to me function on the internet without routinely resorting to the Whambulence.
As for the name, it is no longer technically called a Miata in the US, but I don’t think the name had anything to do with its reputation. The personality traits of the typical driver drove the reputation, not the name.
That okay Asquared of the two types of men who own Miatas I see you as the second type. The scary guys who tell you how fast they got there Miata going at the track last weekend and spend their weekends trying to get more horsepower out of the system.
Metal furniture. Iron.
Seawriter
Skip, I’m very sorry to hear this. It’s not the value of stuff so much as the shape of life, and the sense of violation.
Society is worth defending. If a few more turds got shot and killed, there would be far fewer turds.
Or some draconian punishment. That sort of petty theft probably doesn’t carry much of a jail sentence, but if you charge it as 30 counts to run consecutively his beard will be gray when he gets out.
I don’t buy furniture for the cottage. I pick up whatever furniture I can find at the curb on garbage day. ;-)
The new one is getting rave reviews and it it looks pretty cool too.
You know what I would rather see is instead of longer sentences I want to see reinstitution or expansion of work camps. What do these guys want after all? A quick buck. So make them spend 60 days doing trail maintenance or pulling ivy or planting trees. Work them from sun up to sun down and only give them Sundays off. Make them realise it would be much easier to get a job and work for the money then to come back to the prison labor camp.
One time some unfortunate indigent smashed a window to gain access to my vehicle, the clean up was more annoying than the expense of repair but the kicker is this they didn’t even bother with the loose change in the ashtray. However they did take a squeegee I kept in the trunk, it was all they took.
Clearly a jobs program is the answer.
There are some stealth hot rods in the works there:
(not coc compliant)
Works for me. I was emphasizing the draconian part. Make it too expensive to do.
Unfortunately, I got into driving on the track after I sold my first Miata. I now wish I had started driving on the track in it, and I occasionally think about buying a spec-Miata. When I sold it, I didn’t have the space for a third car and I still don’t have the space for a trailer, which I means I would have to pay to park it somewhere which means I would be subject to the vagaries of criminals like the OP.
An aspiring squeegeeman, seeking to keep capital costs low, obviously.
Seawriter
I recently watched Cool Hand Luke for the first time.
My reaction to the conditions the convicts lived under was, “that doesn’t actually seem so bad. At least nobody’s getting shivved, and the rules don’t even seem terribly onerous.”
Yes, yes, I know it was just a movie. One presumes it wasn’t a 100% accurate portrayal of a genuine work camp.
Yes indeed, but to the followers, there are some concerns about the underpowered engine.
At a bare minimum, I’m going to wait until all the bugs are worked out of the new model unless I wind up buying one of the new factory prepared Spec Racers they are selling to replace the old MX-5 Cup series (which were built by the teams not the factory).
I was just trying to find a youtube of the ‘get your dirt out of the bosses ditch’ scene.
One time I took out all the “wallet stuffers” I had in my wallet (loyalty card businesses cards etc) and dropped them in my ash tray. The were all stolen (fortunately I left the door unlocked). I would love the see the reaction when they didn’t find any credit cards……..but I was really close to a free bento.
I had the occasion to drive past the burned out CVS on North Avenue in Baltimore yesterday. Even in its present condition, it was by far the nicest thing in that neighborhood.
Now it is gone and for what? A free can of Pringles?
Pure discrimination. But what right do you deny those with criminal convictions gainful employment? Ban the Box!
I love that these fellows are, “focused mainly on government agencies and public hiring practices”, ever wonder how so many crooks end up in government?
I sympathize. I once had a $300 convertible top slashed and all the thief stole was my gearshift knob. What he thought he was going to do with it I can’t guess.
Especially the kinds that give off hydrogen cyanide when burned. Darwin Awards!
I am so sorry your time and aggravation were used so meanly here, Skip.