ExRanger714
Member
We poured a mailbox full of concrete and put it up to stop vandals. It did and we found broken window glass where the bat rebounded and took out a side window.
The Saga of the Pellet Gun Vandal
- Thread starter Faulkner
- Start date
What's the statute of limitations on toilet papering houses?
ExRanger714
Member
Rusty: IIRC it's three good hard rains and a windstorm.
High school industrial TP had the highest velocity.
Leslie Sapp
Member
Pulled up beside my neighbor a few years back. He's standing on the edge of the right of way, digging a new hole for his mail box. The old one is lying there in the bushes, crushed beyond repair.
I asked him, "What's going on, Rick?"
He never stopped working those post hole diggers as he answered, " I'm paying for the hell I raised!"
I asked him, "What's going on, Rick?"
He never stopped working those post hole diggers as he answered, " I'm paying for the hell I raised!"
DeathGrip
US Veteran
Issue Paper. USArmy.
LoboGunLeather
US Veteran
I can't begin to remember all the day shifts I spent going from one vandalism report to another vandalism report, car windows shot out with BB's or pellets, sometimes a hundred or more at a time. Turned in reports by the stack at the end of a shift with no lunch break, no coffee, no doughnuts.
Mailboxes? Yeah, smashed with a baseball bat, or blown up with M80's (stick the fuse through a lit cigarette, makes a good 5-7 minute time delay fuse, allowing easy escape prior to mailboxes starting to explode all down the street).
For a while we dealt with a guy who liked to place a gallon milk jug filled with gasoline under a parked car, plastic wrap over the opening, bundle of kitchen matches taped over the plastic wrap, and the cigarette delay fuse igniting the matches. Totally destroys a car, frequently exploding the gas tank. Don't recall that we ever got that guy.
Potato stuffed into the exhaust pipe of a parked car, owner comes out and tries to start the car. Nine times out of ten the car just won't start due to excessive back pressure. But one in ten cars will have enough compression to fire, blowing the potato out as a projectile that will do serious damage to anything it hits.
Caught a smash-and-grab burglar once, working a downtown shopping area, smash a window, grab a few handfuls of expensive stuff from the display, put it in a self-addressed envelope, and drop it into the mailbox down the block. Pretty smart, but when we caught him that unique MO tied him to over a dozen jobs and he went away for a few years. (NOTE TO SELF: Never again execute a search warrant on a USPS mail box! Way too much hassle.)
My favorite convenience store robbers were two teen brothers. Stop in back of the store, put up a ladder to the roof, then one would go in, rob the store, run around back, climb the ladder to the roof, pull the ladder up after him, then a few hours later the other brother came back to pick up the robber and ladder. Couple of inches of light snow, I followed the footprints out back, disappearing beside the impressions left by the ladder, with one set of tire tracks going down the alley. Sat on the alley from about midnight until 4:30AM, then caught them as they loaded up the ladder in the truck. Ended up clearing 8 armed robberies. (I remember several times that I followed footprints in fresh snow from the scene of a crime to a house where the bad guys were divvying up the loot).
Young cops weren't entirely above all of this. Pimps' cars found parked were entered and the heater/AC ducts sprayed full of Mace. Pimp jumps in his ride, cranks up the heater or AC, and a couple of blocks away wrecks the car. Street walkers working around downtown hotels sometimes found themselves targeted by water balloons or eggs from the hotel roof, then a few minutes later a couple of beat cops would slide out the service entrance at the back of the hotel, moving on to the next crime prevention exercise.
Other peoples' children. What to do with them?
Mailboxes? Yeah, smashed with a baseball bat, or blown up with M80's (stick the fuse through a lit cigarette, makes a good 5-7 minute time delay fuse, allowing easy escape prior to mailboxes starting to explode all down the street).
For a while we dealt with a guy who liked to place a gallon milk jug filled with gasoline under a parked car, plastic wrap over the opening, bundle of kitchen matches taped over the plastic wrap, and the cigarette delay fuse igniting the matches. Totally destroys a car, frequently exploding the gas tank. Don't recall that we ever got that guy.
Potato stuffed into the exhaust pipe of a parked car, owner comes out and tries to start the car. Nine times out of ten the car just won't start due to excessive back pressure. But one in ten cars will have enough compression to fire, blowing the potato out as a projectile that will do serious damage to anything it hits.
Caught a smash-and-grab burglar once, working a downtown shopping area, smash a window, grab a few handfuls of expensive stuff from the display, put it in a self-addressed envelope, and drop it into the mailbox down the block. Pretty smart, but when we caught him that unique MO tied him to over a dozen jobs and he went away for a few years. (NOTE TO SELF: Never again execute a search warrant on a USPS mail box! Way too much hassle.)
My favorite convenience store robbers were two teen brothers. Stop in back of the store, put up a ladder to the roof, then one would go in, rob the store, run around back, climb the ladder to the roof, pull the ladder up after him, then a few hours later the other brother came back to pick up the robber and ladder. Couple of inches of light snow, I followed the footprints out back, disappearing beside the impressions left by the ladder, with one set of tire tracks going down the alley. Sat on the alley from about midnight until 4:30AM, then caught them as they loaded up the ladder in the truck. Ended up clearing 8 armed robberies. (I remember several times that I followed footprints in fresh snow from the scene of a crime to a house where the bad guys were divvying up the loot).
Young cops weren't entirely above all of this. Pimps' cars found parked were entered and the heater/AC ducts sprayed full of Mace. Pimp jumps in his ride, cranks up the heater or AC, and a couple of blocks away wrecks the car. Street walkers working around downtown hotels sometimes found themselves targeted by water balloons or eggs from the hotel roof, then a few minutes later a couple of beat cops would slide out the service entrance at the back of the hotel, moving on to the next crime prevention exercise.
Other peoples' children. What to do with them?
and were you a young beat cop at one time? You don't need to answer. I am sure I know the right answer.
Back in my younger days some of the area youth were into blowing up mail boxes with M-80's. 'Glad those things (M-80s) aren't around any more, as far as I know.
LVSteve
Member
OP
Faulkner
Member
There are people who should not own pets or have children, yet they do it anyway.
The dummy could have picked something cheaper to vandalize. That much car glass is probably $12k - $60k damages. That's a felony, no?
Somebody, he and/or his family, is going to be hurting if the judge and/or insurance companies require restitution to avoid jail time.
Faulkner, that was a nice write up of a sad tale.
Somebody, he and/or his family, is going to be hurting if the judge and/or insurance companies require restitution to avoid jail time.
Faulkner, that was a nice write up of a sad tale.
OP
Faulkner
Member
You have obviously never watched the Netflix series Ozark!
I tried to but everybody was so dad-gum mean I gave up on it.
Beemer-mark
Member
I was maybe 19 and was headed home after a night of heavy drinking (legal age was 18) on a lonely rural highway. The highway was so lonely it would be unusual to meet another vehicle. Number of curves involved and I had previously (along with other friends) not quite made the curves on the narrow road and hit a mail box. Well this night I hit the mail box, went end over end at about 50 mph, took out a power pole that hit the house and went through two fences. Turns out the owner of the mail box decided to mount it on a 4x4 anchored in cement.
Lesson learned was (1) don't drink and drive (2) retaliatory defensive measures may be more expensive that the vandalism. I'm kinda a hard *** but kids are kids and sometimes (all the times?) they do stupid things. In my day Dad knocked you up along side the head and yor worked to fix the vandalism. You didn't go to court, you didn't go to reform school. You just got yupped and worked a lot of week ends to make it right.
I worry today every minor offense is a blot permanently on your record that will follow you forever.
carpriver
US Veteran
when I was much younger I caused some trouble for the city maintaince crew. Not being the brightest bulb on the family tree. I shot out 12 street lights one night with my trusty daisy pump BB gun. I started in front of my house and shot out each one until I got to my friends house.
I did get caught and was required to work off the money it cost to replace the bulbs. I work cutting grass, racking leaves, shoveling snow. My dad was disappointed in me and made sure I worked every day.
I did get caught and was required to work off the money it cost to replace the bulbs. I work cutting grass, racking leaves, shoveling snow. My dad was disappointed in me and made sure I worked every day.
gdnagle
US Veteran
I must have lived a sheltered life or maybe I was afraid if I got caught I 'd get my A** whopped by my mother and worse by my father after she was done with me. Worst things I ever did was dump bubble bath in a small water fountain, man you should have seen the bubbles and that fountain was never that clean before or after, and ring a 10" bell this guy had in his front yard about 12 at night. Heck we were no saints we use to go to the grave yard at night to drink, we never damaged anything although we did sit on tomb stones and got in fist fights. I guess almost 60 years ago most kids respected others property or were afraid of the consequences, remember them days you could receive corporal punishment and your parents never got in trouble.
Glad ya'll caught the vandals. Got to respect LEO ya have a tough job. Lots of kid nowadays aren't taught respect for other people or property. Then you hear the parents take up for them even when their wrong.
Glad ya'll caught the vandals. Got to respect LEO ya have a tough job. Lots of kid nowadays aren't taught respect for other people or property. Then you hear the parents take up for them even when their wrong.
OP
Faulkner
Member
EXACTLY RIGHT.
