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I can't believe I was just witness this morning to the stealing of a truck, --- MY OWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I woke up early this morning, and while checking my e-mails, heard a familiar-sounding engine revving up, then a SMASH, then another rev, then another SMASH!! So I peeked through my blinds to see what idiot neighbor would be making so much noise so early on a peaceful Sunday... only to see in total shock that my own truck was recklessly bashing into my neighbor's parked car in front of me, then speedily driving away all by itself!!!!!!!
The good news is that when I called the police, they came very quickly. I have no idea what the suspect looked like, because I only saw him from my 2nd story apartment window (and the reflection off my truck's windsheild prevented me from seeing ANYbody behind the driver's seat).
Just to help myself get over the shock, I e-mailed my brother and sister-in-law, as well as a few friends (including Bill C. from here). As is my tendency whenever I can't believe something weird is happening to me, I make a few jokes about it... One of my dance friends just e-mailed me back, asking, "How can you sound so damn cheerful when your truck was just stolen? Are you sure you're not going to suddenly become an axe murderder?" I e-mailed him back reassuring him with the following words: "Professional Axe-murdering will indeed become a new career change for me in my future: but, not until after I find out who the hell just stole my truck!!!!"
- Ken
Wow Ken, sorry to hear about the truck and I hope it all works out for you and thanks for putting a smile on my face this morning with your great attitude. It is a wierd Sunday, I was here working on a site for a friend when I heard a drip drip drip! UGGGG I went into my bathroom only to find I have a leak in my roof!! I have never had anything like this with my house,and I don't think it has rained here for 3 months!! So I crawled into the attic and sure enough a leak around a pipe, I guess my doing sense I put the roof on, so much for contracting for me and roofs, although I did put it on 4 years ago. No fixing today, just a few towels in the attic and off to a family thing, can't fix it today, still raining to hard, maybe tomorrow. Now I feel better about it thanks to your positive outlook. Thanks and I wish you the best on the truck!
As one of my few all-time favorite presences here, KEN (!), it bereaves ME to hear of your vehicle gettin' "pinched" . . . but also your fumingness and roiling bloodthirsty sentiment over meteing out vengeance. Duuude! Jus' getcher wheels back and (blank) gettin' back at the culprit! That's best left up to the squints and peace officers and law technicians.
Reminds me o/t time I and my (then) Gothette girlfriend, Sheryl, had parked her Jetta right outside a cemetery under a street lamp in Manhattan. "This oughta be safe", we ascertained. Wehyulllll, not so; as we partied to our favorite Goth line-up within the walls o/t world-renowned Limelight a block away, a former church decommissioned into a nightclub, someone was busily absconding with HER car. It was later seen that night in Harlem. No one ever found it, though. Parts overseas?
Hey, don'tcha think that I, too, wanted to mete out Justice, aah, sweet Justice, whenafter havin' been robbed, at knifepoint, by a very scary dude, in an elevator (1981 - NYC) with nobody around to come to my aid? Fortunately, Someone up there likes me. I accrued nary a scratch but it did hurt my economic leverage for a little while.
Good luck in reclaiming your mode of transportation, Ken; we'll HELP ya find it! Say, just outta curiosity, how expensive would've that OnStar g.p.t. thingamajig really have been anyway?
I guess this is why peops spend such astronomical fees on car park parking. Keep us posted. Best to you and Even always.
Yours in reclaiming what's rightfully yours,
Quenyan
Hi Ken,
I am so sorry to hear about this idiot stealing your truck. I sure hope the police catch this guy, and give him the punishment he so rightfully deserves.
I am amazed at your wonderful sense of humour in what would be a VERY stressful thing for most people.
Take care,
David
Sorry to hear about the theft of your truck, Ken. I've never personally experienced a robbery of this caliber, although my uncle had thousands of dollars worth of power tools and hardware stolen from his house (while my 8 and 10 year old niece and nephew were in the house no less!). Its a pretty terrible ordeal, and I'm glad to see you're taking this pretty well.
Best wishes for recovery of your truck,
Ryan
That is always depressing. I've never had a car stolen, touch wood, but I've had motorcycles stolen before. Each time I got them back, although one time I had to replace the ignition switch. Yes, one of the cruder techniques used to start vehicles is to literally hammer a screwdriver into the ignition so they can turn it on! Until I got a new ignition switch I had to disconnect the battery every time I left the bike (which worked because the seat was locked down on top of the battery with a key to protect a storage compartment and a helmet hook).
There was an eye witness who saw the thieves abandon the bike, but she said they were skinheads and then contradicted herself by saying that she could see they weren't wearing helmets because she could see their long hair blowing in the wind! Long haired skinheads, no less! Obviously, she knew damn well who they were, but was frightened of them, or specifically she thought they would beat up her son if she told.
The other bike they hotwired from inside the headlamp shell, and simply let the retaining screws fall in the gutter and taped it back on, which was less costly but still annoying. That bike was found abandonned at an old folk's home! No-one saw anyone because the residents all went to bed early.
Statistically, their is a good chance you will get your truck back, although you already know it is damaged because you saw it driven into your neighbour's vehicle, and neither of you will get anything from insurance unless you have full coverage. Most likely, it will be found abandonned within the area, and the perp will never be found. Most stolen vehicles are abandonned within a few hours, but it can take days for anyone to notice an abandonned vehicle.
OTOH, if it is late model and a very common model, then there is a chance it will be broken for parts and never seen again in one piece. I hope you are insured for theft.
I've never really owned anything late model and popular myself, because I am not very mainstream in my taste in vehicles and have either bought used or just kept new vehicles until they were very old and wouldn't go another mile.
Only high value vehicles (think nothing cheaper than a BMW or Merc) are stolen for sale in one piece, because they have to be shipped to some country where no questions are asked. I don't think that applies to trucks. Despite the high sticker prices they aren't regarded as status symbols in the third world. So you truck will either show up in a few days, or the pieces of it will wind up in crooked repair shops.
Good luck!
Speaking of humor over this....
I mentioned to Ken in a private e-mail that most thefts of older vehicles like his truck are not for parts or resale, they are for transportation, and many such vehicles are found right here in town. Since this city is covered extensively by bus service that only costs $1.50 to get anywhere, but jokes about bad service are rampant as is the case with any city system, my comment to Ken was, "Well, I guess somebody's bus didn't come!"
Its being a truck, its being in the Mission district where many construction workers live, and its takers being thieves, my thought is that it is most probable that it is now ripping off construction sites for tools....
Bill
So, Ken, I hope you've reported it stolen so when some bandits wreaking havoc get caught you won't be associated with them. They are probably driving around with your tag still on it! Criminals aren't very smart usually.
On the good side, maybe you can get a new vehicle out of your insurance company.
Translation: "tag" is Southernese for "license plate". We know where you live now, Bragi, if we didn't know you lived in Georgia already. [grin]
Most San Francisco streets have weekly street sweeping and most stolen cars that are recovered were soon abandoned and are later found by the meter maids. If there is no plate on the vehicle or the plate does not match the year and make of the vehicle, they run the VIN number.
But they will know it is Ken's truck by its cab full of long blond sheddings!
Bill
OK, so what you call the place where you go buy your "license plate"? We call that part of the courthouse the "tag office."
This is one thing that surprised me; I thought "car tag" was a national term! Seriously, I'm not joking! HA!
I always call it the "tag" as well. And where we get the tag we call it the "tag place". Miami isn't really "southern" at all and people round here call it the tag. So, Yes, the "tag"...........
On their web site the term "tag" is occasionally used, but it is generally to describe the tiny sticker that you put in the corner of your license plate each year to renew it. People usually call it a "renewal sticker". For the metal plates, they almost always call them either "plates" or "license plates", or in some places they may refer to them as part of the general process of "vehicle registration".
I have heard the term "tag" used for "license plates", but it has always been in the South.
Bill
I'll add that I first heard the term "tag" soon after we moved to Florida, and that was in 1957. This is a variant in American English that has been in existence for half a century!
Bill
In England it's a number plate, but here in Maryland it's either a licence plate or a tag.
Maryland is on the border between the North and the South, so that makes sense. Isn't "licence" a British word though? I'd bet in Maryland it is "license".
Most places in the U.S., if not all, call the data on the plate the "license number", although most states quit putting just numbers (the numerals 0-9) on their plates about forty years ago. We got too many cars and they ran out of numbers. I remember when Illinois got up to 1999999 they could not go higher because a "2" in front would have been too fat to fit on the plate. I haven't seen the plates called "number plates" anywhere in the U.S. though, so that indeed must be a British term.
Bill
The number on the plate is a registration number in England, not a licence number, and it stays with the vehicle whoever owns it. The plates are not issued, but made in the local car accessory shop (auto parts store), but the cops all have access from their cars to the central database, so if the reg. no. doesn't match up with the make, model and colour (or the VIN if they get that close), they know as soon as they run a check.
The registration itself is often referred to as a log book, from when it used to be a booklet in days gone by, but it's not really the same thing that Americans call a registration, it's really equivalent to what Americans call a title (the old booklets used to have the whole chain of title, with a new owner on each page). You also need a road fund licence (road fun licence, LOL) aka tax disc. Brits also have a driving licence, not a driver's licence.
Many common car parts have different names too. The hood is called the bonnet, the trunk is the boot, the windshield is the windscreen, turn signals are indicators, the gas pedal is the accelerator pedal, tires are tyres, fenders are wings, half axles are half-shafts (but an axle is an axle), a four-cycle engine is a four-stroke engine, a wrench is a spanner, and British disc brakes actually have discs in them, not rotors (LOL)!
Two nations divided by a common language.
When I lived in suburban Philadelphia, PA, it was a plate. Here in MD, either plate or tag is used. South of the Mason-Dixon, tag comes into use, so I guess it must be a southern thing.
Carol
Yeah your on to somethin here.
That really sucks, Ken. I'm very sorry to hear this happened to you. Let's hope the case gets solved quickly.
Ken this really sucks, I hope you get your tuck back. Is car theft very common in SF? (I'm moving to the Sunset in july.)
Hi Ken,
I'm sorry to hear about your situation on what should be a wonderful day and do hope that the police catch the culprit and find your track. It's just the inconvenience of not having wheels and yes having insurance as a safe guard. But some times insurers can take a while to sort these things out.
Still good to see you are in good spirits and that's how it can be in life these days, is nothing safe!
Cheers,
John.B
Thanks so much to all who replied! To save time, I'll answer questions and comments below in this thread, rather than reply to everyone individually...
But, first of all, an update: no news is "good" news??? I have a phone # to call and check up on my case #; but, so-far, they have neither found the truck nor the thief (the latter of which I could give the police no physical description of, anyway).
Now to answer the questions and comments I remember in your replies...
Bragi: Yes, I reported the stolen vehicle to the police IMMEDIATELY, --- so, no worries there!
Tosh: Apparently theft of cars in SF can be pretty common. I just found this out today, in fact! The policeman that came to my apartment door this morning just so happened to casually mantion how many stolen cars in SF happend just TODAY, --- and as of around 7AM, the # he mentioned was already over 30!!!!! The Sunset District is a bit quieter and tamer part of the city than where I live, though.
Electros: Thanks for all the statistical info as well as the story of your stolen motorcycle... now I'm even more depressed (lol)!!
Bill: Yes, I can just envision the thief joy-riding in my truck, and now adding to that by ripping off construction sites for their tools! As far as my blonde sheddings in the truck... I hope the thief is a skin head, jealous as hell that I have hair (lol)!!
Quenyan: I hope you know I was only kidding about becoming an axe-murderer. My real desire for a career change, once the thief gets caught, is to bring out a chain-saw while I force him to watch The Texas Chain Saw Massacre!
Again, thanks to all for replying below, --- very kind of you! I am doing fine. BUT.... I am looking in my garage for one small item to make me fell better... now, where the heck did I put that chain saw?
- Ken
I am amazed that you even came here to post or even could think about it after that. I suppose you can't do much more about it than you did with the police. I imagine that the truck was pretty critical for your job though so I sure hope you can come up with a temporary solution so your income isnt threatened by this damn criminal.
Hope this mess is straightened out and they find your truck and you have no hassles with the insurance company. Unlikely I know but we can hope!
Sorry to hear this Ken, hopefully you'll get your truck back, i know exactly how it feels to be robbed of something, i once had my wallet stolen by some thief and i don't think i've ever been as angry, now you go find that chainsaw and plan you revenge, haha just kiddin! lol:D
Sorry to hear about this, Ken. Hopefully, The petty crooks that stole the truck get caught and you can repossess whats rightfully yours. Take it easy Ken. I'm sure everything will work out alright.
That really sucks Ken! I hope your insurance co. can act quickly enongh so you can at least get a rental truck. Good luck.
Bruce
Oh
Ken
Sorry to hear about your truck I hope you get it back or at the very least get reburst for it in someway or another as it will be unfair if you lose out altogether on it Its probably a guy with a buzzcut who nicked it in the first place
Let us know what happens or any news you get on your truck take care Ken
Axel
HI Ken, sorry to hear about your truck woes...damn...one of those city things I guess. Must have made you totally pissed. I hope rectifying the situation is not too cumbersome...well maybe for the perp at least. :-)
On an up note, I was just in the city for the Folsom Fair today and I did see quite a few longhairs walking around, which made me feel a little more comfortable...since about 98% of the guys had fade/buzzcuts.
Hope you have a non-eventful week upcoming.
Max L.
I hope the guy who stole it has a jealous GF. Why? 'cause he's gonna have some 'splainin to do about all those long hairs clinging to his clothes! Sometimes natural consequences, ie 'Karma', is the best revenge (insert evil grin here)
Carol