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Thieves hit me about 5 years ago.

Warning: Long post

My daughter, son in law, and 2 grandkids were spending a couple of days at my place. My place is at the end of a private road and somewhere around 200 yards from the county road.

My daughter called in the morning and told me that a 4 wheeler was missing. They had ridden them the day before and it was stolen overnight. I drove the 70 miles up there and called the County Sheriffs office. They came out and filled out paperwork.

I got on the other bike to find out where they had gone on the place and how they got out since we always keep the front gate locked overnight. That's when I found out that my 16 ft tandem axle trailer was also missing. The guy had evidently pushed the bike a hundred yards and then started it, rode it about 300 yards to the trailer and pulled the trailer off of my place, through a couple of other places and exited onto the highway.

The trailer was insured but I found out that, although my State Farm Agent had told me that the bike was covered by my homeowners policy, it really wasn't.

I felt violated and got mad. I figure that 99.9% of theft involves drugs and druggies and that they thief would sell them. I also figured that the thief wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut. As the old saying goes, there's no honor among thieves.

I called the Sheriffs Office and discussed a plan that they agreed to. I ran an ad in the local/free shopper newspaper offering a $500 reward for info leading to the arrest of the thieves and the return of the bike and trailer. On the advice of the Sheriffs Office I did not disclose the size of the trailer or specific information make or color of the bike.

The calls started coming in. The first 3 or 4 were scams agreeing to meet me somewhere with the trailer and/or bike and to bring the $. I wasn't born yesterday and told them to call the Chief Deputy at the Sheriffs Office. As expected, they were reluctant to do that. Then, the right call came in. Even now, I can't or won't, identify the caller due to the danger involved to them. The caller, another druggie, did call the Sheriff and identified the thief but had to do some digging to find out where my stuff was.

The thief was arrested but got bailed out within a week. He is a 40 something druggie and career criminal. To the best of my knowledge, he was never sent to the pen but was made to pay a fine to the county. It's called restitution and the $ goes to the county.

The bike had been traded to a wrecking yard in Randlett Oklahoma. A CID Sergeant from the Texas Dept of Public Safety called his counterparts in Oklahoma and got the ok to go across the state line and get the bike. Then the snitch found out who the thief had traded the trailer to. It had actually been sold twice and I had to go to JP Court and prove it was mine.

The bike had a ruined tire and the trailer had a burnt place on one of the floor boards. All in all, it cost me about $1,000 for the thief to drop by. But, I did get my stuff back.

Lessons learned. I now keep all of my trailers locked at the ball and a cable around the axle. The bike keys are removed even during the day when we know we will be riding them again that day. The bikes are also now insured but not by State Farm. I use Texas Farm Bureau for all of my equipment and mobile home. Since they are stolen so frequently, the insurance premiums are pretty high.

It's depressing to know that my stuff is vulnerable and I thought of just selling the place and all of the "stuff". But the County Sheriff says it is unlikely that I will be hit again. They figure that every druggie for 4 Counties around know who I am and that I will put a bounty on their butt. I doubt that is true and figure, like all non resident landowners, that I will get hit again.

I ran another ad in the local shopper thanking the Sheriffs office and TDPS for the successful return of my stuff and the arrest of the thief.

About 2 months after the incident I was at the local county trades day. A local friend pointed out the thief to me. I went over and identified myself to him. When I gave him my name he started protesting his innocence. You would have thought that I had told him I was the Outlaw Josey Wales. I told him that if my place was hit again I would figure he had something to do with it and that the next reward would be $10,000 and I wouldn't care whether I got my stuff back. A couple of days later the Sheriff called me and said that the guy had called them and said that I had threatened his life. However, he said that the guy was a known thief and liar so they weren't worried about it. He also said if the guy was reported missing that they wouldn't spend much time investigating.