Handling thieves

Talked to a buddy if mine this afternoon that has a farm right close to me. He rarely stays on the place anymore and, like many in the area, he has had more than his share of items stolen off of the place lately.
This afternoon he caught a couple guys and a girl trying to steal even more stuff. He called the cops, and they came out and did their thing, and asked him if he was going to press charges or not. He said considered things for a bit and came up with a plan. Said he knew if he went to court he'd have to waste alot of time and that it really wouldn't accompish anything but getting them a slap on the wrist that wouldn't accompish anything. So, he "made them a deal they couldn't refuse". Basically, he had a bunch of old rusty barrels, misc scrap, and other debris that had been in his way for years and he hadn't had the time or inclination to get cleaned up. He told them that if they wanted his stuff so bad, then they could have the profit off the old barrels and other stuff, but, to get it they had three days to get everthing cleaned up in a manner that met his expectations or he would go ahead and press charges against them for the stuff he had caught them trying to steal......Too, he now knew who they were now and if anything else ever came up missing they would be the first ones on his list to visit looking for it. He said for better, or worse, they were busting their a$$es cleaning up the mess for him when he left.

Now that's the way it ought to be.

Interesting, but I would not have done that deal, court time or not.
I would have offered that clean-up deal to the local FFA, or high school kids, or youth-group, more deserving and rewarding, than rewarding a crime. It will only confirm that there is nothing to loose: we don't get caught =$$, we do get cought =wiggling and making $$ nonetheless ("... but farmer XYZ let us clean up his place as punishment when we got caught, officer...")
Having said that: Just my personal opinion, he obviously felt different and it was his stuff, not mine.

I have to agree with Bauer.

Years ago I stumbled into a domestic violence situation. Husband was punching the wife in front of two small children. Broke her nose and blood was everywhere.

I called the police. When they arrived I was apalled at what the police said to the wife. They were discouraging the wife from filing charges because "he doesn't have a record and all he will get is a hand slap". Well, duh! You have to start somewhere.

This lady was from a good middle class family - she called her dad and he came to help. I met him. Found out from her this was not the first instance. If she had filed the first time it happened, we wouldn't have been there that night because it would have meant jail time.

A local garage owner did that, and the kids found the sewer clean out trap and filled it with cans and bottles. After the dig out, he has the only clean out with a ten foot tall pipe!

Just my opinion.

Now they will get away with nothing tied to their name. ie. charges, that may or may not be dropped.

So if this happens again in the future, there is no record, and the get treated as a first time offender... again and again.

To me this is not much different than hiring a high paid lawyer to get rid of charges.

Rick

(quoted from post at 22:20:38 04/12/12) Talked to a buddy if mine this afternoon that has a farm right close to me. He rarely stays on the place anymore and, like many in the area, he has had more than his share of items stolen off of the place lately.
This afternoon he caught a couple guys and a girl trying to steal even more stuff. He called the cops, and they came out and did their thing, and asked him if he was going to press charges or not. He said considered things for a bit and came up with a plan. Said he knew if he went to court he'd have to waste alot of time and that it really wouldn't accompish anything but getting them a slap on the wrist that wouldn't accompish anything. So, he "made them a deal they couldn't refuse". Basically, he had a bunch of old rusty barrels, misc scrap, and other debris that had been in his way for years and he hadn't had the time or inclination to get cleaned up. He told them that if they wanted his stuff so bad, then they could have the profit off the old barrels and other stuff, but, to get it they had three days to get everthing cleaned up in a manner that met his expectations or he would go ahead and press charges against them for the stuff he had caught them trying to steal......Too, he now knew who they were now and if anything else ever came up missing they would be the first ones on his list to visit looking for it. He said for better, or worse, they were busting their a$$es cleaning up the mess for him when he left.

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Those kids got a chance to LEARN that hard work DOES have its rewards, and they were given the opportunity to actually EARN some money at the same time. The kids learned a very valuable lesson, a lesson they WOULD NOT have learned by going to jail.

If they eventually forget that lesson, and continue on with a life of crime, THEN they need to be punished and sent up the river.

That kind of lesson only works on the right kind of kid.

Unfortunately, some are hopeless causes that should have their record started as soon as possible to get them out of our society as soon as possible (these days, it takes a LONG record to actually get somebody off the streets).

You can usually sum up a kid pretty quickly as to whether or not they're a lost cause.

I'm assuming your friend made the determination that they weren't, and made a good decision.

Good kids can do stupid things - hopefully this was that kind of situation, and they'll learn a good lesson.

I hope for your friends sake that he got it right, because with the wrong kid(s), that could lead to all sorts of "retribution" later, and he'll be sorry he didn't just press the charges when he had the chance.

I think you had a good plan. We had few $100 worth of pumpkins stollen three years ago. Two girls took them along with our sign. Well 5 other girls ratted out the two thieves cause they didn't like them. Well we got the sheriff involved and the two girls and the one's mother wanted to bring the pumpkins back. We stood outside our garage for almost an hour as I chewed on them. (I actually enjoyed it..LOL) Well I wouldn't let them return them that wed night and told them to bring them back Sat morning in the daylight. The mother said well you have lites in your garage can't you look at them tonite in there?? I said "they stole from me once, I'm not letting them in my garage". The two girls came back with mom and grandma on Sat morning. My wife knew the mom and grandma. The mother decided that the girls should pay for them rather than return them. I was very much pleased with the money rather than the pumpkins. I made them sit and think about it from Wed nite to Sat morning. I felt that was punishment enough. They stole them on a Sunday nite, we found out on the following tuesday and the following saturday they were paid for. I just laugh about it now but at the time I was royally PO..

Almost everyone on here replies as if it was clear from the post that the "couple guys and a girl" were juveniles, under 18.... Getting parents involdes is a good thing, at a minimum. However, many times parents have very little authority over their offsprings, so a firm response, even from "the arm of the law", is needed. But I did not hear of parents in this case. Adults DO know better. Since he is missing stuff not for the first time, they are either repeat offenders, coming back for more, found out about "easy pickin'" from other like minded ones who had "liberated" his belongings prior or are first timers getting caught........ I guess all the other times he ended up missing things do/did not count. And what about the possibility that they have done this to other folks before.....??

That is one thing I've always had a hardline stance against, well that and theft. I will never know why some women tolerate a physically violent significant other, but they do.

Years back while working in the construction industry, in our office, there was a woman in accounting, that came in with 2 black eyes, said a car accident, air bag went off. Okay, soon there after, it happens again. Now the partners in the company were alarmed, very concerned and let her know of their support in anything she needed to get out of this situation. She was a very nice person, co-worker, with a pleasant personality, attractive and had a son from a previous marriage whom was also dealing with this. She says she loves the man whom is abusing her, just can't end it, and this is what gets me, a person will stay committed to such abuse. It kept going on. Seeing this womans battered face started to become disturbing, everyday after being in the field dealing with the ironworkers I would come to the office to do my work, just could not concentrate knowing what was going on, yet you can't do a darned thing. I marched into the office, told the partners, if the offending jerk ever steps foot into this office, (as he would pick her up sometimes) law or no law, I'll take care of it, just like I take care of any other business at hand, I used to have a way about me, could care less who I told what, owner/CEO does not matter, still like that today, he also knew I would get it done, just like the work I did. I used to handle and deal with jerks in the business for them, this guy was not going to be any different.

Don't you know, she finally ended up getting some help and out of that situation, I left the company around that time, but it sure was good to know that she was no longer being violently abused.

Personally, I cannot believe the things I see in the news today, what people do to one another is hard to believe, most of the time over nothing. I always said whats the point of arguing and fighting, when in a 1/2 hour you won't remember what you're fighting over LOL!

These are lessons best learned at a young age. I remember when I was a little boy, about 5 or 6 years old. My mother was shopping in a 5 & dime. I saw a small bottle of Elmers glue. I had seen my older brothers using Elmers glue and I thought it was just the cats meow. Well, I picked it up and fiddled with it. When we left the store, I had it in my pocket. There was only one car in our family and my father had that at work, so my mother had walked with me to the store (I think it was about 3 miles or so). When we got home, she saw me playing with the Elmers glue. She knew pretty much where I had gotten it. She immediately marched me all the way back to the store. She pushed me through the door (I really didn't want to go) and made me go up to this huge man behind the counter and return what I had taken. She then paid for it and left it on the counter when we went home. I still remember how I felt that afternoon to this day.

Christopher

(quoted from post at 21:44:30 04/13/12) These are lessons best learned at a young age. I remember when I was a little boy, about 5 or 6 years old. My mother was shopping in a 5 & dime. I saw a small bottle of Elmers glue. I had seen my older brothers using Elmers glue and I thought it was just the cats meow. Well, I picked it up and fiddled with it. When we left the store, I had it in my pocket. There was only one car in our family and my father had that at work, so my mother had walked with me to the store (I think it was about 3 miles or so). When we got home, she saw me playing with the Elmers glue. She knew pretty much where I had gotten it. She immediately marched me all the way back to the store. She pushed me through the door (I really didn't want to go) and made me go up to this huge man behind the counter and return what I had taken. She then paid for it and left it on the counter when we went home. I still remember how I felt that afternoon to this day.

Christopher

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Chris, you were or are blessed with a good mother. From what I see on the news and I hate to say it, but that's something our society is really lacking today more and more.