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I HATE a thief...

78Bronco

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Alright...I gotta vent!!! There is an old house on family property that was built sometime in the late 1800's/early 1900's. My family lived there for years and years, but it has been "abandoned" for about 10yrs now. The house is, well...was, packed full of old antique furniture and historic documents relating to my heritage that went all the way back to 1792 when they came over from Germany. Well, Friday of last week we found out that someone had broken into the back of the house, the part that can't be seen from the road, and has trashed the place and stolen God knows how much stuff. It appears they have been coming and going for months (beat down paths in the grass). They flipped the whole place and there is literally a min of 2-4" of stuff on the floors throughout the entire house with it knee deep in places. They pulled stuff out of every closet, pulled every piece of furniture off the walls, dumped out every drawer, flipped every mattress and seat cover, pulled every thing out of the attacks, snatched books off bookshelves, took pictures off walls and ripped the backs out of them, and the list goes on and on and on.... If that wasn't enough, they went through the barns that are still standing and dug stuff out of them too. Hell, there was an old syrup boiler in the yard and they had dumped all the water out of it the Thu night before we discovered what was going on. I could tell because it was nearly empty and all the muck that was in it was next to it on the ground and still very wet. So, Sat morning bright and early my wife and I began the task of trying to get what valuable we could identify out of the house. We literally worked at that from 8:30 sat morn till dark and did the same again Sun. There is more stuff to get, but fighting to find time during the work week. When leaving the house Sat we tried to secure and lock the place up as best as we could and wouldn't you know it...those bastards came back Sat night. They didn't go back in the house but the same set of tracks pulled in and out of every entrance that goes to the house. Guess the new locks on gates and our tracks coming and going spooked them. The local sheriffs dept is I "involved" but I get the feeling making a report is the extent of their involvement at this point. For example, there was a V8 drink can on a pc of furniture by the door that had obviously been from Thu night (liquid still wet in the rim of the can) and the officers didn't even offer to take it for finger prints!! Now, I'm not trying to upset any of our LE folks. My dad was a cop and police chief for years and I love and respect the men and women in blue. That just seemed like a no brainer to us but seemed like a bother to the responding officer and detective. I have given lots of consideration to spending a few nights there in the hall with a shotgun and shooting whoever comes around but I'm sure that would be frowned upon by the local authorities.

I don't know...don't what good typing this has/will do other than raise my blood pressure again. I guess I will leave it like this. If you stumble across this post and you are someone who doesn't have enough morals to know that trespassing on other peoples property (posted or not), entering into a dwelling/barn that you do not personally own, and taking stuff contained within is not wrong; let me be reassure you that it IS wrong. Doesn't matter how run down and deserted it may look, it is not yours and you need to respect that and stay the f#@k out! Also, if you are one of these scumbags...I hope with every ounce of my being that someone comes and takes everything you own destroys what you do have and cherish.

Thanks for letting me vent, yall have a nice day!
 
Really sorry to hear about this. Have you thought about setting up game cameras? Seems you know where their vehicle's are coming in. Post a few up and get that tag.

Not to be rude but if the house was full of stuff and abandoned, how come nothing was moved out, sold or stored? Just sounds like a problem waiting to happen.

I feel for you and hope you catch them, best of luck.
 
Start checking the antiques stores

And probably the yard sales as well. There was a bunch of plates and silverware bagged on the porch ready to be taken. Now, don't get me wrong...I'm not talking about china and silver. This was plates from the late 80's/early 90's and your run of the mill mixing spoons and things. We also found a strainer, pot lid and cloth zip up pistol case in the road about 1.5 miles from the house that morning. Guess it bounced out or blowed out their truck/trailer.
 
Really sorry to hear about this. Have you thought about setting up game cameras? Seems you know where their vehicle's are coming in. Post a few up and get that tag.

Not to be rude but if the house was full of stuff and abandoned, how come nothing was moved out, sold or stored? Just sounds like a problem waiting to happen.

I feel for you and hope you catch them, best of luck.

I didn't realize this, but another family member also suspected something had been going on and put out a few cameras and they were stolen as well. Good idea though and I will be putting up another this week.

You are right, there sits a big huge run down looking house and that begs for folks to poke around where they don't belong. We did put a fence up around it a few years back and these guys cut through the back of it so they could walk/drive in around it. Well, I had been trying to get the property from the family member who owns it. As long as I can remember I have always wanted to restore the place and live in it, but our relationship has been rocky over the years and prior to this, I hadn't gotten any traction getting the property or contents. At least I am now being allowed in to get what I can.

Thanks, appreciate the support.
 
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