Some brave thiefs

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

21willys

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2011
Messages
2,751
Last weekend someone stole a brand new cougar fifth wheel camper from the company that I haul for. It was similar to this one.


They have to have ties to a employee or something because they knew the code to open the security gate at the storage lot. They have so many units coming and going that no one even knew that it was gone till a driver went to deliver it this week.

It amazes me how brave/dumb some of these criminals are. It's my understanding that they was on camera but the truck didn't have any plates on it and you can't make out the face or faces.
 
Should not be hard to find,,,,,,good truck with hitch, on camera, knew code, did not speed away, not tagged, no permit that goes with trailer, or just wait until he has a warrantee problem.
 
They will never see it again. These guys aren't dummys. But there are so many ways to hide a trailer. In Texas you can just walk in and ask for a farm plate, no title or registration. You don't need any paper work to get into Mexico I've heard. And they give you a new title down there. Or just pull it out to the deer lease to live in, rent it out when you're not there.
 
People have been doing this kind of theft for a long time
In 79 I had a 78 F150, I bought new, stolen right out from under the carport while I slept.
Back then the switch was on the bottom of the dash and they would carry another ignition switch with them, unplug the one on the vehicle, plug theirs in and away they would go.
 
Should not be hard to find,,,,,,good truck with hitch, on camera, knew code, did not speed away, not tagged, no permit that goes with trailer, or just wait until he has a warrantee problem.

Actually it will be almost impossible. The yard is in Goshen IN where over 90% of the campers in the world are built. There's thousands of these campers leaving town every day and there's thousands of transporters like myself hauling them. No one would give a truck with a camper on it a second look unless the truck was a complete pile of junk. I'm going to guess that they will never see the trailer again even if they catch the thief.
 
They will never see it again. These guys aren't dummys. But there are so many ways to hide a trailer. In Texas you can just walk in and ask for a farm plate, no title or registration. You don't need any paper work to get into Mexico I've heard. And they give you a new title down there. Or just pull it out to the deer lease to live in, rent it out when you're not there.

Of what I've saw of the Mexico boarder there isn't any one to stop ya from hauling it in. And if there is it probably wouldn't take much cash to make them change their mind. They would probably have a harder time getting it to the boarder then crossing it.
 
My neighbor had his stolen while it was at his RV dealer for service last year. Found it on day 29 (30 days and they pay you out, even if they find it after), and it had been made into a meth lab, and was filled with drug and sex paraphernalia as well.
 
My neighbor had his stolen while it was at his RV dealer for service last year. Found it on day 29 (30 days and they pay you out, even if they find it after), and it had been made into a meth lab, and was filled with drug and sex paraphernalia as well.

That is totaled then. Tell him to NEVER NEVER NEVER except it back. If they cooked meth with Iodine in it he will have health problems for the rest of his life. It is now a hazardous waste unit that can never be used again. Meth cooking is no joke and there are 20 different things in there that can kill you.
 
That is totaled then. Tell him to NEVER NEVER NEVER except it back. If they cooked meth with Iodine in it he will have health problems for the rest of his life. It is now a hazardous waste unit that can never be used again. Meth cooking is no joke and there are 20 different things in there that can kill you.

That happened last year. It took him almost a year of fighting with the insurance company (and getting the poison center involved) to convince his insurance that it was a write-off. They originally estimated $2,500 damage and were going to clean it. His dealer gave an estimate of $22,000. A little bit of a difference... He has two young girls as well. He was not going to accept it of course.
 
Good. I'm trained in meth interdiction and it is not anything anyone wants to mess with.
 
That happened last year. It took him almost a year of fighting with the insurance company (and getting the poison center involved) to convince his insurance that it was a write-off. They originally estimated $2,500 damage and were going to clean it. His dealer gave an estimate of $22,000. A little bit of a difference... He has two young girls as well. He was not going to accept it of course.

If they made me take that back even after they "cleaned" it. I'm thinking there might be a fire! Just sayin'! :eek:

Zipper
 
Thieves are amazingly brazen. The company I work for has multiple retail stores around the country, and the ones in Florida have been getting hit HARD by a ring of professionals in the last 6 months or so. They come in, take pictures on their cell phones (we have pictures of them doing it on security cameras), then they come back with a shopping list at night and clean the place out.

What they have been doing is, they remove one concrete block from the back wall, reach in, and disable the alarm system, then they leave. The alarm company calls the manager , telling him the alarm is down, and he comes in and checks. Everything looks normal, so he tells them they will fix it the next day and he leaves.

Later, the thieves return, take out more concrete blocks, and come in. They have been targeting electronics, expensive sunglasses, and fishing gear, mainly. They appear to be Hispanic, from the pictures we have of them, and so far they have hit about 6 or 7 stores.

These are obviously not meth heads, looking for drug money, they are too professional and have hit too many stores all over the State for that.

Don
 
A few years back, we had a truck come on the yard on the weekend and hook up to a load of shingles and leave. The "Security Guard" saw them come and go and never thought anything about it since a lot of guys drop their trailers on the yard and come back and get them. It was discovered missing early Monday morning when the guy on the load came in for it and it wasn't on the yard. The trailer was found about a week later on a logging road tow counties away, empty.

The "Security Guard" {Old retired guy working part time} said the truck had our company signs on it, but he didn't get the truck number. Never did find out who it was, probably a truck that had been sold or was somebody that had quit or gotten fired.

They probably had a forklift to unload, or a bunch of help. It would take a while to unload 17 pallets of shingles by hand!
 
Sadly, we're all being subjected to the brazen ways of thieves today...Is it worth much if they scrap it?...I just remember how thieves were targeting farm equipment and other things for aluminum and such! :confused:
 
It's not worth anything in scrap. It's mostly 2x2 lumber and is wrapped with plastic. There's hardly any aluminum trailers now. To buy the unit it's over 30k so I'm guessing either it went to Mexico or they have a unit that's totalled already and they are going to use the paperwork from it on this one.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top