This morning as I was flying off the exit ramp of I-24 right by my work, I turned my head to the right and noticed cop cars sitting outside our truck lot with their lights on. At first I just thought someone had been pulled over, but I noticed our gate was still closed and Tom was parked outside of it. This was strange and I almost didn't want to ask what was going on. Well I parked in the middle lane in front of the lot and turned on my 4 ways and got out to ask what was going on. That's when Tom turned around and told me when he got there this morning, that he couldn't get his key in the lock (because someone had changed it) and that our 2006 Pete 379EXHD flattop was gone. I said "WHAT?!?!" Inside my head I was really saying, "What the @&%*?! Who the !@#$? How the *$&#?!...oh @#$%!" But good thing I have some self control and didn't let any of that nasty language flow out of my mouth. I then got back in my car and drove it to the business next door and parked it and walked back. The CSI lady was dusting for finger prints, but had no luck of finding any. She also took pictures of the tire tracks in the gravel, but that's not gonna do much, considering we have trucks in and out of our place all day long.
After the initial shock wore off, I figured I'd better post a stolen truck listing on our advertisers website ASAP if we wanted any chance of getting it back. We racked our brains to think of any suspects that may want to take this truck, but we couldn't think of any. Not that it's not a desirable truck, it's just that we couldn't think of any suspicious characters that have called on it or come by and looked at it. I've said a prayer about it and I just asked God to help us find this truck in one piece and find the people that are responsible for stealing it. More than anything, I just want to see somebody do some time for this crime.
Now, you would think a semi truck would be a pretty hard vehicle to steal, but i guess it's really not for someone that knows what they're doing. These people cut our gate lock, came and hot wired the truck, and drove out with it and replaced the gate lock with a new one. Had they left the gate open, we may have been aware of it sooner, but no one is going to suspect anything with the gate closed back up. Since this is a family business, my parents are the ones that have to take this loss and it just makes it even more bitter tasting. It was a $75,000 truck and now it's nothing but lost profit and increased insurance expense. Not to mention the huge deductible to make a claim on it. If someone had stolen this truck for a trailer load that was attached to it, they probably would have dumped the truck somewhere nearby, but since this was just a tractor sitting for sale, the chances are they're gonna hide it good and we'll never see it again.
Anyway, here's a pic for your curiosity. Can you imagine stealing one of these? 
oh no : ( your poor parents. ill say a little prayer too. what a loss. stink.
ReplyDelete