WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Junkies Must Go! Sunday posting will be as broken and halting as my car window
byVanderleunonJanuary 9, 2022
SIGH. My morning seems to have been co-opted by some random junkie smashing in the right side window of my sad little car. Now I’ll be doing all the crap you have to do to deal with this.
I know it is most unChristian of me, but I comfort myself in knowing that most of the junkies who do this kind of thing will within five years be in prison or dead.
(Humm, upon reflecting that this is CaliFornicateYou the jail time is likely to be replaced by a free tiny house with concierge service to bring them their meth and crack free, I guess I just have to hope they’ll be dead by the side of the road. God forgive me.)
Sorry to hear that, Gerard. Busted in car windows are a pain in the keister. Here in Michigan, where I live, allegedly in one of the ten wealthiest cities of the state, East Grand Rapids, though there are junkies around, they congregate further afield. Though there is an occasional broken car window to enable thievery, most of the thievery which takes place is facilitated by folks leaving their cars unlocked. And while I despise the thievery, I don’t have much sympathy for those who leave their cars unlocked. Most of these crimes happen in the last three streets closest to the border of Grand Rapids proper, and typically between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. I’m often out walking my critter in the 5 a.m. timeframe, and I’ve on three occasions while doing just that I’ve chased off these would be thieves. Each of the three I chased were young black males. I’ve never caught one. I guess I just don’t run as fast as I used to.
gwbnycJanuary 9, 2022, 10:22 AM
mind you it’s none of my business, but it may be you wear your pants too high on the waist.
If the vehicle is unlocked they may not break the window.
But then, I never subscribed to the idea that if I leave any door unlocked it is an automatic invitation to criminals.
If the vehicle is unlocked they may not break the window.
That’s true, and been my experience, Ghostsniper. I’ve seen my share of unlocked vehicles in my hood with no broken windows, but the thieves typically leave the door ajar and rifling the contents, if any.
…I never subscribed to the idea that if I leave any door unlocked it is an automatic invitation to criminals.
Same.
SisuJanuary 10, 2022, 11:43 AM
I am not aware of recent incidents of theft of car contents in my metro NYC suburb. A few years ago the main culprit was caught; perhaps it was the bait of too many deciding they would rather lose their loose change and stuff than hassle with broken glass and police reports – such is the logic of wanna be spectators. Separately, we have not had any thefts of air bags or catalytic converters in many years; I wonder if those activities will soon return ?
I can’t imagine living in a Blue State and appearing in front of a Democrat judge and jury and explaining why I killed some rando black guy with a crossbow because he was simply walking near my car. Another Arbery trial in the making.
But your heart is in the right place.
gwbnycJanuary 10, 2022, 8:20 AM
as my pal’s father responded to the captain of his destroyer (what the HELL WAS THAT??!) while docked in iceland and cleaning the interior of a gun turret, “Misfired round, sir.” *click*
JackJanuary 10, 2022, 6:15 AM
I never once doubted the race and culture of the would-bes.
AnneJanuary 9, 2022, 10:12 AM
We once sub-let the house we had lived in for several years. Out there near Clement in the park area. We sub-let it to a “visiting banker” from Spain who had been recommended to us by a branch manager of US Bank. We were going out of state for work for six months. Left our furniture and many of our personal items packed away in the basement; family photo albums, large collection of architectural slides, etc. Six weeks later when the check had not arrived I called the house number and found it was disconnected. I called to our neighbors across the street and she advised me that the moving van had pulled up in front of the place just 3 days after we left–she thought it was there to move our things. Long story short everything EVERY THING was stolen. She said the van had been there less than an hour, there were five or six men. San Francisco police told me “to get over it–there is nothing we can do”. They also told me that this same gang had done the same thing four or five times already. They said they didn’t have enough man power to investigate. That was 1982. We never went back.
ghostsniperJanuary 9, 2022, 1:41 PM
Fortunately you had a hefty deposit check (first, last, and security) and a signed and notarized contract drawn up by an experienced attorney.
billrlaJanuary 9, 2022, 2:27 PM
Must have been a roving band of visiting Spanish bankers.
JackJanuary 10, 2022, 6:18 AM
Sorry for your loss and all of that. Must have been the old DeVonte El Guapo Gang.
Anne, the banker whom recommended this other “ Banker”. Did you hold him accountable?
VI
VALJanuary 9, 2022, 10:47 AM
In the 60z car burglary was rampant targeting the cars parked along the cliffs in Huntington Beach.
When the surf was down we fought boredom by setting a wallet on the dash just out of reach from the open windwing.
We´d sit, at a distance, waiting………………..when some thief would take the bait we sprang into action.
We would beat the rap out of the asshole ……………. then set the bait and wait.
Back in 2004 I lost the house and just about everything to a fire, just a little porch fire, but the FD tanker that came had been at several grass fires and only 8 seconds of water left in the tank.
As a amateur/semi-pro photographer I had a good bit of money in cameras, all of which were reduced to almost nothing. Ash and wispy frames of metal.
The last camera I owned was in the car at the time of the fire, next day when I went back to work that camera was stolen out of the car by a thief that smashed the window.
John V, be thankful you didn’t catch the thieves. If I had caught the filth in the act I’d have been in more trouble than the camera was worth.
…be thankful you didn’t catch the thieves. If I had caught the filth in the act I’d have been in more trouble than the camera was worth.
I’ve considered that John, simply because I’m a CCL holder. But I also carry one of those screw on solid stainless steel whip antennas, typically, on my walks as a first line of defense. If you have never been whipped with one of those, be thankful, the pain is mind numbingly exquisite.
VanderleunJanuary 9, 2022, 2:30 PM
Here’s my solution since CaliFornicateYou does not allow private citizens to buy and own expandable steel police batons…
That seems an adequate substitute, Gerard, and the retractability is useful. I just carry a Walmart purchased replacement antenna, to which I’ve appended a better grip, and it takes a point nicely, too. For picking up litter, mind you.
Visiting a country in the Orient where the penalty for just about everything was death, I carried a rather stout umbrella with a rather pointy south end.
Throughout History the penalty for just about anything was death. See Hammurabi for details. Perhaps this was a form of culling the naturally immoral to save the normies from unnecessary inconveniences. It did not work, as the criminally minded went about their occupation anyway no matter the most horrific threats from officialdom. Prisons don’t work. Terrifying—and guaranteed—punishments don’t work. Torture does not work. So what works to deter crime? Nothing, though immediately executing convicted felons would certainly help. Fewer criminals equals fewer crimes. Basic arithmetic.
Our judicial system favors the criminal rather than the normal. The results of this madness are what you might expect.
Gordon ScottJanuary 9, 2022, 12:40 PM
Here in Mesa you see the meth heads. The new industrial meth is a very different thing from the old biker meth. You can spot them everywhere. It’ll be a male with leathery skin stretched over his skull with a tight buzz cut. It’s like a uniform. There are black and Mexican meth heads, but most of what you see are white.
If they have the means, or can steal the means, they’ll be driving around in a pickup pulling a trailer full of junk. They clean up places for the opportunity to keep the junk. Here and there is a nugget worth recycling or that can be sold. The rest is dumped in the desert or in random commercial dumpsters.
One does not see women looking like this. Perhaps their bodies cannot take the year in year out abuse and they get clean, or they die. There are plenty of street women, but they make some attempt at keeping themselves attractive.
I suppose the one good thing about them is that they are not normally violent. If you’re around the coke/crack trade, the violence is always waiting, waiting. The meth heads will steal anything they can, but they aren’t shooting each other or bystanders.
The other thing is “blues” or pills with fentanyl. If they get the mix a little wrong, you’re dead, unless you have a friend with Narcan. But a lot of folks like them. I knew a girl who did not, only smoked weed, but was dating a guy who sold blues. I said to her, “So you’re dating a heroin dealer.”
“Oh, no, he only sells blues.”
“He’s selling heroin. And here’s the deal, sweetie. He sells someone a hot pill, and they die, and it’s tranced back to him, and guess what? You drove him there. You’re an accessory.”
alexJanuary 9, 2022, 1:29 PM
God has placed you in the jungle, arm yourself accordingly.
ghostsniperJanuary 9, 2022, 2:04 PM
Since everybody is talking about their personal thefts I’ll throw mine in the ring.
It was in 2006 when we moved up here to Ruralville with 30 years worth of stuff to fill a moderate size house. We rented a house on the lake for 30 days while we shopped for a new crib, well, not new, existing, but new for us.
We found and bought the “new” crib but for whatever insane reason the previous owners had painted the entire 1st floor interior that foul barn red and that would just not do. We hired a painting company to put 3 coats of white on the floors and ceiling. Meanwhile we had the movers put all our stuff in 3 large storage units.
We never used storage units before so we were ignorant of their ways. Turns out Masterlock padlocks ain’t all that. And, if the storage facility is not surrounded by a secure fencing system you may as well just sit your shit along the road.
Thieves drove right up to the units, bolt cut the locks, and stole an estimated $8k worth of stuff. Truth be known, we don’t know what all was stolen. It’s amazing how much stuff you accumulate over a lifetime.
About $3k worth of my Florida fishing gear, all nicely cataloged and stored in a large Pelican, including the little 3′ zebco my dad gave me when I was 8. The top box on my large Snap-on red tool cabinet with thousands of dollars worth of smaller tools going all the way back to my grandfather. My 80gal Ingersoll Rand 300psi compressor. That was just the obvious stuff, and over time since we have discovered other things that we can no longer find that must have been stolen.
This was the only time in my entire life I have ever called the cops, and the last – unless I kill someone in self defense, and they were less than useless. Filled out some paperwork, then headed back to the donut shop, pissed off at the interruption.
For about $10 each, at the time, I could have purchased security padlocks which are constructed in such a way that a bolt cutter can’t get to the business part. And, if the joint had a security fence the thieves would not have been able to so easily get to the storage units. Lesson learned, but the tuition cost was very expensive.
gwbnycJanuary 9, 2022, 7:01 PM
gun safe..
ghostsniperJanuary 10, 2022, 10:06 AM
Yes they are, especially when they’re close at hand.
Did they steal anything? The damage is done. Been my experience that you will never ever get all the glass out, no matter how hard you try. A sliver here, a sliver their.
Right around 2010, my police rig was broken into in my front driveway. They left a G36 machine gun with any and all ammo. They took my everyday investigation tools. The worst was they stole a set of Pvs 21,’s, a very very high-end set of NODS. The worst part was these NODS were hand receipted to me personally from a group of folks.
That was perhaps the toughest phone call ive ever made. Trying to explain to a group that the tools they entrusted to me were missing. O dear, did I get an ear full, these men, were on the way, they would recovered their equipment. I told em I had it, I’d have the 21000 dollar night vision back by dark.
As I looked around the neighborhood I noticed some peculiar, stuff some “ tells.” I had retired in OREGON, gone back to Calif to reach retirement there. I called my old chief and the sheriff told em what had happened. They both sent baby investigators. Neither could investigate their way out of a paper bag.
Called both the sheriff and the chief, explain that now I would do what their fucking looser investigators were incapable of doing. Also called the DA, told his this was a courtesy call I was back in Oregon and not leaving without my police kit. I remember Ed yelling at me, God Dammit Dirk your not a cop here anymore, please don’t.
Sorry Ed. Just before he hangs up, he says shit Dirk, please don’t kill anybody. And I laughed.
I made two phone calls and asked the were my neighbors grandson was staying. And had an answer. Long story short as a courtesy I called both the sheriff and the chief, told both my destination. About a block out, the narcotics team called asked me to not kick the door, to let them make entry.
They had a tip a lot of dope was in the motel room. As I pulled in the Sargent’s slamming my neighbor’s grandson’s head into the pavement after he tried to run. I calmly entered the room, found all my kit, recovered it. And left.
And the tip of a lot of dope was accurate. They found about a pound and a half of meth. I took a minute and spoke with the grandson. Ya see I’d already stood up in court for this young man, asked for help for his meth use. He had graduated, had become a drug counselor, and had done well for a few years.
Had two awesome children and a decent wife, he’s gone back to drugs when he discovered her screwing his best friend. And I learned it was that best friend who physically broke into my patrol truck.
Anyway, the next morning the sheriff’s office calls and asks if they can borrow the PVS21s. They’re doing a huge raid on a lab. These are old old friends, I said sure, but I need em back tomorrow.
During the raid, some one in a car starts shooting, my partner is running to a firing position cutting the vehicle off, he trips, hits the ground hard and the PVS 21s are broken! Shit shit shit, how do I explain this to the boys.
These are serialized and at the time only available to very very high end groups. A tight leash is on these. I had to get an authorization number to send the PVS 21s for repair. The sheriff’s office payed 3, 450 dollars for repairs. Which wiped out their training ammo budget. The PVS 21s had to leave my physical custody, and I had to sign for em on return.
Hard to believe they took my pvs21s away, issued me two PVS 14s, and a duel J arm to mount both. The 14s were nowhere near the quality of the pvs21s. The PVS 21s had a HUD mount, which dropped down in front of your eye. This hud. “ Heads Up Display could be slaved to A3 or other intel aircraft. I didn’t have the HUD, tool.
God as my witness, I could put the 21s on, turn all my lights off, and in the middle of the night do 70/80 mph on back roads. The clarity of the real-time vision was that good. To the day I retired, I found broken glass in my unit.
VI
Mike SeyleJanuary 9, 2022, 3:28 PM
Interesting story Dirk. I can’t follow the acronyms, but exciting stuff nevertheless. Own story: In Managua, shortly after the communists took over. Was teaching at the American-Nicaraguan school, but intent on leaving after the contract as the kids had to wait on a Bulgarian ship to deliver polio vaccines. It was leave or divorce. My patient wife was out of patience, having delivered our second son there, when the hospital wouldn’t let us enter. It was full at the time. But there was a flower bed nearby.
So, with about a week to go, we returned to the rented house on Carretera Sur to find someone had pushed the air conditioner into the house from the outside. It crushed the bed where our son would normally sleep. They entered and got my wife’s jewelry and some cordobas. Had the stereo unplugged and ready to go, but we disturbed that upon our return.
Was it the maid who alerted the thieves we were leaving? Was it her? Her boyfriend? The people down the hill trying to survive?
Don’t know; don’t much care. I’m not there, and they’re not here.
I’ve been to Nicaragua many times, the first time during the revolution there. I actually travelled with the Sandinista Army a few times. I even played guitar for them once:
My last journey there (2004) was just to hang out in Granada, and from there to backpack around Ometepe. I want to go back to spend time in the jungles around Puerto Cabezas, but at 68 I probably will not get to.
I took a job in Costa Rica (1989) and had to fly there from Honduras. When I arrived my huge duffel was missing. The airlines traced it to Nicaragua. I thought I would never see it again, but it was delivered two days later. The boys in the Nicaraguan airport even locked it securely for me. Nothing at all was taken.
Mike SeyleJanuary 10, 2022, 6:51 AM
Wish you guys hadn’t blown up all the public transportation, Mike. I had to fly back for our car and drive it through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras to have a way to get my wife to the hospital when she went into labor. We should have a beer. I had to divert (bridge out) up thru Yucatan Peninsula and, after taking a woman from the Mex/Belize border to a hospital in the capitol (forced to take her by the border guards), made my way through the “northern route” in Guatemala to the Honduran border. Never got out of second gear; straddled ruts the whole way. On my return trip, Guatemalan border guards stole things from the car. I wouldn’t make that trip again. The stories I could tell from that trip down, especially, would fill a book. Maybe our paths crossed. Our newborn “Nicaragringo” son was baptized in a Catholic church in Diriamba.
Quite the story! Yep, you could get a book out of your time in Central America.
I applied to that school in Nicaragua in 1993. I had already taught (1989 – 1991) at the Marin Baker School in San Jose, Costa Rica. I got 3 job offers: Rio, Asunción and Buenos Aires. I took the Argentine post because it paid very well, and I taught there 10 years.
My first time in Central America (1983 – 1984) involved no backpacking but rather just hard-core traveling. The “roads” in Guatemala and Honduras were, as you noted, quite entertaining. I returned to Central America several times (1986, 1989 – 1991, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010 – 2011). I could not imagine living there these days. Nope.
If this “pandemic” nonsense ever ends and international air travel becomes possible again—no mask wearing, no COVID testing and no “vaxxing” for me—then I might give Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua another go.
Mike SeyleJanuary 10, 2022, 8:44 AM
We were there in 1980-’81. I am finished with Central America, although our daughter went to Costa Rica last year. Everything I hear about Costa Rica is great. She loved it. Embassy folks from Nicaragua vacationed there. That entire part of the world is, as you well know, so beautiful. It’s tragic that it’s so dangerous. But then, so is Chicago. As I’m not vaxxed either, I won’t be able to travel. So I’m trying to like it where I am. I’m halfway there.
BroKenJanuary 10, 2022, 8:56 AM
Crossing paths? I was in Costa Rica from 82 – 85 teaching at Colegio Metodista in San Pedro. Didn’t have nearly the adventurous times you guys describe, but, as you say, it is a beautiful part of the world. I miss it from time to time.
Mike SeyleJanuary 10, 2022, 9:41 AM
Ah, BroKen; you were in the calm part of the world. One difference among many: When I drove my car in Managua, I had to have the window open and radio off so I could hear when a young Sandinista directing traffic blew his whistle. You don’t stop when they blow their whistle, they shoot. I did the teaching profession a great service when I left it, as I proved in Nicaragua I have no brains. As a veteran, I actually took some US Army cut-off fatigues down there and once, when headed to a beach, I was stopped by one of the hot-headed believers. He reached inside my open window and grabbed my cut-offs and said all sorts of things. Luckily, I had a crazy guy in the back, also a teacher, who talked our way out of it. My wife and I, two kids and the other guy lived to almost succumb to undertow when we found the water. I’m unfit to teach, or be seen in public. Maybe it’s why I didn’t see any problem taking an 8.5-month pregnant wife and 1.5 year old son to a country recently blown up. “It’s our entry to the overseas teaching gig,” I said. “Women all over the world have babies in all sorts of places; rice paddies, mud huts. Let’s go!” We’re still married.
I also miss Central America from time to time, but not Costa Rica—although I loved living there. I even married a Costa Rican girl. Backpacking was my passion then. Since I had backpacked and hiked everywhere in Costa Rica—Corcovado, Santa Rosa National Park, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Arenal Volcano National Park, Rincon de la Vieja—I figured I had seen it all. What’s worse for a guy like me is that now you have to have a guide and camp only in designated places. Screw that. Costa Rica became too tame and too civilized for my taste.
Honduras—the Moskito Coast region—Guatemala—up north in el Petén—and Nicaragua are still wild and wooly. The Nicaraguan jungles from Matagalpa north to the Caribbean is the largest primary rain forest in Central America. My kind of place.
We were in Costa Rica at the same time in 1983. I stayed in San Ramon de Tres Rios for a week or so.
Dear Mike Seyle: You and I should write book. Each of us will write alternate chapters. We could title it “Central America for Fookin’ Idiots” or something.
As I never had a car while there—I still don’t, and get around in Oklahoma City by bicycle—I always slummed it with the locals and used the transport they used. Holy moly! In one day on the Mosquito Coast I took a boat across Brus Laguna, then a truck, then a rickety airplane used to fly weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua. The plane dropped us off in Mocoron, loaded up arms, flew to Nicaragua, and returned.
Fun times. But I was much younger then.
Mike SeyleJanuary 10, 2022, 11:35 AM
The things we’ve seen. I did my student teaching in Delhi. There was that trek with school kids into the foothills of the Himalayas. Guides left us at dusk to go ahead. Haaa Haaaa. I still shake. But I’ll stop now. People might start doubting my veracity, which reminds me of the response a Fish had to give an upperclassman when in the Corps at Texas A&M, if the Fish didn’t know an answer: “Sir, I hesitate to articulate for fear that I may deviate from the true course of rectitude. In short sir, I am a very dumb Fish and do not know, sir.” You had three seconds. The other two permissible responses to an upperclassman were “Yes sir” and “No sir.” I quit the school after two months and joined the Army at the height of the Vietnam War. Figured it couldn’t be any worse. And for me, it wasn’t, though for many in my age group and their families, it was a tragic time. So I bow.
BroKenJanuary 11, 2022, 8:13 AM
Yeah, it was pretty calm. My adventures were cycling with friends from San Jose to Playa del Coco or up to the top of Volcan Irazu or snorkling in Limon. I still regret never taking the DC3 to the coast but only the bus along with folks and their chickens. I landed in Managua once on the way back to the States and noted the Russian aircraft at the airport and the armed guards on the roof of the terminal. The headline in the Nicaraguan newspaper quoted Ortega saying, “All the people are armed and that’s a beautiful democracy.” I was less skeptical then as I am now. Those were good times but they were not had by all.
Mike NODS are night observation devices. Over the years the quality of Night Visions has become amazing. The newer “ white Light” units are slick.
The PVS 21s, we’re maybe not the best, but dam near, I’m unaware of any better then the PVS21s.
I have a lot of friends in low places. I’ve been very very fortunate in my life, meeting training and working with very interesting people.
If your interested I’ll tell you about training with a group of afgan mountain fighters we trained out of Truckee Calif. in the late 80s.
Gerard, I see you posted what the 21s look like. These are the shit. Not many men have the honor of playing with these tools. I had em hand receipted for three years before the theft. Zero distortion, no compensation like the pvs 7s, to some degree the pvs 14s. Which are fine, actually.
The 21s were an amazing tool to have in my tool belt. Also had an early PVS27, which basically was a night vision you mounted on your sniper rifle. Ahead of the scope. This allowed a shooter to use the scopes elevation and wind age to be dialed physically on the scope, then a rubber boot linked the objective side of the scope,,,,,,the front,,,,, to the rear of the pvs 27. Shots out to 800y or more,,,,, easy Peazy in the dead of night.
By then I was using a 338 LM with a Schmidt and Bender PMII scope, and a thunder Beast silencer. A very heavy rifle, then add the pvs 27. To the top and forwarding the rifle. With the can the balance was changed forward, unusual to manage. Felt recoil was that of a 300wm, with the added weight.
Up in North eastern Calif, we are in huge dope garden heaven “cartel grows”. Canyon country. Generally 800 yards plus across these canyons, couldn’t make any of the 30 cal bullets work. Had to go big.
The dept had a 50, I couldn’t hit shit with the dam thing, the barrel was shot out. So I built a 338lapua mag. Right tool for that particular job. Believe my rifles was actually the first 338lm in use by law enforcement in Calif, at that time. Who knows.
The G36 is a heckler and Koch roller block carbine. Semi auto, three round burst and full auto. I did not like the G-36 the stock was long, the built in sights were to tall, one had to raise their head unnaturally to complete the sight pic.
By then I’d spent money making the rifle workable for me. My friends sourced a short stalk for me, but the sight height was at that time unusual. The newer versions have addressed those early issues, shot one about a year ago, a much better rifle then the gen 1’s.
Much preferred the Colt com,Andy’s and the 14.5 colts.
VI
Mike SeyleJanuary 10, 2022, 3:35 PM
Dirk, yeah. Might be interested in your story about the Truckee training. OK City and KC MO aren’t that far apart. Guess you’d be easy to recognize if we met in the middle. But that’s tough on a bicycle. Suppose I’d have to come all the way.
Mike SeyleJanuary 10, 2022, 4:07 PM
Sorry Dirk. Confused you and Mike Austin on locations. (You both are right up there in spirit!) It would be a trek to your place, although it’d be worth the drive. Be well.
gwbnycJanuary 9, 2022, 7:03 PM
“He had graduated, had become a drug counselor, and had done well for a few years.”
commonplace, I’m sad to say.
Bill in TennesseeJanuary 9, 2022, 2:39 PM
Filthy people, junkies. There is little hope for them, although on occasion one will “come to himself” and get cleaned up, and live a normal life via AA or NA or one of the 12-step groups. But by and large, druggies gonna drug, and they’re gonna die. I used to have some sympathy for them, but I outgrew that when I found that I just did not have any more f#*ks to give about them. Around here we have very simple laws concerning self-defense and protection of property…. and they usually involve firearms and their proper use. I live in a Constitutional Carry state and nearly every person I know goes about with a concealed weapon on them…. and I like it that way.
Junkies choose the road they travel on, just like everyone else. Why should a man spend time lamenting the fate of drug addicts? The sooner they overdose, the better for everyone.
I live in an apartment in Oklahoma City. It sits right across from a police station. My complex is 40 percent jogger but since I am 68, haven’t cut my hair in 3 years, and always—always—open carry a Ruger, I am known as “that crazy old long haired white guy with a gun.” Suits me.
brioJanuary 9, 2022, 3:33 PM
This past summer, I absentmindedly left a car door unlocked. Someone got into the car and cleaned it out. They took about $20 in cash from the armrest compartment, several gift cards for Home Depot, an $18 box of laundry detergent, my car manual (why?), all my car maintenance receipts, and a baggie of masks from the dashboard. My driver’s license was in amongst my car receipts with my auto club card. So I had to get a new license.
A rear car door doesn’t always lock when I use the fob or auto lock on the armrest. I am usually diligent about making sure the door is locked during the 4 years I’ve owned the car.
But I had been setting up shelves and organizing my storage unit in 110° heat. Although I had water, after several hours, I was starting to feel the heat and was feeling woozy. I just want to get home, drink a lot of cold water and take a cold shower. In my haste to get in the house, I forgot to check the door lock.
Luckily, the jerk didn’t know or couldn’t see the latch to unlock the trunk. They would have found several hundred dollars worth of tools and a luggage carrier to help them cart my stuff away.
RedBeardJanuary 9, 2022, 3:40 PM
I’m very sorry to hear about the car damage. That really sucks.
I looked up Chico, CA and it appears to be a deep blue city in a deep blue state with a huge number of homeless junkies, so that type of crime must be pretty common.
If you don’t have a car alarm, getting one would be a good idea. The most effective ones to halt crime are the ones with a pager instead of a siren on the vehicle. That way you can sneak up on the junkie or pick them off from a distance.
For picking them off, I recommend a Gamo (or similar brand) subsonic pellet gun with a scope. At 1200 to 1400 feet per second, those pellets mean business, and a well-placed shot to the junkie’s groin is an excellent “behavioral modification tool.”
A better option might be to move to a red state.
ghostsniperJanuary 9, 2022, 6:08 PM
Just picked up a Gamo Swarm Whisper w/ 10rd mags recently and can vouch for it’s performance. Came with a shitty 4x scope which I’m going to replace. As large as a regular rifle, not as loud as a .22 and not quite as powerful as a .22. But I sure wouldn’t want to get shot with it, especially in the head.
This one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PH9MM9C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Not a fan of CO2 though I have one.
The Umarex Beretta 92FS w/ 18rd mags and an auto switch.
Yes, it will dump all 18 instantly, about 3 times before the CO2 must be changed.
Loading the mags and changing the CO2 is beastly.
I don’t use it much.
Plus, BB’s are very inaccurate.
My Gamo (,22 pellets) pumps once and has a 10rd mag and hits hard.
gwbnycJanuary 10, 2022, 7:15 PM
point taken.
I like the CO2 for the quick turnaround.
airguns are a whole culture to themselves.
LPJanuary 9, 2022, 3:58 PM
Hearing those stories makes me happy to live where I do. For most of my life we never locked the house. We left our car in the driveway with keys in the ignition. I do lock the house now, but probably don’t have to. We live in a pretty safe rural area. But, I’ve lost quite a few bicycles to thieves in my lifetime, at least 5, but that was pure foolishness. Only one of them was locked. There was my brother’s red Schwin that I left outside the deli when I went in to get a sandwich. I may have been 14. That was my favorite bicycle. As simple and fast a bike as you will ever find. I left 2 in the woods when we went off on some adventure and when we came back they were gone. They were expensive bikes, but we were stupid kids. In college I locked my transportation outside of the dorm (DC, what was I thinking?) and in the morning it was gone. And the last time I had a bike stolen, I was bound and determined to find it. I walked from one end of the city to the other, walked the streets for at least 2 hours, and then found it tossed on the roadside with a flat tire. I walked it home.
Doctor Septimus PretoriousJanuary 9, 2022, 4:19 PM
So much talk of extreme violence . Gasp.
How about righteous corrective therapy?
Rat traps, electrically charged capacitors, and even “perimeter alarms” can provide exquisite therapy (& entertainment ) when applied to the miscreant behavioral patterns of the North American Junkahominids.
See sites like —— pyrocreations dot com for amusing “perimeter alarms’” and envision subjecting your local addict to your full range of behavior modification experiments —- all for the their own good, of course. Your Pavlov , they are the dogs.
There is no such thing as “extreme violence”; there is only violence. The desired result is the same, although the factor of time would either mitigate or increase the depth of the suffering involved. All that “therapy” stuff is a waste of time, money, resources and energy. And more to the point: such gooey, sentimental and emotional antics do not work. An addict is an addict is an addict until death. A truly civilized and rational society would speed up the result the addict had already chosen. Many folks would objectively benefit from the demise—natural or otherwise—of every drug addict on earth.
I’ll send you a little by PayPal sir, happy to pitch in to defray the loss.
John G CondonJanuary 9, 2022, 6:34 PM
“I know it is most unChristian of me, but I comfort myself in knowing that most of the junkies who do this kind of thing will within five years be in prison or dead. ”
Gotta admit, the commies are really working overtime to bring about the end of America (let alone the Free-World) with their Zombie Hordes, Free Sh*t Armies, Illegal Alien Invaders.
Though it took 3 successive sackings in under 75 years for the city of Rome to finally lose its vitality, I do believe these Democrats are trying to do that to us in much less time.
.
My condolences on your having to work for that Vandal, Gerard.
He plays, and you pay.
.
TerryJanuary 9, 2022, 7:15 PM
Sorry to read about your break-in/robbery Gerard. Seems as though the entirety of civilization has collapsed. Thank a politician. Useless rubbish of protoplasm.
Where there are homeless/bums/vagrants/addicts/politicians/street people/lawyers, and now physicians are getting on board, there is hell. The world is now run by Satan.
The decent people being murdered in the name of public safety (fake v*x potions). Violent criminals released from prisons and becoming soldiers for the deep s*a*t*.
NoriJanuary 9, 2022, 9:18 PM
Satan’s hobgoblins are indeed running amuck. Living lives of obscene luxury while decreeing their servants pay every obeisance to their whims.
Last October on my morning rounds,I noticed my truck,parked in the driveway as usual,was missing its tailgate. The tailgate. Dafuq?? Is this a thing now,stealing tailgates?
Luckily,I found 2 bright shiny copper pennies and a dime at the tail end of my truck,dropped,no doubt,from the pocket of thieving prick,or pricks.
Your broken window will work in an odd way to steel you further.
TerryJanuary 10, 2022, 7:39 AM
Tail gate theft has been going on for quite a while. They are extremely easy to remove and easy to sell at flea bag markets.
Tail gates are easily damaged in rear ender collisions, and expensive, new.
Crime is a top down driven enterprise. From POTUS to street sweeper. Look at the POTUS in office now for example. He even admits he is corrupt and laughs in our faces.
mmackJanuary 10, 2022, 4:04 AM
Gerard,
Sorry to hear your car got vandalized/broken into. I commiserate since in college I had two older cars I owned vandalized. Both had the hood ornaments stolen and one car had the taillight and side view mirror broken.
If you care about your possessions it’s frustrating how little people care and how some people are just jackasses. May you get the damage fixed quickly.
PA CatJanuary 10, 2022, 7:06 AM
In my East Coast blue zone, the theft of catalytic converters is a bit more frequent than car break-ins. The newest trend here is for the thieves to perform their car surgery in big-box store parking lots in broad daylight. I’m just unChristian enough to post a video about a guy who got crushed trying to steal a catalytic converter from a Prius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn8iMw3Hesw&ab_channel=CBSSacramento
Comment below the video: “Catalytic converters are designed to rid the environment of filth. It did its job.”
Gerard, I’m sorry for your troubles with the Chico junkie subculture; I hope the coming week will go better for you. (Head skritches as always to Olive.)
RedBeardJanuary 11, 2022, 9:52 AM
PA Cat,
I have a guaranteed solution to catalytic converter theft.
Get some VHT (very high temperature) spray paint in a bright orange or other high-vis color, and put several coats on your cat converter after proper surface prep. Let it cure at least 4-6 hours, and running the car afterward will give it a very tough “baked on” effect.
Cat converter thieves know that they would then have to spend a great deal of effort to remove that paint to make it “sellable” to the places that buy them.
Works every time.
Or, you can carefully remove all the lug nuts on one of the rear wheels and replace the hubcap. That turns your vehicle into a giant rat trap.
Just reading the comments reminded me that I am pleased I have no vehicle; so nothing to be left out in the parking lot of my apartment complex to tempt any joggers. Every month or so I see the result of a car break-in: busted glass strewn about and a pitiful car missing a window. Since I ride bicycles, and I keep both of them in my apartment, if any jogger wishes to get his hands on my bikes he will have to find a way inside. He will not like it if he does.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
rising sun flirts
with petals of mailorder flytrap.
my father’s moustache
die junkie, die junkie.
It’s not hope, it’s the acknowledgement of the inevitable.
Sorry to hear that, Gerard. Busted in car windows are a pain in the keister. Here in Michigan, where I live, allegedly in one of the ten wealthiest cities of the state, East Grand Rapids, though there are junkies around, they congregate further afield. Though there is an occasional broken car window to enable thievery, most of the thievery which takes place is facilitated by folks leaving their cars unlocked. And while I despise the thievery, I don’t have much sympathy for those who leave their cars unlocked. Most of these crimes happen in the last three streets closest to the border of Grand Rapids proper, and typically between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. I’m often out walking my critter in the 5 a.m. timeframe, and I’ve on three occasions while doing just that I’ve chased off these would be thieves. Each of the three I chased were young black males. I’ve never caught one. I guess I just don’t run as fast as I used to.
mind you it’s none of my business, but it may be you wear your pants too high on the waist.
I didn’t say I was wearing pants, gwbnyc.
*blush*
I didn’t dare imagine…
If the vehicle is unlocked they may not break the window.
But then, I never subscribed to the idea that if I leave any door unlocked it is an automatic invitation to criminals.
If the vehicle is unlocked they may not break the window.
That’s true, and been my experience, Ghostsniper. I’ve seen my share of unlocked vehicles in my hood with no broken windows, but the thieves typically leave the door ajar and rifling the contents, if any.
…I never subscribed to the idea that if I leave any door unlocked it is an automatic invitation to criminals.
Same.
I am not aware of recent incidents of theft of car contents in my metro NYC suburb. A few years ago the main culprit was caught; perhaps it was the bait of too many deciding they would rather lose their loose change and stuff than hassle with broken glass and police reports – such is the logic of wanna be spectators. Separately, we have not had any thefts of air bags or catalytic converters in many years; I wonder if those activities will soon return ?
Chasing “young black males” is one way to end up in prison.
a crossbow is a silent and elegant weapon
Nogs will instinctively know they are dealing with a sophisticated and cruel adversary
I can’t imagine living in a Blue State and appearing in front of a Democrat judge and jury and explaining why I killed some rando black guy with a crossbow because he was simply walking near my car. Another Arbery trial in the making.
But your heart is in the right place.
as my pal’s father responded to the captain of his destroyer (what the HELL WAS THAT??!) while docked in iceland and cleaning the interior of a gun turret, “Misfired round, sir.” *click*
I never once doubted the race and culture of the would-bes.
We once sub-let the house we had lived in for several years. Out there near Clement in the park area. We sub-let it to a “visiting banker” from Spain who had been recommended to us by a branch manager of US Bank. We were going out of state for work for six months. Left our furniture and many of our personal items packed away in the basement; family photo albums, large collection of architectural slides, etc. Six weeks later when the check had not arrived I called the house number and found it was disconnected. I called to our neighbors across the street and she advised me that the moving van had pulled up in front of the place just 3 days after we left–she thought it was there to move our things. Long story short everything EVERY THING was stolen. She said the van had been there less than an hour, there were five or six men. San Francisco police told me “to get over it–there is nothing we can do”. They also told me that this same gang had done the same thing four or five times already. They said they didn’t have enough man power to investigate. That was 1982. We never went back.
Fortunately you had a hefty deposit check (first, last, and security) and a signed and notarized contract drawn up by an experienced attorney.
Must have been a roving band of visiting Spanish bankers.
Sorry for your loss and all of that. Must have been the old DeVonte El Guapo Gang.
Anne, the banker whom recommended this other “ Banker”. Did you hold him accountable?
VI
In the 60z car burglary was rampant targeting the cars parked along the cliffs in Huntington Beach.
When the surf was down we fought boredom by setting a wallet on the dash just out of reach from the open windwing.
We´d sit, at a distance, waiting………………..when some thief would take the bait we sprang into action.
We would beat the rap out of the asshole ……………. then set the bait and wait.
VAL for president.
Gerard, did they steal anything?
Back in 2004 I lost the house and just about everything to a fire, just a little porch fire, but the FD tanker that came had been at several grass fires and only 8 seconds of water left in the tank.
As a amateur/semi-pro photographer I had a good bit of money in cameras, all of which were reduced to almost nothing. Ash and wispy frames of metal.
The last camera I owned was in the car at the time of the fire, next day when I went back to work that camera was stolen out of the car by a thief that smashed the window.
John V, be thankful you didn’t catch the thieves. If I had caught the filth in the act I’d have been in more trouble than the camera was worth.
…be thankful you didn’t catch the thieves. If I had caught the filth in the act I’d have been in more trouble than the camera was worth.
I’ve considered that John, simply because I’m a CCL holder. But I also carry one of those screw on solid stainless steel whip antennas, typically, on my walks as a first line of defense. If you have never been whipped with one of those, be thankful, the pain is mind numbingly exquisite.
Here’s my solution since CaliFornicateYou does not allow private citizens to buy and own expandable steel police batons…
Very short “Walking Sticks”
2PCS 26inch Telescopic Walking Stick Hiking Trekking Retractable Hiking Pole US | eBay
That seems an adequate substitute, Gerard, and the retractability is useful. I just carry a Walmart purchased replacement antenna, to which I’ve appended a better grip, and it takes a point nicely, too. For picking up litter, mind you.
Gerard,,,,,Who care what Calif allows doesn’t allow. You want one of those extend sticks let me know via email. I know a guy!
Dirk
Visiting a country in the Orient where the penalty for just about everything was death, I carried a rather stout umbrella with a rather pointy south end.
Throughout History the penalty for just about anything was death. See Hammurabi for details. Perhaps this was a form of culling the naturally immoral to save the normies from unnecessary inconveniences. It did not work, as the criminally minded went about their occupation anyway no matter the most horrific threats from officialdom. Prisons don’t work. Terrifying—and guaranteed—punishments don’t work. Torture does not work. So what works to deter crime? Nothing, though immediately executing convicted felons would certainly help. Fewer criminals equals fewer crimes. Basic arithmetic.
Our judicial system favors the criminal rather than the normal. The results of this madness are what you might expect.
Here in Mesa you see the meth heads. The new industrial meth is a very different thing from the old biker meth. You can spot them everywhere. It’ll be a male with leathery skin stretched over his skull with a tight buzz cut. It’s like a uniform. There are black and Mexican meth heads, but most of what you see are white.
If they have the means, or can steal the means, they’ll be driving around in a pickup pulling a trailer full of junk. They clean up places for the opportunity to keep the junk. Here and there is a nugget worth recycling or that can be sold. The rest is dumped in the desert or in random commercial dumpsters.
One does not see women looking like this. Perhaps their bodies cannot take the year in year out abuse and they get clean, or they die. There are plenty of street women, but they make some attempt at keeping themselves attractive.
I suppose the one good thing about them is that they are not normally violent. If you’re around the coke/crack trade, the violence is always waiting, waiting. The meth heads will steal anything they can, but they aren’t shooting each other or bystanders.
The other thing is “blues” or pills with fentanyl. If they get the mix a little wrong, you’re dead, unless you have a friend with Narcan. But a lot of folks like them. I knew a girl who did not, only smoked weed, but was dating a guy who sold blues. I said to her, “So you’re dating a heroin dealer.”
“Oh, no, he only sells blues.”
“He’s selling heroin. And here’s the deal, sweetie. He sells someone a hot pill, and they die, and it’s tranced back to him, and guess what? You drove him there. You’re an accessory.”
God has placed you in the jungle, arm yourself accordingly.
Since everybody is talking about their personal thefts I’ll throw mine in the ring.
It was in 2006 when we moved up here to Ruralville with 30 years worth of stuff to fill a moderate size house. We rented a house on the lake for 30 days while we shopped for a new crib, well, not new, existing, but new for us.
We found and bought the “new” crib but for whatever insane reason the previous owners had painted the entire 1st floor interior that foul barn red and that would just not do. We hired a painting company to put 3 coats of white on the floors and ceiling. Meanwhile we had the movers put all our stuff in 3 large storage units.
We never used storage units before so we were ignorant of their ways. Turns out Masterlock padlocks ain’t all that. And, if the storage facility is not surrounded by a secure fencing system you may as well just sit your shit along the road.
Thieves drove right up to the units, bolt cut the locks, and stole an estimated $8k worth of stuff. Truth be known, we don’t know what all was stolen. It’s amazing how much stuff you accumulate over a lifetime.
About $3k worth of my Florida fishing gear, all nicely cataloged and stored in a large Pelican, including the little 3′ zebco my dad gave me when I was 8. The top box on my large Snap-on red tool cabinet with thousands of dollars worth of smaller tools going all the way back to my grandfather. My 80gal Ingersoll Rand 300psi compressor. That was just the obvious stuff, and over time since we have discovered other things that we can no longer find that must have been stolen.
This was the only time in my entire life I have ever called the cops, and the last – unless I kill someone in self defense, and they were less than useless. Filled out some paperwork, then headed back to the donut shop, pissed off at the interruption.
For about $10 each, at the time, I could have purchased security padlocks which are constructed in such a way that a bolt cutter can’t get to the business part. And, if the joint had a security fence the thieves would not have been able to so easily get to the storage units. Lesson learned, but the tuition cost was very expensive.
gun safe..
Yes they are, especially when they’re close at hand.
Did they steal anything? The damage is done. Been my experience that you will never ever get all the glass out, no matter how hard you try. A sliver here, a sliver their.
Right around 2010, my police rig was broken into in my front driveway. They left a G36 machine gun with any and all ammo. They took my everyday investigation tools. The worst was they stole a set of Pvs 21,’s, a very very high-end set of NODS. The worst part was these NODS were hand receipted to me personally from a group of folks.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: AN/PVS-21 LPNVG STS Low Profile Night Vision Goggle w/HUD – Will’s Optics $22,999.00]
That was perhaps the toughest phone call ive ever made. Trying to explain to a group that the tools they entrusted to me were missing. O dear, did I get an ear full, these men, were on the way, they would recovered their equipment. I told em I had it, I’d have the 21000 dollar night vision back by dark.
As I looked around the neighborhood I noticed some peculiar, stuff some “ tells.” I had retired in OREGON, gone back to Calif to reach retirement there. I called my old chief and the sheriff told em what had happened. They both sent baby investigators. Neither could investigate their way out of a paper bag.
Called both the sheriff and the chief, explain that now I would do what their fucking looser investigators were incapable of doing. Also called the DA, told his this was a courtesy call I was back in Oregon and not leaving without my police kit. I remember Ed yelling at me, God Dammit Dirk your not a cop here anymore, please don’t.
Sorry Ed. Just before he hangs up, he says shit Dirk, please don’t kill anybody. And I laughed.
I made two phone calls and asked the were my neighbors grandson was staying. And had an answer. Long story short as a courtesy I called both the sheriff and the chief, told both my destination. About a block out, the narcotics team called asked me to not kick the door, to let them make entry.
They had a tip a lot of dope was in the motel room. As I pulled in the Sargent’s slamming my neighbor’s grandson’s head into the pavement after he tried to run. I calmly entered the room, found all my kit, recovered it. And left.
And the tip of a lot of dope was accurate. They found about a pound and a half of meth. I took a minute and spoke with the grandson. Ya see I’d already stood up in court for this young man, asked for help for his meth use. He had graduated, had become a drug counselor, and had done well for a few years.
Had two awesome children and a decent wife, he’s gone back to drugs when he discovered her screwing his best friend. And I learned it was that best friend who physically broke into my patrol truck.
Anyway, the next morning the sheriff’s office calls and asks if they can borrow the PVS21s. They’re doing a huge raid on a lab. These are old old friends, I said sure, but I need em back tomorrow.
During the raid, some one in a car starts shooting, my partner is running to a firing position cutting the vehicle off, he trips, hits the ground hard and the PVS 21s are broken! Shit shit shit, how do I explain this to the boys.
These are serialized and at the time only available to very very high end groups. A tight leash is on these. I had to get an authorization number to send the PVS 21s for repair. The sheriff’s office payed 3, 450 dollars for repairs. Which wiped out their training ammo budget. The PVS 21s had to leave my physical custody, and I had to sign for em on return.
Hard to believe they took my pvs21s away, issued me two PVS 14s, and a duel J arm to mount both. The 14s were nowhere near the quality of the pvs21s. The PVS 21s had a HUD mount, which dropped down in front of your eye. This hud. “ Heads Up Display could be slaved to A3 or other intel aircraft. I didn’t have the HUD, tool.
God as my witness, I could put the 21s on, turn all my lights off, and in the middle of the night do 70/80 mph on back roads. The clarity of the real-time vision was that good. To the day I retired, I found broken glass in my unit.
VI
Interesting story Dirk. I can’t follow the acronyms, but exciting stuff nevertheless. Own story: In Managua, shortly after the communists took over. Was teaching at the American-Nicaraguan school, but intent on leaving after the contract as the kids had to wait on a Bulgarian ship to deliver polio vaccines. It was leave or divorce. My patient wife was out of patience, having delivered our second son there, when the hospital wouldn’t let us enter. It was full at the time. But there was a flower bed nearby.
So, with about a week to go, we returned to the rented house on Carretera Sur to find someone had pushed the air conditioner into the house from the outside. It crushed the bed where our son would normally sleep. They entered and got my wife’s jewelry and some cordobas. Had the stereo unplugged and ready to go, but we disturbed that upon our return.
Was it the maid who alerted the thieves we were leaving? Was it her? Her boyfriend? The people down the hill trying to survive?
Don’t know; don’t much care. I’m not there, and they’re not here.
I’ve been to Nicaragua many times, the first time during the revolution there. I actually travelled with the Sandinista Army a few times. I even played guitar for them once:
http://mikeaustin.org/AAA/May%2024/sandanistas.jpg
As I remember the song was “Rocky Racoon”.
My last journey there (2004) was just to hang out in Granada, and from there to backpack around Ometepe. I want to go back to spend time in the jungles around Puerto Cabezas, but at 68 I probably will not get to.
I took a job in Costa Rica (1989) and had to fly there from Honduras. When I arrived my huge duffel was missing. The airlines traced it to Nicaragua. I thought I would never see it again, but it was delivered two days later. The boys in the Nicaraguan airport even locked it securely for me. Nothing at all was taken.
Wish you guys hadn’t blown up all the public transportation, Mike. I had to fly back for our car and drive it through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras to have a way to get my wife to the hospital when she went into labor. We should have a beer. I had to divert (bridge out) up thru Yucatan Peninsula and, after taking a woman from the Mex/Belize border to a hospital in the capitol (forced to take her by the border guards), made my way through the “northern route” in Guatemala to the Honduran border. Never got out of second gear; straddled ruts the whole way. On my return trip, Guatemalan border guards stole things from the car. I wouldn’t make that trip again. The stories I could tell from that trip down, especially, would fill a book. Maybe our paths crossed. Our newborn “Nicaragringo” son was baptized in a Catholic church in Diriamba.
Quite the story! Yep, you could get a book out of your time in Central America.
I applied to that school in Nicaragua in 1993. I had already taught (1989 – 1991) at the Marin Baker School in San Jose, Costa Rica. I got 3 job offers: Rio, Asunción and Buenos Aires. I took the Argentine post because it paid very well, and I taught there 10 years.
My first time in Central America (1983 – 1984) involved no backpacking but rather just hard-core traveling. The “roads” in Guatemala and Honduras were, as you noted, quite entertaining. I returned to Central America several times (1986, 1989 – 1991, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010 – 2011). I could not imagine living there these days. Nope.
If this “pandemic” nonsense ever ends and international air travel becomes possible again—no mask wearing, no COVID testing and no “vaxxing” for me—then I might give Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua another go.
We were there in 1980-’81. I am finished with Central America, although our daughter went to Costa Rica last year. Everything I hear about Costa Rica is great. She loved it. Embassy folks from Nicaragua vacationed there. That entire part of the world is, as you well know, so beautiful. It’s tragic that it’s so dangerous. But then, so is Chicago. As I’m not vaxxed either, I won’t be able to travel. So I’m trying to like it where I am. I’m halfway there.
Crossing paths? I was in Costa Rica from 82 – 85 teaching at Colegio Metodista in San Pedro. Didn’t have nearly the adventurous times you guys describe, but, as you say, it is a beautiful part of the world. I miss it from time to time.
Ah, BroKen; you were in the calm part of the world. One difference among many: When I drove my car in Managua, I had to have the window open and radio off so I could hear when a young Sandinista directing traffic blew his whistle. You don’t stop when they blow their whistle, they shoot. I did the teaching profession a great service when I left it, as I proved in Nicaragua I have no brains. As a veteran, I actually took some US Army cut-off fatigues down there and once, when headed to a beach, I was stopped by one of the hot-headed believers. He reached inside my open window and grabbed my cut-offs and said all sorts of things. Luckily, I had a crazy guy in the back, also a teacher, who talked our way out of it. My wife and I, two kids and the other guy lived to almost succumb to undertow when we found the water. I’m unfit to teach, or be seen in public. Maybe it’s why I didn’t see any problem taking an 8.5-month pregnant wife and 1.5 year old son to a country recently blown up. “It’s our entry to the overseas teaching gig,” I said. “Women all over the world have babies in all sorts of places; rice paddies, mud huts. Let’s go!” We’re still married.
I also miss Central America from time to time, but not Costa Rica—although I loved living there. I even married a Costa Rican girl. Backpacking was my passion then. Since I had backpacked and hiked everywhere in Costa Rica—Corcovado, Santa Rosa National Park, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Arenal Volcano National Park, Rincon de la Vieja—I figured I had seen it all. What’s worse for a guy like me is that now you have to have a guide and camp only in designated places. Screw that. Costa Rica became too tame and too civilized for my taste.
Honduras—the Moskito Coast region—Guatemala—up north in el Petén—and Nicaragua are still wild and wooly. The Nicaraguan jungles from Matagalpa north to the Caribbean is the largest primary rain forest in Central America. My kind of place.
We were in Costa Rica at the same time in 1983. I stayed in San Ramon de Tres Rios for a week or so.
Dear Mike Seyle: You and I should write book. Each of us will write alternate chapters. We could title it “Central America for Fookin’ Idiots” or something.
As I never had a car while there—I still don’t, and get around in Oklahoma City by bicycle—I always slummed it with the locals and used the transport they used. Holy moly! In one day on the Mosquito Coast I took a boat across Brus Laguna, then a truck, then a rickety airplane used to fly weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua. The plane dropped us off in Mocoron, loaded up arms, flew to Nicaragua, and returned.
Fun times. But I was much younger then.
The things we’ve seen. I did my student teaching in Delhi. There was that trek with school kids into the foothills of the Himalayas. Guides left us at dusk to go ahead. Haaa Haaaa. I still shake. But I’ll stop now. People might start doubting my veracity, which reminds me of the response a Fish had to give an upperclassman when in the Corps at Texas A&M, if the Fish didn’t know an answer: “Sir, I hesitate to articulate for fear that I may deviate from the true course of rectitude. In short sir, I am a very dumb Fish and do not know, sir.” You had three seconds. The other two permissible responses to an upperclassman were “Yes sir” and “No sir.” I quit the school after two months and joined the Army at the height of the Vietnam War. Figured it couldn’t be any worse. And for me, it wasn’t, though for many in my age group and their families, it was a tragic time. So I bow.
Yeah, it was pretty calm. My adventures were cycling with friends from San Jose to Playa del Coco or up to the top of Volcan Irazu or snorkling in Limon. I still regret never taking the DC3 to the coast but only the bus along with folks and their chickens. I landed in Managua once on the way back to the States and noted the Russian aircraft at the airport and the armed guards on the roof of the terminal. The headline in the Nicaraguan newspaper quoted Ortega saying, “All the people are armed and that’s a beautiful democracy.” I was less skeptical then as I am now. Those were good times but they were not had by all.
Gerard,,,,,Who care what Calif allows doesn’t allow. You want one of those extend sticks let me know via email. I know a guy!
Dirk
Mike NODS are night observation devices. Over the years the quality of Night Visions has become amazing. The newer “ white Light” units are slick.
The PVS 21s, we’re maybe not the best, but dam near, I’m unaware of any better then the PVS21s.
I have a lot of friends in low places. I’ve been very very fortunate in my life, meeting training and working with very interesting people.
If your interested I’ll tell you about training with a group of afgan mountain fighters we trained out of Truckee Calif. in the late 80s.
Gerard, I see you posted what the 21s look like. These are the shit. Not many men have the honor of playing with these tools. I had em hand receipted for three years before the theft. Zero distortion, no compensation like the pvs 7s, to some degree the pvs 14s. Which are fine, actually.
The 21s were an amazing tool to have in my tool belt. Also had an early PVS27, which basically was a night vision you mounted on your sniper rifle. Ahead of the scope. This allowed a shooter to use the scopes elevation and wind age to be dialed physically on the scope, then a rubber boot linked the objective side of the scope,,,,,,the front,,,,, to the rear of the pvs 27. Shots out to 800y or more,,,,, easy Peazy in the dead of night.
By then I was using a 338 LM with a Schmidt and Bender PMII scope, and a thunder Beast silencer. A very heavy rifle, then add the pvs 27. To the top and forwarding the rifle. With the can the balance was changed forward, unusual to manage. Felt recoil was that of a 300wm, with the added weight.
Up in North eastern Calif, we are in huge dope garden heaven “cartel grows”. Canyon country. Generally 800 yards plus across these canyons, couldn’t make any of the 30 cal bullets work. Had to go big.
The dept had a 50, I couldn’t hit shit with the dam thing, the barrel was shot out. So I built a 338lapua mag. Right tool for that particular job. Believe my rifles was actually the first 338lm in use by law enforcement in Calif, at that time. Who knows.
The G36 is a heckler and Koch roller block carbine. Semi auto, three round burst and full auto. I did not like the G-36 the stock was long, the built in sights were to tall, one had to raise their head unnaturally to complete the sight pic.
By then I’d spent money making the rifle workable for me. My friends sourced a short stalk for me, but the sight height was at that time unusual. The newer versions have addressed those early issues, shot one about a year ago, a much better rifle then the gen 1’s.
Much preferred the Colt com,Andy’s and the 14.5 colts.
VI
Dirk, yeah. Might be interested in your story about the Truckee training. OK City and KC MO aren’t that far apart. Guess you’d be easy to recognize if we met in the middle. But that’s tough on a bicycle. Suppose I’d have to come all the way.
Sorry Dirk. Confused you and Mike Austin on locations. (You both are right up there in spirit!) It would be a trek to your place, although it’d be worth the drive. Be well.
“He had graduated, had become a drug counselor, and had done well for a few years.”
commonplace, I’m sad to say.
Filthy people, junkies. There is little hope for them, although on occasion one will “come to himself” and get cleaned up, and live a normal life via AA or NA or one of the 12-step groups. But by and large, druggies gonna drug, and they’re gonna die. I used to have some sympathy for them, but I outgrew that when I found that I just did not have any more f#*ks to give about them. Around here we have very simple laws concerning self-defense and protection of property…. and they usually involve firearms and their proper use. I live in a Constitutional Carry state and nearly every person I know goes about with a concealed weapon on them…. and I like it that way.
Junkies choose the road they travel on, just like everyone else. Why should a man spend time lamenting the fate of drug addicts? The sooner they overdose, the better for everyone.
I live in an apartment in Oklahoma City. It sits right across from a police station. My complex is 40 percent jogger but since I am 68, haven’t cut my hair in 3 years, and always—always—open carry a Ruger, I am known as “that crazy old long haired white guy with a gun.” Suits me.
This past summer, I absentmindedly left a car door unlocked. Someone got into the car and cleaned it out. They took about $20 in cash from the armrest compartment, several gift cards for Home Depot, an $18 box of laundry detergent, my car manual (why?), all my car maintenance receipts, and a baggie of masks from the dashboard. My driver’s license was in amongst my car receipts with my auto club card. So I had to get a new license.
A rear car door doesn’t always lock when I use the fob or auto lock on the armrest. I am usually diligent about making sure the door is locked during the 4 years I’ve owned the car.
But I had been setting up shelves and organizing my storage unit in 110° heat. Although I had water, after several hours, I was starting to feel the heat and was feeling woozy. I just want to get home, drink a lot of cold water and take a cold shower. In my haste to get in the house, I forgot to check the door lock.
Luckily, the jerk didn’t know or couldn’t see the latch to unlock the trunk. They would have found several hundred dollars worth of tools and a luggage carrier to help them cart my stuff away.
I’m very sorry to hear about the car damage. That really sucks.
I looked up Chico, CA and it appears to be a deep blue city in a deep blue state with a huge number of homeless junkies, so that type of crime must be pretty common.
If you don’t have a car alarm, getting one would be a good idea. The most effective ones to halt crime are the ones with a pager instead of a siren on the vehicle. That way you can sneak up on the junkie or pick them off from a distance.
For picking them off, I recommend a Gamo (or similar brand) subsonic pellet gun with a scope. At 1200 to 1400 feet per second, those pellets mean business, and a well-placed shot to the junkie’s groin is an excellent “behavioral modification tool.”
A better option might be to move to a red state.
Just picked up a Gamo Swarm Whisper w/ 10rd mags recently and can vouch for it’s performance. Came with a shitty 4x scope which I’m going to replace. As large as a regular rifle, not as loud as a .22 and not quite as powerful as a .22. But I sure wouldn’t want to get shot with it, especially in the head.
This one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PH9MM9C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Having said all of that, I can’t advise shooting anyone under the conditions you are living, and the circumstances you described. You WILL go to jail. Possibly for a long time. What you can do is keep a 30″ baseball bat ready to go at all times. And know how to use the hell out of it.
This one:
https://www.amazon.com/BB-W-Wooden-baseball-bat-size/dp/B002BZIVSU/ref=sxin_14?asc_contentid=amzn1.osa.cd9d31ae-6fc3-4db2-bfca-cffd81aefe24.ATVPDKIKX0DER.en_US&asc_contenttype=article&ascsubtag=amzn1.osa.cd9d31ae-6fc3-4db2-bfca-cffd81aefe24.ATVPDKIKX0DER.en_US&creativeASIN=B0039NKEZQ&crid=2I1UNK5LOEM1O&cv_ct_cx=baseball%2Bbat&cv_ct_id=amzn1.osa.cd9d31ae-6fc3-4db2-bfca-cffd81aefe24.ATVPDKIKX0DER.en_US&cv_ct_pg=search&cv_ct_we=asin&cv_ct_wn=osp-single-source-earns-comm&keywords=baseball%2Bbat&linkCode=oas&pd_rd_i=B0039NKEZQ&pd_rd_r=6d620866-30b2-4192-b433-397d6ac14376&pd_rd_w=mEDrq&pd_rd_wg=Oj7O0&pf_rd_p=5846ecd6-3f37-4a28-8efc-9c817c03dbe9&pf_rd_r=Y4KX5DXP5C922T690X10&qid=1641780406&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=baseball%2Bbat%2Csporting%2C139&sr=1-2-64f3a41a-73ca-403a-923c-8152c45485fe&tag=scoutedv2-20&th=1&psc=1
crosman 2240 series mag fed pistol
diana airbug mag fed pistol
2240’s can be customized/altered as pistol/rifle
pyramyd air
Not a fan of CO2 though I have one.
The Umarex Beretta 92FS w/ 18rd mags and an auto switch.
Yes, it will dump all 18 instantly, about 3 times before the CO2 must be changed.
Loading the mags and changing the CO2 is beastly.
I don’t use it much.
Plus, BB’s are very inaccurate.
My Gamo (,22 pellets) pumps once and has a 10rd mag and hits hard.
point taken.
I like the CO2 for the quick turnaround.
airguns are a whole culture to themselves.
Hearing those stories makes me happy to live where I do. For most of my life we never locked the house. We left our car in the driveway with keys in the ignition. I do lock the house now, but probably don’t have to. We live in a pretty safe rural area. But, I’ve lost quite a few bicycles to thieves in my lifetime, at least 5, but that was pure foolishness. Only one of them was locked. There was my brother’s red Schwin that I left outside the deli when I went in to get a sandwich. I may have been 14. That was my favorite bicycle. As simple and fast a bike as you will ever find. I left 2 in the woods when we went off on some adventure and when we came back they were gone. They were expensive bikes, but we were stupid kids. In college I locked my transportation outside of the dorm (DC, what was I thinking?) and in the morning it was gone. And the last time I had a bike stolen, I was bound and determined to find it. I walked from one end of the city to the other, walked the streets for at least 2 hours, and then found it tossed on the roadside with a flat tire. I walked it home.
So much talk of extreme violence . Gasp.
How about righteous corrective therapy?
Rat traps, electrically charged capacitors, and even “perimeter alarms” can provide exquisite therapy (& entertainment ) when applied to the miscreant behavioral patterns of the North American Junkahominids.
See sites like —— pyrocreations dot com for amusing “perimeter alarms’” and envision subjecting your local addict to your full range of behavior modification experiments —- all for the their own good, of course. Your Pavlov , they are the dogs.
wear gloves
There is no such thing as “extreme violence”; there is only violence. The desired result is the same, although the factor of time would either mitigate or increase the depth of the suffering involved. All that “therapy” stuff is a waste of time, money, resources and energy. And more to the point: such gooey, sentimental and emotional antics do not work. An addict is an addict is an addict until death. A truly civilized and rational society would speed up the result the addict had already chosen. Many folks would objectively benefit from the demise—natural or otherwise—of every drug addict on earth.
Exit from CA?
best suggestion yet
I’ll send you a little by PayPal sir, happy to pitch in to defray the loss.
“I know it is most unChristian of me, but I comfort myself in knowing that most of the junkies who do this kind of thing will within five years be in prison or dead. ”
Gotta admit, the commies are really working overtime to bring about the end of America (let alone the Free-World) with their Zombie Hordes, Free Sh*t Armies, Illegal Alien Invaders.
Though it took 3 successive sackings in under 75 years for the city of Rome to finally lose its vitality, I do believe these Democrats are trying to do that to us in much less time.
.
My condolences on your having to work for that Vandal, Gerard.
He plays, and you pay.
.
Sorry to read about your break-in/robbery Gerard. Seems as though the entirety of civilization has collapsed. Thank a politician. Useless rubbish of protoplasm.
Where there are homeless/bums/vagrants/addicts/politicians/street people/lawyers, and now physicians are getting on board, there is hell. The world is now run by Satan.
The decent people being murdered in the name of public safety (fake v*x potions). Violent criminals released from prisons and becoming soldiers for the deep s*a*t*.
Satan’s hobgoblins are indeed running amuck. Living lives of obscene luxury while decreeing their servants pay every obeisance to their whims.
Last October on my morning rounds,I noticed my truck,parked in the driveway as usual,was missing its tailgate. The tailgate. Dafuq?? Is this a thing now,stealing tailgates?
Luckily,I found 2 bright shiny copper pennies and a dime at the tail end of my truck,dropped,no doubt,from the pocket of thieving prick,or pricks.
Your broken window will work in an odd way to steel you further.
Tail gate theft has been going on for quite a while. They are extremely easy to remove and easy to sell at flea bag markets.
Tail gates are easily damaged in rear ender collisions, and expensive, new.
Crime is a top down driven enterprise. From POTUS to street sweeper. Look at the POTUS in office now for example. He even admits he is corrupt and laughs in our faces.
Gerard,
Sorry to hear your car got vandalized/broken into. I commiserate since in college I had two older cars I owned vandalized. Both had the hood ornaments stolen and one car had the taillight and side view mirror broken.
If you care about your possessions it’s frustrating how little people care and how some people are just jackasses. May you get the damage fixed quickly.
In my East Coast blue zone, the theft of catalytic converters is a bit more frequent than car break-ins. The newest trend here is for the thieves to perform their car surgery in big-box store parking lots in broad daylight. I’m just unChristian enough to post a video about a guy who got crushed trying to steal a catalytic converter from a Prius:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn8iMw3Hesw&ab_channel=CBSSacramento
Comment below the video: “Catalytic converters are designed to rid the environment of filth. It did its job.”
Gerard, I’m sorry for your troubles with the Chico junkie subculture; I hope the coming week will go better for you. (Head skritches as always to Olive.)
PA Cat,
I have a guaranteed solution to catalytic converter theft.
Get some VHT (very high temperature) spray paint in a bright orange or other high-vis color, and put several coats on your cat converter after proper surface prep. Let it cure at least 4-6 hours, and running the car afterward will give it a very tough “baked on” effect.
Cat converter thieves know that they would then have to spend a great deal of effort to remove that paint to make it “sellable” to the places that buy them.
Works every time.
Or, you can carefully remove all the lug nuts on one of the rear wheels and replace the hubcap. That turns your vehicle into a giant rat trap.
Just reading the comments reminded me that I am pleased I have no vehicle; so nothing to be left out in the parking lot of my apartment complex to tempt any joggers. Every month or so I see the result of a car break-in: busted glass strewn about and a pitiful car missing a window. Since I ride bicycles, and I keep both of them in my apartment, if any jogger wishes to get his hands on my bikes he will have to find a way inside. He will not like it if he does.