Years ago in college, my brother stole the very large bulb-end of a parking-lot light. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t from the top of a light-pole; I don’t know where he got it. But WHY. It was like three feet long, ugly and didn’t even light up. Stupid.
Just after I got out of college I lived in an apartment. The back alley backed up to the parking lots of commercial buildings, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when my unlocked garage was entered and my car broken into. It was a 1979 Dodge 210 with and AM radio! So, they checked the trunk. Nothing in there but my laundry detergent, which they left. I was always grateful they didn’t steal it just for the heck of it.
A few years ago somebody broke into my pickup truck in the communal garage at my apartment complex. In addition to taking the cheap tools I had behind the seat (but leaving the 3-D Maglite), they removed the dome light. I also had a lockable camper shell over the bed: They picked the locks, entered the shell, and removed the center brake light(!) that was mounted in the shell’s window hatch. Drilled or punched out the rivets holding it in, and neatly cut the wires.
What the hell, man?!? :dubious:
I quickly found out that you don’t realize how much you use your dome light until it’s gone…
Last Christmas I rented a PT Cruiser (I think it was from Avis, as well), and I found the owner’s manual stashed back there, as well. I was hunting for it to figure out how to turn off the horn honk when locking the doors with the remote, which I consider a pretty detestable “feature.” There was in fact a procedure, which I’d never have guessed on my own (ignition on; depress lock and unlock buttons simultaneously for 5 seconds; shout “Wombat!” three times - something like that).
My nephew made my sister one of those wooden wishing well, akin to this. This sucker was huge and heavy. Took four guys to position it precisely where sis wanted it.
A few months later she looked outside only to see… a large patch of dead grass. Under a streetlight, someone managed to haul off this monstrosity. She was heartbroken.
Many years ago I worked at a knife shop. We would have these small baskets on the ledge of the cashwrap with an example knife poked through the edge of the basket. The basket itself was filled with empty boxes. I can’t count how often the empty boxes were stolen. Some people would even walk past again and fling the empty boxes at us employees, like we were cruel for deceiving them in their theivery.
My sister and I were just talking about this yesterday. Her friend’s mother owes a cabin in the mountains in NC that they rent out when not using it. She said you would be amazed at what people will steal right out of a place they are staying. Pictures off the walls, small appliances, throw rugs and of course, the standard towels. Once the vacation renters even took the bedspreads!!!
She finally brought family photos, diplomas and other personal items to leave around the place which said “Hey, this is someone’s HOME.” It actually worked and much less went missing.
Ok, I have my own odd theft story, but it was me who did the theiving (I was 17, stealing lawn ornaments was practically a rite of passage!)
Down the street from a friend’s house was a large, life-size, solid concrete pig. Why anyone would want such a monstrosity, I’ll never know. 2 of my friends always wished they could steal it (they had some sort of vendetta against the homeowner) but when they tried, they found that it was too heavy, so they just pushed it over and left a note on it that said, “Your pig is dead.”
A couple of years later several friends and I were having a party at someone’s house (his parents were away) and I resurrected the pig theft idea. We loaded about 8 people in my Jeep and drove over. It took all of us, with all the strength we could muster, to get that thing in the truck. It must have weighed several hundred pounds. Once we had stolen it, and after the initial hilarity wore off, we had no idea what to do with it. So we left it in my friend’s garage.
When his parents came home they discovered it, and didn’t know what to do with it either. They eventually gave it to a delighted friend who put it out back by her pool. Fast forward several years. The new owner of the pig got some work done in her back yard (a new screen around her pool I think) and the company took pictures to use in ads.
The old owner saw the ad.
She called the company, who told her they couldn’t give out that information. After many annoying phone calls apparently they told her the neighborhood it was in so she’d leave them alone. So she called the cops, and apparently harassed them so much that they finally agreed to drive her around said neighborhood, looking for this house that was in the ad.
They found it. And I don’t know how, but apparently this woman was able to prove it was her pig and got it back. Craziest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.
This is an Urban Legend that gets trotted out every time there is a garbage strike somewhere. I think Mad Magazine riffed on this during a NYC garbage strike in the 70’s.
I went to a private Catholic high school. We had lockers to keep our gym clothes in when we weren’t using them in gym class. It was a matter of course that anything left in an unlocked locker for more than a few minutes would be stolen. I can understand the motive behind stealing a textbook or graphing calculator, but someone else’s crusty gym socks? Apparently those were worth stealing too. :dubious:
Not exactly the same thing, but there are some serious pack rats in my neighborhood. When we redid our kitchen, I cut out all of the old cabinets and countertops and left them on the front lawn, figuring that people in the neighborhood might want to pick it over, and the garbage men would take the rest. There were a fair number of undamaged cabinets that somebody might have wanted to put up in their basement or garage, and some stuff that had been cut apart way beyond repair. I even made two separate piles, for the “good” stuff and the debris. It was all taken within hours. Not that I had a problem with it, but it blew my mind that people will take stuff that’s so clearly damaged and unusable, just because it’s free.
They steal: When I was living in a loft downtown, after one particularly crazy weekend night (our university’s team must have won or something), I went down to move my car out of the back lot before it got a ticket. Well, someone had stolen my passenger side rearview mirror. No broken glass, no damage to the car, it was just gone. I have no idea what someone could use it for besides frat room decoration, but it cost me $100 to replace it (one of the few items not covered by my now expired warranty).
I steal: My last job was the worst of my life. I worked for a woman who can only accurately be described as a slave master. She only had a couple of employees and watched us at all the times. Even when she was in meetings, she would come out frequently and unexpectedly to make sure we weren’t doing anything horrendous and forbidden on the clock (like checking our email or making a doctor’s appointment). She was at the office about 18-20 hours a day, 7 days a week (no joke). Well, I managed to get away with my favorite mug from the office -it was difficult, but I did it. I still think my coffee tastes better when drinking from that mug than any other!
Autumn, if you lived in the neighborhood, one of those packrats might have been my mom. They might not be any good as cabinets any more, but there was probably still some good wood there that could be used in other projects. And if nothing else, there’s always firewood.
Not quite the same thing, but the running joke in some parts is that you don’t dare leave the windows down and unattended in your car over summer… If you do, when you come back, you’ll find that someone has left a couple of zucchinis on the front seat.
Addendum - I also instigated and organized the effort for all three of us to quit within a month or so of each other (we are all happier now), which left my old boss with no trained employees to help out during the busiest time of the year! Teach her to tell me that I wasn’t getting a raise because, on average, I took more than two bathroom breaks (3-5 minutes allowed) during the course of a 9-10 hour day and that I was “stealing” that time from her.
