Hey all. Greetings from 'truck-less' Captain Kirk. Keep reading and you'll understand.
Upon returning to the Thorner school parking lot after the Saturday morning, Jul24th ride, the group arrived about 9am to find that my truck had been vandalized and the front end was sitting on the asphalt. The front wheels were completely gone, all the lug nuts were off the back wheels with a wood block under the axle and were probably 30 seconds away from being taken as well. The thieves put a nice big dent in the left front fender, and small dent in the rear back drivers side door and looked like they tried to 'jimmy' the driver door handle. Someone must have come along and spooked them, as their jack was still under the engine frame cross member and they left the rear wheels.
We did recover the floor jack the vandals left behind under the engine frame cross member, and I'm thinking about making some type of trophy out of it. I'm open to ideas.
Anyway, the point of this note is not to focus on the incident, but is intended to highlight the graciousness and commaraderie of my fellow SSFTA'ers. I hope I don't miss anyone here, and I apologize if I do. I was a bit bummed about the deal, as the truck was only 3 weeks old and had about 1200 miles on it. Ce la vie.
Thank you to Augie and his boys as they helped take off the spare and ready it for install. Thank you to Bob for jacking up the truck on each side, and helping to install my spare and another spare lent to me by a friend (his name is Walt, I think) of Lisa. Thank you to Dan for lending me about 9 lug nuts off his 8-lug Chevy truck. Thank you to Eddie for providing me with a tall glass of ice water while I waited for AAA towing. Thank you to KP for helping install one of the spares, then driving me to 3-Way Chevrolet Collision Center to follow the drop deck hauler to drop off the truck, then driving me home. Thank you to Hervey for his words of encouragement. I know there were many others who hung around until we left the parking lot, but I'm sorry I don't remember all details.
This was a very bold action taken by the culprits during broad daylight in a public school parking lot with at least 12-14 other vehicles at the time. I've been driving out there and parking in that same spot for over 5 years, with nary a problem.
Oh well, God knows what happened. I've just turned it over to Him. I've filed the claim with AAA, made an online police report with BPD (I learned they will not come out for these type of crimes - unless I know who did it), and the truck is in good hands at 3-Way. Hopefully, I'll get it back at the end of the workweek. Next time you see me, I'll have wheel locks.
By the way, the AAA towing rep that I should be extremely thankful for my friends!!! Thank you SSFTA. I appreciate y'all.
Mark