All Points Bulletin. North Central Ohio. Model T Parts Stolen

[junkyardjeff]

If a new T is out and about next spring in the area check them out.

[rocketraider]

Boils down to someone knew where the car was and used that to advantage. Whether that individual did it, or whether he blabbed and someone else did it, unless police take this property crime seriously recovery and prosecution are not likely.

 

This is exact reason that, when my cars were in public storage, only three other people knew where they were- the storage facility owner, my insurance agent and my best friend.

 

Lot of times if I went to get one of them or put it away, if I saw any activity near the row their units were on, I'd wait till those other tenants had cleared out before I'd open the unit.

 

Even now that I have my own garage and barn, only a very few people know what's in it.

 

But nothing will stop a determined thief- unless you permanently stop that individual. Read into that what you will, key word being permanently. Two things I can't stand are a liar and a thief.

[TerryB]

Ed, what you do is YOUR a business.  Would you ask your employees to get in there and put them in danger of injury or worse?  I said employees of stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s or any store where employees, not the owner have to put their life in danger.  There is NO logic to do this for petty theft.  Most stores have cameras in place, they show the data to the police and they most often get the person who did it.  It is absolutely ridiculous to expect a clerk at the checkout to do this intervention.
 

Life has more value in my book than a bucket of tools.  Ask the police if your employees should be chasing criminals in the parking lot.  Playing the Macho Man card is fine for you if you choose. Remember in shoplifting the person has to be confronted outside the store where they have more advantages and maybe some waiting friends.  No employee needs to die for the company.  You be the guy to tell them their husband or son is dead for defending your business.  It’s logic I don’t get….

[TerryB]

13 minutes ago, edinmass said:

Terry, we will have to agree to disagree. 

 

I will defend my family, and my property without hesitation. And I will use ALL force necessary to do so. It's what makes America great. We can each have our own values. 

I defend my rights, family, and values too. 
Almost forgot, you are a good guy from what I read on here, yes I do mean that and not in some snarky way.  Only difference is I sit here paralyzed from someone else’s dumbass mistake.  Four months in the hospital gave me a new perspective on the meaning of life. Until you’ve been to death’s door you have no idea of how good life really is.

Go make someone happy by fixing their pride and joy.

Edited November 18, 2021 by TerryB (see edit history)

[edinmass]

All good. 👍

[1937hd45]

Closer to home, my grandson had to be driven to school today. Someone cut the catalytic converters off the fleet of vans that normally take all the kids to school. DO NOT say anything offensive about the battery powered  saw operators, that would be mean, maybe even diminish their self worth. 

Edited November 18, 2021 by 1937hd45 (see edit history)

[TerryB]

Happened around my area too.  It’s been a long time since they were a target for thieves.  Local car dealer had them stolen too.  How do you sell the contents?  At pawn shops they record transactions for tracing possible theft items. Would this work on cats?  

[SC38dls]

First rule should be Think! Think how not to get hurt no object is worth getting hurt or dying over. 
 

30-35 years ago my industry (mail order) would see a lot of cash come in thru the mail. Usually $20 or so in each envelope. As we received 2500-3000 pieces of mail a day it was not unusual for a company like mine to make a cash deposit with a few thousand dollars in it a couple times a week. A competitor made his deposit the same time every day, first mistake. One day as he opened the door two guys were waiting that wanted the cash. The owner quickly closed the door, second mistake. Not good enough, the guys broke in shot the owner and three of the girls working there. The owner lived the girls died. Two years later the owner committed suicide. Four people dead over a few thousand dollars. Families ruined, the was it worth it?  Give the cash up, give the object up, fight only if there is no other choice. Let the police do what they are paid for if at all possible. Sometimes that actually works and you will be around to see it. 
dave s 

Edited November 18, 2021 by SC38dls (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

45 minutes ago, edinmass said:

We had 50 Nissan trucks relieved of their converters........all new trucks on the rear storage lot. They figured it out from the broken saw blades under them........

 

 

That was considerate, wheel of death cutoff disks could have disrupted the neighbors sleeping, and may have posed a fire danger. You must feel so good supplementing someone's income. 

[lump]

Back to the OP's situation: 

It seems to me that this theft was done for one of two goals: Either 1) to steal stuff to be used on another Model T project car, or 2), to obtain "merchandise" to sell for cash. Either way, it's gonna be REALLY difficult to recover the parts, or to see the thief convicted.

 

IF it was done to be used on another Model T, it will be darn near impossible to prove, even if the items are found (See TAKerry's post above about the windows from a construction site). Model T Ford parts look alike, and if they're sitting in a garage next to a Model T which needs those parts, how will anyone be able to prove the parts are the stolen items? The person in possession of them will claim to have bought them. 

 

IF the intent was to gather stolen parts to sell, then they will either have to go to a swap meet (likely a hundred miles away), or be sold through the grapevine. Not likely they will be listed on Craigslist anytime soon. But again, even if found, how can anyone prove ownership? 

 

Makes me sick to think of the loss, but I don't have much confidence in recovery---- UNLESS those tires have serial numbers which were recorded and can be reflected on receipts which the victim still has, maybe? 

[Matt Harwood]

There's no way this was merely a crime of opportunity with the usual crackheads seeing an old car and helping themselves to parts hoping for a score. Model T parts are not easily fence-able, it required knowledge of which specific parts to take, plus the skills and tools to take it apart. No, this was someone who needed the parts (or knew someone who would pay for the parts), and who also knew exactly where this car was located and how to take it apart. Nobody spots an old car, breaks into a garage, and disassembles a Model T hoping they can eventually drag the parts to a swap meet and make a few bucks. There was a whole boatload of intent on this crime.

 

If it was a garden-variety opportunity thief or tweekers, it would be all torches and Sawzalls and there would be paraphernalia all over the place. When crackheads broke into my house and stole my copper pipes, they used bolt-cutters and hammers without any thought about being careful. They tore through walls and smashed everything that got in their way. Get in, get out, get high. This wasn't that kind of crime.

 

I think Junkyardjeff has the right idea--this is mostly likely a local thief. Look for the Model T with those parts on it next spring.

[TAKerry]

At the risk of beating a dead horse, def not a person looking for a quick score. Those people will steal tools first, easier to pawn. And just a brief comment about stealing cat. convertors..... My experience doing muffler work, more power to the guy that wants to take one out! (not really I dont condone thiefery-yes i just made up that word-but my experiences with mufflers has been nothing but horrible).

[1932 plymouth pb sedan]

This is a shame to happen even in a small town where things like this are becoming more and more frequent. Most likely these thieves will be caught and hopefully hung by the scrotum.

In N.H. we still have open carry as well as many CC and at my age I am not willing to be a victim or at least for very long. You can always wait for the justice system to do it's job, although it usually does not work well for victims. I do have a decent sized piece of land....and a backhoe.

[pont35cpe]

15 minutes ago, 1932 plymouth pb sedan said:

You can always wait

The Harley i bought after coming home from Vietnam in `71 was stolen 3mo after i bought it..  I`m still waiting.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

Get in, get out, get high.

😄

In the interest of full disclosure,   I'm totally going to plagiarize this line.

[auburnseeker]

21 minutes ago, 1932 plymouth pb sedan said:

I do have a decent sized piece of land....and a backhoe.

Right mind frameset.  Now if more people thought like this and let it be known maybe crime would go down.  I have 16 acres and my Kubota excavator.  Always have projects going on as well,  so wouldn't look suspicious.   Notice the crap that went on last year didn't find it's way to areas with plentiful gunowners and people willing to stand up against criminals.  

 

Newsflash.  Criminals don't follow the law,  so the more laws they make the less safe we are as only the non criminals abide by them.   We are starting to get sick of playing by the ever increasing rules when the other side doesn't. 

Goes right back to parenting.  When they take the ability of the parent away to discipline their children,  they foster a community of future criminals. 

 

[1932 plymouth pb sedan]

3 minutes ago, auburnseeker said:

Right mind frameset.  Now if more people thought like this and let it be known maybe crime would go down.  I have 16 acres and my Kubota excavator.  Always have projects going on as well,  so wouldn't look suspicious.   Notice the crap that went on last year didn't find it's way to areas with plentiful gunowners and people willing to stand up against criminals.  

 

Newsflash.  Criminals don't follow the law,  so the more laws they make the less safe we are as only the non criminals abide by them.   We are starting to get sick of playing by the ever increasing rules when the other side doesn't. 

Goes right back to parenting.  When they take the ability of the parent away to discipline their children,  they foster a community of future criminals. 

 

EXACTLY !

 

[mike6024]

So someone with a Model T project car saw this one and stripped needed parts off of it? That is the likely scenario? Or someone who knew someone who had a project car, and there was an understanding that needed parts would be purchased for a good price no questions asked.

 

I would not have suspected Model T owners as being the type that could steal from other owners.

 

 

[1937hd45]

14 minutes ago, mike6024 said:

So someone with a Model T project car saw this one and stripped needed parts off of it? That is the likely scenario? Or someone who knew someone who had a project car, and there was an understanding that needed parts would be purchased for a good price no questions asked.

 

I would not have suspected Model T owners as being the type that could steal from other owners.

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't rule out the "repurposing" home decorating crowd, there could be four future coffee tables there, maybe wall hangings in a restaurant. 

[wayne sheldon]

1 hour ago, mike6024 said:

I would not have suspected Model T owners as being the type that could steal from other owners.

 

The vast majority of 'model T' people would never do anything like this, or buy any parts that they were suspicious about. However, the antique automobile hobby, all levels of it, is made up of human beings. And a lot of human beings are simply born rotten.

At one of the local clubs I used to be active with, we used to discuss this subject. Why ARE most antique automobile people better people on average than are most of the rest of the population. We came up with two reasons we think made real sense. 

One, people drawn to antique automobiles are interested in history, and many other things other than themselves. So they have a natural tendency to care enough about other people enough that they would never do something that rotten to anyone.

Two, the antique automobile hobby has this nifty way of weeding out marginal people. How many people do you know, That spent thousands of hours, thousands of dollars, more than a year, working on, sorting out, and preparing their car for some big once-in-a-lifetime meet? Only to have the car break something just days before the meet and NO WAY to fix it in time? If I thought about it for a few minutes, I could probably think of a dozen. I have loved every running antique automobile I have ever owned, and even several that never did run in my time with them! But they do try your patience from time to time.

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by wayne sheldon
I hate leaving typos! (see edit history)

[junkyardjeff]

Need to do some investigation on who is working on a T,one would think it would have been easier to just take the whole axle and its most likely a original that is being worked on.  Has someone wrecked one recently.

[TAKerry]

Wayne I will add, WE THE CAR PEOPLE, spend our free time in the shop working on old cars. Not out galavanting and looking for something to get into!

[wayne sheldon]

TA K, I would certainly agree with that! Hanging around club meetings, tours and shows years ago, one always gets to listen in onto lots of conversations.

Wives often group together and chat (a good thing!). Often comments can be heard about husbands spending so much time out in the garage or shop. Very often followed by comments about how much better that is than husbands wandering out and spending too much time in bars. Win-win.

[89tc]

I agree with junkyard jeff, the thief 1) has to be familiar with these cars, 2) needing those specific parts, 3) and geographically local. He also cased out the car ahead of time, meaning that he either knows the owner, or he knew what storage unit the car was put into. 

  It's really an open and shut case. Whomever owns a Model T in a close geographic area to the crime would be a suspect, which narrows it down to very few people....

   Or you could hire a local 13 year old school kid computer nerd to scan the big fingerprint smudge on the top of the radiator/ hood with his fingerprint app and run the print in the online print database for a match... 

[mike6024]

 

The wheels look nice. The wheels and steering wheel were stolen. So I would not rule out a drug user looking for something he thinks he can sell easily. Those items could be for sale at a garage sale somewhere. There are plenty of shady people who rent storage units, so it was probably someone else renting another unit and saw this car being worked on. And also made note that the owners very rarely visited the unit where the car was.

[Frank DuVal]

On 11/18/2021 at 3:18 PM, 1937hd45 said:

On 11/18/2021 at 2:29 PM, edinmass said:

We had 50 Nissan trucks relieved of their converters........all new trucks on the rear storage lot. They figured it out from the broken saw blades under them........

 

 

That was considerate, wheel of death cutoff disks could have disrupted the neighbors sleeping, and may have posed a fire danger. You must feel so good supplementing someone's income. 

How did Ed supplement someone else's income? You make no sense. And it's way off topic for the recovery of Model T parts.

[1932 plymouth pb sedan]

I hope we get updates on this story, I love it when criminals are caught.

[rocketraider]

I like it even better when they're made to pay a high price for their "indiscretion".

 

When states raised the grand larceny thresholds it made it ever more difficult for a theft victim to recover their property or losses. Theft is theft, whether it's a high-dollar item or a pack of chewing gum. A thief has no right or claim to what I worked to have.

[1932 plymouth pb sedan]

Any updates on this story ?