Fish House THEFT, Maplewood (Almost)

[dougger222]

This morning at around 3am my wife watched while playing games on the PC a pick up truck pull up into the driveway and back up to the 2004 Ice Castle $11,000 fish house. We're storing the fish house for her step Dad while a garage is being built on there property on the other side of Maplewood. A call was made to her step Dad who said he didn't tell anybody to pick up the fish house. Luckily he awoke by the cell phone call which confirmed our suspicions. When I looked outside I saw a pick up backed about 10ft in front of the shanty with one guy in the back pushing while the other guy was pulling by the tongue. My wife then called the police and I went outside to investigate. I grabbed a couple short 2x4's and pulled my wifes Excursion in front of the truck. As soon as they seen me go outside the thief's made a run for the fenced in back yard.

Shortly there after several Police started showing up. A check of the license plate of the late 80's pick up truck showed it to be stolen from a couple blocks away. The K9's followed the tracks to a car sitting a block away were the thief's sped off.

The owner of the truck was contacted and picked up and dropped off to his truck.

My wife and I were out of town Thursday and Friday night.

This was definitely planned out and luckily for wifes addiction to backgammon the would be thief's got away with nothing.

We are both happy the fish house was not stolen but it would have been better to have waited and called the cops and then slowly followed in the Excursion until the cops got on there tail and made arrests.

Ice fisherman, better start locking up your fish houses even on land!!!

[irvingdog]

Nice work.

I will say, I sure ain't walking into that situation without a gun. The 2X4's could have been the first boards in your coffin.

[Bigbartguy]

I live in a great neighborhood, but these type thefts have become pretty common. John Deere lawn tractors, etc you name it have been stolen by leaving them outside for even 1 night. You cant trust anything outside anymore.

Glad to hear that you've still got the house!

[Macgyver55]

Thats kind of strange Bart. I live less than a mile from you from what I remember and we haven't had an instance of theft around here since I moved in. Lucky I guess, but I probably should be a little more careful from now on, its bound to happen.

[Captain B.R.K]

Thank goodness for your wifes addiction.

I can't believe people (theives), I can fathom why people would do such a thing.

Glad you were able to stop those guys and get the cops involved. Hopefully they'll evently get caught!

[Bigbartguy]

Macgyver definitely dont leave anything of value outside. guy right across the street from me had his new John Deere tractor stolen 2 mos ago - they dragged it & loaded it onto a trailer. Skid marks all the way down the driveway and street! Other neighbor just had his lawn mower, cds and checks stolen also. Left his garage door open by accident.

Douger I hope the police catch these (Contact US Regarding This Word).

[dougger222]

Yes, hopefully these thugs will get stopped in there tracks by either a overprotective fish house owner with a side arm or the Police.

These were a couple pretty brazen but downright stupid criminals that tried to pull of this heist. If the thugs would have noticed all the fresh tracks and the Excursion parked next to the F250 they should have put two and two together and figured somebody was home unlike the two previous nights. Another reason why I think these guys were brain dead from too much drug use was how far away they parked from the fish house. Today with full sun light I got to see exactly what they were trying to pull off. With two wet inches of snow on the ground with soft grass underneath the two were able to rock the house out of the four inch rut. With the front being too heavy to lift the drop down hitch with no wheel just dragged across the wet ground. Even though these thugs were down right ignorant they did show some signs of strength.

They did think ahead however and steal at least one vehicle and did have a second vehicle a block away as a get-a-way car.

I know three guys that if they looked outside and saw what I saw they would have reached for either a long arm or there side arm and start pulling off rounds.

[The Grebe]

BRK....They'll do just about anything they figure they can get away with! About 10 years ago, I had a lawnmower that I put up for sale in the trading times.

A young guy comes over and looks it over and says he did'nt have enough money at the moment and that he would be back for it. Well, he did'nt come back....at least not right away!

Well, it was just before opening day of fishing and I think the guy seen my fishing gear sitting by the truck, put two and two together and came snooping late in the night on the opener?

We got a call the next morning, from a nephew that was checking on the house, we were up in Park Rapids on Two Inlets lake. We had been burgled the night before!

Someone had backed into the yard, next to one of my trucks, which was a good cover, as I have several vehicles in the driveway and neighbors are used to seeing them. They pried the side door of the garage, got in and opened the big door from the inside and made off with about $4500 worth of lawn equipment the largest piece being a brand new 36 inch walk

behind mower.

Drop your guard for a second and you become a victim and it does'nt matter who you are, or how on top of things you are, that kind of dump does'nt play favorites. He11, even a repairman for Xcel was shot and robbed recently, while he was working!

[McGurk]

To add fuel to the fire: Speaking of brazen, I heard of the theft of a large ingersol-rand trailered air compressor parked on a street during a maintenence project being hooked up to and driven off, with workers on site and at about noon during summer. Drugs will not make you smarter, but they sure make you braver. Good Luck to all of the honest hardworkers here! McGurk

[nitroant]

Trust no one. This may sound cold, but its the only way you'll keep your stuff. Meth is most likely driving most of these people to do such things.

[dougger222]

I think you just nailed it, METH... Nothing is doing more damage to our youth than Meth. When you have to fuel such a horrible addiction most addicts turn to thievery for there source of money for the drug. Crack heads have always been around but add in meth heads and you've got a lot of crazed people walking the streets.

In the past 10 years my roofing business has had one item stolen, an old aluminum 24ft extension ladder. It was leaning against a new house on Dodd Blvd in Rosemount over Labor Day and when I came back 3 days later it was gone. I was a little flustered but without thinking twice picked up a brand new much safer $100 ladder. Of course from that day forward a curse was put on the stolen ladder!

I know a framing crew that had almost all of there equipment stolen during a lunch break! Ladders, compressors, hoses, belts, guns, etc.

BTW, now the fish house is sitting flat on the ground with all the pins removed and both rear doors locked with a pad lock on the coupler.

[hoggs222]

How about the guys on Buffalo Lake last winter? They were sleeping in the fishhouse on the lake & somebody hitched it up & started driving away with it. When confronted, they said that they thought it was their fish house! I wish it would've been my house!

[dougger222]

I've heard some pretty wild ice fishing theft stories. Like the one last winter were the thief's were cleaning up trucks at a Red Lake Resort parking lot and locked themselves out of the truck with the stolen property. Heard about fisherman sick of guys driving or plowing into there fish houses that they finally decided to put an end to it and one guy froze a telephone pole into the ice. The truck was found next morning with no plates wrapped out it in the fish house! Also heard rumors of a guy on LOW who got sick of fish house break ins so he put a couple of guard dogs in his shanty. Evidentally a couple thief's got away but with nothing to show for except a few missing fingers!