I'm not angry, just a little disappointed
I just got back into the house after pulling a stuck pickup out of the mud with the tractor.
Walking out the door this morning I could see across the street in my sister's yard headlights where no car should be. I could hear the sounds of a truck trying to get unstuck. I went across the street and there was a new pickup sunk in the mud. And I mean deep in the mud. There was a man I don't know dressed up nice like he worked in an office. I got my tractor and pulled him on semi-solid ground and told him to try getting out. He gunned it and the back end slid back into soft ground, mud was spraying everywhere but he did manage to get back on the solid ground of the driveway.
Then he drove down the driveway, onto the street and he was gone. Not a thankyou or even a wave goodby, and that is why I'm disappointed. Here in the country I expected he would have stopped, thanked me and we would have chatted a few minutes, shake hands and he would have driven off waving goodby.
I'm not angry with him. He looked like a city boy and maybe never learned good manners. Maybe he was late for work.
I feel good that I was able to help him but sad at the way it ended.
Maybe I'm just too sensitive and expect too much of people.
More than likely was where he shouldn't have been in more ways than one...
I think those are the kind of people who are labeled as "Entitled". If he'd stopped to talk it would probably have been to ask how long it would take you to finish detailing his truck.
I remember seeing a news clip where a major hurricane had hit the south and the TV newsman/woman was walking back to a suburb in Mississippi or Louisiana with a resident and they got to the owner's house and there was nothing left but a foundation. The lady said "Oh well, we better go see how Miz Edna's place fared." The newscaster was amazed and said "But you've just lost your entire home." The owner said "Yeah but there's nothing I can do about that and I may still be able to help Miz Edna."
I have learned that if you don't expect anything from people you probably won't be disappointed. Sad, but that's the way thing seem to be now.
It seems like at least a 'Thank You" should have been given no matter the surrounding circumstances.
On the other hand, If you had approached him before the unsticking and told him it would be $100 to get him out sometime today and $200.00 to do it now, he probably would have fallen all over himself being appreciative! ffwave
Yeah, if somebody gets stuck in my neighbors or relatives yard at night while joy riding and trenching it, I would have walked out and met him about the time the county cops finished writing him a ticket and the tow truck showed up.
I have zero tolerance for trespassing and destruction of property on mine or anybody else's.
How old a guy. not all young folks are taught that you are owed nothing. take it for granted as your responsibility!!.
I'm with you Robert! Trespassing and damage to our land is serious business. It may be huge but I consider our farm my front and back yards.
It's not always young folks. We used to allow the high school (I was a teacher there) to mark a cross country track course on our farm. Teams from all over the region came by the bus load to race when they had meets. Usually there were 3 or 4 teams, coaches and parents. We were happy to allow them to hold the events.
However, one rainy fall Friday evening, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a vehicle driving and spinning around in the hay field beside our house. There was evidence the same vehicle had driven through our field of corn across the road.
Long story short, a sheriff's deputy had to be involved and located the vehicle at the high school football game. I got the license plate number and had followed the vehicle to the school. Thankfully, the deputy was there when I got there and he dealt with the guy directly. The individual driving was an adult cross country coach and teacher at one of the schools who had run races on our farm.
He was "looking for the farm road and was going 4 wheeling" if he could have found it. I asked him what gave him the idea he was allowed to do that. No answer. I asked the deputy to specifically tell him not to come back.
I had the guy charged with trespass, damage to agricultural crops/land and everything else I could justify. It was ugly for him and the other school's principal, athletic director and cross country track team.
It was under threat of losing his teaching job that I finally got an apology directly from him.
The damage was bad from where he did doughnuts. I made him pay for reseeding the hay field by a professional seeding company and asked the district attorney to hold the charges until that was done to my satisfaction. It was repaired and the district attorney dropped the charges. Enough inconvenience for both of us.
He was supposed to be a grown ice adult!
Unfortunately, that put an end to cross country events on our farm.
Back in the day we were living on a farm in Missouri where it was legal to have a surface drain field for the septic system. It was located some 200 feet from the yard. It was a bog. We had renter neighbors that anyplace they were they had a right to be, drive though the field one night. The next morning their pickup was buried axel deep in the center of the drain field. We knew the family and expected them to come claim the truck and apologize. Nope, sat there till the next morning when we called the sheriff who had a wrecker haul the truck to the county impound. Then the neighbor erupted and started to cuss us for our "lack of consideration" because of the fee for the haul off. They continued the rant till I informed them that we had not filed trespass charges, yet. Attitude changed, and since they were renters they left, still no apology.
The happy ending came when we spoke to the landowner of the neighbor, just telling the story and laughing at the situation of their crappy day. The neighbor was asked to leave at the end of the month.
Country folks help each other.
Are you guys talking about my neighbors?
Quote from: cutterboy on March 28, 2024, 09:58:27 AMMaybe I'm just too sensitive and expect too much of people.
That's what people say about me. I'm just too nice, sensitive and compassionate of other peoples feelings!
Anyway, I'm glad that there are still nice folks like you out there.
I keep thinking I may have tried to pull him out with a piece of barb wire wrapped around his $200 rear tires.
Just maybe that dip will come back later with a 12 pack and apologize. I doubt it but maybe.... Just finished a little plumbing before Easter project that took 4x too long and an extra trip to the hardware store, so I am trying to brighten my outlook with optimism.
Or I might be stalling on the forum before going out to re align the roller guides on my mill. :uhoh:
Cutter you did the neighborly thing, and you should DanG well feel good about it.
Once as a kid I pulled a State Trooper out of a snow drift on the edge of the road. His only words to me afterwards was 'ya know I could ticket you for doing this'. Some people have the personality of a rock! rayrock
A kid ran off the road and down a pretty steep bank in the snow one night not too long ago. My BIL, who doesn't feel comfortable on a tracto called and asked would I come around the corner and pull him out. I went.
When I got there the highway patrol, fire department and half the neighbors were there. My BIL had pulled his tractor over, had the chains ready. All that had to be done was connect to the car and pull.
I handed the hook to the kid and said, "You go down there and hook to it where you want me to pull. Be advised that if the bumper pulls off, the car turns over or is damaged in any way I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE."
The look on his face was priceless! He said, "Let me go talk to my mom." He came back and said thanks but they have towing insurance and AAA. They would wait until the next day. AAA wouldn't touch it because it was more than 50 feet off the road.
I was there when the tow truck pulled it out. I don't think I would have hurt the car any worse.
The highway patrol gave the kid a ticket for something but I'm not sure what. I suspect either careless and reckless or improper equipment.
Years ago coming home after work second shift I came across a county officer stuck just off the road. He had gone in on a trail where kids would park. He was only a couple feet off the road so I offered to go the mile home get a chain and get him out. He agreed . Just got him out and along comes the district attorney who began to chew me our for blocking the highway. The cop told him to shut and go home to sober up
Quote from: chet on March 28, 2024, 04:48:56 PMOnce as a kid I pulled a State Trooper out of a snow drift on the edge of the road. His only words to me afterwards was 'ya know I could ticket you for doing this'. Some people have the personality of a rock! rayrock
I'd be rubbing my eyes and blinking in disbelief..... "WHAT?" 😆
Had to have been 1 in a million
Outlaw on the run? Husband where he ought not to be or have been? Don't matter, still bad manners any way you turn it.
I can believe it. We had a trooper living on our road that was JUST like that. He grew up as my neighbor and I remember him as a little kid wreaking havoc and mischief all over the neighborhood with his two brothers. He had collected numerous complaints from local folks during his tenure for ridiculous harassment and tickets 'threatened' but never issued'. He retired last year with some 'encouragement' from his fellow officers.
Our Troopers, in my experience, are top notch upstanding men and women and extremely professional at a high level. I have nothing but respect and trust for them. Other agencies maybe not so much and as a fire Officer, I worked with all of them. They do not tolerate anyone who makes them look bad. He was the third trooper in our area that I know to have 'decided to retire suddenly'. :wink_2: I am sorry you ran into 'that guy'.
Mud season I used to park at the end of my 1/2 mile drive so I didn't destroy it as it was OK, but not a great road. Well I came home one night and backed off the road as I usually do and jumped out of my truck, as I am walking in I can see the road is torn up with muddy tracks so I am kinda steeming when I notice a full size Blazer sideways in the road buried. Beer bottles on the seat and I find the registration in the glove box. Being young and naive I called the owner thinking his vehicle must have been stolen and certainly he must be concerned. Nope the ice tells me that his girlfriend had driven down my road to "see where it went" and got stuck, he would be there tomorrow to come and get it. Well, my tude changed a bit but not enough so I told him to call me before he pulled into the road as my truck was parked at the end. Did he do that? Nope, drove around my truck without calling and drug out the Bronco, well in the process of leaving he clipped my pickup and didn't bother to call me. That's when I got a bit hot under the collar. I gave him a couple of options and in the end had a nice, new paint job out of the deal, PPP Triple Jet Black looks awesome, it's not cheap, but it looks awesome!!
Fast forward 15 or so years with quite a bit of experience under my belt and a paving company decided to park their entire inventory of equipment in my driveway, I happened to come home at 9:00 at night with 30' worth of stock trailer hooked to my truck and could not pull in. Made a call and the on call answering service tells me that someone will be back in the morning as nobody was available... ummm, not gonna happen darling. So I called some coworkers who made the follow up call and they gave them the option of finding somebody NOW or however much money was parked in my driveway was going to be impounded as evidence. Wouldn't you know it someone came really, really fast, and they even did some driveway work for me as a way of saying "sorry".
I can't stand lowlifes like the guy that bailed on you.
It's nice that good caring folk far and away out number the idiots of this world!
Been stuck a few times and pulled out. Always offered to pay and always thanked them profusely. Pulled several people out over the years. They did the same. Always thank you and offer to pay. I think if you took money it would be bad karma. I think most of us have been stuck in mud or snow at one time or another.
I feel sorry for those that abuse the good person that helps someone else.
Quote from: WhitePineJunky on March 28, 2024, 09:10:59 PMI'd be rubbing my eyes and blinking in disbelief..... "WHAT?" 😆
Had to have been 1 in a million
Must be your experiences have been different from mine. I got no problem believing that at all.
To me that sounds like a bad time and attempt at using cop humor. I can see that being the case between two Troopers and the one who made the threat getting a direct response then both guys laughing about it. It's a different mindset and the humor thing can seem demented to others. That happens when your day is filled with stepping around dead bodies and driving toward gunfire often.
If the trooper had told me he could ticket me for pulling him out I'd have been tempted to apologize and push him back. I have pulled out many people in my lifetime and been pulled out a few myself.
The last time a neighbor kid slid off the road in the snow about a hundred yards from my house and a mile from his house. I could probably have pulled him back on the road with my 4 wheeler but used the tractor. He's a good young man and no indication he was being careless - just bad road and awful weather/ice.
All the comments here caused me to call a retired State Trooper buddy of mine ta git da lowdown. He told me they will write a ticket if you are impeding traffic. You could also be in trouble for impeding an investigation if they feel the driver of the vehicle you towed may have been subject to a ticket or possible arrest for his actions.
On a lighter note...
There was a school superintendent in one of our mountain counties who got his county car stuck in a ditch during a heavy snow. He called the county bus garage to have the tow truck pull him out.
The tow truck operator came, set up and started to pull on the car. The front bumper came off.
The superintendent looked at the tow truck operator and said, "we'll be here a long time if you're going to pull it out one piece at a time!"
How does a tow truck driver pull a vehicle from a ditch without impeding traffic and a tractor pulling the vehicle is impeding traffic?
How does anyone know if the stuck driver is part of an investigation?
Does getting stuck require an investigation?
Chet, do you think the trooper was serious?
Quote from: SawyerTed on March 30, 2024, 06:46:23 AMOn a lighter note...
The superintendent looked at the tow truck operator and said, "we'll be here a long time if you're going to pull it out one piece at a time!"
ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy
Would not have taken this troopers comment as "serious". Would have first taken it as a humor. Always look at the positive, if at all possible.
"like" the one piece at a time comment. Also could have been taken the wrong way against the tow truck operator. Many new cars have no place to hook to for pulling out of a "stuck" spot. Through a wheel rim may be the best and safest, and easiest to reach.
The superintendent was a character, having known him, a man just had to know how to take him.
Let me assure you, it was real clear when he was serious!
My faith in humanity has been restored!
This morning I could see people working in my sisters yard where the truck got stuck. We were driving up my driveway toward the road and when we got closer I could see that it was him, the guy who got stuck. There was a woman and a child with him and they were all working with shovels and rakes.
I wanted to stop but my wife was anxious to get to my daughter's to help her with Easter dinner. Well anyway, that made me feel good and brightened my mood for the rest of today. :sunny:
There!!! That puts a smile on your face!!!!
I have the same problem in my business, but it is good to give folks the benefit of the doubt. after thirty years, however I am often disappointed and rarely surprised. I am glad to hear it. ffsmiley
Excellent news!
People - you just can't ever tell.
Good news.
Maybe he is on the Forum😂
Sorry, but the cynic in my says he took how many days to return, then shows up on Easter Sunday with family in tow... Where is Paul Harvey when you need "the rest of the story" ?
I agree, he brought his wife and child? Or more likely she brought him, like a kid whose mom caught him shoplifting, and made him bring the candy back to the store owner. Maybe they live or travel nearby and drive by the yard every day and have to look at the damage he caused, and the guilt got to them.
Everybody handles things in different ways, but I'm pretty sure I would have pulled up and told him that he missed a spot, he should have grown out of driving in people's yard in high school, and then thanked the lady and child for helping fixing things, including his bad judgment. Then wished them a Happy Easter and drove off.
ffsmiley Well good glad they tried to fix the mess.
He came back and tried to fix it up, whether from guilt or a brow beating. I'd just be happy that he showed up to take care of it🤷
When a man does something wrong and comes back to repair the damage, that's a positive thing.