My Customer was Vandalized

LOGDOG · May 26, 2011, 02:46:54 PM

Wow. Don't their property tax dollars go towards some sort of law enforcement budget /fire protection etc.? Vote or no vote ...? That would be more than I could handle.

jdonovan · May 26, 2011, 03:08:21 PM

Quote from: LOGDOG on May 26, 2011, 02:46:54 PM
Wow. Don't their property tax dollars go towards some sort of law enforcement budget /fire protection etc.? Vote or no vote ...? That would be more than I could handle.

Out in the country law enforcement is mostly taking pictures and filing reports, rarely do you catch something in progress. Either the property owner has caught the criminal and they just need to transfer custody to the local sheriff, or no one saw anything and its a document the crime type call.

RynSmith · May 26, 2011, 03:10:19 PM

Quote from: Magicman on May 26, 2011, 02:28:04 PM
over 95% of the landowners are non-resident

Why is this so? Are you talking about a second home/hunt camp type scenario? That percentatge seems so high...

Raider Bill · May 26, 2011, 03:53:28 PM

That's my guess. Same as my property in Tenn. I'm not a Resident so I can't vote. Backwoods area with little Law Enforcement. Locals have the 'we'll take care of it ourselves attitude'.

Magicman · May 26, 2011, 04:57:17 PM

The two largest "industries" in Jefferson County are the jail and hospital. There is no more room to house more prisoners. Dope and dope related thefts are rampant.

While I do not in any way think that the above vandalism was race related, it must be noted that the county is also over 86.5% non-white. There are no white elected officials or law enforcement personnel. Zero.

The very high percentage of non-resident landowners include myself, and folks such as I that chose to not make our living with cattle/agriculture, timber companies, and National Forest. Hunting leases are probably the largest single source of non-agricultural landowner income. These are upwards of $25 per acre per year.

Raider Bill · May 26, 2011, 05:10:02 PM

WOW!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_County,_Mississippi

Magicman · May 26, 2011, 05:14:06 PM

Thanks Bill. I corrected my % above.

Buck · May 26, 2011, 06:09:47 PM

Jeff, Chris B made the comment about confessions and photos. He is dead on. Here in La. prosecutors wont even go with a case like this without these kinds of evidence. I see it all the time in timber arson cases....very very hard to ever get a conviction.

texican · May 26, 2011, 08:22:47 PM

A decade ago, I had some local wannabe hoodlums steal a couple thousand bucks ( Over a hundred large boards) worth of sawn lumber. Had the law out... figured it was a waste of time. Next weekend, saw the Game Wardens, mentioned if they saw any rough sawn (woodmizer) pine, oak, cedar, and extra wide cypress planks in 'odd sizes', let me know... Amazingly, they'd checked another camp earlier that morning, and gave me directions to their camp. Called the constable, we went over together, and sure enough it was 'my lumber'.

The proof??? My laziness. When I cut a log, the butt cut is usually the way it fell of the stump, with two angles. We carried a few 'jagged end' boards and a few extra knotty boards back to my house, pulled out the 'log mates' and the jags and knots matched perfectly.

Half a dozen kids were arrested, restitution was paid, and I got my lumber back.

IF the OP's folks lumber had some uniqueness, contacting the game wardens might be a good thing to do... most of em traipse around everywhere.

My perps balked when I put a price of several hundred bucks each on some wide cypress planks. I told them if they can find 20" wide 16' long cypress boards, ask for a quote of 2 dozen.

I wish the homeowners luck...

Peter Drouin · May 26, 2011, 09:05:50 PM

how sad, well with no work or education the young do that :( :(

ljmathias · May 27, 2011, 04:31:29 PM

Seems we've discussed the act pretty thouroughly now- here's my question: what can we do to help out? Is the house there finished and livable? I would guess the mobile home was still being used while he finished up the building. I'd be happy to come help with whatever needs doing- maybe we could have the next Southern Chapter meeting there?

Also, I'd suggest what has been suggested by others after being robbed: get some motion-activated cameras and set them up out of sight so the perps won't see them and destroy them. If it happened once and it was personal of some kind, they might be back. Man, I hate that this happened. Been my experience living in Mississippi over thirty years now that most people here are great, but the bad ones are pretty dang bad- same as everywhere, I guess.

Lj

terrifictimbersllc · May 27, 2011, 05:06:22 PM

MM, I too am in disbelief about this. Just happy I've never met such people yet (maybe I have but didn't know it). My sympathy to your customer. If there's any fund to help him please send me a PM.

Magicman · May 27, 2011, 05:37:47 PM

Everything is fine with his living conditions and other matters. He is just very miffed about what happened, but he will work through it. I'll go back over to do more work on my Cabin Addition next week, so I will check on him and his family.

WildDog · May 27, 2011, 06:37:38 PM

Living in a Lawless area would be a frustrating not to meantion stressfull situation to be raising a family in.

As Magicman posted, it would appear he was targetted. Being at the end of a dead end rd can afford some security for landholders from outside thieves as they only have the 1 way in and out, risking being observed twice and the possiblitlity of being ambushed on the way out. Not necessarily a deterent to opportunistic crimes from crooks that get lost/stumble upon the property etc. The closer the crooks live the more local knowledge, less cause for suspicion and in the case of vandalism, reasons to commit etc, I would start looking close buy for that "Common denominator"

r.man · May 27, 2011, 08:11:31 PM

Getting a little bit off the main point, I am surprised that a non resident can not vote in that state. In Ontario a seasonal resident, week-ender or cottager, gets a local vote for the municipal government.
Who can vote in the elections?

Anyone can vote in a municipal election who, on the day of the election, is:

18 years of age or older
a Canadian citizen; and
either a resident of the municipality or a property owner or tenant or the spouse or same sex partner of an owner or tenant in the municipality during a specified time just before the election.

The preceding was taken from a Government site for eligibility in a local or municipal election. We have seen areas near here elect a totally non-local council because the previous council had ignored the needs of the non-local majority.

Magicman · May 27, 2011, 11:14:21 PM

I vote in the county that I actually live in and claim homestead exemption in, Lincoln County. My tree farm is in Jefferson County. I can neither claim any tax exemption there nor do I have any voting privileges there.

As I stated earlier, the vast majority of the Jefferson County land owners are National Forest, timber companies, or land owners such as myself that own land there, but live elsewhere.

WDH · May 27, 2011, 11:23:57 PM

MM,

With all the trouble that you have had with repeat theft, maybe you can lay a surveillance trap of some kind because they will be back. Think about a lure that you could use to bait them, then get them on film.

As I have thought about the above paragraph for a few minutes, I realize that the logic is flawed. If you catch them and don't kill them, then they will hate you and will swear life allegiance against you. It is not worth it I guess just to protect some tools and a wheel barrow. Sad, really.

captain_crunch · May 28, 2011, 01:16:17 AM

Here is nitty gritty Catching thief, returning your property NO PROFIT but we site you fer load infringement = fine(profit) so what are we going to go fer >:( >:( >:( >:(

Magicman · May 29, 2011, 02:01:15 PM

A bit more information. My customer purchased some additional adjoining property last year. He finally had to get a court order to prevent the hunters who had previously hunted there from trespassing on the property.

It seems as though maybe they were "getting even".

This verifies a statement that I made in my "Ripped Off" thread about the land/property owners being held hostage by the thugs. They will burn you out in a heartbeat.

Jeff · May 29, 2011, 02:11:03 PM

I can't figure it out. The guy can use the law to get a court order in regards to a trespass, one of the most minor of misdemeanors, yet there is no law available for arson, a serious felony. I guess I'd become my own personal judge jury and executioner if I had to as well in a place like that.

Magicman · May 29, 2011, 04:20:04 PM

Knowing who probably did it and proving it is two different things. Really, all that the court order did was just made him mad.

I made out trespass charges against the lease holders on an adjoining timber company property. The sheriff refused to serve it. Just simply refused to serve it. No votes in it for him. I finally contacted the property owner (RMS, REIT), and they handled it with the violators, but no legal action ever took place.

jim king · May 29, 2011, 04:39:03 PM

A similar thing happened here to a friend of mine who had just spent about $300,000 building a new tourist lodge and stocking a the lake with thousands of fish purchased from the local DNR. The locals burt the lodge and almost killed him.

Just last week I had the people in my house that did this and they confessed that they in fact did it and were paid about $20 each to do it. From here they were taken to the prosecutors office and made an official confession. The person who paid them was another American who is now restricted from leaving the country and will go to jail here for no less than 10 years. The fish are now worth over a million US.

The locals that did it will get controlled probation for thier cooperation. Three and a half years later it is finally getting squared away. Better late than never.