I'm putting along when I see something in the middle of the road near an intersection. I pull over to the side, ( this stuff is in the left lane of a three lane road ) and have a look. It is some nice straight KD twobys! So I look around and it doesn't look like anyone is missing this stuff, so I load it in the truck and take off. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet! I can't believe someone would just drop this stuff in the middle of the road and not come back for it!!
WHAT THE HELL! Obviously someone dropped it out the back of their pickup when they attempted a jack-rabbit getaway from the light to get to the far right lane before the turnoff. How do you know the guy didn't circle around the block to retrieve it as you were STEALING it off the pavement?
You need to return to the scene of your CRIME and post a sign board stating that you STOLE this stuff and would happily return it to its rightful owner.
So? What about properly securing the load? Doesn't sound like the person that lost these 2Xs did that. They're lucky they only landed on the road instead of punching through someone's grille or windshield. So losing the boards to a scavenger is the least of his worries. Had the one that dropped the 2Xs caused damage to anyone's vehicle, they'd be explaining it all to the law and to their insurance.
Lesson: secure the load and you won't be losing anything to anyone.
I actually did something like that myself about 20 years ago... I was building a small shed and had my utility trailer loaded up with plywood, framing lumber, and roof shingles. Foolishly, I did not tie down the load, despite the trailer just being a flat bed... I stopped at a traffic light, and pulled away "slowly" when the light turned green. The load slid backwards, lifting the front of my trailer and the back of my car into the air and the entire load was left sitting in the middle of the road. Thankfully, the guy behind me watched the whole thing and helped me reload.
The most surprising thing to me was how easily the whole load slid out at such a low speed. I guess objects at rest "do" tend to stay at rest. :) I just drove out from under it all...
But, I apparently did not learn my lesson from that little mishap... About
5 years ago I was delivering a small load of firewood to my in-laws. My sister in-law wanted me to take a couch along too so I layed a tarp on the firewood, and sat the couch on top. The couch sat at least a foot down in the trailer, so I wasn't real worried about it. I drove all over town and about 20 miles that way with no problems. As luck would have it, I went over a small hump in the road about a mile from my in-laws house and the couch and tarp lifted up out of the trailer and went flying through the air! My sister in-law was following behind us, and my wife just kept screaming "you killed my sister!". :) Surprising, the couch landed softly on the side of the road, still sitting on top of the tarp. No harm done, but I finally learned my lesson. I tie down EVERYTHING now, no matter how small or heavy the load.
I'm older and hopefully wiser now, but my family never lets me forget the day I "flew a couch"... :)
If you decide to sell it on ebay, be sure to grind off the serial numbers. Apparently that is how crooks just like the OP are being caught. By the serial numbers.
I know this to be true.
I had a job site that was inside a populated, fully functional apartment complex. We were there because we were working on the apartments. We had a small parking area all to ourselves for our trailers, materials, etc. We installed some 4" pipe vertically on either side of the entrance to this parking area and installed a chain with a lock on it. This was because we were tired of replacing the sawhorses that the tenants would run over so they could park in our area.
One day I came in and, noticing that the lumber piles were alot smaller, thought "Wow, the boys did alot of work yesterday!" Being one who gives lavish praise when due, gathered the crew together and started off with comments about their bravery and industriousness in the face of grueling sun and arduous labor. After seeing their puzzled faces, I explained "that they were getting a lot of work done", and "ustedes hechen mucho trabajo ayer". At this point, my lead man explained that they had only worked 2 hours yesterday and had left due to rain at about 9:30.
Uh oh!
I spoke with my lead man and sure enough, we had been robbed. We checked the trailers and the only things that was missing were materials (3/4" plywood, 2x4x10s and x12s and some 2x8x12s). I called the police, more for the benefit of the tenants than in any hope of recovering anything, and, of course, for insurance purposes, just in case my losses should ever possibly reach my 5 million dollar deductible.
The police dispatcher immediately radioed all units to respond, because in a mere 6 hours a bright shiny new officer arrived to take my report.
"Thank god you're here, my men have been afraid to touch anything for fear of disturbing any evidence" I said. The officer seemed amused by this.
I described as well as I could the items that had been pilfered from our site which he dutifully wrote down on a theft report. I asked him when the forensic team would be out to start taking DNA samples from everyone and dusting the area for fingerprints and tire tracks. Once again he seemed amused by this idea and actually chuckled a bit. He explained that there would be no "team" and that he was it.
I asked him how they would ever be able to recover our stolen stuff and his reply was: "Do you have serial numbers for any of this stuff? We usually track stolen property by serial numbers."
I told him that I would check my invoices and get back to him.
Okay, it wasn't stealing it was a public service. He stopped and removed a very real danger from an intersection.
Imagine the surprise of some kid in one of those toy cars that they're so fond of lowering and making sound like chainsaws coming down the street and running over that stuff. Waste of wood and waste of car.
He should be congratulated for his thoughtful deed.
The way I've always thought of it is kinda like the law of the sea.......If you find it in the road....you get salvage rights. Now, I'm not talking vehicles here, just stuff. I've found tools, video cameras, and several other miscellaneous items. (I must admit I did run an add for the video camera but got no response)
I am not sure who you are really responding to here, but if it was me, then here is my reply.
I was actually making no judgements on the OPs act. OK maybe I was. But I was only trying to help him keep out of trouble. If he were to post those 2x4s on ebay without removing the serial numbers, he could be arrested and jailed for his samaritan act! Would you want that to happen?
I actually saw something about the other end of this circumstance in another post. Not sure if it was here or at another forum. You may want to check Woodnet and the woodworking.com sawmillcreek.org forums. If this is the same instance the other dude was kinda pissed. Apparently he had spent a fair amount of time sorting the wood. W
Yeah it was here. See OT: Haulin' with the 'gate down...Was Trucks topic down a few pages. I bet you would have a pretty good friend if you gave the stuff back. W
Wed, Mar 9, 2005, 9:05am (EST-1) snipped-for-privacy@unknown.com (HerHusband) admits: I tie down EVERYTHING now, no matter how small or heavy the load.
My first thought was, "Doesn't your complain about that"?
My second thought was, I'd best not ask.
JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.
Wed, Mar 9, 2005, 3:19pm (EST+5) snipped-for-privacy@spamless.net (Robert=A0Allison) admits: asked him when the forensic team would be out to start taking DNA samples from everyone and dusting the area for fingerprints and tire tracks.
Been watching a lot of TV lately, have we? LOL
Reminds me of the guy who loved watching that TV show, "911". So, when a fire broke out, he knew just what to do, dial 911. Only thing, didn't seem to work. So, he tried again. And, again. And, again. Until his house had burned down. Seems that Australia, where he lives, doesn't use 911 for emergency calls. LMAO
JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.
Boy, this brings back memories. I already told the story, I'm sure, but I'll tell it again.
Friend of mine, piano player, church giving him the antique player piano out of his basement. Isuzu pickup truck. No straps. "Don't you want to tie that down?" "Nah, it will be OK. I don't have any rope." "Oooookay."
So we get all the way across town, over the hill and through the woods, and on the final turn up to Grandma's house, he hit, yes, a little hump in the road about 1500' from his final destination.
WAHFLUNGONK!!!!!!!
Bits of ebony and ivory all over the place, kafloom, gone. Amazingly, the sound board survived, and some guy picked up all the ruined pieces of that thing and made a working pie-anner out of it again.
That's the problem with catch and release; doesn't clean out the shallow end of the gene pool.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety Army General Richard Cody
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.