Tis the season, rural theft season that is.

NF, there is a lot to what a person goes thru living with crime and what it breeds...and again, I have been thru a lot of that shit, and obviously a lot haven't, which is good, damm rights it gets to you where it counts. The one event that no question had the most effect on myself and a few of my old neighbors, was to do with a large ring of dope dealers, and as insane as it sounds, where things come to a head was when I cut hay on one quarter, and unknown to me, they had been growing pot along edge of field on south side of trees, mixed in with tansy and hemp nettle I never saw anything, I used to push the bush especially when doing second cut simply to help control the tansy, and would then chop and blow that swath back into bush with forage harvester, so had the Speedrower pretty much against the trees. Never did find out exactly how much pot was there, but had been enough for them, as vandalism, death threats, threats of burning out peoples yards and assaults all ended up coming for me and a few others. RCMP were hesitant to step in as there was a multi year drug squad investigation going down and they didn't want to blow that over some farmers living in fear. Ultimately one nite in Stony Plain I ended up in a meeting with some higher ups in K Division, few things got laid on the table and a few more said, including, you can shoot them, we can't, just make sure you can prove you, someone else, or your property were being threatened and take them out. Make sure you shoot to kill. Now how about them apples? To this day my old '85 K3500 still bears the scars of an incident that took place where they tried running me off the road one day, have to give the old girl credit, she come out on top of that deal lol, but things did get a bit dicey with the knife business that followed. Ultimately, over the next few months as things kept getting out of hand and both local and K Division realized all hell was about to break loose, there finally was some arrests and things quieted down. But for my neighbors and I, that stayed with us for years. I can't open the damm door on that truck without seeing a dent in the door frame where they hit it with something destined for my head, but was a few inches to the rear so hit the door instead. As to just how fruity these people were, the main one actually come after me right in the courthouse in Stony during court, I won't deny, first time in my life I was ever surrounded by cops with guns drawn like that lol.

So maybe thats why I have a bit of an issue with folks who put the criminals rights ahead of property owners and the general public. Some of us, like Rcyung, we've lived this shit too many times and have had enough.

Lots of people shoot signs and grain bins, likely your mailbox was just a target, why they don't just shoot their beer cans after they are empty?

I was going to post something but I refrained because I might get in trouble.
kudos to AB and Rcyung to speak out.

I would be in favour of subbing out the prison system to Mexico. Fly them down there and have a Mexican company look after them. Wouldn’t need heated buildings, foods cheaper, wages cheaper. Wouldn’t be any different than car companies or ag equipment manufacturers building parts and machines offshore. Might as well get on the globalism bandwagon and save us taxpayers some cash.

I guess it's a good time to revive this thread now that the price of everything is getting out of hand, and no doubt the crime will rise with it. So far nothing has gone missing from our place yet that I know of, but heard of a place 3 miles from home getting hit up yesterday I think it was. The couple had left for work when the husband got a call from someone saying that there was a vehicle loading up furniture in his yard. So he turned around and hurried home, only to get stopped for speeding. He told the officer what was going on but he didn't buy it. When he got home there was 2 vehicles in his yard loading stuff up so he blocked the lane off, with all the snow they had nowhere to go. He called the police, and ironically it was the same cop who was dispatched to him. Not going to say who the culprits were, but it's not the first time they have been in this area.

A few weeks ago another neighbor who is a councilor was at a meeting in town, small town so like many people he left the keys in his truck, was gone when he came out. The Liquor store across the street got it all on camera. They found it a few days later, not too far away stuck in a ditch, but he was alright, he just walked into my cousins yard and stole his truck, which was found a few days later, again stuck. This time he was caught trying to steal a snowmobile that hadn't run for years in someones shed. He was high on meth. I think theft will get worse as the economy plummets, and it seems to be very low on the courts priorities.

Well those damn peaceful truckers took a ton of police resources that could be used to catch real criminals. Still pisses me off the way that went down, but back on topic. Yeah, drugs are a big problem here too. A woman I went to school with and help her old man out on occasion is a nurse. She said the same thing as you SW, their record holder for overdoses in one month was 18-by one guy! How the f*ck do you over dose 18 times in one month??? Since the roads are open there have been a few more odd tracks, someone turning around in the middle of the road near yard sites but not at the driveways. Also pulled out two girls on a booze cruise two nights ago, I thought it was the neighbor messing around with something, but the dogs were going way to ape shit for that. This whole economy is going to make it interesting and I don't know how the thefts will play out. Thieves can't afford to fill the tank to scout, vehicles they steal to scout are empty because the owners can't fill them, and all the farmers around here are running on unicorn farts right now. I think the incidences of violence will be up though.