[fastforty]

So I’m at home Saturday afternoon with wife & two daughters, 5 & 10 years old. A pickup slows down out front of our long skinny acre (skinny side of property is streetfront). It drives past our open front door (aint Kalifornia weather grand?), turns up our long driveway driving past 3 vehicles parked along the driveway, kids playing in the yard & our wide open side door and continues to the back of our property where our barn is. When it didn’t complete the circular drive around the perimeter of our property, I went out to see [color=#FF0000]█[/color][color=#FF0000]█[/color][color=#FF0000]█[/color]. Upon approaching the barn, I hear the truck going back & forth, then doors open. As I round the corner of the barn, I see the truck backed up to my log splitter & two guys frantically trying to hook it up. I approached from the cover of their vehicle with weapon presented & gave them the old “STOP RIGHT THERE!”. They did indeed stop, just about long enough to crap their pants & start getting nervous. I identified the guy on my side of the trailer hitch as the most potential threat and ordered him “DOWN!” at gunpoint. He started to comply when the guy on the other side dove into the cab of the truck. Whether he was going for a weapon or a getaway I wasn’t sure, but turned my attention to him ordering him to stop whatever he was doing. He did not stop, and fearing I was about to watch my equipment roll out before my eyes, I fired first apon the rear, and then the front passenger tires (wouldn’t hurt to let the guy know that I did indeed have a functioning firearm in my hands in case he was going for a weapon). Both the 9mm Corbon & Powerball rounds performed very well on the tires, instantly releasing most of the air as they passed through the opposite side of each tire (as evidenced by the clouds of dust that sprang up from underneath the truck). Well, if the guys hadn’t passed feces when they first saw the gun, they certainly did now. The driver took footbail, with his accomplist quickly following suit. They took off running across a wide open plowed field. The truck was still running so I reached in to grab the keys before I returned to the house to call it in. Surprise, surprise, no keys, punched ignition. I popped the hood open & ripped a handful of wires so they wouldn’t be able to double back & escape with the truck (and my log splitter) while I went to call the authorities. I was on the phone with 911 and the guys were still in sight, about to disappear into the grove of fruit trees ¼ mile away. Within 3-4 minutes, sheriff’s cars were rolling up and set up a perimeter for one mile around. The CHP helicopter showed up shortly thereafter. Farm theft is a big thing around here, and most of the reports of it come in days if not weeks or months cold. Law enforcement couldn’t have been on top of this any faster then if they had been starving flies released at a dairy. They searched diligently for 2-3 hours but unfortunately, the thieves escaped the perimeter. They spent another couple of hours dusting the truck & stolen equipment that it contained (air compressor, gasoline farm pump, weedeater, powerblower, etc) for fingerprints. Sad that the thieves got away, but good that they didn’t do anything that would have gotten anyone hurt or killed. The truck’s owner was contacted, a woman that lives about 7 miles from here. She needs her truck to get to work, and will have it back Monday morning (the thieves had already taken her good tires off of the truck, the ones on it were threadbare). The truck was stolen out of her driveway on the morning of the 31st, and recovered the afternoon of the 2nd. This is the 4th time that I have drawn a weapon on a trespasser/thief in the 17 years that I have lived at this location. Each time when I reported the incidences, LEO just smirked when I told him that I stuck my gun in someone’s face. Most of the crimes that are reported here are so cold by that time that nothing can be done except to take a report & the file report away forever. I guess it’s amusing when a thief gets caught red handed & sees his life flash before his eyes.

Crime Scene
Flat tires
Bullet hole
Weapons in truck