“Who steals a house?” said the home’s owner, Julie Bray. She said she prototyped and built the unit to attract customers to her timber business, and she intended to put it into mass-manufacturing by the end of the year — in part to respond to Australia’s increasingly unaffordable housing market.I don't know why this is at all surprising. If something valuable is on wheels and unattended, why wouldn't it attract thieves?
I was talking with a friend who was pushing the idea of buying an R-Pod. He loves his, but one of my questions was, once you arrive somewhere and detach it from your car, what keeps it from getting stolen? The answer seemed to have to do with the pervasive goodness of other people in the area where you'd be leaving it. That or some sort of "boot."
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the pervasive goodness of other people in the area where you'd be leaving it
Bless his heart. I know nothing about your friend, but that sentence suggests that he's a well-meaning urbanite toying with buying his first RV with zero experience in rural America. Hint: rural (and urban, but we're talking about RVs) America is full of poor people who will steal everything that isn't nailed down.
If he's planning on taking his adorable little toy into national parks, he should first read Jordan Fisher Smith's entertaining memoir of his time as a forest ranger, Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra Hint 2: It ain't all trickling streams and mama deer out there.
I live in a nice neighborhood in a poor town. A neighbor had her flower pots stolen off her porch. A church a mile or two away had someone back up a truck in the middle of the night, disassemble their playground equipment, and cart it away. I've had a buck's worth of change stolen from my console the one night I forgot to lock the car. Don't leave your $10 plastic adirondack chairs in your front yard if you want them to be there in the morning.
Places where you can leave your stuff without someone stealing it are rare and the people who inhabit them don't really get how lucky they are.
"Boot" and "booty" are first cousins etymologically. The meaning of "a big lock on your wheel" is IMHO a later and misleading encrustation, held on by padlock.
People have been using trailers in large numbers for decades. What are the numbers on how frequently they are stolen?
How many trailers have a cute, little, new house on them? Even if it's not stolen to sell or use, some wolf-pack of teens will take it to fuck it up.
Places where everything not nailed down gets stolen are the WASP places with church going neighbors. But that too is in jeopardy from the Drug Addiction flood among the unemployed. It is very serious now. And the children of addicts are effectively being abandoned and placed in foster parent systems run by church charity.
This is a disaster that is as bad as a hurricane. Border security is no longer optional.
This is easy. If you have something that can be hitched and driven away, you put a lock through the hitch so it can't be driven away. Yes, someone could use bolt cutters, but if you're worried people will go that far., switch a tire or something.
A lot of people have a device that locks the hitch on a trailer.
Obviously, they need to hold lectures for all people so that they will appreciate the physical characteristics (i.e. progressive diversity), not principles (i.e. diversity), of a likely home thief.
"toying with buying his first RV"
As the post says, he already has one.
Are Madisonians "urbanites"?
Father and grandfather went fishing once. As they returned to the boat ramp later in the day, my dad looked and said "What's missing here?" Grandfather wasn't really paying attention up to that point, looked up, yelled "Those dirty sons of bitches!" along with some of the other communication skills he learned in the Navy. Nearest place to get another trailer was a marina quite a distance away (Lake Cumberland is pretty long). Grandfather took the boat, dad drove the truck. By then, they planned on staying another night, so they set up their tent. Middle of the night, rain pattering on the tent, dad wakes up and listens to the soft sound of the rain for a couple of minutes. Then my grandfather quietly says "Those dirty sons of bitches."
One of the things you're buying when you live in a really good neighborhood is freedom from property crime like this. It somehow doesn't occur to some "smart" people that when they leave that world, different rules apply.
Are Madisonians "urbanites"?
What else would they be? Madison is quite obviously a city, constrained more than most cities its size by geography that forces development in a concentrated urban fashion.
Are Madisonians "urbanites"?
Are undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin "urban teens", or is that a different demographic ?
At the R-Pod link, in their floorplan they abbreviate "REFRIGERATOR" as "REFER". Who does that?
One of the scout trailers got parked in one of the few shady spots that my spouse favors earlier this summer. He noticed the trailer hitch wasn't locked, so he moved it. We got our spot back and he hoped the scout leaders would be smart enough to lock it when they realized they'd basically had a giant sign that said, "Steal me!"
A good story well told, Crimso.
Yes. Madisonites are urbanites. Any city larger than 40K is an urban area (IMO)
Drug use rising and the shipping out to rural areas of the homeless have drastically increased the instances of theft in the rural areas. The cities don't want the homeless and mentally ill homeless (who does?), so they are shipped and warehoused in the rural areas, mostly in defunct motels and halfway houses. They are then just left on their own with no available services to try to get them OUT of being homeless.
There is nothing much for them to do with their monthly "paycheck" from welfare, SSI, food stamps or what have you. They then spend most of their time drinking, panhandling and engaging in thievery. Nothing like a handipack of Coors in the morning to get your day started off right.
We are over run with illegal aliens and drug gangs in the forests who are growing pot for export, making meth....and who have made it dangerous to go into some areas. Even though growing pot in Calif seems to be legal, that law doesn't seem to be a deterrent to the illegal activities.
We never had to lock up our vehicles at night, worry about locking our doors if we are not home during the day or at night, securing our equipment, tools and trailers. Now we do. The gate at the end of the drive is locked at night (although anyone could just use bolt cutters and get past that). We now have motion lights on ALL of the buildings and solar powered motion lights on the drive. Previously, those were just to deter nighttime critters like raccoons, mountain lions etc. Now they are to deter the human trash. To protect our trailers we park the heavy equipment in front of them so that it is nearly impossible to hitch up and steal. The backhoe and tractors with their buckets down are hard to move. Trailer hitch locks on the work and dump trailers. Haven't gone to the boot....yet.
Taking the advice of the Sheriffs who have blatantly said, we are on our own because they are not going to have any patrol in the evening and during the day the coverage is slim to none anyway. With thieves rampant and squatters on the lands, we have prominently posted trespassing signs with nifty slogans about being shot and having a backhoe :-D Every door has a loaded weapon standing by, which thankfully we have not ever had to use.....yet.
Welcome to Mexifornia and Governor Moonbeam's utopia. Thanks libtards.
Good boots make good camping neighbors.
"Thanks libtards."
Thanks "libtards?" What you're describing is the wreckage wrought by late-stage capitalism, where the architects of the plunder of millions of people of their money suffer no sanctions, while comparatively petty street thieves are sent to prison for decades.
Robert Cook....I mean this sincerely. STFU.
"Shoot, shovel, shut up." An ancestral rhyme. If I were a recent transplant to exurbia, I would try to persuade my new neighbors not to play that tune.
Furthermore, let me explain.
What seems like a "relatively petty theft" to you may mean the loss of our income, the collapse of our business and represents years of hard physical dirty work by my husband to aqcquire those "petty" things like tools, equipment, vehicles.
So while it may seem petty and part of some sort of masturbatory cerebral exercise to you. To us...it is life or death, making a living or bankruptcy. Petty thieves who get away with it, soon graduate to the bigger and better things.
So. Languishing in prison for decades for "petty theft" is too good for them.
Oh...and STFU
I, too, always depend upon the honesty of strangers.
Pikers.
Here in Jacksonville, thieves steal massive aluminum utility poles blown down by Irma. I'm sure Cookie views this as just another form of government charity.
"late-stage capitalism"
LOL
And it isn't just the stuff that isn't tied down. We have a bit of a fire situation here (thanks mostly to the urban environmentalists who essentially killed the timber industry). Sat, I was visiting the fire information trailer in town and a woman comes up with fliers offering a reward for the arrest snd conviction of some midnight loggers. Somehow, in the push to build fire lines and protect houses, someone had come on their property at night and cut and removed almost 170 trees. Or more likely, a bunch of someone's. Apparently in one night. All that was left were slash piles containing the branches they had cut off before removing the logs.
I recently went camping and rented an R-Pod for the trip using an RV sharing site. The owner had a locking mechanism that covered the trailer's hitch receiver which means you couldn't just hook it to your own hitch and drive away.
No one stole it while we were away from it so it seemed to work. :)
Hey, DBQ, chill.
Some folks are OK with having their $2500 air conditioning unit stolen for $25 worth of copper. You know the type.
"while comparatively petty street thieves are sent to prison for decades."
If you are talking about looters, I agree. Shoot them.
I'm trying to remember the title of a movie about a couple whose young son gets involved with an older woman whose estranged husband kills him. They eventually lure the killer out of town, kill and bury him.
Good movie.
"Here in Jacksonville, thieves steal massive aluminum utility poles blown down by Irma. I'm sure Cookie views this as just another form of government charity."
No. Thieves should be punished. But the punishment should be proportionate to the crime, and thieves in corner offices and private jets who steal millions or billions should also be punished: proportionately.
I grew up at the Jacksonville Beaches, btw.
"STFU."
To quote a great American actor playing a role: "You can't handle the truth!"
"What seems like a 'relatively petty theft' to you may mean the loss of our income, the collapse of our business and represents years of hard physical dirty work by my husband to aqcquire those "petty" things like tools, equipment, vehicles."
Why do you assume I'm talking about you? The theft of equipment and vehicles is not petty theft. I'm talking about such things as people stealing pizza and getting decades in prison.
I'm also talking about people who steal millions or billions who still are paid their multi-million dollar bonuses, and aren't imprisoned so they don't have to wait for 30 years to spend their cash. (These people I speak of aren't limited to Wells Fargo, but populate the executive offices of Chase Bank, Citibank, all of the banks and Wall Street firms. These people caused the loss of millions of dollars, jobs, and homes for the American people 9 years ago, while they never faced prosecution--thank you, American traitor Barack Obama--and they still got their bonuses, paid for directly by the American taxpayers. These "respectable" people caused the same ruination you describe, but to millions of people.
"I'm trying to remember the title of a movie about a couple whose young son gets involved with an older woman whose estranged husband kills him. They eventually lure the killer out of town, kill and bury him."
In the Bedroom. Great movie.
I will agree with Cookie in one respect: It's hard to expect the poor to have any shame about theft when the rich have none. It's a helluva lot better to be a bank CEO who lost $100 million than a teller who comes up $50 short. While this hardly excuses petty theft, if we excuse the elite preying on the poor and middle class, it's hard to maintain the respect for the rule of law necessary to maintain broad respect for property.
Why do you assume I'm talking about you?
Well.....since you quoted me and responded to me I assumed you were talking TO me about the post that I had made.
/facepalm
The people who steal millions and billions are a bit out of my reach or individual ability to control. I can, however, do something about the common thieves who abound in our area.
Speaking of people who steal millions (and not the equally trashy trash who steal less than that), did anyone see the documentary on Frontline this week, about the only bank who was prosecuted for the 2008 financial crisis? Amazing stuff - the only people the feds went after were innocent, and $10m in legal fees and 5 years later, they were cleared. A truly revolting example of what the government likes to do with its power.
These people I speak of aren't limited to Wells Fargo, but populate the executive offices of Chase Bank, Citibank, all of the banks and Wall Street firms. These people caused the loss of millions of dollars, jobs, and homes for the American people 9 years ago, while they never faced prosecution--thank you, American traitor Barack Obama--and they still got their bonuses, paid for directly by the American taxpayers. These "respectable" people caused the same ruination you describe, but to millions of people.
I actually agree with Comrade Cookie on this one 100%. Capitalism does not function correctly if crimes and misdeeds are not punished either by the market or the government. In the case of the housing bubble,interference in the free market by the government was the biggest problem. Then the government failed to punish those responsible.
People get tired of following the rules and barely getting by, while watching those who break and game the rules prosper. We need the government to reduce amount interference in the free market, especially to sop picking winners and losers. We need the government to punish those who violate the law. We need to create a better ethos among those who populate the institutions of our financial system.
Free market capitalism is the greatest economic system ever created.
Crony capitalism is among the worst.
I'm sorry if you're annoyed that I implied your friend is a bit of a naïf, Althouse. I can't imagine why I thought that. :)
To be completely honest. I am a little bitter about people like you and your friend who can live all starry-eyed about people not stealing your $30k toys, in beautiful cities where you can have Nice Things that people leave alone, and I live in a south Texas shithole full of poor trashy people with neck tattoos who steal flowerpots and throw their dirty diapers in parking lots.
I mean, it's fine, at least I know what a Nice Place is (most people who live here wouldn't know one if it bit them in the ass) because I've lived in them before and I visit them all the time and I will live in one again, and my current situation is for family reasons and is the right decision for now, but the Nice Clean Honest Civic Minded Bark Park Scandinavian
Populace Bubble Brigade is kind of annoying sometimes.
DBQ gets it, btw. She lives Out Here.
Thank you Misplaced Pants.
I too get irritated with those who want to minimize the daily things, thefts, worries that we face as if they aren't AS important as the big thefts by CEOs etc etc etc. And then get sanctimoniously lectured at because I'm not looking at the Big Picture.
Not to minimize the corruption in high places and that it does affect all of us in some way and in a trickle down type of effect. It does erode the desire to comply with the laws. When we see the big wigs like Hillary Clinton getting away with literal murder, corruption, committing felonies and we get popped for a seat belt infraction that might wipe out an entire day's pay, we deporables say why bother with any laws.
So..Yeah. I'm NOT looking at the Big Picture because I tend to adhere to the AA Serenity Prayer.
God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Accepting that I cannot change a thing doesn't mean I am accepting and agreeing with those things that are wrong. Just realizing that I can't change them and to move on with MY life. Focusing my energy on achievable goals.
I can't change Hillary Clinton. I can't change crony capitalism. I can vote for someone who "may" have that ability, but I'm also not holding my breath. A lot of people banded together can make change but no one wants to really do the dirty work that that will entail.
Things I can change and have some control over. I CAN protect my property, my self, my family and can change some scumball from trying to steal what we have worked hard for.
So..although the big picture is pretty important....fuck the big picture. It is every man and woman for themselves out here.
"Free market capitalism is the greatest economic system ever created.
"Crony capitalism is among the worst."
The only thing that stops capitalism from becoming "crony capitalism," (or just gangsterism), is strict government regulation. The capitalism that commits huge crimes and suffers no consequences is the natural development of unregulated capitalism. Capitalists believe "Greed is Good" and do everything they can to exercise their greed...unless impeded by law, as they certainly are not impeded by ethics.
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