stevejfarms
Well-known member
This is a long story, but I hope you will bear with me.
It started Friday morning with my wife asking me what we were going to do for anniversary (Sunday was 13 years for us). I was going to have to drive up to Belleville IL for a part for my combine that morning and wasn’t sure what to say except whatever you want. As I was driving that day I got a call from a local deputy sherriff informing me that a bass boat we had stolen in February had been recovered. He gave me contact info for an officer in Elwood IN. I called and found that they had had the boat for 4 weeks and they needed me to come get it ASAP. I had just started corn harvest, but it was a little too wet and was planning to wait until Tuesday to restart, so I figured this weekend would be perfect to go get it as I would be busy with harvest for at least the next 8-10 weeks. I got it all arranged and called Lisa and let her know that I had an anniversary trip for her, we would go to Elwood, pick up the boat, drive to my sister’s in Evansville and visit with her for a night and come back home on Monday. She was all for it, at least it wasn’t waiting for me to get in from picking corn! We left late Saturday afternoon, planning on driving about halfway, and then arriving around noon Sunday to pick the boat, then on to my sister’s. We arrived on schedule in Elwood, met up with everyone and went to get the boat. When we got there it was sitting on 1 flat and the spare was missing. I thought, oh shit, Labor Day weekend, bad tire, no spare. Little did I know how right I was. The guy that had stored it was very helpful, he was a tire dealer, and brought his service truck and aired the tire up.
I hated to ask him to repair it as I’d already asked him out on Sunday to let me pick it up. We couldn’t hear it leaking so we risked it. After about 30 miles I stopped and checked, we’d lost no air pressure. I went another 100, still good. We went on to my sister’s which was a total of 220 miles and when we arrived we’d only lost 1/2 psi. I thought it was probably gonna make it home (455 mi. total). Had a great visit got up the next morning, the tire was still up. We headed home after a little get away, happy to have our boat back. About an hour into the trip home we’re in rural southern Illinois and I feel a vibration, check the mirror and see the tire in question flying off the rim. I pulled over on the shoulder, unhook the boat. It’s Labor Day (no way to get a tire fixed), so I decided to take Lisa home, grab a couple of tires at my shop ( so I’d have aspare this time) and come back and get the boat. It’s only 11:30 and we’re 2 hours from home, so I figure I can do this and still be home by 7:30 or so. As I’m driving I realize that the boat has 14” tires and I’m not sure I have any, so I call my buddy and borrow his boat spare. I picked up a jack and a 15 at my shop, figuring if I had to I’d bend the fender to get it on if my buddies tire didn’t last. I got back a little after 4, put the tire on and hit the road. I made it 8 miles and my buddies spare exploded. Oh well I‘ve got another
. Well, turns out it wouldn’t fit the hub as the holes were slightly wider than the hub. I called Lisa and told her what happened and we decided, rather than drive 2 hours home, get up, get 2 tires, drive 2 hours back, put them on, and then drive 2 more hours back home, it would be better to stay the night at Marion and get tires in the morning. I awoke bright and early, was at the tire shop when it opened, got 2 new tires, and went to get the hell out of there. I drove to where I left the boat...it wasn’t there. I questioned my recall, drove back down the road both ways, still no boat. I‘m grasping at straws now. I called 2 county sheriffs departments and the highway patrol to see if they‘d towed a boat in, no go. So I called the sherriff’s department back and reported a stolen boat, telling them I would be waiting at the crime scene. When I got there, I noticed grooves in the pavement. The thieves pulled it away dragging it on the brake drum! I decided to track them. It led to a county road about 1/4 mile ahead, I continued along it for about a mile to a grove of trees and lo and behold!, I’d found it! I pulled up to it in my truck and found it completely stripped. Seats, deck lids, trolling motor, dash, depth finders, dash gages, prop, everything but the outboard...gone(and they’d even taken the hood off it). I called the sherriff’s dep’t and let them know I had found it and waited for them to arrive. After talking with the deputy I asked him if somebody would get rid of it for me and he said he would call a tow truck and see what they would do ( bear in mind that this is a 23 year old boat, worth about $4-5000 in pre stripped shape and I still have to get it 135 mi. to home). When he arrived I asked him what he would charge me to get rid of it and he said he’d take the title for it. I told him it would be in the mail tomorrow and left for home.
1151 miles traveled
$300 to the guy for storage in Indiana
$301 in hotel rooms
$245 in tires
3 days I’ll never get back and no boat.
A story I’ll be able to tell for the rest of my life...
priceless
It started Friday morning with my wife asking me what we were going to do for anniversary (Sunday was 13 years for us). I was going to have to drive up to Belleville IL for a part for my combine that morning and wasn’t sure what to say except whatever you want. As I was driving that day I got a call from a local deputy sherriff informing me that a bass boat we had stolen in February had been recovered. He gave me contact info for an officer in Elwood IN. I called and found that they had had the boat for 4 weeks and they needed me to come get it ASAP. I had just started corn harvest, but it was a little too wet and was planning to wait until Tuesday to restart, so I figured this weekend would be perfect to go get it as I would be busy with harvest for at least the next 8-10 weeks. I got it all arranged and called Lisa and let her know that I had an anniversary trip for her, we would go to Elwood, pick up the boat, drive to my sister’s in Evansville and visit with her for a night and come back home on Monday. She was all for it, at least it wasn’t waiting for me to get in from picking corn! We left late Saturday afternoon, planning on driving about halfway, and then arriving around noon Sunday to pick the boat, then on to my sister’s. We arrived on schedule in Elwood, met up with everyone and went to get the boat. When we got there it was sitting on 1 flat and the spare was missing. I thought, oh shit, Labor Day weekend, bad tire, no spare. Little did I know how right I was. The guy that had stored it was very helpful, he was a tire dealer, and brought his service truck and aired the tire up.
I hated to ask him to repair it as I’d already asked him out on Sunday to let me pick it up. We couldn’t hear it leaking so we risked it. After about 30 miles I stopped and checked, we’d lost no air pressure. I went another 100, still good. We went on to my sister’s which was a total of 220 miles and when we arrived we’d only lost 1/2 psi. I thought it was probably gonna make it home (455 mi. total). Had a great visit got up the next morning, the tire was still up. We headed home after a little get away, happy to have our boat back. About an hour into the trip home we’re in rural southern Illinois and I feel a vibration, check the mirror and see the tire in question flying off the rim. I pulled over on the shoulder, unhook the boat. It’s Labor Day (no way to get a tire fixed), so I decided to take Lisa home, grab a couple of tires at my shop ( so I’d have aspare this time) and come back and get the boat. It’s only 11:30 and we’re 2 hours from home, so I figure I can do this and still be home by 7:30 or so. As I’m driving I realize that the boat has 14” tires and I’m not sure I have any, so I call my buddy and borrow his boat spare. I picked up a jack and a 15 at my shop, figuring if I had to I’d bend the fender to get it on if my buddies tire didn’t last. I got back a little after 4, put the tire on and hit the road. I made it 8 miles and my buddies spare exploded. Oh well I‘ve got another
. Well, turns out it wouldn’t fit the hub as the holes were slightly wider than the hub. I called Lisa and told her what happened and we decided, rather than drive 2 hours home, get up, get 2 tires, drive 2 hours back, put them on, and then drive 2 more hours back home, it would be better to stay the night at Marion and get tires in the morning. I awoke bright and early, was at the tire shop when it opened, got 2 new tires, and went to get the hell out of there. I drove to where I left the boat...it wasn’t there. I questioned my recall, drove back down the road both ways, still no boat. I‘m grasping at straws now. I called 2 county sheriffs departments and the highway patrol to see if they‘d towed a boat in, no go. So I called the sherriff’s department back and reported a stolen boat, telling them I would be waiting at the crime scene. When I got there, I noticed grooves in the pavement. The thieves pulled it away dragging it on the brake drum! I decided to track them. It led to a county road about 1/4 mile ahead, I continued along it for about a mile to a grove of trees and lo and behold!, I’d found it! I pulled up to it in my truck and found it completely stripped. Seats, deck lids, trolling motor, dash, depth finders, dash gages, prop, everything but the outboard...gone(and they’d even taken the hood off it). I called the sherriff’s dep’t and let them know I had found it and waited for them to arrive. After talking with the deputy I asked him if somebody would get rid of it for me and he said he would call a tow truck and see what they would do ( bear in mind that this is a 23 year old boat, worth about $4-5000 in pre stripped shape and I still have to get it 135 mi. to home). When he arrived I asked him what he would charge me to get rid of it and he said he’d take the title for it. I told him it would be in the mail tomorrow and left for home.1151 miles traveled
$300 to the guy for storage in Indiana
$301 in hotel rooms
$245 in tires
3 days I’ll never get back and no boat.
A story I’ll be able to tell for the rest of my life...
priceless
