WOW! My donation box was ripped off tonight!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mrplow123]

Well we made it 5 weeks without an incident. Then tonight some grinch decided to destroy my donation box and make off with what ever was in it. I came out at 8:30 to check the box and empty it, and found the top all mangled and destroyed. The contents were all gone except the loose change.

So I went to the DVR and starting playing back video for the last 3 hours. It really does pay to have security cameras. At exaclty 6:59pm I see a shady looking young guy with a shaved head come strolling up my driveway on camera #2 lighting a cigarette. Then he gets right up to the house and stands in the cameras blind spot for a bit less then 10 seconds. Then he rounds the corner and pops up on camera #1 where I get a perfect facial shot of him, which I printed out for the cops by the way. Then he procceds to mangle the crap out of my donation box. He takes all the money and stuffs it into his inside jacket pocket, looks around the corner towords my front door and then runs down the driveway, and accross the street into his car then speeds away.

Well needless to say, I doubt anyone will catch him, or ever see him again, but I can hope the cops will catch up to him sooner or later.

I am just glad it was tonight and not Christmas eve, we took in over 100 bucks on Christmas eve. I doubt there was more then 20 bucks in there tonight. It is raining here tonight, so traffic has been slow.

Ok my rant is done. I hope someone gets drunk and breaks his face on new years eve.

[rrowan]

Hi MrPlow

Man that really sucks, sorry to hear about it

I hope the cops catch him, that is SO lame to steal a few bucks. Guess it could of been worst

take care

Rick R.

[daviddth]

Thats terrible. I hope he gets caught by the cops and "taught a lesson"

[Macrosill]

Sorry to hear about this Dave.

Its a real shame someone steals from a charity. We should need nothing more than an open top tub but it seems in todays society we need a brick bunker to hold a few bucks. Very sad state of affairs.

[pete]

News like this makes me so :evil: . I'm sorry to hear it happened. I hope the print out helps the cops get the piece of ____________ (you fill in the blank).

[ben]

News like this makes me so :evil: . I'm sorry to hear it happened. I hope the print out helps the cops get the piece of ____________ (you fill in the blank).

I was thinking Pie :) :D

[Mrplow123]

I can not believe this. The SOB came back last night. I did the best i could to fix the box last night, and had the lid all flatened back out and locked. I came out this morning to walk the dog, and the lid was ripped completly off. So I go and look at the video, and see the same guy came back at 1:03am. He did not get anything, I made sure it was empty before going to bed for the night. He didn't look to happy when he found it was empty, probably explains why he ripped the lid completely off this time.

So I called the police again, they sent out a nice officer who took a report. I gave him another printout of the second offense, and he looked at the video. This officer said the guy looked like a "Crankster" and someone at the station might know him. SO he is going to pass his photo around to all of the officers.

Here is the scarry part. I went back a few minutes before he did the destruction, and I found that he drove up to my house 5 minutes before and was parked for about 3 minutes. Then he left and drove around the block and then came back. He sat in his car for almost 2 minutes before coming up to the box. I guess he wanted to be sure no one was looking. If the idiot had only looked a little closer he would have seen the cameras. Then he ran to his car like a coward and drove away.

I guess I am going to have to come up with a better solution for a donation box next year. I never though I would have to think about hiring a guard to watch my donation box.

God help him if he comes back tonight..........I might "ACCIDENTLY" hook an AC hot lead to the box tonight.... Wait I can't do that, here in America, even though he is robbing me and destroying my property, he could still sue me for getting zapped.

[cmurray]

Must have been some of those Christmas lights that I had wrapped around around the box that were shorting out.
Terribly sorry you got ZAPPED while ripping off my donations and destroying my box.
Can not understand why the GFI or the fuse was not blowing.
Maybe i'll will have to look into that after they haul your sorry butt to jail.

Joel

Sounds reasonable to me.

[Wayne J]

Just wire up a trip wire to a switch to turn on a flood light.Then he will know your on to it. You won't see him again then. I would hope.

[tconley]

Has anyone tried using one of those heavy steel ammo boxes you can get from Army/Navy surpluses or gun show for donation boxes?

[rrowan]

My first thought to him coming back..

Hey with so much damaged to the box there is bound to be some VERY sharp edges.

Then I had a better idea. Take his picture and put on it a wanted poster and post it above the box. If he comes back then he will see his face and you should have a great video of him.

Hopefully he won't be back and or cause any more damage.

Cheers

Rick R.

[ben]

:lol:
Has anyone tried using one of those heavy steel ammo boxes you can get from Army/Navy surpluses or gun show for donation boxes?

I have a 93# (empty that is) type 4 magazine with 2 3/8" shackel locks and hoods that, even with the key, takes me a good 10 minutes to get open and cannot be cut with bolt cutters. Foundmy $400 donation box :D

[ben]

just setup a radio out there and leave it on all night. Pull and all nighter and wait for him to come, then ask him not to steal the money and see what he does. Tell him you have him on Video.

Ben

[Mudsculpter]

If you have one of the 1W transmitters then you know has an input plug for a mike. Hide an FM radio in the bushes and stay up till he comes around and scare the snot out of him on video and put it on Youtube. Betcha someone will recognize him.

PS

Maybe his momma will see. That'll show him.

[ben]

Maybe his momma will see. That'll show him.

lol That would be classic

[Sean Bowf]

Print out another copy of the picture, and put it in the box...and write "the cops have the other copy of this" on the picture.... :D

Sean

[hutchijw]

I've been lucky so far. I had a buddy weld me a box. I mounted it to the 4x4 post using rounded bolts and the nuts being inside the box. I put the lock on the bottom of the box also. A person would need to steal my entire sign to get that box off.

[Xccentric]

We are sorry to hear what had happen!
Not very nice.
Must be a local to be coming back.

We lose a few items every year. People going pass early in the morning grab a few thinks and walk off.
We lost the top off two plastic trees this year. So we just shorten them.
Also had a breakin to the church office and 3 laptops stolen.
Had the window fixed and the cops caught the robbers because they sold them off to the local 2nd hand dealer.
What fools!!! The cops trace them back!

And no joke, in less than 3 weeks the same thing happened again.
A breakin to the church office on the same window and only 2 laptop were there to be stolen this time.
I guess it was the work of the last robbers friends getting us back.
This all happened in late Nov and Dec.
So we have grills now on that window.

Had some candy canes smashed last year.

In all thats about it.

[daviddth]

This year was the first year I had no lights damaged or stolen, BUT it was also the first year I had 4 security cameras up. Told a few local idiots about the cameras when they got too close (You cant see 2 of them) :)

Next year I'll probably add 4 more.

[hutchijw]

I was lucky enough also to have the local police department spend alot of time on my street as they parked to watch the light show.

[fcky529]

you could make some spring loaded flaps with a nicely sharpened edge that will let him shove his hand in but not out, then you'd have enough time to run out and "take care of him"

at that point it becomes an "anti-theft device" as someone just dropping money in would never come in contact with this trap.

[XmasInGalt]

I've had cameras up for years and I think all the local trouble makers know they are there. Even with that, I ran a thin wire thru all of my yard displays and SSR enclosures to form a closed loop which I then attached to a wireless zone sensor for my alarm system. If anybody broke the wire (which is easy to do), then the alarm would go off. I'm looking at using the extra wires available in the cat5 cables between my Olsen and SSRs to provide that 'closed loop' next year.

[biffklg]

Did the cops ever get this guy?

[Mrplow123]

Did the cops ever get this guy?

I doubt it. If they did, no one has contacted me. People like this are never found.

[BuzzLightyear]

Geez, where i live the press would eat it up and both channels would use it as the Eleven O'clock News Lead in teaser

Buzz