When it rains it pours

[Wheelgun]

Well I packed up most of our valuables to take to a family members storm cellar lastnight. I put everything in my truck, ready to roll. Well nothing really happened, the tornado warning was a few miles north east so we just stayed home. We got heavy rain until after 1am. Almost 4" of rain here. Not wanting to get everything wet I decided I'd leave everything in the truck until morning.


My wife woke me up this morning, while getting ready for work, she was doing laundry and told me the bathtub, sinks and showers where gurgling. Great, the sewer was backed up and flooding under the house. I crawl under and work in it for a while, untill it cleared out, but the blockage is on the city side. So that's taken care of, somewhat.


Then I decide to start bringing stuff in out of my truck. I go out and open the truck, 'that's wierd, could have sworn I locked it', I grab a couple bags and head to the house, and notice two of my rifle cases are gone! Then seeing my ball cap I had in the truck on the porch, figure the wife had stared carting stuff in before she left for work and knocked it out of the truck. When I get in and start unpacking I'm missing 3 rifle cases and one pistol. Ok so now my ears are roaring and blood is pounding.


I call my wife and by now it's starting to sink in, and I'm starting to get borderline panicked. She said 'no she hadn't carried any thing in' and had seen my cap on the ground by my truck, thought I'd dropped it lastnignt so tossed it on the porch to dry out. Now I'm really worked up, sick to my stomach and PO'ed
I called the police, and made a report, the officer comes out takes all the info, and told me I was the 5th person he'd talked to today in our area.


They got my wife's IPad, her stainless Ruger Single-six, my double barrel 410, a Winchester 94 30-30 and a Mossburg 500 12ga both my dads (from his deceased brother, so kinda irreplaceable) and our firebox/safe with titles to both our pickups, tax returns and around $3K cash.


So all-in-all it's been a 'terrific' day...

[TheDoctor]

That's a case of it would almost be worth the scumbags trying to steal your stuff, just so you could CATCH them doing it! Not much on this world I hate more than a thief. They make me think VERY un-christian thoughts..

[Bookworm]

Oh my... I don't know what to say... I feel sick myself.

You can't be very far from me, fortunately all we got was fierce rains, and dime hail.

[DLCTEX]

Makes me sick just to hear it. So sorry!

[country gent]

So sorry for the loss its a terrible feeling to have to go thru. Hopefully you had serial numbers of the firearms I pad and other items. With the serial numbers turned in things may turn up slowly at pawn shops and police raids arrests, but dont count on it. Right now it sounds like it they were watching the nieghborhood for the right time. A heavy storm means fewer people are out and about, power outages mean no security or yard lights. Work with the police help them all you can. Stay calmn ( its hard I know) and think things thru.

[runfiverun]

man that sucks.
losing a good Winchester like that just........... sucks.

[buckwheatpaul]

I would be willing to bet that one of your neighbors saw you loading the truck......did the cops get any prints? I am so sorry about what happened to you.....at least your family is safe!

[Wheelgun]

Thnk you for all the kind words. We did have the serial numbers for my dads but not our, so that's something. Those are the two that I'm sick over. The police didn't try to take any prints, somebody said there was none at the other places, that the rain probably washed them all away. My wife has told our identity theft insurance company and bank, and tomorrow will call social security office, as my card was in the firebox.

I'm packing everything else valuable, gun and reloading related except my ccw and taking it to my dads. They took 4 guns but left 4 rifles and 3 handguns all in the same bag, so we're worried they may be back.

The comment about the neighbors seeing me load the truck could very well be true, there are some new people a few houses down that are kinda sketchy, but shouldn't blame them as I have no proof, and it's not my place to judge.

Bookworm - We got really heavy rain and dime to nickle size hail here too. We could be pretty close to each other, I'm in Stillwater.

[smokeywolf]

I got a bit nauseous just reading that. I really commiserate with you. I lost a $1,000 antique Bowie knife, about a $1,000 worth of fishing gear and another couple of thousand worth of tools and camping gear some years back when my fifth wheel trailer was broken into.

With regard to new "sketchy" neighbors, although perhaps not good to pre-judge, you owe it to your family to be suspicious.

[Col4570]

Try Fishing in the local Newspaper wanted adds,sometimes the perps are so desperate to sell their ill gotten gains that they take risks.Ask a friend some distance away if you can use their Phone Number.If there is a response and the goods turn out to be yours,call the Police.With a bit of luck some of your stuff may be recovered.If the thieves turn out to be neighbours,print a circular and post it to all who live nearby.Good luck.

[Eddie17]

Does your wife have the Find my IPhone app on her IPad?
This could be used to find items.

[Teddy (punchie)]

wellllllllllll that +++++++ just WELLLLLLL . someone had to know you and had to know how to get into the truck. Would be the first places . Go with gut. Look with open mind. Already some good info as where to start. Not knowing your state laws. Ask around at stores flea markets, even craigs list, yard sales. Ask about who else was stolen from, talk to them if you can. Sound like knew what they were doing hopefully they slip.

[Bookworm]

I have lived in my current location for about 25 years, relatively rural. I never locked the vehicles, until a few years ago things started disappearing from them. This was around the same time a certain young man (20's) moved in nearby. I was (am) suspicious, but could not do anything except lock the vehicles.

A few months ago I had a guy here to check on the repair of a piece of equipment. He is much closer to the age of the suspect than I, and I had never spoken with him prior to this. During conversation, I mentioned the thefts, and the need to lock my vehicles after so many years. I also mentioned that I was fairly certain I knew the culprit, but went no further than that.

The repairman said " I think I know who did it too. I know who your neighbor is." Then he poked his chin in the direction of you-know-who.

The point being (as others have said), it's probably someone nearby.

Also, I hate to point this out, but -

Gun safes seem awful expensive, until something like this happens. I have everything you mentioned in a safe, bolted to the concrete floor. It's probably still going to be there if my house is swept away in a tornado ( a very real danger here). I have seen pictures, and first-hand also, of entire neighborhoods in Oklahoma that are just gone, down to the concrete slabs. The only thing vertical is the safes, still bolted to the garage floors. Blocks and blocks of nothing, with a few safes dotted here and there.

[Wheelgun]

Well we found some more serial numbers and called and told the police, no they have them on file now. My wife is trying to get the stuff together to try and track her iPad, maybe if they find it, they find it all? Hopefully. I don't know what Apps she had on it, I very seldom used it, I'll make sure and ask her.

I've talked to a few neighbors, told them about it and to make sure tolock everything. A few suspect the same people I did, for mine and the other thefts, but no proof, but we will all be watching now. I've lived in this area about 7yrs, moved here while I was finishing college, never had any problems, but only takes once.

We've been looking at the big fire/flood proof gun safes for a while, but always put it off. I've also seen houses blown away with nothing but the safe left. We have been saving all of our money to put toward our new house we are having built out about 25miles out of town, well we could have bought 2 with just the cash that was stolen. We'd have been better off if we had.

[Handloader109]

Well, sorry for your loss, but I'll be a bit cruel and say, that loading up your truck with as you put it, "most of our valuables" in what I assume was daylight/dusk and then leaving them in the open is pretty dumb. Especially if you live in a neighborhood. And obviously don't have a garage. Worried about a tornado? I'm not saying that if you are in a direct path that you shouldn't grab and go, but how many times have you done what you did last night? Storms are common and often in ok/ks/mo/ar/ms/al/la/TX. If you are that worried build a shelter yourself, if you load up every warning, you will offer up your stuff again. There are too many skum around, which is why I moved out of MS and my last neighborhood here in ar.

[Wheelgun]

It's fine, and yeah looking back it was dumb. That's part of the reason I'm upset, I was being to lazy to go out in the rain and bring the stuff back in. The cash, iPad and other stuff are replaceable, but the 2 that were my dads, in my mind are not. We won't be loading and unloading the truck anymore. All our valuables are headed up to my parents place today and going in their safe, until we get moved.
As far as building a storm shelter, I was never that worried, but with a wife to think about, we now load up and head to family members. We rent the place we live now so not building one here, we are in the prossess of building a house on land I own. I bought a small place(20+ acres) that buts up to a half section my dad owns a few yrs ago, with a storm shelter, water well and new septic system, but that took all the cash I had saved, so we've been renting until we could afford the down payment for the house to be built.

[white eagle]

So sorry to hear of your losses
thieves are bad enough but to take advantage of people in
a severe weather event is despicable

[osteodoc08]

This sucks. Sorry to hear about it. Good luck recovering them

[41magjh]

Sorry for your loss . I had a iPad lost/ stolen two years later some one try to pawn it in Houston area just about forgot about talk about a shock it was.