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Thought I'd weigh in here after the dust has settled and a week's worth of spills, chills and thrills is now a small image in my personal rear-view mirror.
Do I feel like I found the winning lottery ticket in the street? Man, you'd better believe it. The odds of all of this playing out in our favor were probably worse off than your chances playing the PowerBall, truth be told. And brother, have I learned a lot...
I suppose that's one of the things that WIX excells at - being an open format to exchange data, learn and help one another. I'll drop in my two-cents worth here after being mentally flogged from this theft, the chase, and the recovery. I'm muddled and wordy, but bear with...
I guess I could grandstand and blame China's industrial explosion in the world marketplace as the real culprit, but this is not the place for my convoluted theories on economics. But the fact of the matter is that today scrap metal - steel, copper, iron and aluminum is at an all-time premium price. Supply and demand, pure and simple. For those of us who love old planes, vehicles, trains, farm machinery, whatever - we're all extremely vulnerable right now because this supply and demand cycle has created, nursed and reared a sub-culture of thieves that'll go after ANYTHING that might have value in the scrap trade. The lowest of the low? How about the scum here in the Valley that is stealing bronze grave markers from the cemetaries... hopefully, there's a deep place in heck for the people who do this.
Our wings and trailer were in a locked and gated compound, and this did not deter the thieves. The very fact we got this stuff back was the direct result of a couple of important factors: weather, timing and media exposure. Our stuff was stolen during some of our monsoon storms and high heat advisory days, which bought us a little time. And as soon as the theft was brought to my attention we went into "war emergency power" mode. But without the media attention both wings would be gone by now.
Our theft case began as a "yawner" in the eyes of law enforcement - and that's NOT to fault 'em for their position and we received EXCELLENT help from three area law enforcement agencies on this matter. These guys and gals in blue were magnificent. But the simple fact of the matter is this... our call began as a theft case with three individual police reports on one theft involving three different people. All of this was done over the phone - call, leave a number, and the PD calls you back. All they want to know is when the items were taken, what did they look like, and their approximate replacement value. That's it. Dispassionate? Maybe. But law enforcement sees this happen on a grand scale each and every day - and they're saturated to the point they can't place any more emphasis on the theft of airplane parts than a spool of copper in an electrical contractor's truck, a stick of copper from a plumber or an aluminum washtub from Grandma's yard.
Law enforcement intially suspected another aero bug as the thief. I explained to them and to the media that the aviation community is like a family, albeit one big dysfunctional family at times. We all seem to know who is working on what, and we may not all like each other or agree on how paint is applied or data plates apply to restorations verus originality or how something is operated. And we may have friends and those who dislike us for whatever reason in this community. But in the end, we all rally together and watch out for one another. Like any family, we have our ups and downs but it's hard to keep secrets from one another.
That said, the obvious culprit was a piece of living fecal matter known as the "metal thief."
Our case would still be sitting on an overworked detective's desk, had it not been for calls placed to the media to report the theft of some unique items. I equated it to fishing - you toss in a line, and sometimes you get a nibble. I was lucky - the fish I caught with my e-mailed "press release" was the two daily newspapers and the television station.
They are the ones who got the word out in the PHX metro area, and I suspect the following day when our detective walked into the office a sergeant asked him just what case he was working on that had appeared in the paper and on TV, and what the status was at that point.
Lucky, lucky, lucky. The calls started rolling in, and eventually our "Fred" appeared. While he told us he had no direct involvement in the theft and had heard third-place the events of what had happened, he didn't want to have law enforcement examining his life under a microscope. He did his good deed for the day, and wasn't interested in a reward other than to indicate he'll surface one of these days, introduce himself and Pooner will have to tip a beer bottle or two with him. That's a given. As far as the police are concerned, they're still hoping for prosecution of whomever was directly involved. Roger that on this end.
The end result? Well, it cost me a cell phone (talked one quite literally to death after hours of traffic and slamming down in frustration), several days away from work and family, three tanks of gas in the truck and a lot of lost sleep. That and case of beer, which was dented last night at home quietly toasting ya'll who helped out on this thing directly or indirectly.
The PV wing has some minor damage as you know via Chris' commentary but is repairable. The T-33 wing owned by Wingspan was not damaged, and the trailer lost a license plate and VIN tag and light harness plug.
If I can impart words of wisdom to anyone here, it's this... watch your stuff, and if at all possible hide it away from the prying eyes of the mongrel hoardes. They're out there lurking and looking for an easy kill as we speak. Out of sight, out of mind. Photograph your stuff for your records. And get to know your local scrapyards. These people will either help you or hinder you. When our stuff went AWOL I called each one in the Valley to report my loss ( I now know there's about 80 places that sell scrap here in both counties). Most are run by legitimate people who cooperate fully with the laws, but there are some scumbags in there, too. I have a personal score to settle with one proprietor in PHX who told me if "he didn't buy it someone else most certainly would" and the only motivation he had in helping someone out was if "he came out ahead at the end of the day."
And man, if God forbid someone takes your stuff, sing like a little canary to anyone who'll listen. Be polite, be insistant, and be a pest. And hopefully, you'll get lucky.
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