Worked a "steam" job in Detroit once. Got stationed there. We were replacing old steam lines in central Detroit. Some of these lines were wooden
lines from the late 1800's. It was a crazy job. Never saw as much crime as we did on that job. People would steal anything...absolutely
"ANYTHING"
It was a shame. I would go out in the morning and the radio would be "singing" about stuff which got stolen...every night...on the way in to work in
the morning at about 5am. They stole everything...just everything. It was unimaginable. I have no idea how they sold the stuff they stole, but I'm
sure they did. We had heavy equipment (Cats and big gear...they'd steal everything imaginable).
One night they actually stole a Caterpillar D-8...seriously! A "D-8"!!!! That's a 85,000 lb machine...GONE!! (2x most fully loaded tractor trailer
rigs)
We worked the job for years, replacing the steam lines and supplying heat to the people of Detroit. It was a good, but hard, job.
One night, I got a call...they (Detroit PD) found the bulldozer, the "D-8". It was down a street they wouldn't go down...a "crack" street. It was
parked between two houses. My job was to go get it.
I'd called Detroit PD ahead of time. They didn't even care. I had the serial numbers. They didn't care. In fact, they just rolled down their
window about 2" and said...."if you've got the serial numbers..we're cool with that". I asked if they wanted to check, and they said "NO WAY!! We're
not going down that street!!...you're crazy!!), and they drove off.
I had two of our low-boys standing by, and a big winch truck. It was scary. Every other house was burned out. It was sad really. Beautiful old
Victorian homes, just burned out shells. We came down the street in force, I could see the crack-heads looking out the windows. Amazingly one of our
mechanics actually got that dozer started.
This older gentleman came out as we were loading it. At first he was saying "I had nothing to do with this, but I saw it...and it's been sitting
there for several months". He was a nice old guy. This Caterpillar D-8 bulldozer had been parked next to his house for months...over 3 miles from
where it was stolen from. He was skeered. We came with big recovery equipment, big winch trucks, heavy haul tractors...lots of flashing lights,
mechanic trucks, oilers...(shaking head). At the end of the day it was sad really.
We recovered that bulldozer. I don't know why anyone stole it, or what they thought they would be able to do with it . The irony was, three days
before we recovered it the insurance company paid it off. It never even made it off the trailer before going to the auction yard.
And that, my friends, is a true story.
edit on 12/9/2016 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)