do you think this would or will happen?

I've had people steal rabbits and tomatoes out of my backyard. At first I thought it might be raccoons, the hutches had a simple latch. So I stayed up one night and let the dog out when I heard a noise. Raccons don't cuss like that!! Fifty pounds of angry black dog and a crazy lady shouting and swinging a baseball bat convinced who ever to never come back. I've found that a good dog and being known as the psycho who will scream "What are you going to do?!? Stab me!?! Bring it on*##$!!!!" as she comes after you with whatever's handy has been the best way to send thieves to the next place. I grew up in NYC, I am NOT scared of an idiot with a kitchen knife and my metal bat has the dents to prove it. Could I get hurt, maybe. But I am alot more likely to be hurt if I cower or try to not confront - I'll just make them bolder or make myself an easy target for next time.

We've already had theft out around us. We have a guy up the road who has sold hay for probably 20 years and he had a lock box and people dropped the money in it and loaded their own hay, keys were in the tractor. He stopped that because half the hay never got paid for this past winter. I suppose he's fortunate they didn't run off with the tractor!

The mower guys just came by this morning (county road crew) and one of the tractors had all the gas siphoned off. They were parked just up the road from us last night.

Our garden and pasture is on a corner and so you can see it well from the highway and that does worry me some.

Been watching the coverage on the volcano that's been erupting in southern Chile since May 2nd and how the ash has spread over into Argentina and out into the ocean. Those people are not worried about growing food, nor could they with all that deep ash on everything. Some might consider having a greenhouse, just in case. Yellowstone is a chaldera just like the one that's currently erupting in Chile, which is its first eruption in thousands of years. I don't forsee many sticking it out in that kind of environment for long.

ChristyACB, you go girl!! I don't feel sorry for predators either because they had free choice, same as I, and they're choosing to be and stay as a predator.

i want every one to know i opened this as a wake up call. that it could and would happen. in Rockford ill belvedere ill and some close places near me. 25 miles they are laying off everywhere up here and i have been seeing different cars go by. not saying they are not just out for a drive . but who actually knows. i love where i am at but i just have this gut feeling, and i just don't like it. and i had another friend call. there garage got broke into ,they were at work. some tools got stolen its just way to close to home. scared ...no im not scared. but i would rather not think of having to say one day. here kitty kitty kitty, bang, and hurt someone for being on the premises. when not invited. i look after a couple of old farmers around me, when they are gone. i guess if its gonna happen it will. but i just hope i don't have to do something drastic.

This sort of thing is exactly why my zucchini got their concealed carry permits.

It's happening around here also! An elderly man had all his chickens, chicks and eggs stolen in broad daylight a few days. The only thing they left were his old free range chickens! I am home alone--alot. I dare to say (I know it not legal -as another NC person told me in an earlier post) but I will shoot anyone that comes here to harm my animals or me AND since I don't know who might or might not be here to harm us--IF they are sneaking around (day or night), they might find themselves in a heap of trouble . They will have to clean their pants out! I am a GREAT shot and will make them think twice about being here..

A few years back I had neighbors stealing from my market garden. Morons did not realize I could follow their tracks back to their house in the morning dew.
Linda

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mommagoose_99
Live from
Beautiful Upstate NY

So what will happen to your animals when you are in jail?

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"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law." -- Winston Churchill

I'm glad you said this because that is exactly what I was thinking. My husband said that no matter where "they're" from, pumping a 12ga shotgun gives a would-be predator/thief plenty of time to "re-think" their intentions! Gotta love that universal sound....

Donna H.

I find trespassers stealing apples from my orchard all the time. They know to sneak on to the property from the farthest point from the house. We can't hear or see them down there.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

OK...now that's funny.

My yard looks like a junk yard. I guess it actually is. I grab any iron, wood, fencing, or whatever I think I might use down the road and sometimes if the weather goes sour it may sit beside the house before getting sorted out and stowed away where ever. I have some one knocking on my door every time I turn around wanting to haul it off for free.
Haul it off? I just hauled it in here.

I know even last year I found foot prints in my garden that were too big to be any of ours. What they took I don't know. Not as much as the 4 leged thieves did. They took the whole plants.
The bad thing is I will give anyone food that needs it but if I catch them in the yard at night they might get shot.

I have gotten to where I don't go out the door with out one of the pistols in my pocket. I have kinda got found of the little .22 revolver in my back pocket. It sticks out enough so that it's not a conceled weapon yet still light enough that I just forget it's there. Until I set down and sometimes even then for awhile.

Yea, it's gonna get bad, I think anyway. People aren't like they were in the 30's and 40's. A lot of people don't have any scrouples to them. I want what I want and I want it now and I'll kill you if you get in my way, and then there are the ones that say, I'll kill you just because you looked at me wrong.

It like some of the people that study things like this has said. This is going to make 1929 look like a walk in the park.
That's why I wanted at least one more SKS rifle. About a dozen more would be even better.
JMHO
Dennis

Ok I'll say it....I'm afraid of going to jail after I shoot someone so I'm trying to make sure that my children know how to take care of stuff....or maybe I'll just let the kids do the shooting? Yes they can and do most every weekend.
We've had metal thieves and an old house we use to store things that my sister owns has been broken into 3 times this year.....my "valuables" were taken or trashed.
If I catch the creeps they're pig food. kind of makes it a win/win situation....potential thief=free pig food.

When you were a kid, people knew they might get shot stealing. Now if somebody is in your yard stealing, you're not allowed to do anything, therefore more of it goes on. I understand that some states are passing a "Castle Doctrine" law where you have a few more rights, but of course, decent lawabiding citizens will never have as many rights as thieves.

The poster meant in the days before the white man came and got rid of the original occupiers of this country and took their land.

...and genetically modified their beloved corn into millions of acres of inedible crap until they went hungry?

OK...I get it now.

Well... I do know... at least in my area. After this billing cycle I'll likely be giving up the last luxury I've been fighting to hold on to (this internet connection). I know a number of people that are doing the same.

Food stamps are becoming more difficult to apply for. Those that have been barely making it without them but need them now are almost S.O.L. Couple that with the fact that benefit amounts have not been raised and the food stamps are worth less (for those that do get them) because grocery prices have gone up so mouch and there is a real situation developing. Food pantries (at churches and charities) are getting less donations because the "haves" are needing to tighten their belts too. More people are going to the food pantries and getting less... if there's anything left at all. A number of the pantries are now open by appointment only so they can limit the number of people that are standing in line.

I've spent the last day and a half calling almost 75 local churches for energy assistance... most of them are not able to meet the needs of their parishoners, much less the general public. They have the same story as the food pantries... more needs and less donations. I actually asked two of the church offices about the situation. Those two churches said their requests for help have doubled since the first of the year.

I spoke with the manager at one of the local grocery stores... cases of shop lifting have more than doubled recently. Unless a huge sudden influx of "thieves" have moved into the area, I'd say that a lot of people that normally wouldn't steal are starting too. But I guess they were always just "thieves" at heart and have been waiting for their chance to start.

I don't intent to... and pray that I never get to the point that I feel like I must steal to survive but I think some otherwise decent people are finding themselves in a no win situation.

If you are calling this "hard times"... what are the folks that were already having "hard times" calling their situation... desperate times maybe???

It's not in this country but haven't you heard about the food riots in third world countries? People that had a diet a basically rice and flour (subsistant starvation) are rioting and looting. They weren't doing this a year ago... what has changed??? they went from hard times to desperation.

I saw a news report that in some areas people are actually mixing dirt into their flour and cornmeal to try to stretch it. I guess the "thieves" in America should be mixing and eating mud pies???

I think it's just a little bit more complicated than thieves are just thieves.

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"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid".

That is one advantage to my oddly shaped land I guess. My six acres is only 208 feet across at the road, but is 1256 feet deep. The first 3/4 acre against the road is oak trees, shinnery, green briar. Then, there is my house with the driveway alarm, then the garden, and then four one acre paddocks that contain my animals. Nothing can really be seen from the road.


Though, honestly, I am doing pretty darn good right now, even with rising fuel and food costs. I do not have a whole lot, but I have enough for my needs, plus a little extra to put into the bank. Of course, I made the change into a small gas saving car almost five years ago.

People steal veg from our community garden, here at a university; they are not all students either. I've caught visitors to the Alumnai Hotel that's right behind the garden spot, and 2 families from countries in Asia. We caught the chef from the hotel stealing a few years ago, but our faculty advisor would not press charges. The man had been doing it for the garden season and was caught with literally a few hundred lbs. of our veg! ldc