Has anyone ever sabotaged your equipment or truck?

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In the past I have had the Dipstick taken from my 69' sa200 - during heavy snowfall, I've had my remote cable ripped from my Lincoln Ranger 305G - with all the individual wire and contacts hanging out, and today I noticed that my 67' does not have its Gas Cap and it seems to be completely dead. Tried boosting it, and everything, but was running perfectly the other day. Also noticed that the positive cable hooked to the battery is fed in between the belt and pully of the fan, and its loose. So I don't know.  This cannot be coincidence that I lose this or that, or somehow rip out wires, and I've heard stories of guys saying that they've come out of restaurants and someone else had grabbed ahold of their cables and wrapped them up intertwining them around the reels - What have you guys experienced? I can't be this clumsy - I really cant.46’ sae30047’ sa200 w/Wisconsin VF451’ shorthood56’ shorthood56’ shorthood68’ redface69 redface07’ ranger 305G13’ sae300Inconel/Hastelloy – SS – Duplex – Chrome/Carbon Tig – F3Downhand – STT/RMD – F3F4 – B Pressure
Reply:We've had heavy equipment F'd with in the city. Windows smashed, stuff dumped in the fuel/ hydraulic tanks, battery cables cut, etc. I've also seen guys who have had their trucks F'd with. Sides keyed, boxes dented so they can't be opened, tires slashed... Usually when they parked near a job site that was using nonunion labor. Thugs really don't care if you are working the job or not... They assume any work truck in the area must be long to someone at that job.  I'd say 1/4 of the times we've had problems it might have been local youths, but it's funny how these sorts of things happen when you are just down the street from a union hall... especially when we were down the street from the Teamsters..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:I have heard the Rottweiler cure works pretty good then too you can always hire Smith and Wesson to watch the rig.
Reply:We were on one job where "someone" kept siphoning the diesel out of the manlift.  Funny thing was, this was a sound barrier wall on the freeway, backed up against residential.  So the manlift was parked across the street from "someone's" house, with nobody else around....and that "someone" had a diesel in the driveway!We just put 5gal. in at a time instead of making waves.Hey Steve, regarding that "deserved some of it" due to your spirited youth comment, I know exactly what you mean Lincoln SA 200Esab Caddy 160Thermal Arc 201TSMiller Dialarc HFI don't like making plans for the day because then the word "premeditated" gets thrown around the courtroom....
Reply:had some other pipe welders with another contractor cut some risers on a line before we could tie it in so it would look like we screwed the fit,  i caught them though.  Also tried to blame me and the other guy on busted welds but luckly we had ours marked... also had some one while i left to sharpen tungsten turn my purge off and smere oil on my root pass. It was a messed up job.  People are crazy sometimes.
Reply:Here people will try to take your leads for the copper. But it takes a brave crack head to do that . They know that messing with a mans tools will end in a shooting around here.
Reply:Not my equipment, but diesel theft is a problem here. A friend of a friend had 5 tractors/loaders with full tanks parked for the night in the barn 50m from the house, the next morning when he started one of them he noticed the fuel meter showing almost empty. Sure enough, all five tanks drained during the night. Not the first time he lost diesel from the equipment, but the first time it happened at home instead of when left overnight on the job. He has also got robbed of more or less valuable scrap metal as stainless kitchen sinks, and someone tried to rip a 1000lb electric motor out of its mountings, presumably for the copper in it. It's not so much the stuff they steal that pisses me off, as the amount of destruction and costs they cause relative to the value/money they gain by it. Steal a tank of diesel by opening the unlocked lid and siphon it out, sure, it costs a bit of money to fill it up again but no harm done really. Steal a little diesel by opening the large inspection hatch on top of a large 3000l "farm tank" and leave it open for the rest of the rainy weekend will not only cost money to replace what was stolen, but also destroy the thousands of dollars worth of fuel left in the tank. Making holes is also a popular method of gaining access to locked tanks...
Reply:Get a surveillance camera and then bait them.I had a old neighbor that kept stealing gas from me and when I mentioned it to him he accused another neighbor. I ended up catching him in the act and little did he know I have done my fair share of mma training with a friend of mine.Needless to say he spent several days in the hospital with numerous broken ribs and a punctured lung. I never had anymore stuff stolen at that place, that guy wouldn't even look at me anymore!!!  In the end it was worth all the gas he stole as I got to take some serious frustration out on that douche bag. All the neighbors were sweet as could be after that.
Reply:Well these things cannot be mere clumsiness on my part - actually I had a dream today that I went to a mall and my truck was stolen. I know a Welder who took his Ford to a Mall onetime, but he had his welding equipment taken out of it, and someone stole the truck and it was found burnt to the ground.I'm just more paranoid because my Aluminum deck is ready here shortly, and the machine going on there will be my shorthood. I don't want anything to happen to that machine. If you work hard and are successful, someone who does not work hard and does not have the success will look at you and feel that they're more entitled to success than you are even though they never take into consideration that they never work hard enough to earn the success. Money is another thing I've noticed. I had a friend of mine who was running a smaller pickup truck with a smaller welding machine in the back and two tiny cabinets and he was making lots of money using the truck as a welding truck. Someone spraypainted the word "hack" on his truck, someone threw a rock at his machine and busted up his panel, another welder tried to run him off the road one time.46’ sae30047’ sa200 w/Wisconsin VF451’ shorthood56’ shorthood56’ shorthood68’ redface69 redface07’ ranger 305G13’ sae300Inconel/Hastelloy – SS – Duplex – Chrome/Carbon Tig – F3Downhand – STT/RMD – F3F4 – B Pressure
Reply:No, in fact, I don't ever worry about it.Are you paranoid???Or, do you just like to get sh!t started on forums? Your previous posts kind of look like you're an instigator. Has anyone ever sabotaged your equipment? Has anyone ever not paid for services? What's next? Has anyone ever felt like they were being watched???AWS D1.1 Certified SMAW 3G Unlimited, Open Root                             FCAW-G 3G Unlimited, w/BackerCellular Tower Reinforcement Welding on the frozen tundra of the greater Mid-West
Reply:I dont care for attacks by forum members on other forum members. I don't know if that was supposed to be funny or not, swede.Lincoln Power Mig 210MP MIGLincoln Power Mig 350MP - MIG and Push-PullLincoln TIG 300-300Lincoln Hobby-Weld 110v  Thanks JLAMESCK TIG TORCH, gas diffuser, pyrex cupThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 101My brain
Reply:Actually, this is a very serious matter that I am facing that things are being taken off of my Welding Machines, and I am asking others if such things have ever happened to them because surely it cannot be so coincidental that I could be clumsy. It would take a great deal of force to pull a remote cable from my Lincoln Ranger 305G; this is not something where I could have just tripped and suddenly the cables all pulled apart46’ sae30047’ sa200 w/Wisconsin VF451’ shorthood56’ shorthood56’ shorthood68’ redface69 redface07’ ranger 305G13’ sae300Inconel/Hastelloy – SS – Duplex – Chrome/Carbon Tig – F3Downhand – STT/RMD – F3F4 – B Pressure
Reply:Yeah, it gives you the sh!ts when you get your gear messed with.Pay some kid to keep an ey on your gear when you're not there and get him to phone you when someone messes around....catching them in the act is so satisfying.BTW, you can get a small camera on Ebay for $35 that takes time lapse photos 5 seconds apart....concealed in or near the truck it will tell you who's the nasty guy.....nothing like solid evidence.Ian.Last edited by puddytat; 11-04-2012 at 07:27 PM.
Reply:Game/Trail camera mounted out of reach, flash will alert them at night though. Where are you keeping your equipment when it is being messed with. build a box or locking panel that can seal up your machine."Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum"Lincoln Idealarc 250 AC/DCMillermatic 251   Syncrowave 300   30A spoolgunLincoln MP210Hypertherm 45(2) LN 25(2) Lincoln Weldanpower 225 CV(4) SA200   1 short hood    SA250    SAM 400
Reply:Get a box truck instead of an open platform?
Reply:Originally Posted by weldbayI have heard the Rottweiler cure works pretty good then too you can always hire Smith and Wesson to watch the rig.