A scrapper that gets scrapped

I had a hard time deciding where to post this. Since it is funny to me, I put it here. Some may think it is educational, some would think it is a question of ethics, some might categorize it as business.

A lady contacted me a few months back and wanted a farm scrapped before an upcoming auction. I had let her pasture 12 horses on my place because she was out of hay. I declined the job because I was not going to drop my present customers to meet her deadline. A local scrapper that is notorious for bad checks and not paying customers accepted the job. I have seen this scrapper preparing loads he bought at an auction before the auction was over. Evidently he had to sell it before the check was cashed.

He paid the lady $ 2,000 in cash to start the project. She said she needed the money for her daughter that was attending college. He hauled his semi, trailers, pay loader, skid loader, etc. to the property and was hauling about 10 tons a day. Within a week he is visited by the sheriff at the farm. The real owner had just returned from out of state and reported the theft of his property. The lady had been his girlfriend and knew he was out of town. The scrapper had to pay the farmer fair market value, not scrap value for the items he took. He was also out the original $ 2,000. When he went to court to get his money back the lady did not know what he was talking about. He did not have any proof. Her horses will not be coming back on my property.

Everyone I have dealt with has been on the up and up. Someday I might get scammed, but I would like to think I won't. If you have another lesson you could teach us, please post.

I think you got a little lucky there. As too the whole scam thing, In my honest opinion, those type of people are scum of the earth

So did the scrappers ways of doing business catch up to him? you reap what you sow.

Yes, and I am waiting for the boomerang to come back and hit the lady. It is amazing to me how people with the same values are attracted to each other.

If only we could always count on that boomerang... I'm thinking of Wall Street.
Hey, what is that beautiful dog you have there? Is that a Weimaraner?

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Originally Posted by FLimits

If only we could always count on that boomerang... I'm thinking of Wall Street.
Hey, what is that beautiful dog you have there? Is that a Weimaraner?

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If you are talking to me they are labs. The black one is 65 lbs. but the yellow is 125 lbs. They are my scrapping partners, hunting raccoons, chasing skunks, and fighting with badgers. They killed one badger and chased another out of the county. They are great bird dogs, fantastic companions, and well behaved. They love their freedom as much as I love mine. They can hear the truck a 1/2 mile away and will often meet me on the road for the days work.

It seems like I shared this story earlier, but it fits this thread. I think everyone involved learned something, but this is how the story goes. I was called by a mutual friend of a woman who needed someone to clean the old iron etc. from a farmstead that her brother lived on. He'd had a stroke, wrecked his pickup and they put him in a nursing home. He is around 70 yrs old and I was assured he wasn't coming back to the farm which was in his two sister's names. They were preparing to rent the house to a young couple and had removed all his personal items.

I walked through the equipment with the mutual friend and the woman and took notes of what to take as we were to leave the better useable equipment. After the first couple days of removal, a neighbor (good friend of the man) showed up and we got acquainted. He made statements like "THAT'S Joe's good pickup". He was referring to the wrecked one and I said that the sister said to take it. He kept coming back and then the sister said that he ( the friend) had taken the owner from the nursing home and was visiting when I wasn't there. I got about 3/4 of what I was to take and then one morning I found a nasty note on my skidloader from the man. He accused me of stealing his stuff and said he'd had parts sold from his pickup etc. The law was never involved and I vacated the premises asap. I guess old Joe wasn't as bad off as his sisters thought. His house was a total disaster and he had bad debts all over the place. I guess I was lucky that he didn't call the sheriff but then in this case, I think the sheriff was looking for HIM to settle his own debts.

These cases are probably rare as well as the one Patriot mentioned. Maybe a person should get a receipt of cash advances or verifiable agreements when third parties are involved. I felt I was in the right in my case as did Joe's sisters, but the unobvious happened. Lesson learned.

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Originally Posted by Yunkman

It seems like I shared this story earlier, but it fits this thread. I think everyone involved learned something, but this is how the story goes. I was called by a mutual friend of a woman who needed someone to clean the old iron etc. from a farmstead that her brother lived on. He'd had a stroke, wrecked his pickup and they put him in a nursing home. He is around 70 yrs old and I was assured he wasn't coming back to the farm which was in his two sister's names. They were preparing to rent the house to a young couple and had removed all his personal items.

I walked through the equipment with the mutual friend and the woman and took notes of what to take as we were to leave the better useable equipment. After the first couple days of removal, a neighbor (good friend of the man) showed up and we got acquainted. He made statements like "THAT'S Joe's good pickup". He was referring to the wrecked one and I said that the sister said to take it. He kept coming back and then the sister said that he ( the friend) had taken the owner from the nursing home and was visiting when I wasn't there. I got about 3/4 of what I was to take and then one morning I found a nasty note on my skidloader from the man. He accused me of stealing his stuff and said he'd had parts sold from his pickup etc. The law was never involved and I vacated the premises asap. I guess old Joe wasn't as bad off as his sisters thought. His house was a total disaster and he had bad debts all over the place. I guess I was lucky that he didn't call the sheriff but then in this case, I think the sheriff was looking for HIM to settle his own debts.

These cases are probably rare as well as the one Patriot mentioned. Maybe a person should get a receipt of cash advances or verifiable agreements when third parties are involved. I felt I was in the right in my case as did Joe's sisters, but the unobvious happened. Lesson learned.

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ALWAYS get a signature giving you permission to remove stuff AND stating they are the rightful owner and are legally able to give you authorization.

Good advice, BurlyGuys...thanks.

I've often thought it would be possible to pull into a farmyard and get the go-ahead to remove everything....only to find out that they are just renters who might be on the "outs" with the owner and out for revenge. Or maybe a family member on drugs or something..... Or other variations of the scenario. Message to myself....Be Careful Yunkman.

I think I was in one of those situations recently.

A guy calls me up has me remove stove and other miscellaneous metal items, but I wanted to be paid for doing. Turned out I didn't get paid and I think I might have stolen the metal items. I'm not totally for sure though.

I made a mistake a few years ago...
I was out driving around and saw a junk pile outside someones house. I stoped and knocked and the girl that came to the door said her and her mom had been looking for someone to haul it all away. I told the daughter (which was in her 20's) that I would take EVERYTHING. There was plastic, trash and about 1000lbs of metal, 5 tvs and a computer. I was doing it for the heck of it, and to help out a family in need. There was also a broken down van that she told me I would have to talk to the mother about. I went ahead and started with the trash, about 15 bags, then loaded up the tvs and other odd and end stuff. When I got back her mom was home from work. I figured a good time to talk to her about the van. She met me at the door cussing me, and threatening me with the cops. She said I stole those things from her, etc etc.... luckly the only things I took was the trash and tvs and computer, which was busted, and soaked with water. I explained everything to her, and she told me to leave and never come back. I guess it was a lesson learned, get everything in writting.
She got her trash hauled off for free though. I got 5 tvs out of it and a computer, which turned out to be a shell with a hard drive and a few wires. The boards were already gone.

Talk about a boomerang situation !! A local auction yard conducts machinery auctions bi-yearly. The auctioneer and owner told me they had a game camera set up and recorded a local scrapper stealing an acetylene tank from a building. The man denied it and said he only took a couple quarts of oil for his vehicle. He said the camera lied. What a moron..! This happened within the last 12 months and today his house burned down.