Thief Rant and Crazy COLD Story!!!

[Vindingo]

I bought a canoe at the end of the summer because my new house is on a river.  It was pretty beat up, but it was sea worthy.  Half of my back yard is protected by a retaining wall and the other half is the bank of the river.  I would pull the canoe up on shore, flip it over and tie it to a tree.  



About a month ago the river flooded about 6' over it's normal height and there was a lot more traffic than usual.  A number of guys in there little motor boats would zoom by with crazy wakes and act like idiots.  One evening I noticed my canoe was gone after a particularly busy day (5 or 6 boats is a busy day).  I was pretty pissed that it was stolen by one of these jackasses and I pretty much gave up hope.  

About a week ago I was riding in a friend's truck when I saw MY canoe tied up to a tree near a public loading dock!  I jumped out of the truck and went to go get it.  Unfortunately because the river was flooded and FREEZING COLD I couldn't reach it.  Fast forward to yesterday... the river has gone down enough to a point where I think I can get it.  I get to the canoe and see that it is filled to the top with ice.  I can't pull it out of the river where it is tied up so I have to get it to the loading dock.

The loading dock is about 100 yards upriver, so I will have to paddle the canoe up river. When I untie and get into the boat, it is sitting about 1" above the freezing river water due to the 600lbs of ice plus me in it.  It was a bit sketchy, but I kept reminding myself that ice floats and that I would just hang onto the glacier inside of the canoe in the worst case scenario.  

I didn't really think through my plan because there was about 8-10' of ice in front of the loading ramp.  I thought I could ram through it, but it was too thick.  I stuck the paddle into the water and saw that it was only waist deep.  I took a deep breath and jumped into the river, smashing the ice with my fists and pulling the canoe behind me!  The water was SO COLD it took my breath way and nearly imploaded my two boys.  It was so cold that the sensation wasn't cold that I felt, it was pain.  As I am trying to sprint to shore and break the ice in my path, my boot gets stuck in the mud and I loose one of my boots.  I finally fall to shore, soaking wet and freezing cold... but the canoe is too heavy to pull ashore!  I have one boot on and my legs are numb.



I tie up the canoe to my car and drag it up the ramp, but still cant lift it or break the thick ice.  I leave it over night and get home to a hot shower as soon as I could.  I go back there today to break the ice and load it onto my car and someone has STOLEN IT AGAIN!!! There were about 20 chunks of ice 9" thick sitting next to where my canoe was!  MOTHER F'R... I almost got frost bite and hypothermia swimming in a freezing river and some asshole steals the canoe from me a second time!!!!!!! Yes it was stupid of me to leave it there overnight, but this is the suburbs.  I don't understand why or how people can see something and think it is ok for them to take it!?!?!  Because it doesn't have a key or a motor, is it ok to take?  I would like to think the person who stole my canoe wouldn't steal a car, BUT why is a canoe ok?




I guess I have too much faith in other people's morals.  I think my last ditch effort will be to put up a sign asking for the person to return it, no questions asked.  If it doesn't get returned I will just have to take solace in the fact that maybe one day they will get theirs...

Theives really piss me off.  It is such a lowlife scummy thing to do

[triangleforge]

Damn -- all that cold & it's still not home safe! Good luck tracking it down -- the good news is that it's a pretty identifiable boat, and likely won't go far.

[Triple J]

That sucks!

Wonder if the person that stole it the 2nd time bought it from the person that stole it the 1st time...and hence thinks it is rightly theirs. 

[Vindingo]

That sucks!

Wonder if the person that stole it the 2nd time bought it from the person that stole it the 1st time...and hence thinks it is rightly theirs. 

That is another problem that I have been thinking about.  Other than a couple of pictures on my camera phone from the early fall, there is no way to prove that it is mine.  If I saw them taking it, and said, "hey that's mine"  I'm sure they would just tell me to go F off.