Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

[N-43121]

I'm rather torqued right now. The attached photo shows the results of someone throwing a rock through the windshield of my C-185 sometime in the past couple days. It was parked inside the fence at Performance Airmotive and it appears someone has been chucking rocks (probably from a moving vehicle) over the fence at the aircraft parked closest to the road. In addition to the damage to my plane, it looks like the green Beaver on floats was also hit at least twice. We discovered the damage today when the plane was moved into the shop for an annual and to put it on floats.

I am aware of other vandalism in the area recently, including stealing fuel from a parked supercub.

The Alaska State troopers have been notified. I hope they catch the low-life *#$>!*'s who are doing this.

If you park at Anderson Lake, be sure to do a thorough pre-flight!

[astjp2]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

A few nails along the street might stop that $hit, or a baseball bat. How many have been tagged? Tim

[dejh22]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

I'm rather torqued right now. The attached photo shows the results of someone throwing a rock through the windshield of my C-185 sometime in the past couple days. It was parked inside the fence at Performance Airmotive and it appears someone has been chucking rocks (probably from a moving vehicle) over the fence at the aircraft parked closest to the road. In addition to the damage to my plane, it looks like the green Beaver on floats was also hit at least twice. We discovered the damage today when the plane was moved into the shop for an annual and to put it on floats.

I am aware of other vandalism in the area recently, including stealing fuel from a parked supercub.

The Alaska State troopers have been notified. I hope they catch the low-life *#$>!*'s who are doing this.

If you park at Anderson Lake, be sure to do a thorough pre-flight!

Sorry Rod! I hope the S.O.B. gets caught!

[M Towsley]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

Rod,

Chances are slim, but...if there is some kind of CrimeStoppers program up there talk to the coordinator. Advise him or her of the situation and they can make it the crime-of-the-week. The little incentive of money gets people to cough up friends and acquaintances fairly easily. Sorry to see this happen.

[N-43121]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

Well at least it wasn't the Tcraft!

[n6346m]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

I hope that the stolen fuel was avgas and that whoever stole it put it in their car and plugged up their catalytic converter and ruined their oxygen sensor.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

Better yet, if they are caught they have used fuel in their vehicles that has not had road tax paid. Sic the state dept of revenue on them! They are also guilty of messing with an aircraft and endangering the pilot/crew. A FEDERAL OFFENSE. Plus, I would bet if you have a friend in TSA or Homeland Security we could find a number of other things to get them on.
I say, FIND THEM and TERRORIZE THEM BACK! It would be worth hunting them down to make an example of them that should be WELL PUBLICIZED to stop other idiots from doing this kind of thing.
Hank

[N-43121]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

We have video footage and are going through it to try and identify the vehicle involved. We believe they live in the neighborhood. It ain't over yet!

Three weeks out on a new windshield ... Grrrr.

Rod

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

They should NOT be allowed to get off with a slap on the wrist and paying for the new windshield. If they had damaged it and you didn't see the damage it could have failed in flight. You could have been killed. It is SERIOUS and a judge needs to understand how serious it is.
Hank

[N-43121]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

They should NOT be allowed to get off with a slap on the wrist and paying for the new windshield. If they had damaged it and you didn't see the damage it could have failed in flight. You could have been killed. It is SERIOUS and a judge needs to understand how serious it is.
Hank

I agree Hank. We are pushing the issue with law enforcement.

[M Towsley]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

Well, Hank, I agree wholeheartedly with all the above. However, you probably won't want to hear what will probably come of it if the person(s) are caught. Twenty-six years of seeing how the real-world exists regarding these types of issues as opposed to how it should be has me somewhat jaded.

Not to deter Rod from his work on this but Revenue will not mess with something so minor. Plus you would need proof. They usually only work with dyed diesel with is easy to prove with their tests. (My wife works for Revenue in Motor Fuel and works with investigations on similar matters). Homeland Security, (Feds), won't touch this case either. Way too minor and you cannot present a bunch of what-ifs. Only what actually happened. It is a case of criminal damage and theft, and not much more.

Once the vehicle is found the police will have to interview the vehicle owner, who may or may not cooperate. In today's world you are going to need video evidence and then be able to identify the suspect, or have an eye-witness or a confession. Anything short of that will produce nothing. There is still a lot of work ahead for law enforcement if they do find the owner of the vehicle. I feel like I could dampen some enthusiasm here but a dose of reality will lessen the pain if things don't go right.

Too much TV has a tendency to make folks believe it will all be solved quickly and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. A joke in our local county was that you could kill someone, just don't drive away while speeding and drunk.

And Rod, don't allow the local guys to let it go. Make sure you let them know that all of you are interested in the outcome and stay in-touch with the Detective assigned to the case, if one is assigned. Get ahold of me via PM if you have any questions.

[Marv]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

If the law there is anything like it is around here and the person actual turned hisself in, they would tell him to go on and keep his mouth and not do it again because they would not want deal with the paper work. Marv

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

It's a shame a baseball bat to the offenders shins when caught in the act would be prosecuted a lot more vigorously than than the offender would be for the crime or the results of it. I guess anyone defending their property needs to be sure their face doesn't show up on the security camera and the offenders does.

I got rear ended by some joker speeding down a clear open road a few years ago and he pulled around me and took off (we were both moving at the time on a 4 lane divided approach to a bridge). When he took off I got a description of the driver, the car and the plate number. The police wouldn't look for him because "they had so many hit-and-runs every weekend" so I used his plate number and found him myself about a week later. I called the detective assigned from across the street from the jerks house and told them where he was, that the car still had paint from my car on his front end and damage to his headlight. In addition I had searched the public records and found out he was driving on a suspended licenses. They told me NOT to confront him, and I agreed IF they would send a patrol car and pick him up (he was driving away by this time, with no license, and I was following him).

When they got him he claimed I had BACKED OVER THE BRIDGE and hit him! He also claimed that I had taken off and left him. Minor problem is I had hit my head on the "B" pillar when he rear ended me and a rescue unit had been called by a nearby store. Kind of hard to claim I ran when he was gone and I was there when the EMT's arrived. End of long story, his insurance had to pay to fix my car, and then they dropped him. He got NOTHING! No punishment at all. Not even a stinking ticket. He WAS told by his appointed lawyer to shut up and stop digging himself in deeper when he kept claiming he was the one who was hit. NO ONE believed him.

I am just a little down on how our law enforcement system is so in to protecting the rights of the accused that the victim is trampled all over. The guy is probably driving with no license OR insurance now.

I'll get off rant now. We need to talk airplanes. I DID have a friend in the last gas shortage who was repeatedly having gas stolen from his car. He came up with a neat trick where he put a device in his tank that he filled with some chemical (wish I knew what it was). When they siphoned his gas, they got the chemical instead. There was a car being towed the next day from about a block away. Whatever it was he used, it sure stopped that car dead and the fuel losses stopped after that too. It was some kind of tube that slipped into his fuel filler neck with a closed bottom. The cars being targeted seemed to all be ones that could use leaded gas back then because they had the big open filler necks that were easy to steal gas from. It would be easy to put a tube like that into the filler neck of a Taylorcraft, but I sure wouldn't want to risk any of that chemical getting into my engine!

Hank

Hank

[M Towsley]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

Just one last thing, Hank. Hit and run is a low priority because it is usually property damage repaired by insurance. Fair, no, but that is the way things are now. Too many people call the police for stupid things because they have to answer the phone 24-7. I have shown little old ladies how to turn on their air conditioner because Sears failed to do so. I have removed bats from houses and the list goes on and on. And, with more people and less police you are going to get less services. Normally the folks who don't pay taxes are the ones using the services. I am so glad I am retired and out of that mess. So little appreciation for so much given.

And a final note, it is usually not law enforcement that is the problem. The prosecutors and judges, (read that as attorneys), are the ones screwing things up more than anyone.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Caution: More Aircraft Vandalism at Anderson Lake Airstrip

AGREE WITH THAT! I started out as a Police reservist in Omaha in the early 70s. Almost all the cops were great, unfortunately it only takes one of several hundred to ruin the reputation for all. I loved the work (crazy as it was) but knew after the first year I would never make it. I wouldn't need anger management if other people had more stupidity management. The world is just too full of people who need keepers to protect them from themselves.

I have actually only had run ins with two bad cops in 60 years. One was a crooked Sheriff in rural Kansas, and he was a write-off. The second was a young city cop here in Virginia with a hard spot for sports cars. He pulled me over in a new Porsche when he RADAR tracked the car next to me while it was passing me (between the RADAR gun and my car!). He pulled the other guy, then left him on the shoulder to come after me. After all, I was driving a new Porsche and the speeder was driving a Chevy Nova. I went to court and he slipped up and got caught in a lie by the judge. He tried to cover that lie with another, then another. I wasn't a cop for long, but was long enough to know, YOU NEVER LIE TO A JUDGE!

The judge asked me how fast I WAS going and I told him the truth, something like 3 MPH over the limit. He looked at me like I had three heads while he threw his pencil up in the air and asked if I didn't understand that if I said the speed limit I would walk away. I said yes, but I didn't lie before, and I wasn't going to start now. He said now he KNEW I was telling the truth and fined me about $15 with no court costs and no points. The cop didn't fare so well. He sent him to his chambers while he dropped every ticket he had written that was in court that day. Every one of them was a high end car or a sports car. When I was paying my fine I could hear him yelling at the cop clear down the hall. I do not EVER want to get pulled by that cop again!

Hank