Replies

1. 
   JDale | Oct 10, 2009 01:44am | #1

   I had 4 or 5 square disappear overnight at my job site about a month ago.  They left the 80' of 3" pvc which was right beside them.

   Even better is the fact that the house sitters said they heard someone at about 2 in the morning but did'nt get up to check it out.

   John

2. 
   jimAKAblue | Oct 10, 2009 02:38am | #2

   Thanks for the link. We've been considering warehousing our own shingles.

3. 
   PeteDraganic | Oct 10, 2009 02:39am | #3

   I had a truckload of shingles and a truckload of siding disappear from a jobsite once. Found out years later that the PM for the GC had built an addition at his home and had been stealing from the jobs he managed.

    

   I refuse to accept that there are limitations to what we can accomplish.        Pete Draganic

    

   You can lead a moderator to a computer, but you can't make him think.          cussin2

4. 
   renosteinke | Oct 10, 2009 02:53am | #4

   I'm just surprised it has taken this long. I'm guessing the days of storing stuff 'in the lot' are gone ... or there will be a great increase in MONITORED security systems.

   Let's put this in perspective, though. Do you really expect an industry rife with illegal (unlicensed) contractors, contractors (with a nod and a wink) hiring illegal immigrant crews, others filling their crews with druggies and criminals .... where much of the labor force has been criminal since the day they first started working .... do you really expect the suppliers to be immune to criminal activity?

   I think some housecleaning is in order.

1. 
   jimAKAblue | Oct 10, 2009 03:10am | #5

   If we clean house, who is going to install the shingles?

1. 
   renosteinke | Oct 10, 2009 03:12am | #7

   The same stock that built this place the first time.

   Though, I would like to require every archetect to participate in actually building his artistic monstrosities :D

2. 
   florida | Oct 10, 2009 03:25am | #8

   Sweet!

5. 
   Hudson Valley Carpenter | Oct 10, 2009 03:10am | #6

   While I emphathize with the supplier, it makes no sense to expect that a locked gate will stop thieves from taking valuable materials from an easy location when there's no security system in place.  

   Fort Worth must certainly have competing private security companies with 24hr monitoring.  I'm surprised that, after the first theft, the supplier's insurance carrier didn't insist on electronic surveillance. 

   I had a series of small thefts of materials on framing jobs I was subbing in a vacation home development.  I suspected that another crew was doing it so I went to talk with the foreman. 

   I asked him if he'd lost any materials lately.  He said that he had but he didn't seem very convincing or concerned.   I told him that I planned to start booby trapping my job sites, to put an end to the thefts.   I had some ideas how I'd do that but it wasn't necessary.  The word got around and the thefts stopped.

6. 
   seeyou | Oct 10, 2009 04:10am | #9

   I've only had shingles stolen once.  The GC was having money problems and he made a big deal out of the pallet of shingles sitting out front - somebody might steal them! Next morning they were gone. I suspect he was involved.

   But, shingle prices have risen enough lately that the heavy lifting might be closer to worth it.

   copper p0rn

1. 
   barmil | Oct 10, 2009 04:45am | #10

   Detroit has a 30% unemployment rate, and its crime is increasing. I think this will be a factor in other areas as well. Don't presume that stuff will be safe if not secured,

2. 
   florida | Oct 10, 2009 05:10am | #11

   But when haven't the scumbags stolen what they could? I have a brand new, 4 year old vacant house in a subdivision in east Lee County. The thieves have stolen the AC compressor, then the ceiling fans and bathroom mirrors, now all the light fixtures are gone, the well equipment is gone and they've stolen the air handler. The house is and has been locked all along. Cops are helpless as am I.

1. 
   JohnCujie | Oct 10, 2009 05:25am | #12

   I was sent to install some windows on a building in San Francisco a while back. In a fairly nice part of town. Main boulevard. Windows stored on the second floor.Not any more. All gone.John

1. 
   jimAKAblue | Oct 10, 2009 07:04am | #13

   That was an inside job....said the genius.

1. 
   CapnMac | Oct 10, 2009 07:42am | #14

   There's a big student-housing prject in town (some national outfit that puts these up at all sorts of schools).  They actually have a trailer with batteries and a solar array to power a fisheye webcam to watch the job site.

   Thought it was a sales gimmick, except that the three of them have followed the "under construction" buildings and materials around the site.

   Need breeds oppertunity, it is said

    Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)

2. 
   Hudson Valley Carpenter | Oct 10, 2009 06:52pm | #15

   Here's a story you'll enjoy, I'm sure, genuine Texan that you are.  It relates directly to the topic too. 

   For several years I'd been spending my summers installing vinyl liner in-ground pools, in my area of NY State. 

   An airline pilot I knew socially called me one winter to ask if I'd be interested in going to Texas to install a pool at his new "ranch" there. 

   Seemed he'd recently re-married, to another flight attendant(tricks of the trade), and had decided to live in Texas and fly out of DFW (new bride was in command of those decisions now).

   I wasn't busy and the warmer spring weather in Texas allowed for earlier vinyl liner installations so I gave him a price, he accepted and I was soon on my way to his "ranch", north of Denton, west of Sanger. 

   His new "spread" turned out to be a typical quarter section in the flat lands on a N/S dirt road.  The only trees in sight had been planted. 

   The house was mostly a new addition, on a slab.  The former owner had bumped it out big time just before selling, from a simple one bedroom to a more mo-dern three bedroom "ranch house".  

   He'd just poured a big ol' slab, threw up some walls, set some trusses and finished it off fast.  He was soon headin' out, rolling in dough, courtesy of our hero, Captain Dave who still couldn't think straight due to the new sensations that lingered in his loins.

   The pool he hired me to install was principally due to those sensations too. 

   I got there about a month before Dave and his new bride were due to make their full move from NY.  I did the pool installation by myself, taking my time, and was finishing up when they arrived. 

   The moving company came the next day.  Big van, lots of fine furniture, three young guys under the command of the flight attendant.  She was "nesting", taking territory like an army on wheels. 

   Captain Dave and I were relegated to the back yard for the morning, where I was completing the installation of the filter and an automatic pool cleaning device. 

   About mid way through the furniture move, she called everyone into the big kitchen for an official break with cold sodas and cookies (what, no stale peanuts?).  

   It turned out, the way I saw it, that she wanted to make sure that the moving guys knew what she and her new mate did for a living.  When she had us all gathered, quietly partaking in her impeccably served refreshments, she made her move. 

   In a clear commanding voice she said, "Dave, I'm flying to ________ next Thursday, back on Saturday.  What's your schedule?"   

   Dave, who was far from being in-the-moment, replies, "Honey, I'm flying to ________ Wednesday night, back late Friday." 

   I notice a small smile pass between two of the moving guys.  I assume that it relates to the pretentious behavior of our hosts because I've been grinning at it myself.

   One other thing I noticed in the kitchen, several sets of keys are laying out on the countertops.  I'd had my own set for over a month, so I recognized them as keys to the house. 

   My work completed, I got my final payment and left the next day for Dallas, where I'd made plans to learn something about outdoor spa installations and possibly sub some pool installations, before returning to the NY State for the summer months. 

   Dave's automatic pool cleaner had been showing signs of problems so, after getting a motel room in Arlington for a week, I called and left my phone number on his machine. 

   A couple of nights later Dave called with a peculiar request.  He asked me where I'd been on Thursday night at about nine o'clock. 

   As fate would have it, I'd been invited to watch a crew of guys make a new fiberglass spa in a Dallas factory, beginning with the mold.  They were working the swing shift, four to midnight.  So I'd been sitting there, watching them shoot fiberglass and paint resin on the thing, until about ten that evening.

   Turns out someone had gone back to Captain Dave's little house on the prairie and taken all his nice oak furniture.  The neighbor down the road had seen an unmarked eighteen wheeler enter his property but that was all she had to offer.

   Dave had spoken to the Sheriff, who'd advised him to ask me where I'd been.  Remembering the little scene arranged by his trophy wife in the kitchen, I reminded him of that exchange of schedule info in front of the moving guys, and also the location of the house keys. 

   He didn't remember the conversation but I assured him that it was something his bride arranged to satisfy her own needs. 

   She just had to tell the world that she'd fulfilled her lifelong aim of capturing a trophy husband.  Ever since she dressed her Barbie doll in that little flight attendant's uniform she'd known what destiny had in store.

   And thereby hangs the tale.  Yankees moving to Texas and trying to make an impression leave a trail of bread crumbs big enough for an eighteen wheeler to follow.

    

   Edited 10/10/2009 4:15 pm by Hudson Valley Carpenter