stealing pavers

[mellowtigger]

I fully painted both exterior door frames of my house yesterday after work. The heat wave had already reached to Minnesota, but it wasn't terrible yet. I finally removed the newspaper covering the doors before the potential storm front that would arrive later. I didn't want newspaper ink on my doors if they got soaked.

I got up from bed about 5:30am today, as usual, when movement caught my eye from my bedroom window. It's raining today, so it's darker than usual this morning. I watched someone in a traditional yellow raincoat come to my backyard then go back into the alley. I thought at first that maybe it was a diagonal neighbor taking my paving stones to lay down a dry spot for their garbage cans. Today is garbage collection day.

But they kept returning again and again. I couldn't see a vehicle (it was dark because of the time and the clouds). I know people steal firewood from my backyard, and that's okay considering Minnesota winters, but I never thought anyone would steal brick garden pavers. I tried to record video or at least a single photo from my phone, but it was just too dark.

Eventually, after many more trips back and forth, I opened my bedroom window and said, "Don't you think you've stolen enough of them already?" They closed a hatch on a vehicle, started it up, and drove off. All I could tell is that the vehicle was black and large, like an SUV.

After work today, I'll need to go move that pallet of pavers to lay them on the ground at their intended paths. Even though the heat is supposed to be bad today. I don't want to lose more pavers, though.

Comments

[armiphlage]

Wow - that's brazen, considering how pavers are more of a nice-to-have than a necessity of life (unless you're trying to build a house out of them).

[mellowtigger]

Right? They're so heavy and unnecessary. Individually, they're also not very valuable. I paid about $4 for each of these. It's only en masse that they have any real value. I'll have to count later to find how many they ran off with.

P.S. I was too curious, so I went out in the rain to count. They stole 40 of my 70 pavers, worth $160. They probably would have taken the whole pallet if I hadn't interrupted them. *sigh*

[darkoshi]

At least it can't have been too easy for them, carrying away all those heavy pavers.
I hope they will be safer once you lay them on the path. I'd suggest not digging them down into the ground as they tend to sink and get covered up by leaves and dirt on their own anyway, and then you have to find a way to rise them up again. But leaving them up on top the ground like I do for the few I have would make them easier for someone to steal.

I've noticed from my cams how a whole lot of cars look dark-colored/black at night! ^_^

[mellowtigger]

I moved the few remaining pavers after work today. I am sweaty and slightly shaky. Weather.com tells me the air temp is only 33C/92F but the heat index is 37C/98F. I understand why they stole the pavers at 5am. That really is the only decent hour to haul heavy stuff in weather like this. :D

[mallorys_camera]

That really SUCKS.

Do you like dogs?

Maybe it's time to adopt one.

[mellowtigger]

Interesting story. (There's a happy ending to the tale, at least.) I did have a very nice dog several years ago, and his name was Dominic. We went on exciting walks together, but life in the #WarzoneInMinneapolis was eventually too much for him. He suddenly developed panic attacks one day, and he needed to find a new home in the country. But, like I said, Dominic was a very good dog, and he got a good home to match.

[oracne]

Oh good grief! What a-holes!

[mellowtigger]

Afterwards, I thought of other fun and colorful things to say, but in the moment that question seemed sufficient to make the point.

[foeclan]

Meanwhile, in Bloomington, someone posted about 220 free pavers, as long as you take all of them.