A bunch of useless crap
Published on April 5, 2006 By MasonM In Blogging
Well, sort of.

There is an old truckstop on the North end of town that closed down a few years ago. It's the place most of the truckers in town park their rigs when they are home, myself included. This morning I was there before the sun came up so I could get an early start on my trip. When I rolled into the lot and saw it was completely empty incluing the fact that my rig was not where I'd left it, I didn't need a slie rule to put 2 and 2 together.

I returned home and contacted the police to ask if trucks had been towed out of the old truckstop. Sure enough she confirmed they had and provided me with the name and number of the towing company. She also mentioned their office didn't open until 8:00am.

Promptly at 8:00 I called the towing company and confirmed that they had my rig and found out where it was located. I went there and $960 later I had my truck and trailer back. My brand new work gloves were missing though and of course they knew nothing about that. They told me that a new property management company had purchased the old truckstop and instead of being reasonable and posting signs informing us we would no longer be allowed to park there they had all our trucks and trailers towed off. 13 of us in all. Real nice folks.

I also noticed that the instrument panel wasn't working. No speedometer, no tachometer, no anything that keeps me informed as to the operating condition of the vehicle. There are 17 guages that provide me this information and not a single one was functioning. I also notice my cb radio was dead.

I troubleshooted the system and found a pair of blow fuses in the panel and traced the circuit to my cb. Hmmm, it's a very good Galaxy radio and not likely to just up short out on it's own. I pulled out the radio and quickly found the problem. Someone had tried to remove it (steal it) and only managed to pull the positive power lead loose, shorting it against the case thus blowing the fuses.

As I didn't have a pair of spare fuses of that rating, I repaired the radio leads and then moved a pair of fuses from a non-critical system to the instrument circuits. This got me down the road to a truckstop where I could purchase the new fuses. I then proceeded to run on up to Palatka to pick up this monster crane part several hours late and am heading for Green Bay.

I'm now sitting in Jackson, GA getting ready to get some sleep several hundred miles short of where I had planned to be stopping tonight. Maybe I should have just stayed in bed this morning. What a shitty day.

Comments
on Apr 05, 2006
That is complete BS. I would fight it and try to get my money back. There was just an article in the paper about this. I found the article and here's a link. What a pain in the butt. Did you have to pay the fee out of your pocket or did your company pay it?

Link


Hey and tommorow will be better.
on Apr 05, 2006
Unfortunately, at least here in Florida, the new property owners were within their rights to have all of the trucks and trailers towed.

And yeah, it came out of my pocket. The boss gave me a comcheck for it, but it'll come out of my next paycheck.
on Apr 05, 2006
Gosh. I can't believe that people would do that sort of thing. It seems like the more and more I see of the world, the less and less I like people. Maybe I'll just go live in the woods in a shanty!

For what it's worth, I'm sorry. Just think - soon you'll be enjoying the cold of Wisconsin . . .
on Apr 06, 2006

Man Mason that sucks.

What a bunch of jerks...and then to be robbed on top of it!

I'm so sorry. 

on Apr 06, 2006
Sorry to hear that, that really sucks. What a way to start your day, huh? Hopefully the rest will go better.
on Apr 06, 2006
That sucks!  I would at least fire off a letter to the editor and complain to the BBB.  you may not get your money or gloves back, but at least you can give the company (both the Management one and the Towing one) a black eye.
on Apr 06, 2006
Why is it that Towing Services seem to be nothing more than a haven for thieves to be gainfully employed?

I've gone thru about 6 here recently ( for recovery services) and for the life of them, it seems every time they repo a car the radio is gone, and everything has been rifled thru...........
on Apr 06, 2006
Thanks for the comments folks. Taking a very brief break here in Seymour,IN before continueing on to WI. Have to be in Green Bay tomorrow morning so still have some stepping to do. I hate getting a late start on a run. Turns a nice easy cruise into a marathon race.