Farmer Shoots at Thief

[Francis2004]

You must have really different cops than we do here. We reported stolen stuff and it took the cops 3 days to come out and all they did was take a statement. No fingerprinting or anything.
Ed, retired teacher down the road, came home and found his 4wheeler missing. It took the cops 2 days to show up. Might as well not even have cops to look after rural areas.
"Al from Hell" was stealing people's cars around here. He'd steal one and go joy ride for a while and then crash the thing. He'd been doing it for a couple weeks and in spite of people telling the cops who was stealing the vehicles, it wasn't till he stole a brand new Dodge Ram while drunk and run it into the ditch near alocal store that the cops finally caught him. They happened to be in the cafe nearby having lunch.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of cops I respect but I think there's a variety of reasons why they aren't quick at showing up.
I was at work one time when we lived in Kelowna and it was nightshift. My wife was woken up by loud voices. She opened the window and this drunk was verbally abusing his gf. She shouted she was calling the cops and then did so. The argument went on for 10 or 15 minutes then the girlpushed the idiot over a fence and went into her apartment. The cops showed up 40 to 45 minutes after my wife called them. By the time they got there, the argument could have escalated and the girl might have been beaten to death for all my wife knew. She gave the cops supreme scat and called the night commander about it.

Yup, we have totally different Cops in Surrey.. They barely show up when teens are knifed on your lawn.. 20 minutes response time was fast and police station is 2 blocks away..

My point was that, regardless of response time, the guy should have called the police. It seems by the story that he had a feeling he already knew who it might have been. After the fact it looks like he was wrong but that is from the articles perspective as "I was not there"..

All excuses for not calling the police make this suspicious. When I was in Red Deer I had Cell Phone to the Max no matter where I was..

No excuse not to have someone call from one of those ?

No excuse not to call from a land line ?

 

[L Gilbert]

No problem there.
If something happens out here, the only reason we'd call the cops is to cover our butts with the insurance company. We sure as hell don't expect them to do anything other than file a report when we call.
BTW, the stuff stolen from our vehicle was never recovered, the perps never caught, etc.
Ed's 4wheeler is still missing and the perps are unknown.

 

[petros]

hmmm Contradicting yourself a wee bit?
You state with certainty what the guy's intention was and then turn around and say, "What do any of us know about this guy? For all any of us know he was protecting his grow op."

I can speculate too. It's not like that part of AB isn't well known for it's grow ops and meth labs. Dope growers have more to fear from people who rob grow ops than they do the cops.

 

[lone wolf]

I can speculate too. It's not like that part of AB isn't well known for it's grow ops and meth labs. Dope growers have more to fear from people who rob grow ops than they do the cops.

...and farmers may have more to fear from the Law than from crackheads who'd steal in the night something to pay for more product....

So where were the cops?

 

[petros]

They weren't called until after he shot the guy. they could have been 30 seconds away for all any of us know. Are you sure it was a crackhead?

Nothing but cowboys, crackheads and débutantes in AB or what? We don't know any details.

This farmer could be in debt to these "kids' for his own crack habit and they were merely collecting what was owed.

Speculating is fun...except for maybe with an anal speculum.

 

[lone wolf]

They weren't called until after he shot the guy. they could have been 30 seconds away for all any of us know. Are you sure it was a crackhead?

Nothing but cowboys, crackheads and débutantes in AB or what? We don't know any details.

This farmer could be in debt to these "kids' for his own crack habit and they were merely collecting what was owed.

Speculating is fun...except for maybe with an anal speculum.

Speculating gets people hung ... and not very well either ;-)

 

[VanIsle]

Maybe ... from you?

I know that silly. It was just the way you said it.:lol::lol:

 

[Machjo]

In response to the OP, if the farmer was sure the person was stealing his property (i.e. cought him red handed), then I'd say he should have every right to use the minimal force necessary, even if it is to shoot the person, to get his property back if he has good reason to believe that if he doesn't respond right away that he will likely never get that property back, assuming of course that it is property of significance that can afect his livelyhood, like a tractor or something, not a chocolate bar.

 

[lone wolf]

 

[Cliffy]

In response to the OP, if the farmer was sure the person was stealing his property (i.e. cought him red handed), then I'd say he should have every right to use the minimal force necessary, even if it is to shoot the person, to get his property back if he has good reason to believe that if he doesn't respond right away that he will likely never get that property back, assuming of course that it is property of significance that can afect his livelyhood, like a tractor or something, not a chocolate bar.

Now, I take exception to that. Chocolate is far more valuable than a tractor!!! My Gawd man, have you no taste?

 

[petros]

Cliffy!