Stay away from the angels....  Had a tenant in the house next door for a few years.  Rode a Harley and mechanicked on them for customers in the enclosed garage.  His wife worked in the Hawg shop (in the old Bank of Montreal building by the sawmill LOL).

He had the tattooed tear drop on his cheek.  One summer night, some younguns across the street got up to making some party noise.  Mike walked across the street in the dark in a singlet and carrying a BF wrench.  He was qouoted as saying, "lease kill the noise."  And, that's just what happened...instantly.

Mini friends!  Mini rides!

Restored/modified Mini 1000 with 1380cc power unit, 2.95:1 FD, adj. suspension, S discs/drums, 10x5 Minilites, 165x70 A008s, custom trim and matching custom trailer.

Here in Kalyfornya we don't punish our offenders as well as Canada (or Arizona) may do. One of the little ((^(*&^'s just got off probation and the other one was clean for now. We haven't identified the third so we don't know his past.  We figure they did over $10,000 damage in one block but only keyed newer or good looking cars not the older ones so they knew the $$ value of their actions.

I did have a friend of mine come over last night, I've known him for over 20 years, kind of a cool guy but a little "twitchy" too, (he still flys his rebel flag 24-7). He knows a few Hell's Angels and would like to know the address of Auntie's house so they could pay a visit. Nothing serious, just a stop by, point and stare to draw the line if you know what I mean. I'm resisting this one but I do have to say I'm starting to feel younger by the minute.

The Mini is safely locked away in the garage. It does need a paint job though....

Keep chanting, keep chanting.     dan

"I don't know much, but what I do know I know little of "

Stupid kids. It seems that stupidity is in the air, we had some kid driving through our neighborhood shooting those air pistols with the big plastic bbs at everything, shot into our garage right at us! so my husband had to chase them down and have a talk with their parents, the worst part of it was you could not even tell that this was a air gun, they removed the orange tip and there is no distinguishing the air gun from a 9mm especially when you are driving around in a car pointing it at people. Kids just don't think about consequences it seems, I know I some really stupid stuff but I can at least say I never vandalised anyone's property nor shot at people. I never did anything that would result in a charge on my adult record. I guess kids just don't think about how something like that will affect them later down the road or they just don't care. Sorry to hear about what happened, it is def. a pain in your arse to fix something that you didn't even do.

Mark

Happiness is an open road!

Make it idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot....

Maybe I'll just box him up and ship him down to Texas to you, I understand there's a lot of "open space" down there one could get lost in...  

I checked all my cars this morning and no new damage. Let's hope this is the end of it.

For now I'll be happy with having the Mini back on the road again. It felt good drive it again and I even worked out a few kinks that appeared from sitting for over 2 months.

I'll keep chanting, "find your happy place, find your happy place, find your happy place".    dan

"I don't know much, but what I do know I know little of "

Dang Dan,

I really feel for you and the neighbors who have had cars damaged.

We had a dork who was PO'd at Insurance Corporation of B.C. key hundreds of cars in the communities to the west of us.  Costs ran into the millions.

Up here, property crimes aren't seen as terribly important by the administration of justice.  Two or three years in a no frills work camp would probably cure the little bu..ers.  Especially if they sanded, prepped, painted old body parts then keyed them and did it all over a few times before they did something useful for the rest of their time.

Really glad the Mini was safe!

Rick

Mini friends!  Mini rides!

Restored/modified Mini 1000 with 1380cc power unit, 2.95:1 FD, adj. suspension, S discs/drums, 10x5 Minilites, 165x70 A008s, custom trim and matching custom trailer.

Towne Comee 1964 Austin Cooper S Works Rallye car replica  1966 Austin Cooper S street racer    San Antonio, Texas

I know there's a balance in the universe but this is getting old...

I took the Mini down for it's final alignment today. Boy what a difference adjustable suspension makes in handling! (not to mention the complete front overhaul work too) I couldn't believe it was the same car. They couldn't shim the rear brackets for toe because the brackets I bought don't have elongated bolt holes for the adjustment so I'll have to drop them, slot them and do it again before MMW. There's just to too much toe-in on the rear and it's making the car squirrely on the freeway. It's better now after all the work but it's not right so it's not done yet.  It's nice to have a good day...

I get home and park her in the garage. I check later for any gas leaks from the carbs and don't find any, (ongoing problem I think I fixed) still a good day.

I'm being a good hubby and vacuuming the livingroom and my daughter asks "where's Mom going" and I say "why" which she replies "she just zoomed out of the driveway and down the street". Knowing my wife I figure she's just pissed at me for XXXX (she'll fill in the blank later) and she'll be back later. Oh, she came back alright. It turned out one of three kids (read 15 yr old w/giant matching hooded sweatshirts, shaved heads etc.) walking down the street jumped on the BINI where my wife was unloading groceries. She yelled at him and as he passed my 3 month old Dodge truck keyed half the side and took off running. She chased the other two who said they didn't know him and came back home. We split up and found the two walking back up the road the same way the other "unknown" little sh!t was running and followed them to the house. The "lady" that lived there said they were friends in the neighborhood and were coming up to visit her and she didn't want them to bring any trouble to her house.  We didn't get any satisfaction so we called the cops while I followed the two guys on their diversionary walk down the block all the while cussing me out. The Sheriffs came and cuffed them, took them back up to their AUNTS house they were visiting and did the investigation. No luck on finding the other boy, as they didin't have cause to search the house and let the other two go as they weren't the one's that did it. Funny, the AUNT was standing outside when I pulled up the street, watching me the whole time and looking down the street for the other two to show up. Hmmmm... It turns out that they're visiting their AUNT for the weekend and live in Rosamond. NICE AREA if you like that kind of activity.  They didn't know the other boy dressed exactly like them and who my wife saw all walking together up from the bus stop (the first street the keyed cars on).

Well, we go home and find a neighbor looking at our truck. She lives up the block and said all three of their cars (two restored Fiero's and a new Honda) were keyed also so we started to look a little farther. Turns out they keyed at least 7 cars on our block and one around the corner. The Sheriffs took the reports and we're all on the look out for the little sh!ts again. I've got 3 neighbors ready to raid the place and take the little sh!t up in the hills for a "life lesson". Ah hell, 30 years ago I wouldn't have needed their help (I would have invited my next door neighbor who's cars were keyed also. I've known him for 40 years and you could say we've got a bit of "history" between us. 30 years ago we would have had no second thoughts in resolving the issue, regardless of the outcome.) .  Ah hell, they say you mellow with age so I must be getting old!  Just another good/bad(ish) day...

So now it's morning and I'm going to get dressed to see if there was any retribution last night. The BINI's fine, not damage but now I need to call the insurance company tomorrow and do the report, lose my truck for a couple of days for the repairs, rent a car during the repair etc.  Gee, I can't wait until they visit again...   dan

"I don't know much, but what I do know I know little of "