Merry F'ing christmas

[red-beard]

Some jerkoff destroyed the gate of our neighborhood last night.

The force was so great, it snapped the welds on the box channel and drove the broken gate up over the curb.



Here is my dad inspecting the damage



We ended up going home and getting some tow straps and tied up the gate. The small amount of weld left is all that is holding the gate up.

Someone hit the gate at high speed and it must have been something with protection on the front, since we couldn't find any paint (maybe a couple of little white marks) on the black gate. The other half of the gate doesn't open, but it was broken off from it's welds and it hit the curb so hard, it bent the box frame.

[BRPORSCHE]

red,
what neighberhood is that? That must of been a sizeable truck with a nice size grill on the front.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Undoubtedly they got the worse end of it. Bad part is it was probably a-holes looking to break in and steal peoples' stuff so whatever they used was probably stolen anyway.

Either that or just a drunk. Any of your neigbors sporting smashed-up front ends today?

[red-beard]

A few more shots

Neighborhood is Lakes on Eldridge North. If you look closely, there are no skid marks. This may have been done on purpose. Even a drunk would have braked once they hit the gate.





This is the other side, how the gate should look.

[Don Plumley]

Maybe they just had to pee really badly...

[bell]

it looks like it was smashed inward (entering the development).....is that correct?
are there security cameras anywhere? i'm curious as to what the heck hit it.....

[MRM]

No paint transfer, debris or other hints at what hit it? It would have been quite an impact.

[URY914]

Once you find out who it was, they'll probably sue you for some reason.

[azasadny]

You need some bouncing betty's and Claymores...

[hook682]

Do you own or have vested interest in this community?

[fintstone]

I'll bet they used a tow strap and pulled it.

[widgeon13]

Any sign of blood or reindeer shlt, could have been Santa and his friends after a few too many.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by azasadny
You need some bouncing betty's and Claymores...

That's what I use, fabulous results.

[Dan in Pasadena]

A tow strap is a good guess, either that or maybe a Hummer with a BIG AZZ chromed brush guard (which is now at least a little F'd up).

Anyway, no one was hurt?, no one was robbed?...it WAS a MERRY Christmas!

[red-beard]

From the dents on the 2 parts of the gate, someone hit it on the left edge. While there were no paint marks, or plastic debris, there were dents in the gate from the impact and it looks like the impact was about dead center where the gate closes, about 4 feet on each side.

A tow strap wouldn't have broken both sides. And yeah, a Hummer with big chrome brush guards, or something with a black painted brush guard is probably what did it.

Again, no skid marks. Who ever did this, not only didn't stop, but they didn't even slow down when they hit the gate.

As far as a vested interest, yes. I am a home owner and own 1 part in 1079 of the gate. Which means I owe, for the 6th time this year, about $10 for replacing the gate. Our new HOA fees came out and they are 15% higher than last year. Yes, so far this year we've spent $60K on damage to these 2 gates.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by red-beard
... Our new HOA fees came out and they are 15% higher than last year. Yes, so far this year we've spent $60K on damage to these 2 gates.

Get everyone to agree to kick in a few dollars extra and get a good CCTV system that will record these jackasses AND their license numbers. Send them the friggin bill.....after they get prosecuted!

[red-beard]

Actually, while I'm not on the board, I'm involved in some of the HOA commitees. Yep, I'll be suggesting installing cameras, along with installing a guard shack.

[fintstone]

Originally posted by Dan in Pasadena
Get everyone to agree to kick in a few dollars extra and get a good CCTV system that will record these jackasses AND their license numbers. Send them the friggin bill.....after they get prosecuted!

Of course they might steal that too. There are only 17 families in my subdivision and a more elaborate gate. I hope that never happens here. I sure would hate to divide that cost 17 ways.

[Dan in Pasadena]

A bit OT but related to this subject:

I used to have a boss that lived on a corner in a subdivision and he had a small triangluar plot of land between driveway approaches where he and his neighbor put their trashcans on trash day (the old fashioned metal ones...it was 20 years ago). Every few months some jackass kids thought it was funny to drive their car up and over this plot and hit the cans throwing trash all over.....yuk! yuk!

My boss and his neighbor were getting SO FRIGGIN pissed about having to clean up the mess every couple of months they came up with a plan. Late one night they used a post hole digger to dig down about three feet and put a nasty 6" diameter with 1/4" wall thickness pipe in it set in concrete. They cut it off all snaggly with a torch about 15-16" above the ground and set their trash cans around it. They left them there permanently. Took a couple of months but one summer night the kid came through again late at night. He was in a VW and my boss said the hit was an unGodly noise; metal being ripped apart, etc. He came out to see the V-Dub rolling down the hill streaming a trail of oil, chunks of metal case all down the street. It tore the ***** out of that car. He said he didnt even bother to call the cops. It nearly pulled the pipe out of the ground but that was okay, mission accomplished. They never heard a word about it, the trash can stunt never happened again either. I LOVE that story!

[tabs]

the person who hit your gate shops at Walmart...