Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Petty tyrant syndrome redux

Deb forwarded the following email.

From: "Carver."
To: organichomesteadinggardening@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 5:48 PM
Subject: {OHG} Vandalism

Gonna be a short one folks cause I'm too sick about things to stay online long. I live twenty miles out in the country. Have a few neighbors, the closest one being a stepson and his family.

Got home from work this evening and went out to the garden. Someone, I found footprints, had trampled all the corn, pulled up the tomato plants, ran through my bed of stone age wheat, broke the seed heads off of the amaranth and, in general, trashed the hell out of the garden.

The kids were gone today and the rest of the neighbors were at work. I called the sheriff's office and they said they would try to get someone out here by this weekend!

Most of my winter's food is gone now. This on top of the poor yields from last year due to animal damage. I should have taken the hint when someone stole my seed catalogs earlier this year.

Carver
Mid-North Indiana

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carver."
To: organichomesteadinggardening@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 10:18 AM
Subject: {OHG} Vandalism 2

First off, thanks for all the kind thoughts. It looks like some of the potatoes will survive as well as some lentils. They must have thought they were weeds.

Deputy finally showed up today. I guess I should say auxiliary deputy. They didn't even send a real cop. He took a look at the garden and said "Man, someone sure trashed this place." He grinned and asked: "Did you piss somebody off?" I told him not that I was aware of.

Then he asked me if I was telling him the whole story. I asked him what he meant by that and he said: "This isn't in payment for a drug deal gone wrong, is it? You growing something here you're not telling me about?" I sputtered and fumed and he asked: "You got a problem if I call for a drug dog to walk through your place?"

I nearly bit the end of my tongue off but remained as civil as I could while I explained to him that he was way off base here. He said: "Well, we see a lot of that now." We talked for another thirty minutes, me spending most of the time defending myself. As he left he said: "Probably just kids letting off steam. I doubt that much will come of it. If it happens again, give us a call. Oh, by the way, we'll be keeping an eye on you."

I asked him if I fit the profile for a drug dealer since I live in a forty year old mobile home, drive a 1978 vehicle, have fifty dollars in the bank and am almost sixty. He said he didn't like my attitude and I said I didn't like his. He left and I came in here and wrote this.

I guess I shouldn't have lost my temper, but the guy really irked me. Guess I should be real careful driving to work and not speed. They're watching me.

Carver
Mid-North Indiana

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