Thursday, November 8, 2007
Lancaster hayride stolen by Bear Creek crook
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Criminals dampened the Halloween holiday for the Lancaster Parks and Recreation Department, leaving it with as much as $20,000 in expenses.
Lancaster TODAY
Lancaster TODAY is the premier source of community news for the Lancaster area
Recreation Superintendent Jodi Griggs said on Oct. 24 city staff discovered the 1994 Henard white steel bed box trailer to be used as the Haunted Hayride attraction had been stolen. The thief had also broken into the vending trailer and stolen supplies out of it, and vandalized some of the Halloween scenes decorating the Bear Creek area.
In spite of the theft, Griggs said the annual Hayride went on undeterred and was even more successful than last year.
More than 800 people took the Haunted Hayride in 2007, up from slightly more than 500 the year before. Griggs credited word-of-mouth with bringing people out to the event.
“People that went last year came back this year and told others about it,” she said. “And people that came last weekend came back this weekend”
The Hayride wasn't the only local attraction hit with criminal activity.
The night of Oct. 23, thieves stole 200 feet of copper wire from the Cedardale Athletic Complex.
Theft of copper wire has gone up nationally as prices for copper have increased dramatically in recent months. Copper prices hit $3.70 a pound in June 2007, compared to just 60 cents a pound in 2002. Copper thieves have been active throughout the Metroplex, as cities such as Duncanville and Grand Prairie have experienced similar crimes in recent months. Grand Prairie's summer league baseball team had to move its games in July after thieves stole wiring from its stadium.
Duncanville's Citizens on Patrol amped up highway observation this year due to copper theft along the interstate.
Thieves turn hundreds of dollars in profit from copper theft, but leave thousands of dollars in destruction. Complex electrical systems like those of a telephone system are expensive to repair. Citizens with information on either of these crimes are asked to call the Lancaster Police Department at 972-218-2700.
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Comments
interestedcitizen Anonymous
I think there are two lessons here. One is that spending more for recreation doesn't deter crime.
A second lesson is that governments don't plan as well as private enterprises to cover their losses, because they don't have to. A private entity with a valuable asset like a hay trailer would have had that trailer behind lock and key and would have had it well insured against theft and property damage.
Governments don't think about those things because they have the deep pockets of the taxpayers to tap and they are immune from suit in case of personal injury in most cases. We get what we pay for. The more we turn the entertainment business over to the government, the more losses we are going to see like this, and the more injured people we are going to see without a remedy.
To cover its losses, a city can always let another street full of potholes go another five years or so, it could shift the responsibility to repair sewer lateral lines under its streets over to homeowners, or it could continue to insist that the blockage in a sewer main is not due to invasion of the sewer main from the roots of the trees planted above it and is the fault of the homeowner.
Or, the city could complain about not getting enough revenue due to declining property values, due, not to the fact of a declining market because people were more motivated to sell and move out than to buy and move in, but because of declining values due to code violations. It could then initiate a rigid code enforcement policy that only succeeded in alienating permanent citizens and making them more motivated to sell, thus further depreciating the price of property in the city.
10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pavel Lishin Verified
How do we know the trailer wasn't locked up, as well as insured?
10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
Conspiracy theories ITT.
Municipalities generally carry property insurance, business auto insurance, general liability insurance, etc...just like a business does. If I had to bet on whether it's covered or not, I'd presume so.
And I don't think interestedcitizen realizes that one of the primary reasons it costs more to build nowadays is inflation on materials as well as labor costs. You can't build a 5 year old building to the same specs for anywhere near the same price tag. If you're referencing copper as "spending more", copper wiring is used in the majority of commercial buildings and is also found in HVAC units. It's a common material that has virtually doubled in cost year over year.
Granted, I thought it was a bit of a stretch to go from a hayride trailer to copper inflation...but whatevs.
10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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