Folks Of Interest Sneaking around junk yards

Back in the 80"s I was on a highway overpass in Green Bay,and I happened to look down in to the back of a auto salvage yard.They had a 34 Ford PU so I doubled back,and walked in,and talked to the guy at the counter.They had plans for it,but he said sure I could walk back,and look at it.Just watch for the dog.Got to check the truck out,and as I turned to leave a good size dog showed up.I walked backward for a hundred yards with him growling every step of the way.Would not jump their fence at night!

 

Please note the OP is a 14 year old HAMB'er. { Boden } Yes at your age I loved junkyards. and still do. But I found that if you show respect to people, like the yard owners. Life is much better. I have permission at some yards, that I can go in when ever I want, and pay them later. Treat others the way you want to be treated. I think they call that the { Golden Rule }. lol Old cars and Junkyards draw me like flys on poop! But do it the right way kid. I'm glad to see young people that LOVES Hot Rods. THANKS Ron....... Don, Steve, I hate junkyard dogs !!!!!

 

Friend of mine had a dog in his yard that had his own collection of back pockets off individuals who had climbed over the fence at night to grab something that they had set close to the fence in the day time. I found out that you never got between the dog and him when you were out in the yard one day. Dog was fine as long as he was between you but don't get in between them.
I was driving down the dirt road next to another friend's yard that is known for old cars and trucks and saw a couple of parts fly over the fence about half way towards the back of the yard. Picked them up and hauled them around to the office and told him that someone would probably be a bit shocked to see them sitting there when they left in a few minutes.
I used to go to a yard in Texas that had a horn that went off about 15 minutes before they locked the gate and you had better be getting up to the office so they knew you left. We headed up to the office on almost a dead run a couple of times.

 

Yesterday, I went to a local junkyard with a friend. We got shelving for my new work van. The day before, I went by myself, to look and find what I needed.
Paid one dollar to enter the yard, and you can walk around as long as you want. Zero reason to do it any other way.

 

I’m very aware. And I deserve them. But everyone on the H.A.M.B. has said something


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the no trespassing signs at my place mean just that. several german shepards; guns; cameras; and alarms await anyone going further. you never know what you are walking into. my place is under homeland securitys watchful eye. if a alarm goes off the cops treat it a terrorist threat until proven otherwise. they show up with long guns drawn. you wouldn't have wanted to trespass at my place. it could have ended up with a lot of yellow tape decorating the place. you just never know what surprises await.

 

"Meaner than a junkyard dog" ain't just a lyric in a Jim Croce tune, I promise you that.

 

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Well, not everyone, but I think you get the point.

Roger

 

I see from your profile that your'e 14. I'm sure you didn't mean any harm , probably just a young guy into old cars and had a moment of bad judgement . The problem is that most people that jump fences are up to no good and this is what the yard owner is assuming , but by the responses here I'm sure you fully get that now. I'm not proud of it but when I was about your age I did the same stupid shit , it wasn't until years later that I fully realized just how stupid it was. Those yard owner's and those dogs are no joke. We need young guys like you to carry the torch for this hobby ,do it the right way.

 

Homeland Security in Franksville ? Im assuming you mean your homeland security not the US Government DHS

 

{ We LOVE YA KID! }Your one of us. You'll be telling stories on the HAMB long after we're gone. But we'll tell it like it is too. The 50's and 60's were fun. I grew up playing in junkyards, and I have the scars to prove it. lol You would have loved it. But it's a different world out there now. So just Keep this HOT ROD thing going kid! Thanks Ron.....

 

Before we had much money or sense, my pals and I would score some Schlitz malt and head for the local bone yard at night...because their cyclone fence bordered the adult drive-in movie theater next door. We'd carry a couple bench seats over by the fence and get someone to turn up the nearby speakers.

The owner must have known from the seats. Neither that yard nor the other one in town had dogs.

 

... ahhh' the days of feeling the pepper of bird shot and grateful it wasn't a slug round. Never again, will a lesson mean more.

 

Ive had my share of theft and vandalism. Folks don't seem to understand purple trespassing paint or think no Trespassing signs do not apply to them. So we had a mean billy goat for a time. That sucker got me down a couple of times. and he got his horrible smell on you that was worse than getting butted. And my wife has a bad hip so we sold him. And the trespassing got worse. So I then got a mean Jersey bull. We could lure him into a stout corrall with sweet grain. and He was leery of me when I carried a hot shot. But we where afraid he would get the grandkids so he became Hamburger. Got 6 ft fence and are here most of the time so the trespassing is not rampant. Our Grandson Chris is in the back of the 56 truck. That bull wanted to get him. I don't want any biting dogs. I would certainly feel bad if a biting dog or Mean bull harmed some child like the 14 year old OP. One time our son Chris caught a fat neighbor kid stealing some of his motorcycle parts. The much larger fat kid threatened to beat him up And Chris had a BB Pistol and sot the kid in the ass a half dozen times.

 

My uncle was a hoarder before the term was thrown around like it is today. Up to the mid seventies he kept well over a hundred cars from the twenties to the sixties scattered around my grandmother's large rural farm and barns full of parts. He finally had to junk them all because of all the crummy human beings that seemed to believe they were entitled to trespass on someone's land and help themselves. Two creeps actually held my grandmother in her home while they filled their gas tank in their car from the gas tank that was used for farming equipment on the farm. That was then taken out too.

 

There was a yard in Brooklyn years back, no dogs... guarded by guinea hens... they were filthy from the conditions on the ground, but perfect for scaring the crap out of people. I saw them in action. Another time, I was with a buddy, loved his beer and we had permission to get some parts, he had to take a leak and goes next to a van... almost steps on a large snake that was sunning itself on a trunk lid...

 

Kind of like entering through a window in a house because you knew the owner and you wanted to see what he had in his house.

 

ha! yeah, I've wandered into a yard unannounced when i was about 16 or 17. only problem was I didn't know it. I went to a yard in town to find a radiator for a race car I was putting together. while I was there I asked the guy if I could wander around the yard to see if they had anything old as well. he didn't care, and I had to wander with a tape measure to find the radiator anyway. so I look for cool stuff first. the entire front of the yard was late model stuff so I made my way through the back. side. when I get towards the back I see theres a couple rows of big old trucks. theres a little rock wall and a couple trees but I didn't think anything of it, I could almost smell stewart warner panels and gages! so here I am in the very back of this lot, woods no the far side. climbing up each truck to look inside. couldn't find a damn thing. must not have been quite old enough. as I'm walking back towards the way I came I notice theres a small trailer/office on the far side kind of away from where the trucks were. still not thinking anything, I'm within a few feet of the stone wall and about 50 yards from this trailer when I see somebody come walking out of the trailer. well it's not like I didn't have permission, so I started heading that way thinking maybe they might know where the stash of stewart warner gages are. all the sudden I hear this individual start screaming and yelling and cursing me out as all 4' 11" inches of old lady makes her way to me with a bat. As soon as I heard her open her mouth and start yellin I started grinning. the closer we got to each other the bigger my grin got. the bigger my grin got the louder and worse she cursed me out for being on her property. once we got within about 10 feet of each other I stopped (but couldn't lose the grin). At this point she has just about lost her mind because I haven't said a word in response to her verbal abuse. see, the thing was that I recognized her voice. She was my uncle's aunt in an italian family. because I'm mostly italian that means we ALL are family. well, I hadn't seen her in probably ten years but she had that distinct pissed off smoker voice that only a specific breed of italian women can produce! So here we are face to face and she's about to start swinging that bat at me. So I figured before she did I better let the cat out of the bag and said "Hey Aunt Tish, whats wrong you don't recognize me??" you'd think I just took the bat and smacked her between the eyes. She still had NO idea who I was and only close family calls her Tish. So she switches from cursing me to grilling me. lol. explained who I was and how I was related and she's like no, no you're only this big holding her hand at hip height.

we had a good laugh and every time I run into her afterwards I ask her if she has her bat on her.

so moral of the story is, even if you have permission you may not!! and no, they didn't have anything stewart warner......

 

DHS as in the feds anti terrorism unit. nitro is one of 200 hundred chemical of interest to homeland security. My place is a liscenced facility. A word to the wise should be sufficient here don't trespass on any nitro racers property. There are strict rules is place regarding security measures. These measures are annually inspected.

 

I've heard that Geese are really good too, they will f&@$k yer day ALL up. They are a lot tougher and meaner than people think.

 

I used to work for a small independent auto parts store, and every now and then he'd source something from one of the local yards for a customer. My first time ever picking something up from there, at probably 16, I drove the delivery truck up through the front gate in the middle of a weekday, and got out. There didn't appear to be a soul around, but I was there to pick up a bumper or something, and I wasn't going to get in trouble with my boss because I couldn't find this mysterious 'Mike' that I needed to talk to and tell him that Ted sent me, as though I was a character in a spy novel. I walked up the path a little bit looking for someone, and didn't see anyone, until someone behind me yelled Hey, who the f&$# do you think you are?

Turns out, what I thought was just an old milk truck sunk into the ground up to its axles was actually the 'office' - upon closer inspection there was a chimney from a little wood stove coming through the roof and everything.

The mysterious Mike proceeded to read me the riot act about walking 20 feet past the office without an escort (on a weekday, in broad daylight, during business hours, etc). Yes, Mike was a prick, but I learned my lesson about junkyards.

 

So Boden, I would assume at this point, you understand the seriousness of going into a wrecking/salvage yard, in the manner that you described at the beginning of this thread ? Nod your head yes. Good. Still with me ? Good, I knew you would be.

OK, what follows is NOT a lecture, its some good information that you may want to think about for future wanderings around.
First of all " discretion " cant be bought, its learned. Its human nature to be curious and want to snoop around to see what you want to see, again, " discretion " should always be practiced.

I have always been curious about everything, and I have always been into fine optic's that allow me to get a good up close look at the world around me.
40 years ago was when I bought this killer pair of Carl Zeiss 10 X 25 B pocket binoculars, they are NOT toys, they are precision optics. I take them with me everywhere, because you never know when the world around you, will present something to you that is interesting, ( and that isn't meant to be voyeuristic either ! ) When I drove truck, and sometimes could not find the number on the building, its easier to zoom in from the cab when its raining to see the number that isn't readily discernible.

While I doubt that you will procure a set of pocket optics of this price range, even PENTAX makes a very cool 10 X 20 MONOCULAR that is the size of a small pill bottle, cheap and easy to use. So imagine if you had a pair of small pocket binoculars when you saw the Old's 88 in the wrecking yard, it would have let you see the old's easily.

When friends and I were at the drags at FAMOSO, the hot rod reunion in Bakersfield, they would bug me to death to look through them, I just smiled and said, you guys will have to provide your own.............grin !

Long story short, I know you want to spend all of your money on car parts and the whole gig of Hot Rodding, I get that, noble quest no doubt. There is an old saying " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure ". Imagine if you had some pocket optics and you spotted an old car in a field or a pasture, etc, its a lot easier to get a look through the binoculars which might reveal someone looking back at you, or the dogs, or the bull, or the ram, or the no trespassing sign that isn't easily seen from the road etc, etc, etc. In these situation's, they might save you a good good ass chewing, or even better, they might save your life!
I believe Racer X pointed out to you about " NITRO racers ", so that is good information to file away for future reference!

Anyway, some food for thought for your future wanderings. I provided some shots for you so that you get the idea.

Be well and do well. Pay attention, its an interesting, dangerous, hostile world out there !
Dennis.

 

yep we do have a gaggle of Geese. they will bite and flog you. and make a lot on noise is anything is amiss. They are extremely vicious when the y have babys.

 

When I was the OP's age, hell yea. Used it as a shortcut on the way to the steel fabrication firm I worked at during school leave - and I even took pics. No fence and no one around but it was Israel in the early 70s when life was simpler and (yes) safer. And no, none of the cars was saved - my dad bless his soul was not a car guy, he'd have none of it.

Nowadays, no.

View attachment 4476218

 

Maybe try using a drone?

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like everyone else here I never did any dumb things when I was 14.

 

When I was about 10 we went to visit my grandmother. She lived next to a towing company / junk yard out in the country up in north Ga. We kids always played in those old wrecks every time I came up there. As far as I know the owner didn't care, no fence, no signs.
One Christmas day we were playing in a recent tow in and I popped open the glove box and there were two smallish brown paper bags and a little white bible, I grabbed the bags and my cousin picked up the bible. Those bags were filled with treasure! Antique coins, silver dollars from way back, some of them so valuable they had been made into pendants to hang from a necklace.
Long story short, Grandma found the name of the owners in the bible and tracked them down. They had been hurt pretty bad in the wreck and lost track of the car somehow. They were very happy to get the coins back and the bible was really important to them too.
Months later on the next visit, we pull up and see a shiny new 6' chain link fence around the whole junk yard. Come to find out the owner wasn't too happy about the coins finding their owners. Imagine that.

 

"Chopper, sic balls!"

 

The U.S. Army used Geese at some of the check points to help patrol the western side of the wall. They are mean and they will sound off.

 

Never jumped a fence to get in a junkyard but had to jump one once to get out. They forgot I was in there and locked me in.