Weirdos Attempt Elaborate Theft Of A Chili's Giant Pepper
I hope we're not editorializing too much by calling these people weirdos, but let's have a look at the facts provided by the Bennington, VT police department: The alleged weirdos ran 450' of extension cord across a Home Depot parking lot in order to power an electric drill that they planned to use to steal the giant chili pepper off of a Chili's. Weirdos, right? That's fair, isn't it?
WTEN says:
They say the group ran 470 feet of extension cord across a four lane highway and through a Home Depot parking lot to power an electric drill they planned to use to remove the sign early Sunday morning.
The group was stopped when the restaurant's alarm went off, but officers say they planned to make their getaway with the sign in an SUV.
The AP adds that the sign is valued at $8,000 but neglect to mention how they arrived at that figure.
Cops: four jailed after they try to steal sign from Chili's restaurant [wten]
(Photo: wten)
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wow. I would think 450 feet of extension cord would cost more than a low-end cordless drill.
Yes, that's fair. Also, they could probably have bought a cordless drill for less than the cost of that much extension cord.
What the fuck? They went through the trouble of buying and stringing 470 ft of extension cord but they couldn't be bothered to buy a battery-powered drill. A drill they could have bought instead of 470 ft of extension cord at the Home Depot?!
*Head explodes*
Based on the recent report of the woman in a gorilla suit attempting to steal a giant bananna, there is clearly a giant produce theft conspiracy a-brewing.
Weirdo is all wrong, i think idiots or morons would fit better...
Wait...does Chili's not have a power source?
How much would $450 of lets say 14 gauge extension cord cost, as you'd need at least that gauge, and possibly 12 or 10 to carry that power that far? I mean, for that money, you could get a cordless grinder, spare batteries, and some welding blankets so people don't see the sparks. I also note there was no tools for cutting power to said sign. Shocking omission.
The suspects were a white haird old man in a lab coat driving an SUV, and a brown-haired teenager driving what appeared to be a 1985 DeLorean. Theft was thwarted when LIbyan terrorists began firing on the two. White van seen leaving scene. DeLorean seems to have vanished.
@vladthepaler: Way back right after HS I worked at a sign shop that made signs like those. For starters, those signs are bolted down with 1/4 inch or thicker steel bolts either to concrete, through the walls, or to angle brackets and then to the building.
A low-end cordless drill does not have enough power to drill through metal or enough torque to crack a bolt loose, especially if it was rusted. Maybe and it's a big maybe but a cordless impact wrench might do it but not many times.
When I worked at the sign shop we had to take down the old Goldblatt's signs from buildings in Chicago. More often than not we cut them off the buildings with an oxy-acetylene torch instead of screwing around with bolts and drills and impacts.
Actually, a grinder with a cutoff wheel might have been faster in the case of these guys.
@GitEmSteveDave_NowW/PantsOfMeat: Seriously! the voltage drop over that kind of distance would leave you with precious little at the end of those cords.
1. Home Depot sells a $ 12.87 100' extension cord
2. A $60 dollar cordless drill isn't going to have all that much power and needs to be charged (maybe not a factor)
3. If your batteries run out and you're not done then you're done.
We really don't know what kind of fasteners needed to be removed to get that sign off but I'm pretty sure that they're large and on there well.
I'll take the corded drill please. I'll also take a small quiet Honda gas generator as well.
@JGKojak: I hereby nominate this for best response today. Ignored the obvious suggestion to use the cordless drill, and went for the gold with a Back to the Future reference. Priceless.
Maybe they had 470 feet of extension cords lying around, and they were trying to figure out something to use them for. Then, a light went off in one of the guys heads - "Hey, isn't it about 470' from that Home Depot over to Chili's? Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" And then the other guy said "Yeah, Brain, but how are we going to get the giant chili home?" And then it sort of went from there.
For what it's worth...I used to live in Bennington. The Home Depot in question is far from this Chili's, much further than 450 feet. The Home Depot parking lot is at least 150 yards wide then, as the article mentions, you have Northside Drive, which is actually a four-lane highway, and then you have an addition 50 yards or so of parking lot on the other side where Chili's is.
I must say, however, that there are many, many places in Bennington where you might hide such a thing.
They should of just blowed it up like any decent person would do. I know how to make a bomb from a roll of toilet paper and a stick of Dynamite.
@humphrmi: I think so Brain, but me and the Chili's Sign, what will the children look like. I'm sure whatever it is, they'll be loved, NARF!
@friendlynerd: That is what I was thinking - heck, cordless drill isn't too expensive... and would be easier then running an extension cord across a 4 lane highway!
Would be funny to see a simi "catch" the cord and quickly yank the drill out of their hands and watch it be dragged down the highway....
And they probably unplugged it by yanking on the cord. You can seperate the plug from the cord that way.
Morons.
@I_have_something_to_say: Theyre thieves, and thieves are generally "fucking morons". They probably spent time finding and stealing all that material because drills are typically locked up in cages at stores. Don't expect some James Bond character that can put much thought into stealing something.
But WHY?
@GitEmSteveDave_NowW/PantsOfMeat: Some quick calculations, and a few assumptions, we come up with the following:
12AWG cable, 450 ft would equial a resistance of about 0.8415 ohms, and assuming a load of 10Amps, you would see a voltage drop of 7.30Volts
If they went with the cheaper 14AWG cables, you would see a resistance of about 1.3365 ohms, and a voltage drop of about 12V.
They probably would have been fine if they used a 12AWG or larger cable, but a 14ARG probably would have overheated, and probably melted the insulation.
The cheapest 14AWG extension cord that I can find at Home Depot is $8.00 for 50 feet, so you are looking at a cash outlay of $72 or more...again, assuming the thieves PURCHASED the extension cords to STEAL a sign.
Hey Everyone! Just a helpful tidbit, any time you see something in the news that happened in Bennington, VT you can assume one of two things:
1) Drugs were involved (most likely hallucinogenics)
2) College students were involved
And thus explains this story. Keep chasin' the dragon, Southern Vermont College!
@ekthesy: I'm guessing the Home Depot has some plugs on their sign/light poles, and that's what they plugged into. Some places have plugs out on the poles just in case.
Remember when college students thought out their pranks and pulled them off ninja-like with great cunning.
Kids these days :(
@crabbygeek: I was just gonna go with drunked college kids. That chile would have looked cool in the dorm.
When I was in undergrad some friends of mine decided it would be a good idea to take the local Big Boy guy for a ride. Driving around with the giant big boy statue in the back of their pick up truck one of the guys wanted to show this off to his girlfriend. It was 4am, pre-cell phone days, so when he started banging on his girlfriends door and yelling she didn't know it was him, and called the cops. They were all arrested and big boy was returned. For a while they were all in pretty serious trouble, the franchise owner was pissed and going after them with everything he had. Turned out that was all too true though because a few months later before their trial all the Big Boy's in the area closed down. The owner had gone bankrupt and locked everyone out. Sucked for Big Boy, sucked for those employees, my buddies were pretty happy though.
@ekthesy: I used to go to Grace Christian in Bennington... Yeah, I have no idea how they would have gotten enough cord to go that far, it's definitely more than 450 feet... 450 yards, maybe? That seems like a bit much.
But yeah, even I can think of a few places in Bennington to stash that thing ^__^
They must be planning quite a large dinner party to need THAT much salsa.
@Rachacha:
The cable would only overheat if left in a pile so the heat can accumulate. I have to assume they rolled it out in a relatively straight line across the highway.
However, the voltage drop WOULD have caused the drill to run less efficiently, which would mean it would be hotter and prone to overheating. :)
But yes, this is crazy. Just bring a cordless anglegrinder. I've used those things before, they'd power through even several of the 1/4" bolts that have been discussed earlier.
@SkokieGuy: Darn you for making me contain my laughter.
I epically loved this part:
The Park Avenue store staff is trying to lure the gorilla back so they can catch her.
"We're going to hang it up again tomorrow, see what happens," Erber told WLUK.
Your head would explode tring to get through the fasteners this thhing undoubtedly used with a cordless drill. Way too much for a crodless.
the real question here is- Why did the alarm go off when they tried to take the sign.
Is this a common enough occurrence with Chili's that they need to attach the sign to their alarm?
@GitEmSteveDave_NowW/PantsOfMeat: Forget Plutonium, its Mr. Fusion all the way. They could have simply gone to a nearby dumpster and have all the power they could ever need.
@dohtem: I fought with that for a second (it's what caused my drunked-ness), but at least it is an accepted spelling.
@coan_net: Especially since they had to run the cord through the parking lot of a store that just happens to sell cordless tools.
@JGKojak: 1.21 Gigawatts is plenty of power for a cordless drill, plenty enough to make it catch fire, that is...
@G.O.B.: Come on!: they could have even returned it after they sold the sign to the black market for signage.
@webster44: I'm guessing it's not so much that they think it's likely someone will steal the sign, but that removal of anything on the property itself triggers an alarm. Sort of like breaking a window would, or trying to pry open a window. Or maybe they did something unrelated to the chili-knapping that set off the alarm.
@Bearded Rapper: I have to admit I've thought of it. Maybe I have the "Mens rea" to have thought of how awesome a giant Chili would be in my bachelor pad, but it's a relief to know I'm not the only one.
Weirdos