"Key #999 or Bump Keys" Hide your Valuables

Even if the police do not arrive in time to catch the burglars, the alarm is evidence of a break-in, so the insurance company cannot get out of paying. Unless they try to accuse you of faking the whole thing.

Where I used to live, in rural North Dakota (before I lived in Fargo, after coming home from abroad) nobody locked their doors.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jan 25 2007, 01:34 PM) [snapback]380863[/snapback]</div>

They will pay but...

Just so everyone knows, the way it worked with my insurance is you get one (maybe two if you're lucky) big claim that they will pay without many questions. You put in another one in they will pay but they look at everything and then drop you so you need to look for another company and they will want to know why your company dropped you. It gets expensive. My company dropped me after a seven year period between claims. I thought I was a good customer, cars (no accidents or tickets) and houses all insured with them for over 20 years. First claim was about $7000. and second was about $4000. I got them to reinstate me after I replaced all the windows with sliders, heavy doors, lights on motion detectors, and alarms. I know I only have one more claim with them and I will be dropped again. Our rates also went up drastically because of Katrina. So to be safe, make that first claim count. BTW I also had many break-ins I didn't claim.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(koa @ Jan 25 2007, 03:52 PM) [snapback]380868[/snapback]</div>

What company? It's good for the rest of us to know which companies pull these kinds of tricks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(koa @ Jan 25 2007, 06:52 PM) [snapback]380868[/snapback]</div>

Sounds like you need a new neighborhood. I can't imagine having to deal with that. Most of the people in our area don't lock their houses, even when they go on a trip. What if one of your friends needs to borrow something while you're gone (that's the kind of thinking that's common here). I know of one person who replaced the key switch on his truck with a toggle switch; many others just leave their keys in their cars. Unfortunately, this only works because we live in a tiny village, remote from any major cities. I suppose our day will come when we start locking the doors.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Jan 25 2007, 07:17 PM) [snapback]380928[/snapback]</div>

My memory is a bit hazy on this one, because it was a long time ago, but the first year I worked for this one farmer he still had a tractor so old that it started on gasoline and then ran on diesel. There was a switch to turn the ignition on and off, and two levers: one that changed the fuel over from gas to diesel, and another that changed the compression. I think it was called a Super WD-4.

My point for bringing it up is that I don't think this tractor had a key. You'd set it to gas, and low compression, and ignition, and push a button for the starter. The thing would turn over really slow, and after a minute or so it would catch and run and spew out smoke. Then, as it warmed up the smoke would clear, and after about five minutes you had to simultaneously switch to diesel and shift to high compression, and then immediately cut off the ignition. Then it would really smoke as it chugged along for another five minutes until it got up to operating temperature and you could start working with it. Of course it had no power steering, and that spring he had me disking a plowed field at an angle to the plow furrows, and at every furrow the wheel would spin with a jerk to one side and the other, and boy, were my arms ever sore by the end of every day. I think it took a week to finish that field. But the tractor was about at the end of its useful life and I think that was the last year he used it.

But back when that tractor was new, farmers didn't need keys on their tractors. A key would just be a nuisance. It's better if the hired man can just go straight to the field from home and get on the tractor and start working, and go home at the end of the day, and if someone else is going to drive that tractor the next day they can, without worrying about who's got the key.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Jan 26 2007, 02:44 AM) [snapback]381012[/snapback]</div>

I'm pretty sure it was a Super WD something-or-other, because it always made me think of WD40, the penetrating spray oil. Not sure of the exact year, but it would have been about 1976 or thereabouts, and as I said, the tractor was on its last legs. I am under the impression (but not at all certain) that at one time it was fairly common for trctors to start on gas and then run on diesel, but I'm also fairly certain that this particular tractor was the last of its kind in my area.

I did some searching on Google, and find reference to WD as a name used by both McCormick and Allis Chalmers. I've found some pics of Allis Chalmers WD and WD 45, but nothing of the Super WD 40. I'm now wondering if the tractor was a WD and not a WD 40. Maybe the "40" stuck in my mind because I always thought of the penetrating oil. But it definitely was "Super." Maybe there was a Super WD 4.

The pictures below look enough like the tractor I remember that I think this was probably it, with some minor "improvement" for the "Super" model. Note the seat, which shows in the top picture: solid metal, shaped to conform to the driver's rear end, and mounted on a springy metal leaf, actually a pretty good system. Early 1950's would have made it 25 years old when I drove it. That sounds reasonable.

A 1952 Allis Chalmers WD:
[attachmentid=6334]

An Allis WD 45 (no year mentioned):
[attachmentid=6335]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jan 25 2007, 02:17 PM) [snapback]380875[/snapback]</div>

State Farm. I think you will find this is SOP for most insurance companies. If you have a good agent he will probably let you know if it's worth it to file a claim.

 

The one with the mower says WD45 on it. The one you call a WD40 is indeed different, having the wide-spread front wheels. That or something like it may be the one I drove. I don't remember whether it had the front wheels close together or spread out, but for the work I was doing, the wide-spread wheels would have been more suited. Disking at an angle over a plowed field, the close-together wheels would have been unstable and hard to control, and it was already hard enough in the absence of power steering. I don't remember it being unstable. So I will guess a more powerful version of that one may be it. I also wonder if a tractor could get so worn-out and beat-up in just 20 years, so it may have been an earlier year.

This brings back memories, not all of them pleasant. It was good to work out of doors, and this farmer was a good man to work for, but I got paid $2 an hour, and sitting on a tractor for 10 hours a day was boring, and cleaning out the milk parlor or running the spreader or the honey wagon were not exactly the cleanest of passtimes. I still get periodic ringing in my ears from the noise of the tractors, in spite of wearing hearing protectors.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Jan 26 2007, 08:47 AM) [snapback]381142[/snapback]</div>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Jan 26 2007, 03:00 PM) [snapback]381318[/snapback]</div>

Reminds me of the guys who got caught after someone realized they were bidding on their own stolen laptop...

 

Never underestimate the power of those "protected by ____ alarms" stickers.

 

Public service site about lock bumping and how to protect yourself against it!

http://www.LockBumping.Org

 

If someone wants in they will get in key or no key. Keys just keep honest people out.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Jan 25 2007, 02:51 PM) [snapback]380730[/snapback]</div>

Best "alarms".

1. Noisy neighbors. They know who belongs, who doesn't and if they see something funny will call the cops.

2. Dog.

3. Alarm.

I have #1 to protect the front and #2 to protect the back. I have both doorknobs and deadbolts on my doors. And I have a screw removed from each hinge with a protruding screw with the head ground off to prevent the door being pushed/pulled from the hinge side.

In the 20 years I've lived here I only had one break-in. Through a window...before I got dogs. That window and the other two now have bars. (The rest of the windows are 5 ft up and you'd need a boost or a ladder.) And my neighborhood isn't that great. I think it's much more likely they'll get in through a window than just walking up to my door.

Now, inside, I have locks that use the really old skeleton keys. They'd have to break down those (solid wood) doors because I doubt the burglars are old enough to know how to pick a skeleton lock.

 

Good news, I have a big LCD!