gave boat away and guy wants money back!

Hitech

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 22, 2006
Messages
290
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

Come on, fess up. You made this whole thing up. No one can be that stupid and still remember to breath.
 

wickie

Cadet
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
11
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

I know this has to be aggrevating, but I hope he comes back, this is just priceless! Really, I would contact the local authorities, and just let them know that this screwball is loose.
 

BF

Lieutenant
Joined
Apr 8, 2003
Messages
1,489
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

jotting down his license plate was a good idea. I think I'd have also gone in the house and get my digital camera, and overtly take a picture of him, and his car & license plate and then I'd politely ask him to show me his photo ID. He may or may not show you, but if he produced it, I'd take a picture of that too. If he asked me why, I'd say "so that I can tell the police your real name". After that, I'd tell him firmly to leave and not to come back.... ever. I'd tell him if he showed up again, the police would be called immediately. It's exactly what I would do too if he ever did show up. No conversation... just a phone call. If it came to that, I'd tell the police that he's a nut-bar and you had already told him to stay away, and taken pict's of him at that time. If nut-bar is still on a mission, and continues to show up, a restraining order could then be done.

You're a much more tolerant person than I am to put up with this kook following around you the yard for an hour! BTW, you might want to make sure that there's a 3rd person (witness) around if he ever comes back. Someone that can corroborate that this person is an unwanted visitor who has repeatedly been told to go away and stay away. Him knowing that you have his picture/license plate etc, might keep him from doing something really dumb (thinking fire or other vandalism). If he's as whacked as he sounds, it might not matter.

Lastly, if you really don't want him coming back, think about calling the police now and tell them that this guy is not right in the head and tell them you're concerned that maybe he's gone off his med's. Maybe as a public service, they should give him a visit to see if he needs medical intervention. Could be there's been other complaints about him that you don't know about.

I would not encourage him to bring the boat back, even with cash... Goal would be to keep the nutcase far away from my loved ones and my "stuff".

just some thoughts.
 

oops!

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
12,932
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

two schools of thought here.....first ....if you stand back.....qc is right....totally right....


I'm not so sure about that. I've got way more out of this deal than I have in it in entertainment alone. Tell him I've got a Lawn Tractor he can have but he'll have to drive it from CA to NJ . . . Doesn't really matter that I don't have one, tell him he can trade me the boat for it, then I'll trade that for a lawn tractor and then I'll give that one to him. Does the mental picture of Forrest Gump on his lawn tractor help any with this? I'm flippin' cryin' here. Well worth your aggravation from my perspective :p :D

Think about it like this, you may end up giving away your lawn tractor just to make him go away. It's quite possible this system has worked for him before . . . ;) It's kinda like Bob Newhart and Larry, Darell and Darell, except it took three of them to equal the idiocy of your special friend. Or like Green Acres, but that was a whole town's worth. Wasn't there a lawn tractor in Dumb and Dumber? LMAO

the other thing that is unsetteling....is that this could be a con artist......i know you think hes a few licks short of a lollypop.....but confusion is how conn artitsts work.......and they are good at it.....the gain your confidence....or favor....then zapp you.....



watch your self on this one.....

i dont think this guy is mentally retarded.....but somthings fishy here
 

ToothDocNick

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Sep 5, 2008
Messages
79
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

This is too funny, but on a serious note......you may have done the right thing by getting his plate number. Maybe this guy is playing stupid and hanging around the house to see what else you might have. The boat may have been a ploy to see what other things you own. He might have been returning because he did not see enough and now he has what he wants in mind. This guy may be just casing your house to break into it or do something worse. You might just want to keep an extra eye out for this guy and for your things. I hope that I am wrong, but have seen this before. I would make a phone call to one of your neighbors next time this idiot shows up.
 

wajajaja02

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 21, 2008
Messages
667
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

What part of Jersey are u from, its clean up week in my town, lots of searchers around. keeping my eye out.
 

Barnacle_Bill

Admiral
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
6,469
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

Simply amazing. That people can be that dumb.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,050
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

two schools of thought here.....first ....if you stand back.....qc is right....totally right....




the other thing that is unsetteling....is that this could be a con artist......i know you think hes a few licks short of a lollypop.....but confusion is how conn artitsts work.......and they are good at it.....the gain your confidence....or favor....then zapp you.....



watch your self on this one.....

i dont think this guy is mentally retarded.....but somthings fishy here

I think he's more or less just the Forest Gump type from what I gather from the last visit. The car he drives is foreign, I think it's a Suzuki or some other off brand import. Maybe Daewoo too? Several neighbors are local officers, they were all hanging around here the first time he showed up, they were the one's laughing at him. The tag says he local, within a mile of here, but I don't think the name on the registration matches the name he gave me when he picked up the boat. The name on the registration is one of those names you can't pronounce. Most likely the car is borrowed or he don't use his real name for some reason. That's not too uncommon around here since we see a lot of farm labor throughout the year. He may be one of that crowd too. I'm not sure how much of his problem is IQ and how much of it is not understanding English.
If he becomes a real problem, I'll take action to solve it, but what got me was the nerve of either request. I went back to his first contact, wondering if it was online or by phone since I had listed the boat both in a local free newspaper and on Craigslist. I can't find any initial email so I think he had to either first find me though the newspaper here or through a friend that has a computer. He may not have been the guy that actually called me to come look at the boat that day which had emailed me. The names don't match. I had assumed that he was a Craigslist contact but that may have been wrong. Either way, he still rates pretty high on the Darwin scale.
 

Beefer

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Aug 4, 2008
Messages
1,737
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

Got to thinking. I'm not a lawyer or anything of the sort, but... Is there a possibility of legal trouble having given away a vessel you did not have legal title to? I could see one of those crazy twists where you're answering to Johnny Law in regards to the boat. I know there is no paper trail, but if he caused you a problem, by your own admission you had no legal ownership of the boat. You may want to make an inquiry with DMV or whoever to see what problems could possibly come to haunt you of this.

Just would hate to see such an entertaining post turn into a legal nightmare for you.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,050
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

I believe the boat which came from a state which didn't have a title to begin with. It wasn't anything I really wanted or had time for so I certainly wasn't going to bother or spend the money to get it titled here.
Besides, it came to me indirectly from an estate sale. I bought it simply for it's motor, which was actually a very clean older motor, and really didn't care about the boat since it was more of a pleasure boat than a fishing boat. It was one of those with a divided seating area and wood seats.
I really have no paper trail to the boat. It was actually bought at an auction and they only stated on the receipt "misc boat and gear". They make no mention of the make, size or style and there's no way of telling which of my boats that was. Getting free boats with no title is pretty common place, I have several which I am in the process of getting titles for which are the type of boat I like or just very clean turn key boats that were given away for free.
I am in the process of moving more than two dozen boats out of an defunct marina right now. Many of those will be free to whom ever wants them. Most won't have any titles simply because they came from PA long before 1994 or so when PA began titling boats. (Several very restore able Evinrude and Johson W hulls and one Bayliner cabin cruiser off the top of my head will have to go. If no takers, they get crushed and put in a dumpster). I made a deal to take all the motors that remained and several storage trailers. I have no use or place to store the boats so they get given away.

I hate to just cut up or crush a cool vintage boat that could easily be brought back into good condition even if means dealing with a few morons, I've had some strange ones show up before but most of these were at my shop, no my house. This boat was at my house since it was small and it just so happened to be where I dropped the trailer that day for the time being.

It seems like the occurrence of such individuals who appear to have only one oar in the water has increased about ten fold lately. I list pretty often on craigslist and a few local free papers know for used items and deals, the off the wall replies lately are astounding. It's been a toss up between totally illiterate emails, total idiots, or scam artists. I had one guy ask me if he could mail me a money order, then come pickup the item in two weeks. I told him to bring cash when he came to pick it up. He didn't understand that. He showed up with two money orders, one of which he purchased at the post office a mile from me only a few minutes from my house, he had driven 850 miles to pickup the item. He had the cash to buy the money order, but for some reason felt he had to pay with one even though I told him cash only.
They were postal money orders and the post office confirmed the numbers and amounts, so I took them rather than to loose a big sale. To make matters worse, the guy showed up with a compact car when he should have brought a 3/4 ton truck.

It seems that either society is somehow turning out more idiots or somehow more must be surviving these days than did in the past or else maybe they've really loosened security at the asylums lately.
....Maybe its because they make everything so idiot proof these days, more idiots are surviving then did years ago?
 

AZMinyard

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
165
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

I am in the process of moving more than two dozen boats out of an defunct marina right now. Many of those will be free to whom ever wants them.

So if I follow correctly, if I drive a riding lawn mower to NJ I can have a free boat? :D

Sorry - couldn't help myself . . .
 

country_bumpkin

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
255
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

I know a kid in Knoxville that might trade a burned down house for a free boat. Why don't you send your friend to Tennessee!?

LOL these two deserve each other.

Priceless.
 

HappierWet

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Sep 11, 2008
Messages
839
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

UUUUMMMMM, Does this guy's shrink know he's wandering the streets?
Next time you give a boat for free, check to make sure the happy meal has all the fries.;)
 

NelsonQ

Lieutenant
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Messages
1,413
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

I know a kid in Knoxville that might trade a burned down house for a free boat. Why don't you send your friend to Tennessee!?

LOL these two deserve each other.

Priceless.

That's hilarious CB. I've been following both threads and knew eventually they'd tie together. Heck, they may even be the same guy:eek::eek:
 

divimon2000

Seaman
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
68
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

The lower the price, the lower the IQ sometimes. Had a lady haggle on a dime piece of jewelry at a garage sale once.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,050
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

Just by chance today I was talking to another guy near here that works on and restores a lot of old boats and motors. The first words out of his mouth were "You wouldn't believe the idiot I had stop here the other day, he wanted to trade me a bare hull, sight unseen for an old Bayliner I had outback half cut up". Halfway into the conversation he said the guy started asking how much it would cost to put a motor in it and how long would it be before he could pick it up. He sounded like he pretty much threw him off the property, he said he kept telling him how nice the boat was but he didn't have a trailer for it. What he wanted was to swap the free boat, with no deck, motor or trailer, for a stern drive boat with no motor or drive including the full roller trailer it sat on.
It seems he's making his rounds to anyone that either had boats or lists parts around here. He hasn't been back here since the other day when he asked to swap for the mower.
I saw the boat and trailer he wanted to trade for, he'd be taking a big step backwards on that deal since an I/O hull would need far more work and far more motor and the trailer wasn't much. He'd also never be able to pull that boat with the tiny little SUV he has.
 

wickie

Cadet
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
11
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

This guys sounds like a fungus, creeps back to you when you least expect it.
 

mthieme

Captain
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
3,270
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

Maybe he's trying to soak everybody he can for half a grand.
Beats working for a living.:D
 

BF

Lieutenant
Joined
Apr 8, 2003
Messages
1,489
Re: gave boat away and guy wants money back!

Maybe he knows about this guy,

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

He started with a red paper clip, and within 1 year made 14 trades... ended up with a house. It's an interesting story... made lots of news up here. Once he started getting attention, companies started giving him good stuff for publicity.
 
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