Our Beloved "Beast" was Stolen Yesterday - Fri., Mar. 24, 2017

What was supposed to be an exciting drive north to Athens, Texas yesterday to view the manufacturing of park models and manufactured homes turned ugly. I was going to pick Bob up from his work and he was going to lock his truck in his company's yard while we took the trip north. 

When I arrived to pick him up, his first words were, "The worst thing that could happen happened." 

I replied, "What do you mean?"

"My truck was stolen!" he blurted out.

Oh, man, our "Beast" is gone. We fell in love with our 2000, sapphire-blue, Ford F350, 7.3 liter PowerStroke, crew cab truck from the first moment we saw it in Portland, Oregon. 

Here is an excerpt from the blog when we first found our truck in 2011: 

"Here's our story about how we got our used pickup truck: Bob saw an ad on craigslist for a blue, 2000, Ford F350, 7.3 liter at a small dealership in Portland. We had been having a hard time finding that particular truck with a 7.3 liter engine. We went to the lot and searched for the truck...no truck. The salesperson who helped us didn't know anything about it. (He was new, only at the lot three days.) 

"We got into our car and started to pull away from the curb. Coming onto the small side street we were leaving, was a beautiful sapphire blue Ford F350 crew cab pickup truck and it pulled into the lot we had just left. We re-parked the car and marched right back into the dealership to ask if that was the truck advertised on craigslist. Sure enough, it was. If we had left two minutes sooner we would have missed "our" truck. Apparently they had it out for detailing which was why it looked so shiny and beautiful. [Bob's recollection is that they took it out to buy lunch.]

"We got back together with our salesperson, examined the truck, took it for a test drive and called a friend of ours who lived about 1/4 mile away to take a look at it for us. (He is a pretty good mechanic and takes pickups and airplanes apart and rebuilds them.) He told us the truck had been used pretty heavily. To me, that meant it had been broken in. LOL. He had us take it to a transmission shop for a pull test, which the truck passed. We bought it on the spot."

That truck has hauled our 5th wheel all over the United States with barely a repair needed. We are heartbroken that it was taken.

Trucks stolen in Texas are typically taken across the border to Mexico to transport illegal aliens across the desert. If they are recovered they are usually in awful shape. 

Neighbors of ours in the RV park had their Ford pickup stolen from downtown San Antonio about a month ago. It was returned about 11 days later in awful shape. The rear seat had been removed. There was trash all over the interior. The bottom of the truck looked like it had been run through a mud bog. They had already picked out a new truck but hadn't purchased it yet. When their truck was found, they then had to make all the repairs as their insurance company wouldn't total it. They were devastated.

We will hope for the best, but planning for the worst. Starting next week, we will rent a car so we will have two vehicles again. The insurance company requires us to wait two weeks to see if our truck will be recovered. In the meantime, we are looking for another used truck to buy if ours is not returned.

If you should see our truck, please notify police. It has Texas license plates starting with CPH. The tailgate has a 26.2 sticker and the bumper has a Johnson/Weld political sticker. Here are some photos of the Beast...

Sparks Marina RV Park, Sparks, NV

The Beast

Sparks Marina RV Park

Fishing Bridge Campground, Yellowstone

Flaming Gorge overlook

Flagg Ranch, Grand Tetons, WY

Hilltop RV Resort, Ft. Stockton,  TX

Lake Pleasant Regional Park, AZ

Buffalo Bill Dam, WY

Badlands, SD

South Dakota Air & Space Museum, Rapid City

Black Hills, SD

Houghton, MI

OK, now you all know what it looks like. We hope it will be found in good condition so we can use it for our vacations in May and Sept./Oct. If not, we will get another truck. Hopefully, it will be as wonderful as this one!

TravelBug out.