Stolen Tiki Alert (Judy @ Bamboo2U Stolen Tiki Pix added 4-19-05)

I saw this article in the Saturday Dec. 11 Orange County (CA) Register newspaper: *

**TIKI STATUES STOLEN FROM FAMILY'S YARD

Carlsbad (CA)** - Two 100-pound tiki statues standing 5-feet-tall and anchored in concrete were stolen from the yard of a Carlsbad family. Jon Woidtke, who carved the statues by hand from palm trees, said he hoped a curse would befall the thieves who stole his property. *

As a carver I think it really sucks that you can't display your art in the front yard without it getting ripped off. My guess is that someone dragged them out of the ground with a pickup truck in the middle of the night.

I'm gonna try to contact this guy & see if he has any photos. That way, if any TC members run across the stolen tikis, they can notify the owner and we can bring these scumbag tiki thieves to justice!

A-A

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua on 2005-04-19 21:40 ]

see the prior post on San Diego Union article on tiki theft.

Oops! Thanks for the heads up, Tiki Rider. I did a search for "stolen tiki" and got nothing. Oh, well - for those interested, here's a link to the post that Tiki Rider mentioned.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=12281&forum=1&2

A-A

Is tiki theft very common? Makes me wonder if I should be taking any special precautions with mine that I have in the yard. These were stolen even with them chained and concreted into the ground. what else can you do. Should you place a warning sign to potential theives that your tikis are protected by a curse? Does anyone else take extra precautions as the chaining? how many of us have been victim to tiki theft?

On 2004-12-12 15:01, Tiki Rider wrote:
Does anyone else take extra precautions as the chaining?

I typically booby-trap with a 12 gauge shell and lead pipe. No problems (that I'll admit)

I was thinking of hollowing mine out and placing an exploding dye pack inside of them to surprise the tiki nappers.

Hmmm. Good band name?

The Exploding Tikis

Gotta admit that a good thing about being in Texas is being allowed to shoot folks you catch stealing from you.

This is exactly why I don't want to put stuff in my front yard. I hide it all in the back where only my family, guests and the neighbor on each side can see any of it. I just know that it is a temptation for the no goods to either deface or steal.
I feel for anyone who has become a victim of a tiki-napping. Sure hope these get returned soon! ;( ;(

I'd bolt mine in concrete, but somebody could still yank it out with a truck and tow chain. If they really want it that bad, I don't know if I can stop 'em. The really sad part is, I doubt anyone doing this really wants the Tiki; they're just looking for something really wild to do, and heisting a tiki isn't done every day.

If you can keep it outa sight, you'll prevent the random acts of stupidity. If you can't hide it, high voltage is nice.

BTW, COOL new picture, 8-foot! Can we see a LARGER version?

I've had some stuff like this dragged off by born again christians.

A couple of Tiki Statues dragged off, and busted up.

Depressing really.

Now thats a shame. Maybe you should get a tiki done up with the words "American Taliban F*CK OFF!!!"

Then pack the thing with hornets. Wait for them to take the bait, and the merriment that will ensue.

If you have a screened porch, you can sit in protected bliss and sip a fine ale while you watch.

TG

If you know for sure it was born again xtians then you should follow the immortal words of Judas Priest ..."Screaming for Vengence"

Silverline wrote:

COOL new picture, 8-foot! Can we see a LARGER version?

Here ya go!

And here's a link to the original post of the first meeting. ENJOY

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=6515&forum=1

When we first met.......

[ Edited by: 8FT Tiki on 2004-12-14 00:04 ]

Perhapes the same technology used in those Pepsi machines that tip and kill soda pilferers could be deployed.

I also like the idea of those hornets tho.
Maybe there needs to be invented a slack hut theft deturing device...like..BungaLojack?

The methfeeks who took mine admitted it later, actually as if they were keeping the neighborhood free from Satan's minions.

On 2004-12-14 00:14, Gigantalope wrote:

The methfeeks who took mine admitted it later, actually as if they were keeping the neighborhood free from Satan's minions.

THEY OBVIOUSLY HADN'T LOOKED IN THE MIRROR

Aw man...you could have fun playing with their minds when they are on a bender...snicker

Aloha all,

I’m not sure if this was covered previously but about 3-4 years ago a similar criminal was terrorizing Tiki owners near the same North San Diego County area. I have a couple of friends who lost Tikis to the bandit. Oddly enough this guy was also a meth addict, he would cruise around on his bike casing houses, if you caught him in your yard and asked whadda ya want, he’d cleverly come up with the old “looking for work” excuse. This guy would go anywhere to get a Tiki, front yard, back yard, where ever, he was a master Tiki thief. I have a customer in Leucadia who has a bunch of my carvings and she was terrified the monster would find her yard. Being a small coastal community my friends figured out who the guy was and did a reverse sting, they went to his mother’s house, where he stashed the goods and lived. Their Idols sat just over a fence (one was in a tree?) along with animal lawn ornaments, and gnomes, etc… They called authorities and later had to go down to the station and ID their Tikis, the cops where befuddled that “anyone can tell them apart they all look the same”.
Another of the carvings was taken to a local Tiki chop shop of sorts run by an unscrupulous Tiki salesperson, where they tried to disguise it by painting the teeth white and adding color to the humiliated God. Ironically the way the fiend got into heisting Tikis was by starting with garden Gnomes and the reflective yard balls! I think the lesson here is obvious.
I know it sounds too crazy to be true but it’s all fact, some of this mess was covered by the local paper. Fortunately I had the inside scoop where I got to hear all the sorted details and believe you me there is a lot more strangeness to this tale.

Mahalo

Bosko

Interesting story Bosko. So whatever happened to this guy? Was he ever convicted of trespassing or robbery? I remember reading about when the tiki in front of Trader Mort's was stolen. Was it the same guy?

Good tale Bosko - I hope they locked that guy up & threw away the key!!!!!

On 2004-12-14 15:28, TIKIBOSKO wrote:
Ironically the way the fiend got into heisting Tikis was by starting with garden Gnomes and the reflective yard balls!

That it starts with the occasional Lawn Gnome, but you soon move on to the "Hard Stuff?"

I don't understand this; How in the world could they yank these babies out of the ground without anyone hearing?!
Hell, if the same car drives past my house more than twice, I'm standing in the front yard with a gun and my Rott!
(God bless America!)

So lawn gnomes are kind of like some kind of gateway drug?

Aloha,

One of my associates just got back to me with info. Authorities had not caught the Tiki bandit at the time they reclaimed their carvings, but the cops where on the lookout for him. My other friend is now living in Hawaii, perhaps he’ll know more? I guess it could be the same criminal, but traditionally Tikis have always had a high quotient of that indescribable quality which screams steal me.

Who or why the Trader Morts’ Idol or the gigantic Bali Hai Tiki was stolen is a mystery, but both where returned shortly afterwards. Although some of the possibilities are too horrible to imagine, perhaps the thieves’ guilt got the better of them. Or the goods got too hot to hold on to so they where forced to dump them back in their respective establishments parking lot.
Over the years I’ve received a fair amount of mail from those who’ve possessed Tikis of questionable origin and the awful effects they’ve suffered due to its mana.

Yes, garden gnomes are a gateway (yard ornament drug) to the literally heavy stuff.

Mahalo

Bosko

I just recently moved into a new housing development in Makakilo Heights, on O'ahu. I have a perfect property for decorating a'la tiki. My house, as well as my neighbors next to me, sit on a ridge looking down at the Leeward coastline of Ko'Olina, Barber's Point and Ewa Beach. There are quite a few of these newer homes up here and lately, thieves have been breaking into homes in broad daylight, presumably when people are at work. Hawai'i as a state, and especially the leeward coast area has a real problem with crystal meth users - epidemic proportions. We are not that far from the areas where these people live and carry out their "business". It's not hard to imagine that the tiki's I'm planning to put outside around my property (BTW-there aren't any fences... just open space) would no doubt be a target for these people. Unless I could somehow convince potential thieves that the tikis are protected (as Bosko suggests) by some tiki curse which will befall them. I really like the idea of the hornets but logistically I'm having trouble with it :wink:

On 2004-12-17 03:22, MaiTaiMafia wrote:
...Hawai'i as a state, and especially the leeward coast area has a real problem with crystal meth users - epidemic proportions. We are not that far from the areas where these people live and carry out their "business"...

Hawai'i has always been such a laid back, restful, and magical place to me... The thought of the Aloha State overrun by "tweakers" is just too much to take. Shouldn't these people be cooking up their goods in run-down trailers out in the desert somewhere? This is just too sad...

A-A

On 2004-12-17 22:26, Aaron's Akua wrote:

On 2004-12-17 03:22, MaiTaiMafia wrote:
...Hawai'i as a state, and especially the leeward coast area has a real problem with crystal meth users - epidemic proportions. We are not that far from the areas where these people live and carry out their "business"...

Hawai'i has always been such a laid back, restful, and magical place to me... The thought of the Aloha State overrun by "tweakers" is just too much to take. Shouldn't these people be cooking up their goods in run-down trailers out in the desert somewhere? This is just too sad...

A-A

Sadly, it seems like Crystal Meth users are everywhere. My parents retired, and moved up to the California Gold country, and built their dream home in Nevada City. Anyone who has ever been to Nevada City knows what a quaint, charming town it is, filled with tons of beautiful victorian houses.

My parents had to get a P.O. box, because all of the tweakers steal all of the mail out of everyone's mail box. Not just occasionally, but on a daily basis! The police are busting home meth labs on a daily basis, though it seems like their efforts are futile. The Crystal Meth problem is becoming like a plague.

Sad to hear that it's happening to Hawaii as well.

Mai Tai is right - tweaker's are everywhere. Hawai'i has the highest level of "ice" users in the entire USA. It is very sad... this place is still beautiful and laid back, but just stay away from Waianae at night!

What are the gun laws in Hawaii like? Shoot a couple of these assholes and word will get out real quick to stay away.

I find it disconcerting how often references to meth pop up in the periphery of my world lately.

Even more alarming is the tone of normality and even acceptance I am noticing in some younger people I come into contact with. Casual references to someone's room mate, significant other, etc. being on meth, and the tone that it's no big deal, are becoming more frequent.

My background is in photojournalism and I still view myself as a documentarian of lives and events, even when doing commercial portrait work; I record how people really look, wrinkles and all, but in the best light, and I tell customers this upfront. I get the sense that any day now, in someone's family reunion photos, I'm going to be asked to photoshop away someone's meth-stained teeth and I'll have to decide if I give the customer what they want, or faithfully record the signs of the times.

And as for my hobbies, I've been fond of all-night neon sign photo-safaries for years, but am re-thinking that. In the last couple years, from coast to coast, all through the midwest and especially the Southwest, the smiles of the usually merely annoying street people are developing those trademark meth triangles between the teeth, and their behavior is more erratic.

A couple months back, I was wondering if maybe I wasn't like a square parent in an old reefer-madness film. Then a friend of mine who worked the overnight shift in a retail store told me about it taking four cops to subdue one of her shoplifters 'cause the kid felt no pain.

All of which leads back on-topic to theft of tikis, et al. I used to do elaborate lawn displays for Halloween and Christmas, and would alarm some of the plastic blow-molded pieces with those pull-pin activated motel room door alarms that screech at an ungodly decible level. I'd glue the alarm up inside the body of the decoration with JB weld and anchor the pin near the decoration. Nothing ever got stolen because when it would get yanked up, it'd scare the crap out of the thief and would be impossible to get away with stealthily. I'm not sure that'd matter to a meth user.

What are the gun laws in Hawaii like? Shoot a couple of these assholes and word will get out real quick to stay away.

Gun laws are the same as everywhere. And if you shoot 'em, shoot 'em dead and drag them into your house before you dial 911 :wink:

I'd glue the alarm up inside the body of the decoration with JB weld and anchor the pin near the decoration.

I like the alarm-under-the-tiki idea, but the hornets-inside-the-tiki would be just so much more fun to watch!!!

There are no restrictions that I could find on non-felons owning any type of guns in Hawaii.

Yes, for you Rambos out there, you can get a class 3 weapon there if you want one. Just apply for a federal licence and pick out your weapon, fill out some paperwork, pay a $200 fee. Pretty soon you can be protecting your tikis with belt fed machine guns and a grenade laucher if you need to.

Speaking of extreme tiki protection technology, is there any reason I can not hide a lojack transmitter in a tiki? I'm sure many people on this forum have tikis more valuable than their cars. It would sure take the guess work out of finding a stolen tiki if the lojack people would let you install one.

Speaking of lojack transmitters, is there a reliable chip that allows one's GPS unit (or something similar) to locate it? I read about this a couple years back as an up-and-coming technology aimed at tracking children in case of abduction.

Instead of putting a tracking system in your tiki and then having to go and deal with all the politics of claiming it etc., just make a trap bomb, or a flash bang, etc. I used to have a shop in Santa Ana and our yards would get robbed all the time. My neighbor put a flash/trap under the hood of his truck (they used to steal his battery all the time) and one day we found blood on the ground, under the hood and a finger too! Score!

Booby trapping your outside tikis is the only way.

After gettin some botanicals ripped off (back in the day), we put razor blades in the stalks. Found a little blood one morning which abrubtly halted any further slitherin'. We then told the snake we suspected of doing it that we would next hook up a shot gun trap. Never saw him again.
Can't do that these daze, the guy would hire a lawyer and sue yer ass and win. Oh for the daze!!
Yeah, if somebody gets hurt while ripping you off, you get sued. That's bass ackwards.

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader on 2004-12-21 08:17 ]

I was just going to say the same thing. Some guy gets hurt stealing your property(by some anti-theft deviced you've installed)and YOU can go to jail! That's why I've never hooked my car's battery up to the door handles! The thief would probably have a cardiac arrest and I'd go to jail for manslaughter...

That's why the hornets-in-the-tiki is so ingenious: no one can never prove that you put them there!!!

This is all very encouraging, but I'm terribly non-mechanical, so to speak. SOunds like we need a pro-active team to combat the "TLO" .

One of our modern-day carvings was stolen early in 2004, from next to the whirlpool. We have since replaced him with a guy who is buried a considerable distance below his "waterline." There have been quite a few tikis stolen from the tropics over the years (remnants of their foundations still exist). I guess it would be an excellent idea to not only catalog what we have, but work at further securing those we have (and are adding to).

Casey, here's how I secured the tikis at Whanga Rei Bar and Grill in Turlock.
I used a post hole digger to dig 2 to 3 ft. down. Insert a peeler core or large lodge pole (6 inch dia.) and about 8 ft. long into that hole then pour in concrete. At this time I also layed out a little concrete for the tiki to stand on. You don't want the tiki to touch the ground or it will rot. In the back of the tikis I carved out approx. 6 inches of wood so the lodge pole would fit snug inside. Then fastened it all the way thru with 4 or 5 10" wood bolts. So the bolts go thru the pole and into the tiki. The poles were treated so they won't rot. It would take a lot of time and effort to steal them. I would never ever bury a tiki in the ground with or without concrete around it. The concrete would hold some moisture and rot it also.

I know you all love the idea of having a swarm of tiki protecting hornets attacking a would be thief. However, I have to say that it just wouldn't deter them very much. Speaking from my own personal first hand experience with that very thing. When I adopted old 8FT himself, he was outside and (unknown to us) had a whole nest of the stinging buggers inside. As soon as we noticed that, we grabbed a handful of tall grass and shoved it in the opening which cut off the assault. Then I didn't have to deal with them again until after we moved him and I began the restoration process. Even then I only got stung once while I removed the large hornets nest from inside the tiki.

I think it would be funny if you could rig up your outside tikis so that they would just piss all over anyone who jostled them.

When we first met.......

[ Edited by: 8FT Tiki on 2004-12-22 09:29 ]

On 2004-12-22 09:28, 8FT Tiki wrote:
I think it would be funny if you could rig up your outside tikis so that they would just piss all over anyone who jostled them.

Your on-line source for Bulk Animal Urine.

SCTikiShack just recently posted this account of his tiki stolen by a bunch of bikers. It ended well, and the tiki lived to tell the tale.

A-A

On 2004-12-20 20:30, RevBambooBen wrote:
Instead of putting a tracking system in your tiki and then having to go and deal with all the politics of claiming it etc., just make a trap bomb, or a flash bang, etc. I used to have a shop in Santa Ana and our yards would get robbed all the time. My neighbor put a flash/trap under the hood of his truck (they used to steal his battery all the time) and one day we found blood on the ground, under the hood and a finger too! Score!

Booby trapping your outside tikis is the only way.

OH that is PRICELESS! I usually just let the Rott loose and when he comes back with some material (flesh or fabric makes no difference to me) then I am happy and he gets his treat.

In the State of Ohio, under revised code 4947.01, (as pertaining to P.I.'s & Security Guards)you may use deadly force only when:
1.) You are in Fear of your life or the life of another. (They don't allow for objects, I've already checked!)

Your target must possess:
1.) The INTENT to do you harm,
2.) The ABILITY to harm you,
3.) The OPPORTUNITY to harm you,
4.) And you must feel that your life is in JEOPARDY.

The cause of action must be:
1.) Logical
2.) Reasonable
3.) Neccessary

So, the old 'dragging the body inside trick' doesnt work here...you must 'invite' them inside and then suggest that they possed an immediate threat, had a weapon and clearly intended to utilize that weapon.

Those handy GPS tracking devices are getting more affordable every week - you know, the kinds that you can sneek onto your kids vehicle and see where they are going at any time? Ohhhh yeah, baby! But the booby trap idea is nifty too...until you bump it with the lawn mower and KA-BLEWIE! Nope, I'll stick with the tracking systems, a bad ass dog and several firearms at my disposal.
America is a great country!

Heaven help the poor soul who attempts to steal my tiki's!

Now it's happened to our friends at "Bamboo2U and Tikis Too".

From this mornings San Diego Union Tribune:
Tikis stolen from North Coast shop

*LEUCADIA – Sheriff's investigators are looking into the theft of more than a half-dozen tikis over the weekend from a North Coast tropical decorations store.

The tikis, carved from palm trees, were stolen late Friday or early Saturday from outside the Bamboo2U and Tikis Too store on Coast Highway 101, said store owner Judy Swain.

Each tiki is valued at more than $1,000, she said.

The carvings, some of which stand up to 6 feet, were chained together outside the store. Thieves unscrewed the eyebolt in each tiki that held it to the chain, Swain said.

– Gregory Alan Gross*

$1000 tikis? WOW

[ Edited by: Tiki Matt on 2005-04-12 08:31 ]

Judy's cool people. She sold my first tikis for me, and paid up front, not consignment. So I guess she took a big loss here. Does anyone know how to reach her? I lost touch after the shop moved from Oceanside to Leucadia. Maybe we could get some pics posted and see if anyone runs across them.

GREAT idea AA!
I spoke with Judy this morning and she's going to e-mail a picture of the front of her store (taken last week) to me to post here. Hopefully, one of us will spot them.

Judy really is a super-nice lady. She was very crushed that this happened and she already has had a few people contact her saying that they are on the lookout.

Hopefully someone will soon run across the thieves....better yet, OVER them!

FYI: Judy's still waiting on the pics to arrive from the Union Tribune.