This weekend was a major wake-up call for me. During the week I live in a town of 75,000 residents (the largest town in America since it will never be a city). Once per month I go up to my 2nd home inn the woods of Maine. Many of you have enjoyed past posts and poems about how much I love that retreat. The fresh air, the nature, the view, and the people. I love bringing friends up with us when we go and showing them the treasure we have found.
Don't get me wrong, this past weekend was outstanding. I brought a friend up (for her first time). We hiked for hours, explored my favorite seaside town, Belfast, and rode the Quad for 2.5 hours together yesterday. It was a perfect weekend. Except for one thing. One major thing.
We found out from a town resident that our Quad was stolen and returned to us. Someone sliced the back screen and broke into the garage. They let themselves out after finding the keys and took the Quad. Keep in mind this ATV is all we have up there of value (besides our tractor). And yes, they found the keys in the garage.
The guy that told us what occured was not happy about it. In fact, his home was broken in recently as well. He explained the town's residents now have a major gang and drug problem (yes, in a town of roughly 600 residents in the middle of nowhere). Yes, hillbillies and rednecks (I'm a redneck-type myself, so this is not meant as a insult) have too much time on their hands, do drugs, and break into homes.
He explained, "we don't like theives around here." and told us the Quad was taken 4th of July weekend after we left. The guy who took it was told by his friends to return it (not before putting 15 or so miles on it).
We purchased padlocks for the garage doors and shook our heads. This is our spot to retire someday. We let the residents cut thru our trails to snowmobile, hunt, and ride dirtbikes and ATVs. Residents walk their dogs and take walks with their famlies. We have enjoyed meeting many of them (despite the fact it took us several years to gain their respect as we're from Massachusetts you see). And this is the thanks we get. When we first built we sent a nice letter to the snowmobile club to say "have fun, but be safe."
People are fooling themselves if they think break-ins don't happen in the country. People are fooling themselves if they think good people live in the country. Above all, we'd been going up there for years thinking "we're safer there than ini our primary home." Wrong.
Yes, I sound bitter. Yes, I've been robbed before (car 3x and my parent's house also got broken into). We're not going to press charges this time. I'm going to try to feel safe at night when I sleep there. We had dreams of retiring on this land someday. Now I'm really not so sure I want to live in the woods with a bunch of people on drugs. Okay, so the guy's friends left him up on the mountain and he needed a ride home. I get that. The fact that he was too lazy to walk 1 mile (ONE) and decided to break in and steal all we have of value is just crazy. I don't hate everyone in the town of Dixmont because of this. But the residents who are not looking out for us (you know who you are) deserve to have horrible things happen to them. Honestly, you have a funny way of thanking us for the gift we have given to you of letting you trespass and enjoy OUR property. If we put up gates they will torch our place, and therein lies the rub.
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Comments: 35
1. Locks are for honest people
2. The country is not a safe-haven for no crime
Sadly, there are terrible people everywhere and my experience kept me locking my doors and windows at night even while living in the country. It's sad to not trust people but it seems to just be a fact of life.
Yes, I do feel better. But today my husband asked me how I felt about getting a retirement home in another town. We have years to worry about it...no big deal. We may just use this place as a way to hike and off-road.
It is a fact of life. Just 4 years ago this town did not have this issue.
Sad way of life nowadays.
Yep, the insiders told on them. They told because the same thing has occured to them. Go after the insiders and the insiders are no longer your friends.
Hmmm, well i guess I will not get picked for a b&e jury in Maine if I ever become a resident there.
In Dixmont it's become a problem with Oxy (sp?). My boss told me today that it's what happens when kids get bored. I grew up in a town of 3,000 and there was no boredom with woods to roam. *shrug*
I'm so sorry to hear this! I hope that the bad guy gets brought to justice soon.
Thanks. I hope so. We've decided not to look into it further. We just bought locks for the garage doors and plastic to cover up the windows (attractive, right) as well as mini blinds. Next time this happens we'll go after them. It's just bound to happen again with the drugs and the "3 gangs in town"
we had 2 full coolers of soda and beer stolen from our yard the night beofre a party, my daighters bike from the front yard the first year and a wheelbarrow and some junk from the garage(I was thankful for that, they helped clean up)
also my husabnd ran down and caught a kid who was stealing from open cars,( change cigs, cd's)I am sure he would have graduated to breaking the car windows and stealing the cars sooner or later.
you gotta take a stand. If you lay down and take it up the butt they will screw you over and over... pardon my french, but it's true.
And yes, there are terrible people living in the countryside, too. Being close to nature doesn't make them nice.
It's becoming a huge problem - especially for those with no hope of a future.
Yes, that is true. It's why a ton of meds are now locked up at the drugstore and you have to be 18 to buy them since folks are making meth out of them. There's also a limit here now as for how much Sudafed you can buy because of this. At least I think it's meth they are making out of Sudafed...I get high on the stuff without breaking it down.
I love your icon. I'm going to look through your images to see if there are any more like it.
I know how you feel. We used to have a home in Moultonborough, New Hampshire...certainly in the middle of the sticks...and it seemed that the local youth took a lot of their "economic-gap" angst out on the families they knew were out-of-towners; almost like they were sending the message that they were being left behind by the rest of the world. At the time, I felt the vandalism and thefts to be petty and senseless. Then, over a couple of years, they seemed to be more of sign of the times.
I once had a local in Holderness tell me that the rising real estate prices were forcing his family out of town, and that his kids didn't have any hope of staying in the place they grew up in. For this, he blamed all the part time residents, who: raised all the values, brought national retailers, and always wanted to "clean things up" or "make things better." No matter how we contributed; no matter how good of a neighbor we were; and no matter how much we stayed out of local affairs, the fact never wavered: we were the force of change in a place that wanted to be left alone.
I'm sorry to hear of your violation for personal space. It's strange what possesses some people to participate in such odd behavioral acts.
Be well...
Paul
We vacationed in Holderness a couple of years ago (painting on my site of Little Squam.) I was so sad to see how everything has changed. Southern NH is almost unrecognizable, since I moved away.
I can't wait to go back to Iceland to see more of these sheep out on the hiking trails. The farmers provide a step ladder to get up and over a fence if a public hiking trail crosses their land...you would never see that here in the US!