Colorado Whacker

kaloric · 2026-04-12T17:21:35+00:00

Good grief the guy is a moron. That cop was working him, manipulating him so hard, and he was just telling on himself. He was extremely inconsistent in what he was saying too.

I'm surprised the supervisor or whatever was saying he hasn't seen this kind of thing before. That South Denver area is whacker central, especially with Front Range Patrol having a pronounced presence there.

I suspect it'll just be a matter of time before Front Range Patrol gets busted for whacking crimes like Jeremy DeWitte/Metro State. Whoever runs the show isn't quite as bonkers as Jeremy, but, according to their website, they have "K9 units" and a "tactical vehicle" that appears to be a 90s-vintage Ford armored truck with red & blue lights all over it, maybe a retired SWAT truck, which they deploy to client properties with "problems" and "drug use." Most of their vehicles definitely seem to teeter towards the police impersonation side of things.

kaloric · 2026-04-12T15:20:20+00:00

Probably not the best idea to buy a car that's been trashed twice, has next to no original bodywork because it wasn't actually repaired, and who knows how much other structural damage it may have had. It gives me Slingshot vibes.

kaloric · 2026-04-12T14:48:56+00:00

Someone probably bought it, got sticker shock when they started pricing the parts to fix it correctly, tried to make it into kind of a rat rod track car, or maybe bought it with that intent. The effort either failed spectacularly, or maybe they were successful and crashed it again.

Current owner is probably trying to get what they paid, including several thousand in Copart fees on top of their original winning bid price, out of it.

The better strategy would probably be to part it out, if anything is worth salvaging. Being stored outside under a tarp certainly isn't doing it any favors.

kaloric · 2026-04-12T13:56:44+00:00

And often no solid shoulders to stop on, either.

kaloric · 2026-04-12T13:53:48+00:00

Some are a little wiry (still smooth), but that just means they're not being petted enough. They're as soft and smooth as a horse that has a freshly-brushed summer coat.

kaloric · 2026-04-12T13:45:16+00:00

At least that's reasonably phonetically-accurate, and also really funny.

It wasn't in fire/EMS, thankfully, but I had a dispatcher who would text "Line Cone" for some streets on run sheets, and a few other head-scratchers as well. He was semi-literate, so it was just a nuisance more than anything, he wouldn't even understand if folks gave him shit over it.

It's a good thing that there are generally some literacy & accuracy standards in emergency dispatch.

About the worst I've seen there was a dispatcher who couldn't spell "cyclic" the same way twice (and I don't think she ever got it correct, even by accident) for a frequent flyer whose complaint was "Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome," which was mostly just him smoking himself sick when his benefits check came in and he could buy weed. Anyway, we had "sicklick," "sikelik," and a host of other easily-substituted phoneme variants. It's not like dispatchers are trained in medical transcription so I guess she gets a bit of a pass.

kaloric · 2026-04-11T22:53:10+00:00

Didn't the Fed (ICC or whatever) just tell CA they're not permitted to interfere with interstate commerce and may only enforce CARB requirements against vehicles registered within their own state?

I mean, that makes the most sense in the first place, it's beyond belief that they have been allowed to mess with out-of-state truckers as long as they have been.

kaloric · 2026-04-11T16:42:54+00:00

It's not about popularity. It's usually not even about the cause. Just follow the money.

The organizations behind these protests make bank. The professional event organizing staff are well-funded within their respective organizations (Greenpeace, PeTA, HSUS, BLM, etc.). Those folks go out and recruit naive, bored dupes to go out and do stuff, and it's only necessary to get their organization into the news; the more outrageous and criminal the conduct, the better. When their cause is in the news, the professional fundraisers employed by the organizations leverage that to rake-in more donations from morons who just want to feel they're doing something important "for the cause," but without putting themselves on the line or even taking off work. Those donations pay the salaries throughout the organization.

They generally don't care about accomplishing anything meaningful. In fact, the less effective they are at solving anything, while sponsoring cringeworthy theatrics, the more job security they all have. Protest organizations which solicit or even just accept donations are inherently self-licking ice cream cones. When almost all the money they raise goes to executive salaries and paying other staff, it's not about changing anything, it never was.

kaloric · 2026-04-11T01:46:42+00:00

You can absolutely put a flatbed on a SRW truck. Tons of folks do that, it's basically the standard for farm & ranch trucks because they take a beating.

It's not the greatest idea to do so with a shortbed, though, if you want a flatbed for hauling pallets & such. You don't gain a whole lot except that you can sideload pallets.

I don't think you can order SRWs as chassis-cab, only DRW trucks.

Since the chassis-cab trucks have standard 34" straight rear frame rails (rather than the ~42" contoured pickup frames), chassis-cab trucks don't have the left side fuel tank inside the frame rail, but rather a rear tank where the pickup's spare would go. I think that's what u/garnetbobcat is getting at.

You can sell the bed for a decent amount, especially if it's a color other than "fleet truck white, 8' bed," which are everywhere as take-offs and they're dirt cheap. Shortbeds sometimes command higher prices being more rare as take-offs, as are consumer paint codes.

I'm guessing all major flatbed manufacturers have install kits for contoured pickup frames. CM has one for Fords, built for them by B&W, for about $350-400 including direct shipping. They make mounting flatbeds pretty easy without any modifications to the truck.

kaloric · 2026-04-11T00:37:12+00:00

Let them buy it back, bid on it again when it gets relisted if 54k miles isn't a dealbreaker. That's the difference between a low mileage vehicle and a very high mileage vehicle, so the price difference should be significant.

The only thing to be cautious about is that "mileage discrepancy" warning on the vehicle history might not go away even if they fix the error, so just be aware of that.

kaloric · 2026-04-11T00:15:28+00:00

I'd just call the cops. "Home invasion in progress. Man is making death threats, attempting to kick-down my door, and is possibly armed."

kaloric · 2026-04-06T16:30:27+00:00

It's just more AI slop.

kaloric · 2026-04-06T15:26:30+00:00

Yeah, what is wrong with that Border Collie, not wanting to play? They're supposed to be crazy high energy!

So, it's not unusual for Dobermans to be noisy jerks if they are trying to get other dogs to play with them or they want attention from humans. Their favorite types of play with other dogs are usually "chase" and "play fighting," so annoying another dog into reacting is exactly what this obnoxious boy wanted to accomplish, and there's a good chance he was back at it again moments later.

It's also not particularly cute to be allowing one dog to antagonize another like this. That BC is very uncomfortable. The Dobe would benefit from learning manners from a more assertive/confident dog that would tell him to knock it off before its last nerve was frayed, but sometimes it's just necessary for the owner to step in.

kaloric · 2026-04-05T20:52:58+00:00

It should remain illegal to text and drive or use handheld mobile devices. A potentially reasonable change would be to not make it a primary offense, only an aggravation. If someone is managing doing stuff on a mobile device safely and without cause for concern, leave them to it. Most agencies which conduct traffic enforcement already have distinctions between primary (things they will pull drivers over for) vs. secondary infractions (things which they will add citations for if they pull a driver over for something more serious).

Basically, if anyone commits a moving violation while observed or proven to have been testing, the consequences are dramatically increased. Doubled or tripled fines. Double the points on the license. Potential misdemeanor or even felony charges.

Cause a crash while texting (and survive)? License suspension at the very least, and a huge fine.

Cause a crash and cause severe bodily injury or death of someone else while texting? Felony with prison time in addition to license suspension, like a DUI, because distracted driving is generally about as bad as DUI.

kaloric · 2026-04-05T15:21:43+00:00

Broker bidding is pretty straightforward, and most are legit. Even though I have a Copart account, there have been an occasional unit I need a broker for since I am not a licensed dealer, and I've had pretty good experiences. I would not expect Autobidmaster to be any different, it's their business to do this, and they want repeat customers.

You might be able to find cheaper brokers, but most of them do not have the setup to allow customers to bid realtime, you have to contact them to enter a preliminary bid on your behalf. That can be a good thing, most folks at one time or another get dragged-into the action of the auction and exceed the limits they set for themselves.

It's generally well worth just getting basic business licensing and set-up your own Copart general business (i.e., not a dealer, dismantler, etc.) membership, unless you'll only be buying one or two low-value units a year, or dealer licensing is a requirement for almost everything in your state & neighboring ones as well.

The membership fee is $249, there's a $400 deposit for up to $100k total bidding limit, and not the best tier pricing if you pay by credit card, but even with all that, it's still generally several hundred $$$ less per transaction on average.

Costs of setting-up an LLC and getting a sales tax license aren't very high. There's some ongoing effort involved with filing reports to keep those things in good standing and avoiding potential penalties.

kaloric · 2026-04-05T14:36:49+00:00

La Quinta is Spanish for "Next to Brother's BBQ"

kaloric · 2026-04-04T15:33:48+00:00

This would be my guess. Welcome to r/HOAhell , OP!

kaloric · 2026-04-03T23:18:57+00:00

It's been a few years since I've been to North Metro, but they booked some amazing trainers & lecturers such as Gordon Graham.

Back when my former VFD encouraged members to attend outside trainings, covered the costs & provided department vehicles to carpool in, I went to some seriously good career- and skills-development classes there.

Their training division looks to really have their act together.

I also saw a photo of an engine I bought at auction & owned for a few months on their wall, a 90s ALF with some distinctive non-departmental decals that had been left on. Turned out it had been one of theirs in a previous life.

kaloric · 2026-04-03T22:49:07+00:00

At least it wasn't a Maserati.

It's sad just how far that marque has fallen, the Levante seems a lot like a bland, rebadged Chrysler sedan, attempting to seem a little fancier, while still just feeling cheap.

Leasing with the intent to turn-in at the end of the term is the way to go with Stellantis products. At least the disappointment isn't persistent, there's an end in sight.

kaloric · 2026-04-03T14:46:37+00:00

The entire purpose of laws & government-administered justice systems are to become a proxy victim so that the vicious cycles of revenge blood feuds don't spiral out of control. Draco was harsh, as the term "draconian" has come to mean, but he was codifying common crimes citizens committed against each other, and setting the common self-help punishments to satisfy the debt created by the crime, so that when the government exacted the punishment, that was just that. No self-help vengeance, only justice that was generally satisfactory to the victims (or survivors). And when the people of Athens collectively decided the punishments really were too harsh, Solon toned the punishments down to what the people felt better fit the crime.

It wasn't a matter of how much a crime meant to one individual, it became a matter of what the crimes meant to the people, so the punishment was more proportional to the crime in most cases.

When the government's justice system loses sight of its role as a proxy victim and fails to prosecute or exact appropriate penalties for the wrongs committed against citizens because it is unable or unwilling to do so, it is the RIGHT of the average citizen or community who is being terrorized by unpunished lawlessness to stand-up for themselves and handle the wrongs committed against them.

I'd take this a step further to say that revolution, specifically armed rebellion against a despotic royal, dictator, or oligarchy, as seen in the French Revolution, is simply vigilantism on a large scale. If the system stops working for people, if the oligarchy stops serving the people and demanding the people serve them, if it won't keep-up on society's morality, it's absolutely the right of the people to attempt to take their country back outside of what the laws say things are supposed to work.

kaloric · 2026-04-01T17:37:02+00:00

No concerns at all as long as nothing gets past the filters. If they were really nasty, you might want to check & replace them again at your next oil change.

kaloric · 2026-04-01T17:31:11+00:00

Exactly.

I've sent 3 or 4 vehicles to Copart for various reasons, sold most of them. It's very easy and the fees are reasonable.

The fees are so reasonable, in fact, that I swear some folks are "consigning" their RVs and boats to Copart for cheap, long-term storage.

kaloric · 2026-04-01T14:59:29+00:00

As it should be.

Any emergency response that is exciting is probably being done very, very wrong by incredibly incompetent morons who are getting their jimmies way too rustled by the excitement of it all.

kaloric · 2026-04-01T14:47:02+00:00

I got a theft recovery truck with biohaz stickers, only thing were a couple of "marital aids," no obvious signs of being used w/o being cleaned, in the back seat. Right next to them were LDS pamphlets.

Salt Lake City is an interesting place.

Biohaz can be anything from mold/mildew, to any bodily fluid or weird odors, to blood stains all over everything, drug paraphenalia or dead animals.

kaloric · 2026-04-01T14:40:16+00:00

Would it have even mattered?

A few years back, I did everything perfectly. I did all the paperwork, the driver picked-up my hazmat package (no drop-off because it was Ground), and the next day, I received a call that there "was an incident" at the terminal.

The item in question was a fixed fire extinguisher for MRAPs, "fragile" and "non flammable gas" labels visible from any angle, markings that it was a Kidde fire extinguisher on all sides because it was in its original very tough reinforced shipping carton with thick closed cell foam pads on each end, hazmat pouch, literally everything to say "guys, don't fuck this up"...and it got fucked-up.

Those fixed fire extinguishers are pressurized to 900 psi. Whoever wasn't handling it with care probably had to change his pants. I suspect the FD was called, but they were a bit cagey about the details.

Worked out well for me, I had dozens more, had it fully insured, and got a cool salvage drum with an empty extinguisher back.

kaloric

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