BLOG: Thieving mongrels!

LET'S embark on a little journey. Before we commence, if you have high blood pressure or dislike elevated stress levels, you might be better served by flicking over to the Disney website...

I want to take you to a dark place; think of a time when you were infuriated, when your blood was boiling and anger was bubbling through your veins. Let's stoke the emotions a little and imagine that in your current state of outrage that someone you utterly dislike came over and slapped you hard in the face. Feeling a little irritated?

That's exactly how I felt when I discovered that some thieving mongrel had taken the liberty of stealing a life ring from my local Sydney boat ramp. An articulated pontoon was recently installed at the ramp and at the end of the new pontoon was a life ring which was thoughtfully added for use in an emergency.

I walked past the ramp recently and was angered to find the life ring gone, only a few weeks after it had been installed.! I can appreciate that thieves are generally tilted towards the knucklehead side of the decency spectrum, but why someone would decide that a communal life saving device is worthy of stealing is beyond me. To any thieving lowlife that is blessed with the ability to read please do us all a favour - go and pinch some hubcaps off a moving car on the freeway and LEAVE THE LIFE SAVING EQUIPMENT ALONE!

With that off my chest I can feel the elevated heart rate falling, but there's no rest for the wicked; whilst on the subject of boat ramp theft, let's tick off a few other petty thief inspired annoyances.

Why does a petty delinquent need to steal D-shackles that most boat owners have on their trailer safety chains? If you're that hard up and can't spare a couple of bucks, then for goodness sake either save some cash or ask me for a shackle and I'll fork out the dollars to buy you one.

What about people that "steal" boat parking spots? Technically, they may not be thieves but I always feel somewhat robbed if after launching my boat there are no free trailer parking spots because the owner of some pesky little trailerless car decides they need a "car and trailer only" spot more than I do. Where are parking officers when you need them?

I could go on forever: missing propellers from boats parked on the street; detachable winch handles that you forget to remove which go walkabout in your absence; stuff pinched out of the boat the moment you turn your back to park the trailer. Shame on you Mr Thieving Mongrel.

How about you guys, have you experienced anything similar that causes your blood to boil or am I being too harsh when pushing needles into my mongrel thief voodoo doll?