Grand Theft Auto: Not as Fun as the Videogame

[Seshat]

In a direct line, Perth is closer to the capital cities of Sri Lanka and India than to Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne or Sydney. Adelaide is the closest major Australian city to Perth.


Oh, and when Latekin says that Western Australia is a big state, she means that it's approximately the size of 1/3 of the contiguous US states. Or 1/3 the size of Australia. Either way.

"That's not a state. THIS is a state."

[HiddenMica]

farthest drive for me was from Boston to Yellowstone National Park. Only about 2500 miles... :grins: Way there were took a couple stops (not many) and it took 7 days. Way home it only took 5 because my dad had insomnia from being away from home for so long. All in all we were away from home for 24 days. Never stayed in a hotel either. Was either sleeping in the back of the car (we had a jeep Cherokee so we just put an inflatable mattress in the back and put the coolers under the car at rest stops) or in the tent when we got to the park.

[dakhur]

It's partly why Aussies are always amused when people talk about how big the USNA is. Street directions in Australia can consist of "drive down that road and turn left on Wednesday."

[Blue Ginger]

It's partly why Aussies are always amused when people talk about how big the USNA is. Street directions in Australia can consist of "drive down that road and turn left on Wednesday."

Yep this is about right.

My house to my gran's is about 3 hours 1 way. I make 6 turns along the way and 5 are all within the first 800 metres. The final turn is the one into her street.

Where I used to live was a similar distance but only had 4 turns, 3 were within 10 minutes, last was turning into her street.

Both drives were just over 200kms.

[Latekin]

Update!

Good ol' Tim was spotted in a well known coastal bogan hangout, fighting some other idiot in a MacDonalds carpark. Both idiots scarpered when the manager threatened to call the cops, but we know it was him....

...because he's got the plates for the stolen vehicle on his old panel van.

On'ya Tim.

[eltf177]

Update!

Good ol' Tim was spotted in a well known coastal bogan hangout, fighting some other idiot in a MacDonalds carpark. Both idiots scarpered when the manager threatened to call the cops, but we know it was him....

...because he's got the plates for the stolen vehicle on his old panel van.

On'ya Tim.

If that's so, where's your vehicle?

[Ophbalance]

If that's so, where's your vehicle?

Likely a burned husk or parted out.

[Argabarga]

Back when I was working for a local Sheriff, we had a term for guys like Tim who would take a relatively minor 30-day offence, (unauthorized motor vehicle use) and slowly but surely compound it with additional minor crimes, (selling parts of the car, forging plates/paperwork to keep driving, selling drugs out of said car to pay for the forging, constantly running from the cops and skipping out on bills at hotels/restaurants to stay on the run) that by the time he inevitably WAS caught, he'd turned what should have been a fine and weekend in lockup into a 5 year prison term on the State's dime.....

It was called "Serving life, on the layaway plan"

[KuariKaydrith]

It was called "Serving life, on the layaway plan"

Sounds like something an idiot ex of mine did within the year after I left him. The jerk lost everything - house, job, car, truck, and family. And then he promptly blamed me for his life going to hell. Yep, whatever, jackass.

[taxguykarl]

Sounds like something an idiot ex of mine did within the year after I left him. The jerk lost everything - house, job, car, truck, and family. And then he promptly blamed me for his life going to hell. Yep, whatever, jackass.

This sounds like an interesting thread in itself. Do tell, Kuari.

[fireheart]

Likely a burned husk or parted out.

Given it's a bogan, the former seems likely. (Most "chop shop" operations are run by guys who do not fall into the bogan category, but do know quite a bit about cars. Knowing about cars does not make someone a bogan, however a bogan can know quite a bit about cars-namely how to soup them up to compensate for something)

[Tama]

I thought it must be parted out too. Or sold for scrap, possibly.

[Latekin]

I'm gonna go with burned out husk somewhere.Tends to be bogan M.O. We'll probably find it out in the bush somewhere.

As for Tim, if he's smart he'll head out of that bogan hangout and move on to one in the hills for a bit. But he's not smart. I expect we'll be hearing about him again soon.

[KuariKaydrith]

This sounds like an interesting thread in itself. Do tell, Kuari.

I'd known the guy for ages before I started dating him in the first place. I'd known that he had a record and spent time in jail but he'd been staying on the right side of the law for a lot of years before he and I got together.

He was a drinker but as long as he didn't touch the hard stuff he was a goofy drunk and didn't make any truly rotten decisions. So when he suggested that we buy a house together and move out of my parents' basement suite I jumped at the idea. Yes, I know, living in my parents' basement suite sounds really dumb but there were reasons why it worked out for me, especially prior to me dating P, as a single parent trying to go to school and work with a toddler running around.

So, we bought the house, but at the last moment I decided not to have my name added to any of the paperwork. I really don't know why I got the feeling that it would be a bad idea, but I am so glad that I listened to that bit of intuition. My name was only going to be on the paperwork as a technicality, not because I was really bringing anything financial to the table - the bank approved the mortgage entirely on P's earnings and credit rating. So yeah, at one point he was actually a fairly responsible person after growing up and learning from his stints in prison...or so everybody thought.

I'm still not sure what exactly happened, but he decided to start hanging out with a rougher crowd of people he knew from work. No longer was he just drinking - he was getting into drugs. Now, I don't have any problems with people having a toke here and there, but it quickly escalated beyond that to the point that anytime P wasn't working he was out of his mind. The final straw was coming home with my son one day after school to finding P hot-knifing - one hard and fast rule I had always had is that no drugs were to come into the house. And for the longest time P kept that rule.

I quickly made plans to leave but didn't tell P until I had already signed a rental agreement for a place away from him. He had started to become very paranoid and I didn't trust him not to start something. My gut was telling me to play everything close to my chest, especially when I figured out that he was getting into seriously heavy drugs.

When I left I told him that I wasn't leaving permanently - I was, but I wasn't going to tell him that until I was safely out of his reach - that I just needed to figure out who I was because I had never actually lived on my own before, that it was something I needed to do. So, my son and I left. The day that we moved, P stayed home from work to 'oversee' what I was doing, and was accusing me of trying to steal from him, and basically ranting and raving like a lunatic. My dad was there to get between P and I if things escalated any further.

It took P about three months to realize that my son and I were not coming back, that the relationship was over. But I guess he kept holding out hope that I would have a change of heart - the only way that would have happened is for P to get completely clean. No more drinking, no more using, and getting some sort of mental help for dealing with whatever the fuck was going on in his head.

He got worse. Way worse. I kept in touch with my former neighbours and they were telling me about the random people in and out of the place, the cops parking across the street, and the house going right down hill until it looked like a complete dump. And I started hearing from people about the drugs he was pumping into his system, and that he had started turning the upstairs of the house into a grow op...and then stealing stuff from work. High powered lights, PVP pipe, computer stuff.

And getting caught by his bosses. Who offered him an out - get help, go to rehab, and he wouldn't get charged and he'd also get to keep his job.

Nope, P wasn't having any of it. He flipped the fuck out and blamed EVERYTHING he was doing on me. Despite that by this time I hadn't been with him for close to a year. I was the one driving him to drink, do drugs, and steal anything that wasn't bolted down. Well, his workplace went after him for anything they could, in conjunction with having him charged with theft.

Naturally, once the law got into the mix all sorts of things started coming out of the woodwork. He did a stint for fraud, and when he got out he stole a car so that he could still get around town to pick up his drugs. He did time for that. Then he 'borrowed' a friend's car and fucked off to another province for a month before coming back, not expecting that this now former friend had reported the car stolen and had charges laid against P. More time in jail.

By the time P's former job had filed for whatever charges and had gone through the court process he was looking at a long stint behind bars. Oh, he went, still cursing my name for whatever reason.

Last I heard he was out of prison, cannot hold a job that does not involve catching chickens, cannot get a driver's license, is living with a woman only because he cannot rent a place in his own name, and is in the process of drinking himself to death. Oh, and when he does decide to leave the house he regularly gets picked up for public intoxication.

I dodged such a bullet, let me tell you. And it's really sad what happened to him because he really used to be such a loving, caring man who treated my son and I incredibly well.

[XCashier]

I dodged such a bullet, let me tell you. And it's really sad what happened to him because he really used to be such a loving, caring man who treated my son and I incredibly well.

That is sad, that he chose drugs and law breaking over a good relationship. Dude desperately needs help, but he will not seek or accept it, nor will he ever admit he was wrong or made bad choices.