Well, me and a buddy went junkyarding today in what turned out to be one bizarre event. The second yard we visited is an unorganized disaster, but they get some pretty nice cars in. Well, we're scavenging through what they have, when I spot a 2 door Grand Prix GT (pre '97) at the far end of the VERY last isle in the yard. I run over to it spotting something odd. I thought maybe my eyes were deceiving me because the windows were tinted, but low and behold, when I opened the door.......DARK GREY LEATHER SEATS!!! And I'm talking the cloth plus leather kind like in the TGPs!!! What's more, the entire interior was in mint condition and completely intact (yes, even the driver's seat)!! It had the CD player style steering wheel controls, and the best tape deck offered for that year (looks just like my CD player in a cassette version). Even the steering wheel was in good shape. I look at the odometer, and I see 89,000 on the clock. No wonder everything was in pretty damn good shape.
So, running short on time (the yard closed at 5 P.M.) and freezing our asses off (it's still pretty cold here in Chicago), me and my friend took off as much as we could, and figured we'd come back for the rest. At least this way it would look less desirable for someone to take since the majority would be missing. Figuring it was getting close to 5, I look around the yard real quick (which is pretty freaking huge), and see a few other people wondering around. We couldn't get the driver's seat out because we needed to move it, and we ran out of time for the door panels. I got EVERYthing else to convert the TGP to dark grey interior. We strapped everything to my buddy's 2-wheel "hand truck", and I grabbed a few things and the tools and started the long journey to the counter up front. I had a bad feeling this was going to happen, but when we got up there, we found that they had closed, everyone was gone, and we were LOCKED IN!!!!!!!
I dropped everything and ran over to the gate to find that my buddy's massive Suburban was the only vehicle (save for some abandoned, broken down cars way off to the side) in the parking lot. It was just barely after 5!! WTF?!?! Granted we were late, #1 no one came around to declare closing time, #2 how in the hell did everyone lock up the office, lock up the gates, and pull out of the parking lot that fast when there were still people straddling just before 5? I was standing there thinking "this can't be happening". My fingers were numb as it was, I was starving, and the last thing I needed was to wait here to figure out a way out.
We thought it out for a minute. The approximately 7' foot fence was covered in barbed wire, and we had a heavy ass tool bag and dolly with us. I thought about calling the cops, but then I considered the amount of time it would take for them to get here, and then to find the owner or whoever was going to unlock the gate, then wait for that person to arrive and let us out. We're talking HOURS, and there's no way we could wait that long. So, we broke out the digital camera (which is always on us for random finds in the junkyards), took a BUNCH of pictures from the inside (to prove we were there after hours in case they try to say "your word against ours"), took a few photos of the parts we pulled that we dropped by the check out booth, before going with plan B. We moved all the parts over to a safer place so they wouldn't get destroyed the next morning. I noticed that the sliding gate where the cars were let in from didn't have any barbed wire at the top, so I let my friend climb it first and get over the top. I then handed him the dolly hand truck, and the much harder to lift over your head tool bag. Then I scaled the fence, and slid down the other side, too.
Needless to say, all this was totally unnecessary to go through. I have never heard of a junkyard without a PA system or a person walking around to notify everyone that "times up". I can't believe every employee left without checking to make sure no one was inside, ESPECIALLY since there was a massive truck in the parking lot. Guess they saw it, but didn't care. But they'll care tomorrow when I ask for the owner's contact info to have my attorney send him a letter. I have to work, but hopefully my buddies going in to pick up the parts and the number tomorrow. We'll see what happens. But needless to say, I'm EXTREMELY PISSED!!!
So, running short on time (the yard closed at 5 P.M.) and freezing our asses off (it's still pretty cold here in Chicago), me and my friend took off as much as we could, and figured we'd come back for the rest. At least this way it would look less desirable for someone to take since the majority would be missing. Figuring it was getting close to 5, I look around the yard real quick (which is pretty freaking huge), and see a few other people wondering around. We couldn't get the driver's seat out because we needed to move it, and we ran out of time for the door panels. I got EVERYthing else to convert the TGP to dark grey interior. We strapped everything to my buddy's 2-wheel "hand truck", and I grabbed a few things and the tools and started the long journey to the counter up front. I had a bad feeling this was going to happen, but when we got up there, we found that they had closed, everyone was gone, and we were LOCKED IN!!!!!!!
I dropped everything and ran over to the gate to find that my buddy's massive Suburban was the only vehicle (save for some abandoned, broken down cars way off to the side) in the parking lot. It was just barely after 5!! WTF?!?! Granted we were late, #1 no one came around to declare closing time, #2 how in the hell did everyone lock up the office, lock up the gates, and pull out of the parking lot that fast when there were still people straddling just before 5? I was standing there thinking "this can't be happening". My fingers were numb as it was, I was starving, and the last thing I needed was to wait here to figure out a way out.
We thought it out for a minute. The approximately 7' foot fence was covered in barbed wire, and we had a heavy ass tool bag and dolly with us. I thought about calling the cops, but then I considered the amount of time it would take for them to get here, and then to find the owner or whoever was going to unlock the gate, then wait for that person to arrive and let us out. We're talking HOURS, and there's no way we could wait that long. So, we broke out the digital camera (which is always on us for random finds in the junkyards), took a BUNCH of pictures from the inside (to prove we were there after hours in case they try to say "your word against ours"), took a few photos of the parts we pulled that we dropped by the check out booth, before going with plan B. We moved all the parts over to a safer place so they wouldn't get destroyed the next morning. I noticed that the sliding gate where the cars were let in from didn't have any barbed wire at the top, so I let my friend climb it first and get over the top. I then handed him the dolly hand truck, and the much harder to lift over your head tool bag. Then I scaled the fence, and slid down the other side, too.
Needless to say, all this was totally unnecessary to go through. I have never heard of a junkyard without a PA system or a person walking around to notify everyone that "times up". I can't believe every employee left without checking to make sure no one was inside, ESPECIALLY since there was a massive truck in the parking lot. Guess they saw it, but didn't care. But they'll care tomorrow when I ask for the owner's contact info to have my attorney send him a letter. I have to work, but hopefully my buddies going in to pick up the parts and the number tomorrow. We'll see what happens. But needless to say, I'm EXTREMELY PISSED!!!
