Great Lakes Jeep Thing's Jeep CJ Grill 'Stolen!' PLEASE HELP!!

Great Lakes Jeep Thing's beloved tow behind Jeep CJ grill, 'Bubba' has been sold out from under the club and we would like help tracking it down so we can attempt to buy it back from who ever Erik (OOC) has sold it to.


Long story short the grill was built from donations by the members of GLJT for the club and has been a fixture at club events for the last several years. The member who stored it and had it titled to them sold it off this weekend without any notice to the club or it's members. Needless to say the club is both heart broken and angry; our members put countless hours into that grill and are all upset to hear that notonly is it gone but it was sold without us even having a chance to purchase it back.


For the record the member who stored it had never complained about the finacial burden or ask for somebody else to take over duties even when it was offered on several occasions.


We, obviously, bear no ill will towards the person who purchased Bubba, it is a great grill that any Jeep club or enthusiast would be happy to own and how could they know things where not on the up and up, they took Erik at his word that the whole thing was a legit deal.


If you have Bubba or know who does we would like it if you could get in contact with us regarding purchasing the grill back if possible. We know it is a lot to ask, Bubba is a rare treasure and if I had it I would nto want to give it up either but the people who really own it never had a say in it's sale.





Thanks,

Doug Haynes

Long time GLJT member.

Man that sucks, that's a cool grill. Good luck guys.

Sorry to hear; good luck finding it.

Is there any way you can get the police to help track it down when the title is brought to the DMV, and maybe buy the grill back from the new owner after explaining what happened? Long shot, but maybe it's possible. Good luck.

Cool grill sucks it's gone.

kastein said:

Is there any way you can get the police to help track it down when the title is brought to the DMV, and maybe buy the grill back from the new owner after explaining what happened? Long shot, but maybe it's possible. Good luck.

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Sadly the grill had been titled and registered to the person who was storing so there is no real legal recourse here and the former 'owner' of the grill is refusing to talk to anyone or discuss the whole thing at all which is why this has gotten posted everywhere.

4x4 enthusiasts tend to be a good group of people on the whole and I am reasonably sure that anyone who purchased the grill and knows the whole story now would not want to get it back to the people who built it. The entire club is hurt and confused that he would have done this with out ever mentioning his intention or offering it up to the club first.

Sure would be interesting to hear the other side of this "theft" accusation. You might want to change your terminology if the person who sold it had it legally titled in their name.

Just sayin'.

please send me a pm.... I might be able to help you out

damn, that sucks. that is a really sweet grill!

ECKSJAY said:

Sure would be interesting to hear the other side of this "theft" accusation. You might want to change your terminology if the person who sold it had it legally titled in their name.

Just sayin'.

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If you can get him to tell you his side of the story please fill us in; he will not answer his phone, return calls or otherwise communicate with anyone in the club. The last contact any member had with him was Saturday when he said he sold it and it is on it's way to Wisconsin with no warning.

Please keep in mind the grill was built years ago by the members with parts and funds they all donated; it is a well documented fact that even though he held the title it belonged to the club and he would not sell it out from under us.

notoriousDUG said:

Sadly the grill had been titled and registered to the person who was storing so there is no real legal recourse here and the former 'owner' of the grill is refusing to talk to anyone or discuss the whole thing at all which is why this has gotten posted everywhere.

4x4 enthusiasts tend to be a good group of people on the whole and I am reasonably sure that anyone who purchased the grill and knows the whole story now would not want to get it back to the people who built it. The entire club is hurt and confused that he would have done this with out ever mentioning his intention or offering it up to the club first.

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So... It is NOT stolen, but owned by one of your Club Members, who sold it.

I smell drama

He who owns title owns property. No title, no property.

Ron

Zuki-Ron said:

So... It is NOT stolen, but owned by one of your Club Members, who sold it.

I smell drama

He who owns title owns property. No title, no property.

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Damn I hate agreeing with you but yeah. I think your only hope is to find the guy who bought it and offer him more money to buy it back.

Then title it under your club name, not an individual.

DrMoab said:

Damn I hate agreeing with you but yeah. I think your only hope is to find the guy who bought it and offer him more money to buy it back.

Then title it under your club name, not an individual.

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That is the recovery plan and as for the title GLJT is not incorporated, it was but when the club downsized it became clear that the funds would just not be there to maintain the corporation and still hold the types of events we wished to put on.

The decision was made to title it in a members name with the understanding that the grill truly belonged to the club itself being as it was built by the club from parts donated by the members. Over the years it was suggested that it be titled either jointly between two members and held by a third or titled in other manners that safeguarded it from this exact catastrophe. Each time people vouched for Erik, then a member in good standing, and it was kept like that and Erik, publicly on our forums where it is still recorded, stated it was not his but the clubs and he would make sure that when the time came it was properly passed one.

You can imagine our surprise when this morning he posted it has been sold and he will not take or return calls.

The kicker is that you are correct, we have no legal recourse here and will be forced to buy back something we already own, which sucks, but it is the only way we are going to get it back. Also please keep in mind that all he would have had to do was mention the situation and the club would have been willing to purchase it instead of the seller but he was unable to even extend that simple courtesy to a group of people who had helped him and stood behind him in the past.

Where Erik willing to talk to anyone, or even let us know who it was sold to or where it is there would be no need for any of this but in order to buy it back we have to find it.

GLJT does not feel whoever purchased it from Erik did anything wrong; to them it was a normal transaction. Erik is the one who choose to screw over his friends and back out of an agreement he had commited to by selling something that did not truely belong to him; if that is not theft I do not know what it. True, you can argue the scemantics if the whole thign to no end but in the long run he choose to pick the course of action that screwed his friends over and enriched himself. Where any of you in our shoes I am pretty sure you would feel screwed over as well.

notoriousDUG said:

Where any of you in our shoes I am pretty sure you would feel screwed over as well.

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I'm pretty sure everyone here feels your pain.

DrMoab said:

I'm pretty sure everyone here feels your pain.

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I don't doubt it but you have to understand that having it pointed out how the title thing works is, for several of the members, like having salt rubbed into the wound.

I never liked the arrangement because it left the door open for this situation; I always felt it should have been jointly titled between a pair of members or titled to one and the title held by another to prevent this from happening. Sadly a lot of our members were friends with Erik and continually vouched that he would never do such a thing and he commented on the board that he would never do exactly what he has done now and the arrangement stayed as it was.

As much as I love being right it is a very empty victory right now.

Yah, but I'm getting tired of the slander, and the drama.

Ron

Zuki-Ron said:

Yah, but I'm getting tired of the slander, and the drama.

Ron

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You can see it your way but there is an entire club that feels Erik stole it from them by selling it as he did.

You can argue about titles and the letter of the law and mock the drama or you can do what you can to help a group of people who want to know what happened to the grill they worked so hard on so they can try and buy it back from the new owner.

It's your choice you can steer things in a positive or negative direction and if neither of those appeal to you can you do the membership of GLJT a favor and just ignore the whole thing so the people who do want to help can do so.

It sucks but Having it titled in one person's name was a BAD idea. I hope you can get something worked out and if not you'll have to count your losses and build another one. Not sure about GLJT but I'm sure there are a few members you could whip one up real quick!

FlexdXJ said:

It sucks but Having it titled in one person's name was a BAD idea. I hope you can get something worked out and if not you'll have to count your losses and build another one. Not sure about GLJT but I'm sure there are a few members you could whip one up real quick!

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I was just about to suggest that if your whole club is really this upset have a morale event and build another one. Better than the last! And name it GLJT's revenge.

Zuki-Ron said:

Yah, but I'm getting tired of the slander, and the drama.

Ron

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No shit.

Lesson learned. People make dumb mistakes every day. Grow up and move on.