JEFF LOOMIS' Van Broken Into In St. Louis - Assistance Sought

[Jind]

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=188776

Fucking assholes stealing other peoples stuff... Hope they catch the fuckers.

 

[Wyldechyld]

According to Jeff's facebook, the guitars and axe-fx/kemper are safe. But all of the money (including all of the money they've made from the tour) was stolen. Shitty situation. Hopefully they'll be able to continue the tour!

EDIT: In another post, it says everything is gone. So maybe the guitars aren't safe after all.

 

[amarshism]

Seems suss. The first rule of touring is keep the money on you at all times and bank at every opportunity.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Considering that area of Missouri, and the fact that the police said it was a common occurrence in the area, I am pretty sure it was a meth addict looking to score more drugs. Shitty situation none the less.

 

[AD Chaos]

I got my bike stolen today, while I was having lunch at a restaurant (McDonalds). Seriously fuck thieves everywhere. Including the ones who have scammed people in here.


If you're too lazy or stupid to be productive in any way to society, why don't you do the world a favor and kill yourself?
Fuck you, damn parasites.

 

[kaomao]

the problem is not only the people stealing, it's really the people buyng stolen stuff.....
I hate those assholes buying stolen stuff, FUCK YOU

 

[CubanDude]

Considering that area of Missouri, and the fact that the police said it was a common occurrence in the area, I am pretty sure it was a meth addict looking to score more drugs. Shitty situation none the less.

Meth becomes a pretty big problem in the states, doesn't it? I hear it quite often in the media these days, but you should never trust them

 

[~BURNY~]

Each time I see the title of this thread I wonder who is that dutch "Van Broken" guy...

 

[Jind]

Meth becomes a pretty big problem in the states, doesn't it? I hear it quite often in the media these days, but you should never trust them

Actually meth usage has declined almost 50 percent between 2008 and 2010 according to a 2011 report, similarly. cocaine usage has as well - the risers were marijuana usage and illicit use of prescription medications (oxycontin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and benzodiazepines, ...) which is the number one growing trend in illicit drug use.

 

[Jind]

Each time I see the title of this thread I wonder who is that dutch "Van Broken" guy...

Blame the copy editor over at Blabbermouth - I copied and pasted it from them

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Meth becomes a pretty big problem in the states, doesn't it? I hear it quite often in the media these days, but you should never trust them

Almost 20 years ago when my family lived in Alabama, my dad was sent off to work to test and enforce construction work converting a WalMart into a Super Walmart in Sikeston Missouri, about two hours south of St. Louis. The rest of the fam tracked up there to stay with him for a few weeks. When we got there he said that the city had been been named the meth capital of the US (or the world, not completely sure). The city had paid for billboards everywhere that said things along the line of "if you suspect a household or individual is using or growing meth, report them". My dad also said that you could tell most people there were on the stuff, methed our like hell with sores on them and rotten teeth and from what he heard it wasn't just a problem with that one city but that whole area of Missouri. I never really found out as we didn't get out too much when we were there. Apparently the city cleaned up its act from what I heard, I wouldn't know though, because I have been in California the past 13 years.

Meth use used to be common some years ago but like Jind said, its more marijuana, opiates and benzos. More often than not though the common drug junkies are on that will go out and steal stuff to fund their habit, and usually tweaking during such thefts, is crack and meth. Given the area, I would imagine that it was someone looking for some way to fund their junkie lifestyle. I could be wrong, it could have been some twat fans that stalked Loomis to steal his gear.

 

[Jind]

Almost 20 years ago when my family lived in Alabama, my dad was sent off to work to test and enforce construction work converting a WalMart into a Super Walmart in Sikeston Missouri, about two hours south of St. Louis. The rest of the fam tracked up there to stay with him for a few weeks. When we got there he said that the city had been been named the meth capital of the US (or the world, not completely sure). The city had paid for billboards everywhere that said things along the line of "if you suspect a household or individual is using or growing meth, report them". My dad also said that you could tell most people there were on the stuff, methed our like hell with sores on them and rotten teeth and from what he heard it wasn't just a problem with that one city but that whole area of Missouri. I never really found out as we didn't get out too much when we were there. Apparently the city cleaned up its act from what I heard, I wouldn't know though, because I have been in California the past 13 years.

Meth use used to be common some years ago but like Jind said, its more marijuana, opiates and benzos. More often than not though the common drug junkies are on that will go out and steal stuff to fund their habit, and usually tweaking during such thefts, is crack and meth. Given the area, I would imagine that it was someone looking for some way to fund their junkie lifestyle. I could be wrong, it could have been some twat fans that stalked Loomis to steal his gear.

Your story of that Missouri town seems a helluva lot like the story of a town very close to where I live (about a 15 minute drive) called Willimantic Connecticut. It was known as "Heroin Town" USA for many years as can be read about in this series in The Hartford Courant: http://www.courant.com/news/special-reports/hc-heroin,0,6678044.storygallery

The national media caught on and exploited it with stories on 60 Minutes and other networks all referencing a place called The Hotel Hooker (a large boarding house on Main Street) as the epicenter of the problem. The town got such a bad reputation - so much so that a film was made back in 2003 - 2004 that tried to show that while there was indeed some problems with heroin use in Willimantic, the residents of the Hotel Hooker were in many cases just poor people with no where else to go.

That Courant story, while based upon individual true stories, really hurt the towns overall reputation and was the impetus for the town to really focus on efforts to clean up the (exaggerated )problem and to work to improve it's reputation but to also make the town a much more appealing place. My favorite haunt for a beer and food is just a few blocks up from the former Hotel Hooker on Main Street, a place called the Willimantic Brewing Company & Main Street Cafe - a great brew pub built in an early 1900's old Post Office at the top of Main Street. great beer, great food, and great staff and regulars as customers. Main Street is not one of those everyday Main Streets yo see all over small New England towns.

Sure it's an old New England mill town and like many of those scattered throughout the area it's had to adapt to shuttered mills and as such is no longer the thriving towns they once were, but it's certainly much better than it's lowest period was.

You can see the entire movie Heroin Town here: http://www.ovguide.com/heroin-town-9202a8c04000641f8000000017803862

 

[madbutcher]

I live in a suburb outside st louis. Have played the venue he played that night at a few times. It's my favorite venue in the area, great midas rig and always a good sound guy working. Generally its pretty safe there, especially during a show and since everyone has to smoke outside. but its very "block to block" in the city. A couple can be fine and then a couple are bad. They were on a not so good one. I'd never leave my gear unattended in a car though.

 

[bryan_kilco]

the problem is not only the people stealing, it's really the people buyng stolen stuff.....
I hate those assholes buying stolen stuff, FUCK YOU

I may or may not be one of these people. Some years back, a friend of a friend contacted us about a bunch of mics/cables/random gear he had. I think the dude wanted like $80 for a box of stuff. Yeah, we took it. I didn't know if it was stolen or not. Didn't really care at the time. Still feel sorta weird about it even though it's been years.

 

[madbutcher]

Meth isnt very big in the city though. thats more southern and western MO. StL has a big heroin and pill problem. They should be getting all the gear and serial numbers out there though just in case..... worth a shot I would think.

 

[CubanDude]

Thanks for the info, Winter and Jind. From what I've read, and what I think also sounds plausible, the amount of meth consumers is hard to track down, because everybody can produce it by himself, making it pretty cheap and not as evident as consuming heroin or something like that (apart from the physical sights), and especially popular in rural areas. actually they even say it becomes more and more of a problem here in germany, but I can't tell that I've ever met somebody who was on meth, so idk.

 

[colonel kurtz]

the amount of meth consumers is hard to track down, because everybody can produce it by himself

kinda sorta...making meth is something that anyone can do on their own, but it's a bit of a pain in the ass process - and especially moreso now that the purchases of cold medications that are used in its making are controlled, and the cops get notified if the same person makes multiple purchases from multiple stores

honestly, meth is/was way more of an issue in cali and the southwest than in the midwest, although there's a few areas around me where it's pretty rampant. the biggest problem nowadays is just good ol', straight up, cheap afghan heroin. first tons of people started getting hooked on prescription pain killers, then turned straight to the needle after they also came up with new regulations to bullshit RX's of pills.

 

[egan.]

I live in a suburb outside st louis. Have played the venue he played that night at a few times. It's my favorite venue in the area, great midas rig and always a good sound guy working. Generally its pretty safe there, especially during a show and since everyone has to smoke outside. but its very "block to block" in the city. A couple can be fine and then a couple are bad. They were on a not so good one. I'd never leave my gear unattended in a car though.

I used to live in STL and have lots of friends that have bought and fixed up places in the city. I also think it's weird to talk about the city as though it has a particularly bad meth problem relative to the other cities (the state obviously does). OTOH, the city-- even the good parts-- have been bad for car break-ins and car theft for as long as I can remember.

 

[Pman]

This is now a meth thread.