At 07:51 AM 10/26/2000 -0800, Gil Huguley wrote:
>List:
>I personally know of some admitted tampering going on at DRMO Ft. Lewis,
WA. I was advised by an individual to be present on the first day of
inspection for a sale, find a good truck and then take certain steps to
make the vehicle les desirable. Then the truck would not receive as many
bids or as high a bid, etc. etc. I find that kind of activity repugnant if
not downright criminal. On second thought it is criminal. It is damaging
government property, and should be prosecuted as such.
>
>I originally thought to tell you of the steps this individual took, but
realized that would be irresponsible. Sort of like the newspapers
reporting on terrorist bombings and describing the steps to construct a
homemade bomb.
>
>BTW, I believe DRMO Ft. Lewis now routinely removes the batteries from
sale vehicles. I guess they got tired of "test drives" around the lot. (LOL)
The company I work for has purchased many vehicles from Ft. Lewis DRMO, and
I've seen the batteries
removed post-inspection on only one occasion; the most recent, and in a
M1009. The deuces we pick
up regularly have worthless 6TL's left in place (unfortunately), and
probably wouldn't 'test drive'
about the lot without a handy slave-cable and a gallon or so of ether.
Still, your-mileage-may-vary.
Sabotage? I can vouch for that first-hand on one occasion many years ago.
One of the first batches
of M886's came up on the National, and a number of the runners went for
around 500.00 USD, one
of which was purchased by the company in beautiful condition. Evidently,
the next lot went up
on the National or something - and the trucks were all pulled when the bids
failed to exceed the
$500.00 range once again, and they were put on the Local some months later.
This local sale was a paddle-auction, which I attended, having been
familiar with the condition of the
same vehicles which had been sold on the National. Inspection of these
vehicles revealed the old
National sale paperwork and stickers which still lay about inside (replaced
with the same sort of
thing for the Local), and, this time, the six or so trucks went for
between 750.00 and about 1600.00.
After the auction, a few hardy souls tried to get their units fired up
including myself, and, in the
course of first parading the one I won, found that the crankcase was full
to the brim with
water. Naturally, I drained the frothy mess out of it and replaced the
filter and oil with fresh,
and it roared to life for its trip home (on the front axle mind - DRMO
forklifts had bent each
and every rear driveshaft into a sort of lazy horseshoe.)
I made it back to about the I-405 interchange when it threw a rod bearing.
To make a long story
short, the water had done its magic within the block, and what was left
wasn't salvageable after
it grenaded. Later, I made some enquiries of some of the other purchasers
of these things that
day, and found much to my surprise that EVERY block had been filled up with
water.
What had evidently happened (and I can't prove a word) is that certain yard
employees had decided
"if they're going to go for such a piddly-ass amount of money, there's no
way they're getting
running trucks", and the water-fairy was on the move.
As far as scams goes, one of the favourite ones up here went something like
this:
Buddy, usually in charge of a local military maintenance facility or
perhaps the motor pool,
would hear such-and-such a group of vehicles was destined for Crown Assets
(our version
of Dr. MO). This fellow would ensure one of these vehicles was a 'cherry'
example, sometimes
using up NOS replacement stock still hanging around on hastily arranged
work orders, and then
contacting friends on the 'outside' wishing a nice truck. Said transport
fellow would then
record the mileage on the odometer and then disconnect the speedo drive.
"Pal," says
the busy little transport fellow to his friend, "whatever the truck with
XXXXX miles
goes for, make sure you're the one that gets it!" To make the story
complete, they'd either
take yellow mechanic's crayon and write "Engine Blown - don't start!" or
similar on the ticket, vehicle
body or documents, just so the price wouldn't be out of reach of the shill.
I've seen others do similar things, sometimes organized to the point that
official looking scrawl or
sometimes even actual Identity and Condition Tags are applied to vehicles
during or before the
earliest of inspection times, reflecting mythical ailments and warnings as
to the machine's unsafe
nature or estimated cost of repair. Heh. One fellow, rumour has it, even
had transport remove
the transmission and toss it in the back of this particular pickup truck,
despite the fact that
the transmission and truck were in perfect working order. Naturally, the
conclusion drawn
by J. Average Auctiongoer would be that the tranny is hooped, which is why
they took it out!
Someone got a deal.
The irritating thing at the later Ft. Lewis sales has been the post-sale
vultures which seem
to borrow little bits and pieces off of trucks to make up shortfalls on
theirs. Usually, we
take polaroids of the vehicles we bid on, and take them with us after we
win the bid (and usually
as close as possible to the award date - in order to help stave off the
vultures). That way, if there's
too much missing, or the Cannibalization Point has decided they can
continue to cannibalize after
having the thing towed to Dr. Mo, we have some recourse with the
Powers-That-Be. It's not
been bad recently. I've only had two batteries removed from one truck, as
I mentioned, and one
1009 spare tire go...spare. We did have a deuce awhile back that had its
wipers, 'ignition' switch
and a bunch of other nuisance stuff go walkies, but it was fairly hard to
determine whether
it was one of our fellow vultures, or someone uniformly employed by Uncle.
Andy Hill
MVPA 9211
Vancouver, B.C.
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