I wanted to get pictures this time! So as promised here is a picture of Ben's new truck.

My heart will never forget the look on my son’s face, as he looked upon his truck as it sat burned in an open area. The tears in his eyes did not fall –but they were there. His heart was broken. He was defeated and felt totally violated.

This child of mine who holds my heart within the palm of his hands. My only son, my last born. The child that almost was not.

As I looked at him from the expanse of no more than two feet, my heart broke for him as he looked at the charred remains of his truck. He so did not deserve this! Not only did the thieves take away his truck, but also his honest trust in the world and mankind. They took away something that I can never give back to him. He will never be the same person again.

Buying vehicles for our children is something that Jamie and I always said we would never do. How could we make this right again for Ben, how could we give him back a little bit of what the thieves took away, without going back on the one big ‘rule’ we set out for our children long before they could even walk?

After much talk we decided that we would buy a truck and sell it back to Ben. He would still have to pay for the truck himself, but in payments that he could afford. With the decision made we went in search of what we hoped would again put the smile back in our son’s eyes.

And so it came to be that I bought a new truck!

It’s a little 1991 chev. S10 pickup – burgundy in color – and will hold the heart of my heart. I owned it for all of about 2 hours, and then I sold it to my son with the understanding that he was going to have to make payments to me until it was paid off.

I know that I can never take back what happened to him, or what the thieves took away, but it is my hope that he will look back and see the kindness that came out of this experience. I hope that in some small way this will help to renew his faith in mankind. If nothing else I hope it will show him, that his dad and mom really are on his side, and are not the bad guys in his life.

It is not all bad news with Ben. He had something very exciting happen to him the other day. Something that I will have to tell you about in my next post as I am out of time for now. I will also take a picture of the new truck so you can see it.

So until next time... Stay tuned.

What a sad site it was to see Ben's truck in such a state. I have no words that can describe the people that did this. Unbelievable that people could do such things.

The white foamy stuff you can see is what is left of the canopy. Any thing that was not metal is totally gone.

Ben only had basic insurance on the truck, so he will not receive any compensation at all. He also will have to pay for the truck to be towed out of its current location. As Ben would say "It Sucks!"

We finally after much time with the truck headed back out. Darkness was setting in fast, and things were feeling really creepy. When we got to the last set of blocks, where you have to zig zag out of the bush to get onto the road, we could see that the boards we had noticed on the side of the road coming in, were once again on fire. We wasted no time getting out of there!

And so now we move on....

"Yes it seems Ben's truck has been located on regals road, the officer that found it said it is in pretty bad shape, but he was able to identify that it was Ben's truck"

What?!?!?! We had  been all over Regals road, and the truck was not there!

We phone the police station, the officer will not be in until 7:00 pm.

Jamie, Ben, Jess (Bens girlfriend) and I got into the jeep and headed to Naniamo. We phoned the officer once we got there. (now it is after 7:00 pm).... Turns out it is Weigles road, not regals road - grrr... why can people not articulate their words?!?!?! Jamie gets on the phone to get directions, and the officer tells him that she is going to call in the morning to have the truck towed in. She again explains that the truck is in pretty bad shape, but she understands why Ben needs to see it. She gives us directions. We head out.

Past the prison, past the motor cross club, past the active logging sign....

We are now way back in... this is a logging road, with many gates and side roads. We see things like a computer mouse hanging in a tree, teddy bears in trees, car parts, broken glass, phone cords but no Ben's truck! We drive down several side roads - nothing....

One part of this road there is huge cement blocks blocking the road. There are rough, and I mean rough, trails around the blocks. Jamie and Ben have a look, but there is pointy stumps all over, and there is just no way we want to drive the jeep over these. We have nothing that we can use to cut the points off and it is getting dark.

We head for home, all of us feeling dejected! We do feel somewhat relieved though because the truck would be at the tow yard tomorrow. We can come back up then (Tuesday), after Jamie gets off of work and see it.

The next day Ben phones the tow yard. No we don't have it yet, but we will probably go up this afternoon to collect it.

As soon as Jamie gets home, the four of us once again get in the jeep and head for Nanaimo. We head to the tow yard, but the truck is no where to be seen. "We don't have it yet" the man tells Ben, "we need to find out who owns the property so we can get in the gate"

We leave and head back out to Weigles road. Frustrated at this point beyond belief, just wanting to get to the truck so Ben can see it. Still not sure exactly where the truck is, we stop and ask several of the people on bikes if they have come across it in their travels. No one has. We checked out areas behind several of these gates, but nothing.... finally we drive up to where we had been the night before.

As we approach the big blocks we see some wood on the side of the road that had not been there the night before. Someone had a fire here last night after we left. The boards were charred.

Once at the blocks, Jamie and Ben decide to have a quick walk past the blocks to see what they could see. Jess and I waited with the jeep. Talk about a creepy feeling!

About 15 minutes later we see Jamie and Ben, running back towards the jeep, just as a 4x4 pickup with two guys in it pull in behind us.

Jamie and Ben talk to the two guys... yes there are vehicles beyond the blocks....seems the blocks were very recently put there.it was decided that these two would go up and see if they could spot Ben's truck. We gave them one of the disposable cameras to take pictures if they did see it. They left with promises of being back in 10 or 15 minutes.

We waited....

True to their word, the two came back. Yes they believe they found Bens truck and took a couple of pictures. They explained to us how to get to it, and left.

Jamie and Ben then walked the trail beside the blocks, the same area the two had gone through with their truck.  Jamie had brought a knife with a saw like blade on it, and they cut the points off the stumps, and with much forward, reverse, moving of logs, forward, reverse they were finally able to get the jeep around.

We were on the move again.... following the directions the two had given us... we saw more stuffed animals in trees and other various items.... around another block barricade... and straight driving... and there it was... Ben's truck.

Things have been a flurry of activity here in Truddle~land this past while.

Ben's truck had indeed been stolen! Jamie and I have spent countless nights driving through different neighbor hoods looking for it, hoping to catch a glimpse of it so we could recover it for our son. However this was not meant to be.

After a week of the truck being missing, the police finally called us. We were out, so the police officer left a message on our answering machine to call her back. (The officer who actually found the truck was at this time off for a few days).

Ben was at work so Jamie called her. "Seems the truck was located, but I don't know where it is - Did Ben come and get it?"

Ummmm... ok you located our sons stolen truck, but you don't know where it is?!?!?!?!

"I will try to get a hold of the officer who found it and see if I can get more information, but it looks like it was found on Regals road in Nanaimo, and by what I can tell it was on the side of the road"

hmmm ok... so if they located the truck and it was on the side of this regals road, is it still there? Is it driveable or what?!?! Jamie and I went directly from this phone conversation to where Ben works to give him the news and to buy a map of Nanaimo to see if we could find this road. If his truck is there we were going to go get it, or at least disable it so it could not be driven away again. We were all very hopeful that by some small miracle the truck would still be ok.

Jamie and I delivered the news, and collected the map, and set out for the hour long drive to Naniamo in search of regals road and Ben's truck.

Because Ben had the truck for less than 48 hours  before it was stolen, we didn't even have pictures of it yet. I did happen to find a picture on the internet, the one above, that looks very much like Ben's truck minus the canopy, and his wheels were in much better shape. But the picture above almost could be his truck. Just so you get the idea of what we were looking for.

Once in Nanaimo if was fairly easy to find regals road, not a neighbor hood you want to be hanging out in for sure. Talk about creepy. We drove around with our doors locked and our windows rolled up tight. Even Dudley who had come along for the ride was nervous.

Regals road is just a little side road, only about a block long. We drove up and down it a couple of times.... but no sign of Ben's truck! We drove around in Nanaimo, in all of the out of the way places, and some not out of the way places... but no luck in spotting it anywhere. Finally we came home. There was nothing more we could do. Maybe the officer who found it, had it towed to a different tow yard... maybe it is in the police compound. Maybe whoever took it just didn't want to walk home that night, so they hoped into Ben's truck drove close to there house, jumped out leaving the truck. It must be in not to bad of shape if they would call to ask if Ben had come and gotten it.

Wrong!

The next day we come in from outside, to another message on our answering machine form the same police woman.

"Yes it seems Ben's truck has been located on regals road....

(I am out of time for right now, so will have to continue on with this post a bit later) Stay tuned....