"Suspicious Vehicle" (Cop Chronicles#5)

After two years my wife and i had saved up enough money to purchase our first New Car. This was a very big deal for us, and we were proud of what we had accomplished. Finally the big day came and we got our new car. Now this was not your everyday new car, especially in CleburneTX. We got ourselves  a Smart Car. That may not sound like a big deal in most cities but we had one of only three. Where we got into trouble was where we lived. The other two Smart Cars lived in the better part of town where new cars are a dime a dozen. On the other hand our Smart Car stuck out like a soar thumb. Remember my earlier Post "Man with a gun,Shots fired", nobody showed up to check it out. Well now they showed up for all the wrong reasons. And once it began i thought it would never end. We were returning home from Ft.Worth and as we approached town i was telling my daughter about the speed trap coming up and to slow down before you get there. I was not speeding when we got to the speed limit sign, but i got pulled over anyway. This was only the third day we had the car. The first thing the cop asked was "What kind of car is this?" and before i could answer he said "i didn't think a car this small could go that fast". He then gave me a ticket for going 50 in a 40. I have not had a speeding ticket in 20 years and should not have gotten one then. This was just the beginning, for the next three weeks we were followed, chased and watched. Every time we would go for a ride,when a cop would see us he would turn around and run up to us at a high rate of speed and then follow us all the way home. Sometimes pulling us over just to check us out. Then they would drive by our house real slow several times a day just staring at us. It got so bad that we wouldn't  go anywhere in our new car in fear of getting a ticket for having a new car. After a month went by they must have gotten bored with us and they moved on to harassing someone else.

Was He the Man? No i'm the Man!

In 2008 i purchased a storage building and had it delivered to my property. Because it was over a certain size i had to get a construction permit from the city and have it inspected. This made no since to me because it was a pre-built unit. So i got my permit and had it delivered then called for an inspection. In a couple of days a city truck pulled up and three men get out. One of the men asked to see my permit and i showed it to him. They went back to where the shed was and took some measurements then walked around  and looked it over. Then "the man" said it looked good everything is ok. I asked if he needed the permit and he said no i could throw it away. Two weeks later another city truck pulled up and a man gets out and says he is there to inspect my building.I informed him that it has already been done. He seemed to get very upset and said "he is the man" that does the inspecting and there was no record of my inspection. He asked for my permit and i told him what i had done, he said that he would let me know if my building passed inspection or not. He went around and measured and looked and finally said it had passed and drove off. Can't fight city hall, even if they are goofy as a goat.

CleburneTX has done it again.

This story really upsets me, it proves my stories are real . We have two papers in town, one prints what everybody(by everybody i mean City officials) wants us to hear. The other one prints the truth about what goes on here. And for doing that they are being shut down and run off. Even the freedom of speech is not allowed in CleburneTX. Apparently it ruffles the wrong feathers, here is the news article about it,

 

THE ARTICLE NO ONE EVER WANTS TO PRINT by Don Rice It’s been over five years since the Cleburne Eagle News changed ownership, and those years have not been without controversary and public reaction. The purchase of the newspaper was originally intended to promote local businesses, including the two owned by the purchaser. Somehow that intention fell to the side and a political atmosphere took over, when the newspaper questioned some facts and issues with a local school bond election. The employees and writers became subject to threats, both verbal and written. There was even a statement to burn the office down with the editor inside. Employees received threatening letters that had the local police watching their homes at night. A large effort was instituted by those who opposed the publishing of the weekly paper to stop businesses and citizens from advertising and subscribing, and one school board member was caught emailing businesses criticizing their dealings with the paper. As an added effort businesses were called and told if they continued to do business with the newspaper the school district would cease to do business with those businesses. It has been a bumpy ride to say the least. As part of any deal in making certain issues public, there is always people that are happy and people that are mad. This has been the case with this newspaper. We were nieve enough to think that when wrongdoings were presented to the citizens that they would rise up and demand changes be made. Boy was we nieve! It seems we took on half the population of this town in our efforts to inform. All this was undertaken because we felt it needed to be. We thought the little guys should see what was really going on with their tax dollars. The paper was never motivated because of profit to do these things, as it would have been much more profitable to take the middle road and print a rosy picture of everything as the other newspapers do. It’s hard to produce a profit when you make the community leaders mad by exposing things that happen behind closed doors. Some of Cleburne’s finest are still hard at work trying to stop the printing of this newspaper. We have attempted to sell the paper so that it would continue as the lone voice for truth in local media, but a deal has never been completed. The financial drain and the constant beating of our heads against so many has take it’s toll, and perhaps those that had problems with the truth being printed are close to winning. If a sale is not completed soon, or some new financial remedy is not found the closing of the newspaper may be the only option. We hoped the paper would furnish a different view the community would embrace and remain a part of the area, as we believed it filled a need to make the local public aware of what is actually going on, not what other media reports. We are working to find another solution, or a purchaser so the Cleburne Eagle can remain as a local publishing option, and remain “the people’s paper”.

"Tear it down"

We have an older home with a carport that has seen better days. So i wasn't real surprised when i got a notice from the City to tear it down. To save money i decided to tear down the carport myself, with the help of everybody i could get my hands on of course, and hire someone to haul it off. I searched the local newspaper and found several company's to do the job at a fair price. Everything was going great until they asked if i lived inside the City Limits. That's when i found out i had to use the company that the City of Cleburne has a contract with. I called the City to get everything set up, well with the price of there contracted company and a nominal fee for the City plus tax. The cost went from a doable $200 to a heart stopping $600 for the first day plus $100 for each additional day that we keep the dumpster. My hands were tied so i had to do this no matter what it cost. Here comes the fun part, the deposit is the $600 for the first day,paid in cash before they will deliver the dumpster. Any extra days will show up on your water bill the following month. I paid the $600, got my receipt, went home and waited for my dumpster to appear. Later the next day it was dropped off, fortunately they bill on full business day.The next day we tore down the carport and loaded it in the dumpster.The following morning i called the City to pick up the dumpster and stop further billing. We got it done in one day so it's paid for already, done deal, at least that is how it is supposed to work. When i got my water bill the following month it was also a notice of termination in ten days unless i paid the $600 for the dumpster service the previous month. So i took my receipt to the City to show them i have paid. They told me i did it wrong and that they had returned my $600 deposit and had to pay the water bill or be terminated. I told them they were wrong and had everybody that works there to come forward until i found the person i paid. Success, she cleared it up and i was on my way, until the next months bill came. Friends it took 6 months of taking my receipt to the City before they finally cleared it up. Hang on to those receipts!