Major Garden Railway Theft in So. California

[Lady_Railfan]

If you visit E-bay or other sites that feature used model railway equipment, please be alert to the following message I received last night from the president of our local Garden Railway Society.

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VANDALISM AND GRAND THEFT AT WALTER ANDERSEN NURSERY IN POWAY

Between the hours of 5:40 P.M. on March 2nd, 2007 and 8:15 A.M. on March 3rd, 2007, suspect(s) unknown entered the grounds of Walter Andersen Nursery in Poway, California and either destroyed or stole several thousand dollars worth of track, large scale rolling stock and plants. The crimes are being investigated by the Poway office of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

The suspect(s) entered the grounds by cutting the chain link fence at the southwestern corner of the property and then proceeded to the garden railroad layout area where they vandalized several feet of track, buildings, and bridges.

Apparently, the suspect(s) were interrupted at some point because they left a trash barrel filled with buildings and track and switches stacked at both the point of exit and a various locations on the layout. However, losses to both the thefts and vandalism are extensive and the losses are in the thousands of dollars.

Please pay attention to anyone who is trying to sell used track or rolling stock. The track and switches are either LGB orAristocraft code 332 brass. The stolen rolling stock consists of some dozen boxcars, Aristocraft Santa Fe dome liner streamline passenger cars, and three Aristocraft track cleaning cabooses(one yellow, one gray, one red). Also, three(3)Aristocraft log cars are missing.

Unique items lost are as follows: one(1) boxcar specially lettered for Walter Andersen Nursery, one(1) boxcar lettered with the Sea World logo, and one(1) boxcar lettered for AG Edwards.
If you have any information or are contacted by someone trying to fence these items, contact the Poway office of the S.D. County Sheriff’s Office at (858) 513-2800.

Unless these crooks are planning to build a garden railroad, they are going to have to fence the hot property either at a swap meet, hobby shop, or one of us. It’s not a great big huge fraternity we belong to so, hopefully, the stuff will show up and we can bust them.

Tom Rey, President
San Diego GRS
reylroad@san.rr.com

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If you discover ANY information that might be of help, please contact either Tom Rey or the Poway Sheriff's office as noted above.

Thank you!

[Steve B]

Hope they catch the person or persons responsible,
What do they hope to acheive by doing this,,, they could use the track, but somebody would recognise the rolling stock, as you say G scale MR'ing is a small world

i would make them re build everything and then send THEN to jail

[jbaakko]

Aww DANGIT! I was planning on going to check it out one of these next few weekends! Looks like I'm only left with the Railway in Old Poway Park.

I'll be on the lookout, as I'm sure I'd be of a HOT target to attempt to sell them too, along with plenty of other Local railroaders. I'm passing this along to Hobby Central just down the street too.

Oh late thought, would this be considered "Grand Theft Model Train"?

[Trucula]

Man, bring back the good ol "string em up for horse thieving" days, or settled out of court with Smith and Wesson!! :mad:

Better watch eBay too...some thieves can be so dumb!

[Lady_Railfan]

Better watch eBay too...some thieves can be so dumb! Yes, by all means keep an eye on eBay! And for those who live in the Southern California area, watch the newspaper classifieds and the Penneysaver as well.

Josh, I just talked to a gentleman at Andersen's, and he says the layout will be down for "some time."

Very sad.

[jbaakko]

Hummm, well I passed it along on Craigslist.org too, since I frequently stop by there to see if I can find anything interesting.

P.S. slightly off topic, but, Claudia, you think G scale tracks will hold up around the chlorine of a pool? I had a random thought while talkign to my wife, about making a "foutain/water fall/rapids" circulating the water of a pool, and then though, heck I can put a G scale layout around it!

[sushob]

...you think G scale tracks will hold up around the chlorine of a pool?

Go with stainless steel rail and concrete ties, and you'll be good to go! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Course that may end up costing more than the pool...

[Lady_Railfan]

Josh, I can't answer the chlorine question, but several years of salty sea air (we're less than a mile from the beach) and various types of liquid fertilizers haven't affected either the ties or the brass or aluminum rails to any noticeable degree.

(We'll now return to our regularly scheduled program. ;))

[Lady_Railfan]

Please contact Walter Andersen's, Tom Rey, or the Poway sheriff's office (as noted in the first post of this thread) if you see any of the following items advertised or for sale at swap meets, etc.:

armour meats reefer car......rich red with white lettering
needham packing reefer car.....light blue with black lettering
kink packing reefer car....orange with black lettering
finicks overalls reefer car......gray with black lettering
Eat More Butter reefer car.....white with black lettering
Maccar truck reefer.....gray with red and black lettering
Del Monte reefer car....... Green with blacl and yellow lettering and the
Del Monte logo
Walter Andersen reefer....... LGB car, light blue with dark letters
A. G. Edwards boxcar.....LGB red with white lettering
Air Tech Filtration LGB boxcar..........dark blue with white letters
LGB European Passenger car 2nd class, blue and white
3 LGB heavyweight Santa Fe passenger cars
3 aristocraft log cars
2 Aristocraft track cleaning cabooses
1 USA track cleaning caboose
one yellow tool box with misc tools
5 #16050 LGB switches
2 #18050 LGB switches

[grande man]

What kind of introvert steals someone's trains? :( I hope they get caught, but it's a long shot.

[Lady_Railfan]

I hope they get caught, but it's a long shot. True, but here's an update that might shorten the shot just a bit:

I just received this from a spokesman from the San Diego Garden Railway Society:

Andersen's Nursery is offering a $1,000 reward for info leading to the arrest and conviction of these suspects. Also, Crime Stoppers have matched Andersen's with another $1,000.

Now that a few days have passed since the commission of the crime, it seems very likely that the suspects may have been landscapers who are building a garden railroad as part of another job. This theory is due to other losses which includes plants and palm Tiki statues. Furthermore, the Pacific Hwy store was also a victim of a grand theft with the same M.O.(obviously minus the train stuff). This occured on the same day(s).

[OldGettysk]

Here's a interesting note along the same lines Claudia , A couple years ago the State of New York built a short section of highwway into the city of Niagara Falls, This was suppose to be a kind of gateway into the city . Well the final touches were being done . Which included the planting of Thousands of dollars worth of trees and plants. Well the night after they were planted it seems someone came along and dug up alot of trees and bushes to the tune of a few thousand dollars. this was done on a well lit public street. No one was ever caught for the crime!!!! Just goes to show the addacity of criminals.