Night Crawlers

by Ron L. Carter

After several encounters with the tweakers, Jed thought it would be a good idea if he and Justin left them alone for a while. He knew he couldn’t stop the tweakers from going into Red Mountain and he didn’t like competing with them. He decided that he and Justin would take the thirty minute drive and do their stealing in Ridgecrest.

  Over twenty eight thousand people live in Ridgecrest and many of the local residents were raised there. The entire town revolves around the Naval Air Station, China Lake, known as “The Base.” Almost everyone in Ridgecrest either works at “The Base” or has a service connected job.

  There isn’t much to do in Ridgecrest except go to the local movie theater. If you’re over twenty one years old, there are three bars you can choose from, “Tommy T’s, Mikey’s and Partners.” There are also twelve hotels and three shopping centers. Jed felt like these locations would be perfect for them to break into the cars, just like they had done in Randsburg. He believed they could get the money they needed to purchase the pick-up much faster if they went back to stealing lap tops, IPads, Kindles and other electrical devices from cars. He thought they could get a good used pick-up for around ten thousand dollars, but it would take them a long time trying to make that kind of money in the Red Mountain area.

  Before they started stealing things in Ridgecrest, Jed and Justin spent a few weeks just getting used to the lay of the land and checking out the different locations where the bars, hotels and the shopping centers were located. The town of Ridgecrest was laid out pretty simple. All the streets ran either north and south or east and west. Jed’s biggest problem was how they would get the items they stole back to Red Mountain without getting caught. Jed thought if they were pulled over by the sheriff department or the highway patrol they would find the load of stolen goods in the back of the pick-up and they would throw him and Justin in jail.

  Jed soon came up with an idea of removing the spare tire that was attached underneath the bed of the pick-up and building a metal box that was just a little larger than the tire. They made it nine inches deep and rounded the edges so it fit where the tire used to be. It looked like they had just a metal cover for their spare tire so it wouldn’t get stolen. When finished it could hold a lot of the lap-tops and other electrical devices. Once they had the metal box bolted in place, he used a welding torch and cut a twelve inch by sixteen inch section out of the pick-up bed just above the box. He then reattached that section and had two spring loaded hinges at one end of it. They made it so they could quickly open it and drop whatever they stole in the box and in an instant the little trap door would slam shut. They put a thick piece of plywood over the bed of the pick-up to hide the trap door. They then threw the spare tire on top of the plywood so the bed of the truck looked empty, except for that spare.

  When they were done with the box, they were ready to put their plan in action. Jed told Justin, “We can’t put charcoal on our face, like we normally do, because if we get pulled over by the police we won’t have any way to get it off our faces quick enough. We’ll just have to wear the masks when we are breaking into the cars. We’ll also take an extra sweatshirt. We can quickly throw them over our shirts, just in case we do get stopped. We’ll keep our slim-jims hidden behind the seat when we aren’t using them.”

  It was around nine in the evening when they arrived at one of the bars they had scoped out earlier. They parked their pick-up in a dark location of the bar parking lot. They slid down low in their seats where nobody could see them peeking over the edge of their windows as they watched people go into the bar. They targeted only the cars that didn’t have alarms as they started their task of stealing. When they felt comfortable, they made their move. They darted toward their target car, staying real low to the ground. They quickly slid their “slim-Jim” down the side of the window and opened the door. They were able to look inside the car and grab a few things in less than twenty seconds. Once they had what they were looking for, they locked the car, just like they had done at Randsburg. They hit as many cars as they could, before they decided it was time to move to their next location. Before they were done, they made their rounds to each bar parking lot. They always made sure they were quick and deliberate in their break-ins in hopes of not being seen. They went from car to car just hoping they could get something of value. Some nights were slow and tedious because a lot of the cars didn’t have anything worth stealing. It became a numbers game for them. The more cars they could get into, the more they could take home.

  Jed decided to change it up a little so before the bars got busy, they went to one of the shopping centers and broke into those cars. They waited until dark and then drove to the shopping center. They would watch as someone left their car and went in to do some shopping. They made sure that no one was watching them as they carried out the same plan as when they hit the bars. They kept changing locations as they went to different shopping centers on different nights. They also hit the hotel parking lots in the early morning hours after they were through with the bars and stole from the cars parked outside. A lot of business people, that worked at “The Base,” would pass through and stay at one of those hotels. They would sneak around and look in the windows of the cars to see if someone had left a briefcase or anything else in their vehicle that looked promising. Sometimes the workers from different companies would stay at the hotels and they would bring their tools with them and lock them up in the tool boxes of their trucks. Jed and Justin made sure they had their bolt cutters with them so they could cut the locks and take what they wanted. Those weren’t big money items, but if they couldn’t get anything else, they’d take drills, auto screw drivers, and other hand held tools they could sell pretty easy.

  The more Jed and Justin stole from Ridgecrest, the more the sheriff’s department and local police started patrolling the areas where the thefts were taking place. In a matter of a few months Jed and Justin were having to play cat and mouse with the police, in the locations they were stealing from.

  One of the shopping centers became frustrated with so many complaints they were getting from their customers about items taken out of their cars, while they were shopping, they decided to put in a surveillance camera system. They set them up so they would see out into the parking lots to help them catch the thieves. The system worked great for daytime surveillance, but when it came to the night, it was a lot more difficult to see very far out into the parking lot.

  It took several weeks of watching the cameras before they finally picked up two dark figures they believed were responsible for the car break-ins. They called in the police department and gave them the camera footage. The police department started examining it and they tried everything they could to enhance the film. All they got was just the two dark male figures going from car to car, but they couldn’t make out what they looked like. They were able see them leave the shopping center in what the police thought was an older pick-up. They couldn’t tell much about it because, in the dark, all they could see of it was the silhouette of it in the distance. They also couldn’t make out any special features of the pick-up, color, make or model. They still felt like they had part of a lead and they were going to start keeping an eye out for an older model pick-up around the break-in locations.

  One Saturday night, Jed and Justin parked in the parking lot of one of the bars, like they had done many times before. They went through their normal routine of darting from car to car and taking what they could and hiding them in the cubby hole. On this night, there was an off duty police officer that was familiar with the case and he’d been in the bar having a few drinks with a couple of friends. When he came outside to leave the bar, he thought he got a glimpse of someone scurrying between two cars and getting into an older pick-up and leaving. He instantly believed it may be the people they’d been looking for. Just to throw the law or someone else off in case they were following them, Jed always went east after they left the break-in locations. He would then make a huge circle on the south
end of town and head back west toward Inyo-Kern and highway 395.

  The off duty officer ran to his vehicle and called the police dispatcher. He told them he believed he saw the older pick-up and the suspects they’d been looking for. He told them the pick-up was heading east the last time he saw it. They quickly dispatched an officer to head in the direction of the bar and go east to see if they could find the pick-up. By the time the police officers were there, Jed and Justin were already out of town and heading west, up toward Inyo-kern, where they would take highway 395 to Red Mountain. They weren’t expecting anything as they headed south. They had gone about five miles when all of a sudden the right front tire on the pick-up blew out and Jed had to fight it pull over to the shoulder of the road. After he had it under control he found a spot that was wide enough to change the tire. In his frustration, Jed said to Justin, “That’s exactly why we need a new pick-up. When I get out, grab the jack from behind the seat while I see what we have to do.”

  It was late and Jed wasn’t in the mood for something like this, as he jumped out of the pick-up into the cold, brisk mountain air. He shivered as he went over and looked at the tire then grabbed the spare tire from out of the bed of the truck. Justin had pulled the seat forward and grabbed the tools to change the tire. In his haste, he forgot to push the seat back as he handed Jed the tools. They had all their gear behind the seat, including the “slim-jims” and bolt cutters that were under some of their extra sweat shirts. Just as Jed was ready to start jacking up the front right side of the pick-up, a highway patrolman put his flashing lights on and pulled in behind them.

  Justin panicked for a moment, moved over close to Jed and said, “Oh no! What are we going to do now, Jed?” Jed stood up and waited to see exactly what the policeman wanted. Jed whispered to Justin, “Try to stay calm. Let’s just see what happens.” Before the policeman got too close to their pick-up, Justin had to fight the impulse to protect them. He moved up next to Jed and whispered, “Do you want me to hit him in the head with the tire iron?” Jed reared back for a minute and looked at him with surprise and said, “No Justin! Don’t you do anything! Be quiet and just stay calm! I’ll take care of everything.” Justin was shaking from both the cold and fear as the policeman approached. The policeman had his flashlight on and was looking all around the pick-up when he asked, “Everything okay here, boys?” Jed tried to appear relaxed as he replied, “Yes, officer, we just had a flat on this old clunker.” The door was still open to the cab of the truck so the officer casually strolled over and shined his light in. He then shined his light behind the seat where all of Jed and Justin’s stealing gear and sweat shirts were crammed. Jed knew everything was tucked behind the seat so he was hoping the officer didn’t start moving things around. When the policeman saw their sweatshirts he said, “It’s kind of late to be out this time of night. What are you boys up too?” Jed knew the police officer had seen some of their clothing so he said, “Oh yes sir it’s late! We’ve been up visiting some friends that were camped out in the desert.” The policeman then stepped away from the door and asked, “So what exactly are you boys doing out in the desert? Jed had his back to the officer working on the tire again as he bit his lip and said, “We were camping out and riding ATV’s with friends. We didn’t have enough warm clothes with us to stay out there for the night so we decided to leave.” The policeman continued his interrogation of them when he said, “Is that why you have the ski masks and sweatshirts tucked behind the seat?” Jed said, “Yes officer, after the pick-up warmed up we got hot and so we threw them behind the seat. That’s all the warm clothes we brought with us so that’s why we’re heading home so late. We both got pretty cold out there.” Then the officer asked, “So, where you boys from?” Knowing he couldn’t lie about that, especially since he figured they’d already ran his license plates. He already knew it was Sherman’s truck so Jed said, “This is our dad’s truck. We live down in Red Mountain.”

  Jed was hoping and praying he wasn’t going to shine his light under the pick-up and see the metal tire cover they had built and start asking questions. He was afraid that if he did more investigating he would find the box filled with all the stolen items. He was also hoping Justin wasn’t going to panic and do something stupid, like kill the guy. He said to himself, come on Justin keep it together, don’t do anything stupid. The policeman looked over at Justin and said, “I can’t tell if you’re just cold or you boys are up to no good the way you’re shaking.” Justin quickly said, “I’m just really cold, sir.” The policeman said, “Why don’t you put on your sweatshirt, if you’re that cold?” Justin looked over at Jed and then said, "That’s a good idea.” He walked over to the open door and grabbed his sweatshirt from inside and immediately pulled it over his head. He quickly pushed the seat back so the other gear was not exposed. The policeman went over and shined his light in the bed of the pick-up and didn’t see anything except the plywood, just like Jed had planned. He then went back to Justin and asked, “You been drinking tonight, son?” Justin replied, “Drinking what?” He snapped back angrily as he said, “Are you getting smart with me boy?” When Jed noticed the officer was getting a little irritated with Justin he stopped working on changing the flat and stood up. He looked at the officer and said, “Officer, he doesn’t know what you’re talking about because he has a learning disability. No sir, neither of us have had any alcohol tonight. We don’t drink alcohol.” It was at that point the officer shined his light in Justin’s face. Once he took a closer look, he could tell there was something different about him.

  Believing what Jed told him was probably true, he told Jed he had gotten a call from the police department in Ridgecrest to be on the lookout for an old pick-up fitting their description. Jed told him, “I can assure you, sir, it’s not us you’re looking for.” The policeman shined the light on Justin’s face once again and then back to Jed and said, “I can see that you’re right, son. Do you need any help with that tire?” Jed replied, “No sir, I almost have it. I’ll have it changed here in no time and then we’ll be on our way back to Red Mountain. Thank you sir, for your offer.”

  The policeman said, “Okay boys, if you think you’ll be fine, then I’ll be on my way. He went back to his patrol car and sat there for several minutes while Jed finished changing the tire. He was on his radio the entire time. Jed was going as fast as he could to get the tire changed and back on the road. Once he finished, he threw the flat tire in the bed of the truck. They waved to the police officer as they pulled out and headed home.

  Once they were out of sight of the policeman, they both let out a big sigh of relief and thanked their lucky stars they didn’t end up going to jail that night. Jed excitedly said, “Man! That was a close one! I thought for sure he was going to see our gear behind the seat!” Justin replied, “Yea, me too.” Jed said, “Joshua would’ve been left all by himself if we’d gone to jail.”

  They’d gotten down the road a bit when Jed looked over at Justin and said, “You know Justin, you can’t just kill someone because you get scared or you think you’re going to get caught for something! Especially, a police officer. They would have every police officer in the state after us, if you’d done that!” Justin replied, “I know Jed, but I was just scared.” Jed patted him on the leg and said, “It’s okay Justin. I was scared too. You did good back there and you stayed pretty calm under the circumstances. I’m proud of you for holding it together.” That seemed to relax Justin for the rest of the way home.

  The next day the boys reflected on their close call, knowing the law in Ridgecrest was looking for a pick-up like theirs. Jed told Justin, “We’re going to leave Ridgecrest alone, because it’s become way too risky for us. Besides, after we sell what we have stored up, we’ll have enough money to buy that truck.” Justin took his right hand as though he was wiping sweat off his forehead and said, “Phew! Thank you Jed! I was getting scared. I didn’t want to go back there again
.”

  After they sold everything, Jed waited a few weeks and then took Joshua, Justin and Mister with him to Lancaster to buy the new truck. They searched everywhere for what they wanted, including the For Sale by owners, and every dealership Lancaster. They spent the entire day searching until they finally found the one they wanted. It was a dark grey 2005 Chevrolet Silverado, 1500 King Cab pick-up. Jed signed Sherman’s name off the title of the old pick-up so they were able to trade the old pick-up and pay nine thousand dollars cash for it. They had already taken off the metal box and put the spare tire back under the bed of the pick-up. They wanted the extra seat the king cab provided so that when the three of them went someplace they could also let Mister ride in the back seat with Joshua instead of the bed of the truck. They were all pretty excited about the new truck as they drove back to home to Red Mountain.

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  Chapter 17 - “Whiskey Flat Days”