Need a moral ruling

[Mark Schnell]

Here is a scenario that I wrote in the post that Buckie linked to above. The idea of it relates to what my moral ruling would be.

"You have a crazy old uncle with a yellow ranger, a sequoia, and a prototype for the first Weber kettle in his yard. He's nuts, everyone knows it. You ask for the Weber stuff and he says, "You can have it when I'm dead, but if you come get it before then I'll shoot 'ya!" So you wait, he croaks, but when you go to pick up the stuff someone has made off with it because his yard was overgrown and he was too nuts to ever answer his door.

So, was that stuff abandoned, or did it belong to a crazy old fart who was going to give it to his nephew with a Weber problem when he finally kicked off?  I always like to err on the side of, "If I didn't pay for it or I wasn't given direct permission, then it ain't mine to take."

[addicted-to-smoke]

Here is a scenario that I wrote in the post that Buckie linked to above. The idea of it relates to what my moral ruling would be.

"You have a crazy old uncle with a yellow ranger, a sequoia, and a prototype for the first Weber kettle in his yard. He's nuts, everyone knows it. You ask for the Weber stuff and he says, "You can have it when I'm dead, but if you come get it before then I'll shoot 'ya!" So you wait, he croaks, but when you go to pick up the stuff someone has made off with it because his yard was overgrown and he was too nuts to ever answer his door.

So, was that stuff abandoned, or did it belong to a crazy old fart who was going to give it to his nephew with a Weber problem when he finally kicked off?  I always like to err on the side of, "If I didn't pay for it or I wasn't given direct permission, then it ain't mine to take."

Bingo. It's always easiest to rationalize our behavior to support what we want when we don't know all the facts.

[1buckie]

Here is a scenario that I wrote in the post that Buckie linked to above. The idea of it relates to what my moral ruling would be.

"You have a crazy old uncle with a yellow ranger, a sequoia, and a prototype for the first Weber kettle in his yard. He's nuts, everyone knows it. You ask for the Weber stuff and he says, "You can have it when I'm dead, but if you come get it before then I'll shoot 'ya!" So you wait, he croaks, but when you go to pick up the stuff someone has made off with it because his yard was overgrown and he was too nuts to ever answer his door.

So, was that stuff abandoned, or did it belong to a crazy old fart who was going to give it to his nephew with a Weber problem when he finally kicked off?  I always like to err on the side of, "If I didn't pay for it or I wasn't given direct permission, then it ain't mine to take."

Bingo. It's always easiest to rationalize our behavior to support what we want when we don't know all the facts.

We ARE "his nephew with a Weber problem"..............

[addicted-to-smoke]

So you're saying we need a 12-Step program?

Code Select Expand

We admitted we were powerless over Weber charcoal grills—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to grillfellas, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The spooky thing is I only changed two small parts of AA's original steps.

[1buckie]

"Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs what was wrong."

Let's not make it too personal !!!!

[Uncle JJ]

Just find out who owns the house.  Call them.

[GregS]

Just find out who owns the house.  Call them.

this.

[Shoestringshop]

A sin would be them thrown in the trash! Take them or if your home all day watch for them to come and offer to by them. I bought a 6 piece patio set for $20.00 for them guys just so they didn't need to toss them in the trash . All of that will be tossed if the previous owners got tossed out.

[mlmack]

It could be one of those sting operations, like when the cops leave a car sitting around and wait to see if someone tries to steal it.

[mrbill]

i'll say it again. someone owns that house and that someone owns the grills. leave them be unless you can get express permission from the owner to take them. not joking. leave them where they are unless you have permission to take them.

I understand the desire to rationalize taking them based on the perception of abandonment, but taking them without permission(regardless of perceived abandonment/neglect) is stealing. don't do it.

[SixZeroFour]

^ I'm with mrbill on this one. Getting the name of the property owner should not be hard at all... Call him up and say you'll PayPal him $40 if you can have them - free money for him - no way they would be left by accident in a vacant house...

[MINIgrillin]

So you're saying we need a 12-Step program?

Code Select Expand

We admitted we were powerless over Weber charcoal grills—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to grillfellas, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The spooky thing is I only changed two small parts of AA's original steps.

We are all friends of George S.

[charred]

I would take a pic of the grills where they sit, leave a note on the backdoor, and secure them for the owner by removing them to my property. Then I would make the necessary inquiries to find the owner and negotiate a purchase.

One caveat- if the house is owned by a bank, I would then use the note and pic to fire a chimney.

[Tim in PA]

Take the copper plumbing while you are at it!!






Just kidding. Use zillow.com. Most likely you'll be able to tell if its in foreclosure status with a couple clicks. You'll probably be able to get the home owners name via the tax records on the site.

Good luck with the hunt and please post updates.

[Winz]

Why do we not have pictures of these grills posted yet?  All this debate is fine and good but I want photos!

Winz