This is my last Hunts and Fails posting. Since my [id=469284733;first posting in 2015] I have received many emails, for which I thank you for sharing your stories, thoughts and comments with me. Every posting is true, written as it happened, no artistic license, not embellished or added to in any way. That is what makes all these Fails special in their own right. Of all the stories I have shared, this is the one that is most frustrating, surpassing even the Qantas Failure. I see; I understand; but it is so not right.

I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays. Family and friends and good times to remember. I envy you all.

December is an extremely sad time for me, and has been since I was 12. I just want January to come quickly, and for people to leave me to myself.

Coincidence seems to be a contributing factor in making my life miserable.

Coincidence. A few years previous to this, we had gone away for a week, only to return home to find many things stolen. Coincidence.

Coincidence. We went away for a few days only to return home to find this. Coincidence.

The Christmas Holidays. Year after year I am miserable and just want to be left alone with my thoughts. One year I was persuaded to try and put this baggage behind me. In 2011, I was talked into taking a short trip to visit old friends, spend Christmas and a couple days catching up on things. It was not an easy thing for me to do. It had been decades since I had learned the hard way that incompetence and ego can be a bad combination in a person of trust and authority: that 'friends' may not be the friends you think they are if the opportunity to lie and steal is available . Cruel life lessons at an early age that soured me for life- not being able to trust anybody and doubting everybody's intentions. I held little hope that even 40 years would be enough time for me to be able put it all behind me. All I could do is give it a sincere try.

I have mentioned in a [id=582618077;previous story] about the security system I had at this property. We had taken a week's holidays, only to discover too late that a thief had stolen several hundred insulators. That prompted an upgrade to a much more involved system that had all the bases covered; I believed I was well protected. It did not let me down as it did the job that was expected of it.

Returning home from the trip late in the day, we were both in good spirits. I had had a good time and was actually looking forward to the next year. I had forgotten what it felt like to be happy. It was great ! That was the first Christmas I had enjoyed since 1969.

Let the Fail begin.

In the morning when we were unloading the car, I spotted a CD 145 laying in the driveway. That's odd. I picked it up and headed over to set it on the workbench, and on the way found two more insulators on the ground. I forgot about unpacking and went for a walk-around. What I found turned my stomach. Insulators everywhere - but not where they used to be. Hardest hit was my suspension display. I had some 246 different suspensions hanging in long strings. These had been swung into each other until almost half were busted. I kept the string of the damaged Italian and German porcelain as I found them. Treasures rescued from Ontario Hydro dumpsters, it is highly unlikely that I will ever find any again. This picture shows about half of the 96 that were damaged, of those 68 were a total loss. It is now ten years later and I have still not found replacements for 28 of them.

If I had been here, at home, as I have been for every Christmas for nearly 40 years, this would not have happened.

About as queasy as I've ever been, I go check the video. Yup, two kids walk right past the camera. Laughing and obviously cheerful, both provided perfect face shots. I've got the little shits.

I call the police and they come. I show them the video, thinking I have made their job a whole lot easier and they will both be in jail by supper.

Cop says, ' oh them again. I have bad news and badder news. Which do you want first? I know the kids, they are minors. I can go talk to them, but I know what they are going to say - I've heard it before. That's the bad news. The badder news is you got nothing. Run the video again and I'll walk you through'.

Video shows the kids coming up towards the camera. He tells me to pause it - ' what do you see?' he continued on,' what you see are two kids out looking for their dog.' It's Christmas, it's cold, they're wearing gloves, they let their dog out on purpose then roam the neighbourhood 'looking' for it. With gloves there are no fingerprints, so unless you have video of them actually in the act, there is nothing you can do. You know, and I know, and they know they are responsible, but they also know once they are off the property, you can't prove a thing. I'll give you the file number of the report if you need it for an insurance claim.'

I have insurance. I have some of my insulator sculptures insured, I have some insurance on a few specific insulators. Policy has 50 insulators insured for $35 each. I haven't kept the policy up to date, sculptures come and go and I just don't get around to changing it.

I go see the agent and we talk. I ask about making a claim for the 96 in the display that were damaged. Nope, no good, since they were, by my own admission, in a display- aka a sculpture that I had not specified in any policy updates- it was therefore not insured.

In a moment after that had sunk in, I thought, some coverage is better than nothing. 'how about a claim for the 50 insulators insured for $35 each?' That money would not even cover the postage for 50 discs, but it's the only other option I have.

Nope, she couldn't do that now. She could have but I had already identified them as an uninsured display, in policy terms, a single item.

I pay good money for a system that identified the perpetrators, which gets me nothing..

I pay good money for an insurance policy, which gets me nothing.

It was a Good Christmas; I was quite happy for two whole days.

Merry Christmas AND a Happy New year ??? Not in my future.

Epilogue.

Despite many instances of individuals whose intentions are to lie, steal and cheat others almost any way they can, I found there are just as many who go the extra mile to make certain that their deal is as expected or in many cases better. A person can have 100 transactions, 99 of them are good. It's the one bad experience that gets the attention.

To most of you I say 'Thank you'. To those few who these stories are about, I have other words.

[id=469284733; Episode one]

james