man steals full size playground slide for his child's bedroom

[Demovictory9]

A man is facing charges after he allegedly stole a 400-pound slide from a playground and mounted it on a bunkbed in his home.

Dustin Allen Bushnell, 30, of Burbank, Washington, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of possession of stolen property, according to the Pasco Police Department.

Detective Julie Lee was investigating a series of catalytic converter thefts when evidence led her to Bushnell’s home, police said.

Lee suddenly came face-to-face with the gigantic slide, which was reported stolen in December 2020, as she searched the home for catalytic converters.

Bushnell sawed off the slide, repainted it, and mounted it on a bunkbed in a child’s bedroom at his mobile home, according to investigators.

Catalytic converters were also found at the home but Bushnell has not yet been charged with stealing the car parts.

An investigation remains ongoing.

https://whdh.com/news/police-man-stole-400-pound-slide-from-playground-mounted-it-on-bunkbed/

[iemitsu]

1. Catalytic converter thefts are a real problem in my community.

Yesterday, not twelve blocks from my home, two young men were caught sawing the converter off a car at 11:00 AM.

[marble falls]

11. They still steal catalytic converters?? Haven't heard of that in years!

[iemitsu]

12. Evidently there are two metals in the converters that have sky-rocketed in price.

That plus lots of homeless folk n the area make for an uptick in theft.

[A HERETIC I AM]

29. Platinum & Palladium

Palladium spot price;

$2341/OZ.

https://www.macrotrends.net/2542/palladium-prices-historical-chart-data

Platinum spot price;

$1207/OZ

https://www.kitco.com/charts/liveplatinum.html

[Demovictory9]

16. Cat converter theft has skyrocketed recently

[Blue_true]

36. Truly sad that people steal the things and leave the vehicle owners with a big repair

expense.

[Demovictory9]

47. Yeah..neighbor had window smashed for the change he left visible

[Blue_true]

48. That is horrible. What kind of a person would do that?

Hunger or addictions don’t excuse such behavior, IMO.

[Yavin4]

2. Not Florida.

So, that's a win for Floridians.

[Blue_true]

27. It is Springtime, we are calmer during that time of year for so reason.

But in the state’s defense, there is over 20 million people here, so there are bound to be a certain percentage of fools, and with over 20 million as a base, the fool count likely works out to a large number.

[ornotna]

3. So, what are you in for?

At least he'll have a great prison story to tell.

Idiot.

[liberalmuse]

4. They will steal them in the early evening in Seattle.

Right off a side street where people are still out. They stole a bunch from a fleet of buses at an elderly care center near where I live. My daughter was at the University for a class and they stole it off her car, and they aren't cheap to replace. Stealing from the elderly, children and students. I have no love for these thieves.

[iemitsu]

13. Me either. It must be a PNW thing.

[Nittersing]

24. Been a lot in the Denver area as well.

And not only are they expensive to replace but it is happening so often that shops cannot keep them in stock.

[iemitsu]

25. Yep. Sounds like my neighborhood.

[MagickMuffin]

42. Nope this is a national scale of thieving going on

D/FW big here as well, broad daylight makes no difference.

[Tanuki]

46. I hadn't heard about it either, and I hope the publicity from this case

doesn't give more people the idea to give it a try.

[Blue_true]

28. Thieves are not known for altruism. nt

[Chellee]

5. That slide weighs 400lbs?

That seems like a lot, but if it does, wouldn't he have needed help to get it home? Also, is that a jar of peanut butter under the slide? And is that Detective Lee on the slide? I have questions.

[PatSeg]

18. And getting it into a mobile home?

Seems like an awful lot of work for not that big of a reward. Might be easier to actually work to get the money to pay for a slide, with a lot less risk.

[Blue_true]

30. Work was likely too hard for that guy. He would have had to wake up early

each day.

The question in my mind was what woman would have a child with a sad looking fool like him?

[Chellee]

33. His only redeeming quality

is that he's the kind of Dad that puts a slide on your bunkbed. Granted, its a stolen slide, but the kid with the spiderman sheets probably doesn't know that.

[Blue_true]

38. Once the kid becomes an adolescent, it will start to dawn on him that his

dad is a shiftless thief. The kid will then either learn his dad’s trade, or develop serious emotional problems.

[Chellee]

49. Or both.

[PatSeg]

41. And would allow him to bring a big slide

into a mobile home?

[Blue_true]

31. I believe that is the Detective on the slide.

A few more busts like that, she will end up working for the FBI or a big city police agency.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. One of my junior high school friends had a big device...

... that allowed him to play every Atari game available back in the 80's, or at least it seemed like every game.

I asked him how he got it, and he said that his father (the manager of a local K-mart store) got it when the store received a replacement in their gaming section.

My mother took me to that store many times thereafter, and I never saw a replacement.

That kid's father was fired a couple years later, accused of EMBEZZLEMENT of cash!

[LakeArenal]

7. If it was just the slide I would say cool try dad.

But he’s a thief. Beyond one slide.

[iemitsu]

17. Probably took the slide in exchange for drugs.

Thieves diversify these days.

[marble falls]

8. His daughter seems older than him. I'm not judging, mind you.

[Demovictory9]

14. that's the officer

[marble falls]

21. You just never know. In Texas do you know what tornados and divorces have in common? ...

Either way someone loses a trailer house.

[Blue_true]

32. All over the South, there are many mobile home parks.

Last edited Fri Mar 12, 2021, 08:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Also lots of the pre-fab homes. It is a world of Haves and Have-Nots sandwiching the struggling middle, with the Have-Nots and struggling middle making up 90-95% of people.

[marble falls]

43. Have you been reading how capitol bankers have been buying up trailor parks?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-when-investment-firms-acquire-trailer-parks

https://irjci.blogspot.com/2021/03/investment-firms-buy-trailer-parks.html


Mobile-home parks are a critical source of affordable housing, especially in rural areas. Increasingly, investment companies are buying them up and, in efforts to extract maximum profits, making it harder for the poor to afford living in them.

About 20 million Americans, many seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities, live in mobile homes. Manufactured housing, common in rural America, is one of the largest sources of unsubsidized low-income housing in the U.S. Sheelah Kolhatkar reports for The New Yorker.
"According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there isn’t a single American state in which a person working full time for minimum wage can afford a one-bedroom apartment at the fair-market rent. Demand for subsidized housing far exceeds supply, and in many parts of the country mobile-home parks offer the most affordable private-market options," Kolhatkar reports. "In the past decade, as income inequality has risen, sophisticated investors have turned to mobile-home parks as a growing market. They see the parks as reliable sources of passive income—assets that generate steady returns and require little effort to maintain. Several of the world’s largest investment-services firms, such as the Blackstone Group, Apollo Global Management, and Stockbridge Capital Group, or the funds that they manage, have spent billions of dollars to buy mobile-home communities from independent owners."

Absentee investors that buy mobile-home parks often extract more profit by raising the rent on lots, charging residents for services that were once included, and requiring residents to be responsible for more upkeep on the grounds. One seminar for potential trailer-park owners, Mobile Home University, "recommended that owners regularly raise rents, but not so much that it would drive out desirable tenants," Kolhatkar reports. "They also told investors to avoid 'tenant-friendly' states such as California and New York, where evictions can take months, and urged them to concentrate on areas where there is a shortage of reasonably priced rental apartments."

Esther Sullivan, author of Manufactured Insecurity: Mobile Home Parks and Americans' Tenuous Right to Place, attended one of the seminars and told Kolhatkar its advice can be summarized as: "Look for a park that’s got high occupancy and that doesn’t need a lot of investment. Take out any possible amenity you’d ever need to invest in, such as a playground or a pool that’s going to need insurance. Make sure it’s got a nice sign, and pawn off any maintenance costs onto your tenants." HBO's John Oliver was more frank, describing the program as "a crash course in how to be an asshole."

Because mobile-home dwellers usually own their home but rent the land it sits on, they're often excluded from basic legal protections for renters, Kolhatkar reports. In theory, such residents can simply move their home if they don't like conditions in a trailer park, but in practice it can cost as much as $10,000 to move a mobile home, leaving residents hostage to predatory lot owners. Some states have passed laws closing those loopholes, but trailer-park residents in many states remain vulnerable.

[Blue_true]

44. Yes, I have.

People that have been living in the parks for years and whose trailers can’t be moved without falling apart are being charged “rent” for the land that their trailers sit on. It is a truly disgraceful practice.

[marble falls]

45. Its a shame, alright.

[Goodheart]

9. He's got a giant slide inside a mobile home. LOL

How can you not crash into a wall when you come down?

I like space, myself.

[Demovictory9]

15. seems to block the door (to closet?) also

[Blue_true]

34. You will be surprised. I watched furniture movers work once when they were moving me.

They figure out the best angles to get gigantic things through doors. He had to have help, or he is supper strong (I once had a guy deliver a cabinet to my home, he brought it in on his back, no issues. When I had it moved, it took two men and a robust dolly). But any rate, they likely turned the slide on it’s side, then weaved it through doors into the room. The story says that he sawed it off, likely because the original supports would not have allowed them to move it into the house. The sad thing is the guy seems to have decent mechanical and adhoc engineering skills (important skill for craftpeople working on a manufacturing floor), but he is likely too lazy to sweat for a paycheck, so he steals what he wants.

[tanyev]

10. Thievery aside, that really seems like a bad idea to put something that heavy in a mobile home.

Am I wrong?

[haele]

19. Depends on the age and the condition of the subfloor.

We have a heavy solid wood bunk bed with side dresser supports for the girls in our 1971 mobile home. We had to redo some of the 1"MDF subflooring with 1" plywood, and the bunk bed is resting across the original steel t-bar axel supports under the subfloor for additional support.
Considering this place rode out the 2010 Easter Quake (8.1, appx. 250 miles away) with no problems, the mobile home was pretty dang sturdy.

Haele

[tanyev]

23. OK, thanks for the info.

[rsdsharp]

20. There's something about this story that puts me in mind

of the guy in my college dorm who came back to his room to find his VW Bug sitting there. Running.

[murielm99]

22. Yes. This is a college level activity.

I might have laughed at it back then. But it is still theft, and not really so funny after all.

[Treefrog]

26. If that's the cop on the slide, that's a bit unprofessional.

[Blue_true]

35. Not really. I prefer a Cop to have fun that way than to abuse people.

She likely is psyched about knitting together thin clues concerning the catalytic converters, finding the apparent thief and them finding s a separate crime during the process.

[Hekate]

37. Just showing scale of size

[Treefrog]

39. Lol. Probably just a picture for her Insta or FB.

I hope I’m wrong.

[Sewa]

40. That she's the size of a child?