Yeah I avoid that cesspool at all costs. Even in the day now.
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Thus read the headline in the local paper. I was that man, and this is my story.

Knebworth, England, August of 1979, Led Zeppelin was playing an outdoor concert. Stationed at RAF Alconbury at the time, my friends and I were determined to be there. And show we did, arriving mid-set after an untimely delay to see Todd Rundgren perform immediately prior to Zeppelin playing.

Zeppelin rocked the estimated crowd of 200,000, and we got wasted drinking the 5 gallons of gin and lemonade I had brought to the show, but that is not the story. The story started 10 hours earlier: 8 a.m. and on the road from Alconbury to Knebworth.

We were a crew of eight, split into two cars of four. Eight o'clock on a Saturday is early for most airman of that day, and we were either groggy or hungover or both.

Besides the liquid refreshments, many were packing along some of the fine Red Lebanese that circulated profusely on base. A hard, brick red hash, it was a pain to break up and light, so I had taken to shaving it down with a razor blade into a powdery fluff that loaded and sparked easily. It was stored in a film canister and ready to go.

After a short time on the road, the decision was made to get our minds right and get the party started. Chuck and Eddie were in the front, I was in the back, and the pipe was going around. We pulled up besides our traveling party and Eddie (young and dumb and from Detroit) began waving and pointing at the pipe, letting our friends know the fun we were having.

Then, someone noticed we were being followed by the police, and panic began to set in. Eddie, holding the pipe, a small, brass one hitter, began to freak and tossed it out the window. I turned and watched it bounce down the roadway and noticed the eyes of one of the officers follow its path along with me.

Now, another decision had to made. Not in the clearest of minds, and in a bit of a panic, we decided to eat our stashes, not a terribly difficult chore, usually, with a brick hard hash. Not thinking, I tossed the fluff into my mouth and had every bit of moisture sucked dry. Unable to swallow, I sat in the back, mouth full of 4 grams of fine Red.

The police, who had been trailing, pulled in front of us and flashed their rear display, telling us to pull over. We did. Two officers got out and approached our car. One knocked on my window and asked what we were doing. Unable to speak, my mouth filled with fluff, I answered, "Mfff, ufff, oofff."

The officer opened the door and pulled me from the car and began demanding that I spit it out. He grabbed a hold of me and began dragging me to the side of the road. Reflexes set in, and I pulled my arm away from him and shook him off of me. Then I thought, oh shit, resisting arrest would get my ass kicked stateside. I better cooperate. I don't know if British police would do the same.

I quit fighting him, and he began pushing me in the back, demanding that i spit out whatever was in my mouth. Eventually, I fell to the ground. Knee in my back and his arms in a headlock, the officer continued to demand my cooperation. The envelope containing my ticket had fallen out of my pocket and lay on the ground in front of me. The officer picked it up and demanded I should spit into it. So I did, and two drops of spittle, containing tiny flecks of hash, went into the envelope.

"That will do," says he.

Evidence in hand, he let me up and began to walk the 15 feet back to car. He walked in front of me, leaving me to myself. Thinking that these British police sure were different from the police back home, I saw a wine skin on the ground, picked it up and finally was able to swallow and rid my mouth of that fine Red fluff. He turned, saw me drinking and told me to stop, but it was too late. Mission accomplished: good-bye fluff. I continued to empty the skin, so he grabbed me again and handcuffed me to car.

Able to talk again, I thought maybe I could talk my way out of this. "Officer, my name is excessive (named changed to protect the guilty). What seems to be the problem?"

He reaches over, shakes my right hand which is cuffed to the car and introduces himself, "Hello, my name is excessive, too."

"Officer, we weren't doing anything, just going to the concert, might we be on our way?"

"Sorry, no, we've already called it in and our sargent is on the way," he said, uncuffing me and putting me back in the car.

A few minutes later, they arrived, and the sargent looked in, saw us bloody-eyed and commented, "Bloody Yanks, 8 o'clock in the morning and look at them."

We were taken to the local station, removed of our belts and shoe laces and put into a holding cell, where we were to stay until we could be collected by whomever was on duty that morning back on base. Except, the buzz was starting to kick in, and we found ourselves laughing hysterically and joking with each other and the confused duty officer. This went on for hours, and could possibly be as high as I have ever been, 4 grams of Lebanese Red, fluffed and swallowed, working its way to my brain.

We eventually were taken back to base, and I was paraded around, lead back to my room, coaxed in to giving up the rest of my stash, and finally released back into the hands of our own. We saddled up, returned to the station to collect our car, and headed on our way to Knebworth.

The buzz had long ago worn off, but thanks to the gin and lemonade, a most excellent time was had by all. As the show ended, 200,000 stood up as one, and the 10 foot tall chain link fence that surrounded the venue gave way as the mass of humanity exited.

A week or so later, someone hands we the local paper and I see the headline: Man Smokes Dope on the A1. I used to have a copy, but it has since been lost, and all I have are memories of one fun day and a legendary concert by an all-time great band.
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That is some hilarious shit right there.

Bunge is a huge grain company FWIW, and I would all but guarantee that terminal was there first. Almost all the concrete grain storage went up in the 40s and 50s.

Stay safe man. That is a very unfunny story, but just stay the hell safe.
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Why would a couple inner city thugs want to jack a truck full of corn?
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Tank and Turk?
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Yep, I was hauling grain to Bunge back in the 70's, my Dad was hauling to them back in the 50's & 60's.
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Because the green bean trucks are more heavily armed.
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They don't want your corn, they want whats in your wallet after you dump that corn.

The truck route out of the place takes you through places where NO ONE can see whats going on (the back alleys behind the Casino Queen for anyone that lives down there) not that anyone in the city would do anything about it even if they did see it.

This place is in the heart of the city, tons of underpasses, woods, tall ass weeds and other places to jack you up at... like train tracks where some of the trains are like 5 miles long and move at 10 mph.

Several truck drivers have gotten jacked down there, a few killed.

Its illegal for a truck driver in Illinois to carry a firearm, but I'm seriously considering bringing what I've got... the exit area for trucks down there is Ambush City.

You have to go kinda slow, tons of woods and places to hide right next to the road... you don't even know, the place is a total shithole... you'd sure as SHIT be spooked too going through there, your blackness wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.
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:-)

Uh, ok..

When you unload the product they give you a check or something? A hefty wad of cash? Or are you saying they just want to rob you of your personal cash?
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Dude, are you just trying to be a dick or what?

Yeah mfer, in the inner city, in east st. louis they'll jack a truck driver stuck at a train for whatever the silly sob has on him, its happened many times already and will happen many more times... does the reality of that offend you somehow?

Does the thought of black people doing something shitty personally offend you or what?

YES, your personal cash you dense mfer.

"lol"
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Fuck'em up Easy. I got your back boy homeboy. Give me that green light and I'm swingin' on this muthafucka
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When I was in college, I worked night stock at a grocery store here in KC during breaks. It was always interesting people watching in the middle of the night. We had plenty of drunks and once in awhile, we'd get a couple that came in with one dragging the other around on a leash. The workers were an odd mix too and I think half of them would get baked before coming in. We had one guy use his one phone call from jail to let us know he wasn't coming in.

One night an attractive lady was shopping (something that always caught the eye of the all male crew) and one of the workers "Steve" decided to pull a prank on the night manager. Condoms were hard to find in this particular store as they were obscured by a support beam and customers frequently had to ask where to find them. Steve walked past the manager and said that he had to take care of something in the back, but there was a lady in aisle 8 looking for the condoms.

As was told to me by someone working by that aisle, the manager walked up to the lady (box of condoms in hand) and said "I believe you were looking for these". I could hear the lady screaming at the manager from my spot in the dairy aisle followed a lot of apologies from the manager and laughs from the crew.

A couple of moments later the intercom screamed out "STEVE-OFFICE-NOW!!!". Steve was a goner.
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Thanks for the backup, but I'd rather have my 380... except its illegal as hell to carry a piece as a truckdriver.

I'm torn, none of the other guys I work with with will just come out and say what they do or how they do it... I'm a newbie so I kinda don't blame them, but still.

But go ahead and take a swing at Virus for me if you want... "you tryin to tell me people rob folks at gunpoint just for some wallet cash :-)?"

Nooo, they just want our ****ing CORN.
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:-)

Alright, it's obvious you've been hitting the bottle tonight so let's just tone it down a notch.

You initially said you'd heard of hijackings in the area. To me, that implies that the perps will commandeer your vehicle for whatever reason, which led me to wonder what a couple black motherfuckers from the hood would want with a truck full of corn.

Then you said they didn't want your corn but they wanted what was in your wallet AFTER you've unloaded it, which led me to believe whoever you were dropping the load off to might give you some form of payment that would make you a more attractive target for burglary.

The whole thing just made me wonder so I was asking legitimate questions..

Based on what you told us, it doesn't seem like you were in danger of being robbed. If so, why would they park their car off 100 feet from you? Don't you think they'd realize how suspicious a couple dudes sprinting up on your rear would come across? You also said you were already waiting at the tracks along with another car yet they didn't make a move on you- why? You and the guy in the other car were sitting ducks.
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Its hard to describe how that went down... there were two different sets of tracks about 100 feet apart, the front set were blocked on either side by a raised platform/hill.

You could only see how much train was coming by through that, maybe 25 foot throughway, except for looking to the left when you're right up on the tracks, then you could see maybe 50 foot of train about 100 feet down the way.

So the guy I was following and myself are at the forward set of tracks, waiting for a huuuge train going 10mph to go by. We'd been there 10-15 minutes when we notice a car pull up and stop behind the second set of tracks 100 feet behind us (all the better to not get caught up in some bs, keep the getaway car free).

I see the back doors on this car open up and two guys start to emerge, but they hadn't taken two steps forward before the train passed.

There was no way, from where they were, to see how much train was left, they figured we were stuck... and we only had about a 5 second preview even though we were much further forward.

Long story short, they couldn't see the end of the train until about 5 seconds after we could... yet as soon as that train passed in clear view of everyone, those two ran back to their car, it did a U turn and they were gone.

If they were just some joes waiting for a train like us, why didn't they follow us on out? The guy ahead of me has been a driver for 50+ years and he knew exactly what was about to go down, he'd have known it no matter what color the people getting out of the car were.

Its tough to explain just how strange and congested it is down in there, but you'll just have to take my word for it... you know the scene in King of New York where Snipes is chasing Fishburne through that hellhole underneath bridges and down in the meat of the city?

This truck route is just EXACTLY that for about 6-8 blocks, its a spooky mfer and I don't care WHAT color you are.
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