Thieves, vandals pick the wrong place to go bad

It’s pretty well established that criminals aren’t the smartest people in the neighborhood. They think they are, of course, but they aren’t. The people who ransacked a local Forestry Service compound and stole until they couldn’t steal any more prove the point.

You don’t mess with people who risk their lives to save other people’s lives and property. Residents around here who have, unfortunately,  come to accept crime as part of daily life are furious about the Trunk Road tragedy. There’s a hanging jury out there and when these fools are caught — and they will be — the punishment may not be as swift as some would like it, but it will be full and, with any luck, wrathful.

Let’s look at the crime:

While the firefighters were off in the Interior trying to douse several fires burning thousands of acres, a group of boneheads broke open the firefighters’ lockers and stole everything they wanted.

They stole Forestry equipment. Reports say they even stole food from the refrigerator. Then they stole five of the firefighter’s vehicles.

That is what these dedicated men and women came home to after days on end of facing intense heat in what appears to be a never-ending job. All they wanted was to take a couple of days off to recuperate before heading back to the fire line.

Instead, they spent their time filling out insurance forms and wondering how they will replace personal items.

As crimes go, this one ranks right up there with the two women who held up — at gunpoint — a group trick-or-treating children in Talkeetna a few years ago.

It’s unthinkable.

The good part is, the cops apparently have a couple of men who were caught in Kenai driving one of the stolen pickups. They were stopped for speeding. Geniuses.

It’s not known if either of these guys actually participated in the Trunk Road rampage. Even if they weren’t, they know somebody who was involved: They had to get the pickup from somebody.

Now, we’ve established these thieves are fools, but even a fool knows the first squealer gets the best deal. It’s a good bet lips are flapping as you read this, and the whole thing is going to come tumbling down.

And we can’t wait to watch it all unfold.