Thief

[Hookemdown.]

Wow.  Was this the guy from Norman?  I had several conversations about OU with him.  Seemed like a great guy.  Very informative.

[Redlinerobert]

ppl make mistakes every day. id be interested to know what put this seemingly good man in this position.

my prayers go out to his family.

I totally agree.  Lots of stones being thrown here.  Hate to see anyone in this position.

[Grey Wolf]

You can never tell a book by it's cover. It is really tough when you never get to physically meet people and only have dealings with them through the internet .

[Bassn Blvd]

ppl make mistakes every day. id be interested to know what put this seemingly good man in this position.

my prayers go out to his family.

Did you personally know him to think he was a seemingly good man? He had to portray himself as good to get away with the sht he pulled. He dressed nice in the video when he stole as to not draw attention. He is a pro scammer, thief. I ain't praying for him, no way in heck.

[senko_77]

ppl make mistakes every day. id be interested to know what put this seemingly good man in this position.

my prayers go out to his family.

Did you personally know him to think he was a seemingly good man? He had to portray himself as good to get away with the sht he pulled. He dressed nice in the video when he stole as to not draw attention. He is a pro scammer, thief. I ain't praying for him, no way in heck.

C'mon Bassn.  I know it's hard not to wish the worst for him but everyone makes mistakes and in my eyes stealing the smallest item to 19,000 worth of merchandise is all the same.  He's our brother and fellow angler and I wish the best for him.  He's gonna do his time and pay for what he did and hopefully when he comes back he will be a better and honest man. 

As for my personal experience with him, he taught me a ton.  I stink at cranking and he would always be there to answer any question I had.  Dude knew his $hit. 

[Solid Hookset]

ppl make mistakes every day. id be interested to know what put this seemingly good man in this position.

my prayers go out to his family.

Did you personally know him to think he was a seemingly good man? He had to portray himself as good to get away with the sht he pulled. He dressed nice in the video when he stole as to not draw attention. He is a pro scammer, thief. I ain't praying for him, no way in heck.

Careful now. It is guys like him that need prayer. That guy is in a really bad place. Aside from being a scammer, he was a freind to alot of people in here and very informative to all of us. I have lurked for years and looked forward to his posts and reviews. I once was a drug dealer, did some time and did rehab. That was 23+ yrs ago. I now am a devoted husband and father of 2 teen girls. I am sure justice will be served.Help him out. Pick him up and dust him off. We all have skeletons in the closet! Heck, I am sure if I checked I still have a few in there............

[Solid Hookset]

Ryan beat me buy a minute!!!!

[-nick-]

ppl make mistakes every day. id be interested to know what put this seemingly good man in this position.

my prayers go out to his family.

Did you personally know him to think he was a seemingly good man? He had to portray himself as good to get away with the sht he pulled. He dressed nice in the video when he stole as to not draw attention. He is a pro scammer, thief. I ain't praying for him, no way in heck.

Careful now. It is guys like him that need prayer. That guy is in a really bad place. Aside from being a scammer, he was a freind to alot of people in here and very informative to all of us. I have lurked for years and looked forward to his posts and reviews. I once was a drug dealer, did some time and did rehab. That was 23+ yrs ago. I now am a devoted husband and father of 2 teen girls. I am sure justice will be served.Help him out. Pick him up and dust him off. We all have skeletons in the closet! Heck, I am sure if I checked I still have a few in there............

What? You mean literally? hahahah ;D

[Bassn Blvd]

Ok, I won't be so harsh. But I'm not giving him a chance until he makes good on what he did.

But don't forget, Bundy was a handsome, smart, well liked and charming man too.

[Solid Hookset]

Ok, I won't be so harsh. But I'm not giving him a chance until he makes good on what he did.

But don't forget, Bundy was a handsome, smart, well liked and charming man too.

Bundy got what was coming to him..........

[skunked_again]

Ok, I won't be so harsh. But I'm not giving him a chance until he makes good on what he did.

But don't forget, Bundy was a handsome, smart, well liked and charming man too.

i respect your opinion on the matter. as you read my post it clearly states my prayers go out to his family.

was he a seemingly good guy? we thought so. im not sure anyone has to know a person personally to be able to have this opinion. we can assume. we can assume ppl are innocent until proven guilty, but looks like were ready to give sentencing now.

i know one ex-poster that might have a little baggage whos totally turned life around.

maybe this is a good thing?

[firefightn15]

Between what Ryan said and the thread started in general fishing by Bass_Akwards, it started me thinking. I would say that even for what The_Natural has seemingly done, he deserves a little consideration. He may have done wrong and has lost most of the trust he has built, but Ryan is right. The guy did take alot of time on the board to help people with whatever knowledge he has of fishing. We should take the time and think how we would feel if this was a close friend or relative. Probably still be mad as hell and disappointed, but a little less apt to put the full smack down on them. He's gonna pay in a lot of different ways. Lose your friends, dignity, trust, and so forth; that's huge. Yes he's probably got it coming but my bet is that the humiliation alone is gonna kill him. We may not be able to forget, but we can forgive.

[roadwarrior]

Well now...

                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azESmq6KENQ

[Bassn Blvd]

Skunked Again,

I'm sorry for taking your post out of context. , I wasn't trying to be sarcastic or butthead.

Now, moving on. Please don't take me the wrong way. I'm all for giving people second chances and even keeping them as friends when they screw up. I was just trying to stimulate some constructive conversation by looking at what happened from a different view, like I did with the Tiger Woods post.

The_Natural did make some good posts and put out some good tips on a variety of techniques and it is sad to find out he got caught up in what he did.

I was looking at it from this perspective. Natural stole a TON of stuff, and that's just what he has been caught with. Every time he stole something, it drove the prices up for you and me. It appears he had an elaborate scheme going that took lots of practice and skill to pull off. We're not talking just one lure or a pack of smokes.

Then, he went and knowingly sold his friends stolen property. Friends that I'm sure he knew would not condone his behavior. To me, he took advantage of good, decent folk to benefit himself. I would be extremely ticked off if one of my friends sold me a stolen car.

Bernie Madoff had a lot of friends who thought he was a good man until they found out his kindness and friendship was just a scam to rip them off.

Short of The_Natural being a kleptomaniac in need of medical treatment, then he gets no pitty from me.

[.dsaavedra.]

Well now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azESmq6KENQ

i just don't see how this is relevant?  :-?

[skunked_again]

Skunked Again,

I'm sorry for taking your post out of context. , I wasn't trying to be sarcastic or butthead.

Now, moving on. Please don't take me the wrong way. I'm all for giving people second chances and even keeping them as friends when they screw up. I was just trying to stimulate some constructive conversation by looking at what happened from a different view, like I did with the Tiger Woods post.

The_Natural did make some good posts and put out some good tips on a variety of techniques and it is sad to find out he got caught up in what he did.

I was looking at it from this perspective. Natural stole a TON of stuff, and that's just what he has been caught with. Every time he stole something, it drove the prices up for you and me. It appears he had an elaborate scheme going that took lots of practice and skill to pull off. We're not talking just one lure or a pack of smokes.

Then, he went and knowingly sold his friends stolen property. Friends that I'm sure he knew would not condone his behavior. To me, he took advantage of good, decent folk to benefit himself. I would be extremely ticked off if one of my friends sold me a stolen car.

Bernie Madoff had a lot of friends who thought he was a good man until they found out his kindness and friendship was just a scam to rip them off.

Short of The_Natural being a kleptomaniac in need of medical treatment, then he gets no pitty from me.

think nothing of it. ill also say your points are well made.

[VolFan]

A person (and pretty much anything else) is rarely all bad or all good.  You just have to rank them with yourself.

[Bassn Blvd]

Well now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azESmq6KENQ

i just don't see how this is relevant? :-?

I think he's saying hang'em from the highest tree, I think.

[Gatorbassman]

I hate it that this happened. I feel for his young wife. I will be praying for everyone involved.

Many of you know that I will forever be involved in Boy Scouts and teaching youth leaders. This incident is one of those things I always use as a teaching tool. So bear with me as I preach.

Look at everything you may loose because of a bad habit or even a single dishonest decision. (Respect, integrity, friends, trust, job, freedom, possibly even a marriage...) Be mindful of your choices. Be honest in all you do. Make your integrity one of the most important attributes you have and the rewards will be enormous and life long. But keep in mind that even one bad choice can ruin it all for a long time and it takes alot of work to get it back.

I wish the best for The_Natural. He has a long road ahead of him if he chooses to take it.

[Dan:]

Well now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azESmq6KENQ

i just don't see how this is relevant? :-?

I think he's saying hang'em from the highest tree, I think.

Apparently that video has a bunch of different meanings, as seen by it's variety of uses in several threads.

[.dsaavedra.]

oh.... as soon as i saw it was a brad paisely song i closed it ;D

toby keith... what the hell do i know?

[Fishing Doug]

Wow. The sooner this clown is in jail, the better.

[Root beer]

Wait, roadwarrior can probably vouch for this one, is this the same guy that posted at the basspro.com forum under same name? The same guy with closet full of baits? And was consider by many an extreme tackle junkie?

[grimlin]

Wait, roadwarrior can probably vouch for this one, is this the same guy that posted at the basspro.com forum under same name? The same guy with closet full of baits? And was consider by many an extreme tackle junkie?

Yup....which is why i was shocked.

He said he always found "good deals".....Now we know how those those deals were achieved.... ;D

Sorry i couldn't resist that joke.....

[fish-fighting-illini]

Wow!! I can't say I am shocked by his actions, but am shocked by the size of it.

I can only speak from my personal experience, but the only deal I had with him here a few years ago was very shady and I got an uneasy feeling. It was a small dollar item, but it took upwards of 2 months for me to finally get all my items.

It's amazing how many times your gut instincts are correct.

kind of x2 for me. I bought 2 spools of line and it took forever to get them. Another member ( I don't remember who maybe KU(?) pm'd me behind the scenes to warn me that although he got his stuff it took forever. I got mine with an apology, a throw in and an explanation of being a finance guy at a car dealer thus being busy. It seemed like he had made a pretty good comeback after that. Like others said lots of quality posts etc. I thought I had read once that he had moved somewhere ( from MI to Texas or OK or something. )

I just couldn't shake the feeling though that with several shaky deals that something just wasn't right.

Who knows maybe he ( if even him ) just got caught up in some bad habit and saw no way out. Around here with the river boats people are going to prison regularly for getting their hands in the co till.

I think that down deep he is probably a good guy. I think you can pray for someone to wish them well and to hoe that they turn their life around. I think you can do that but still demand that they pay for their actions.

Keep in mind it is not just him you will be praying for but his family and relatives who are also affected by this.