Hammond is a very laid back city (or town, depending on your perspective). We’re easy going, and for the most part… if you have a skateboard, you’ve got instant friends, thanks to the locals here. We really enjoy having visitors come from all over to have a taste of the skate scene we have to offer… we encourage any and everyone reading this to visit us, skate with us, and have a good time. We do have limits on what we accept, however… one of those things is theft. I’m not just talking about someone swiping a board, or someone walking out with someone else’s skate tool… I’m also talking about theft from any place here in Hammond… or anywhere else for that matter.

The breakdown: This past Sunday, a crew of skateboarders from Montegut, Louisiana came up to ride for a large part of the day. The crew seemed really cool… I skated and talked with everyone for quite a while… it’s always good to have new homies.

After a couple of hours, I noticed the crew was gone… then I found out something really disturbing…I was informed by one of our locals that one of the Montegut fellas stole a Snickers bar from the little family-owned grocery store by the park. Pardon my French, but that’s bullshit. I mean, I can almost understand stealing if you were starving to death, you had ribs poking out, and you were about to pass out from hunger… but what this kid did was just lame. I know it’s just a Snickers, but it might as well have been a car. The fact is that we go to that store every day… they have the coldest drinks in Hammond, and they’re a local business, not some huge megacorporation. I’m glad they caught the punk, and I’m glad they photographed him.

To the thief in question: I went to the store this morning to talk to the owner… I let him know that even though I didn’t know your name, I knew you weren’t from Hammond. I also told him that you weren’t a skater, you were just a thief. The owner let me take a couple of photos of the sign that we get to look at every time we go into the store, so for the benefit of the world, I’ll share it now:

Just in case you can’t see him clearly, here’s a close up:

Make no mistake… you’re no longer welcome here. You blew it. If any of us see you at our park again, we’re calling the cops and we’re going to make sure you don’t set foot in our city again. I’m sure you thought it was funny, but it wasn’t. When you stole from that store, you made us all look bad. You made your town look bad, and you made your crew look bad. I’ll say it one last time: don’t come back.