801486 - 3/1/2015 14:52

There was supposedly years ago an old guy that had an elevator somewhere in Iowa. He always had a cigar and everytime he weighed somebody back he would put the cigar on the scale beam so the empty weight was heavier. It was such a habit nobody caught on. When he died there were thousands of bushels of grain unaccounted for.

I was talking to an old timer from a neighboring town one time and he said once he had trucks hauling corn to both the elevators in one town. He said no matter how full they the got the trucks when they went to the one elevator they were always lighter at that elevator than the other.

A guy that used to shell and haul corn for us had a truck with a lift tag. He unloaded at one elevator and when he pulled on the scale empty with the tag up the lady running the scale said he had to put the tag back down so it would weigh the same. He said he told her he didn't care if it was up in the cab with him it would still weigh the same.

Years ago the crew that worked at the elevator in the nearest town liked to have fun. One time one guy was hauling beans to a bin they had out in the country. When he weighed one of the other guys snuck up from behind and pulled the hitch pin out of the wagon, the guy driving got two miles out of town before he noticed he didn't have the wagon. And they used to set off bombs made out of oxygen and acetylene on the back lot a long ways from the bins. They were waiting for one to blow one time by the office and the office manager came out and was talking to them. The manager had his hands in his pockets when the thing blew and he jumped and flung his arms out and ripped the pockets out of his pants.