PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Buck Froman is a fixture in Southeast Portland. For decades, he’s been selling antique stoves at Buck’s Stove Palace on Southeast Foster. But after being robbed again this weekend, he said he’s had enough.
Twice this weekend Froman, 75,encountered thieves at his storage space down Foster by I-205. He tripped and fell while confronting them, injuring his face.
Late Saturday afternoon, he said, 2 men showed up driving a pickup with a trailer attached. They drove onto the property and started loading the trailer with a lot of valuable metal.
Froman was across the street, driving a U-Haul moving stove parts, when he saw the men. He blocked the entrance with the U-Haul but the thieves crashed their pickup into his fence. The pickup got stuck and they took off but brandished what he thinks was a machete and a bat.
“It was a stolen truck with some scrap in it that I recognized as some of my scrap. That same truck has been seen here many times. And I’ve lost a ton of stuff,” he said.
He called the police. When they didn’t arrive while he was there, he called KOIN 6 News.
Police did arrive on Sunday — but, he said, that was after the thieves returned to try and get the stolen pickup and the trailer back. They ran off and left both, which were towed away by police.
Froman said he’s had so many thefts he just wants to be done with the whole thing.
KOIN 6 News reached out to Portland police for comment. They said they were down about one-third of their officers in East Precinct on Saturday and since it was not an urgent call — not a threat to life at that very moment — they did not respond immediately.
