Texas Man Parks Sherman Tank In Front of His House

[vmax]

thats cool AF

 

[easy rider]

How many of his neighbors actually have a $600,000 vehicle parked out front?

 

[Renegade]

As someone who lives in a deed-restricted (HOA) neighborhood I am fully aware how they work. Unless that street is privately owned by, or common property of, the HOA, they have no jurisdiction over it. The city does.

Friend got HOA tickets for letting someone park in front of his house overnight (GF situation). Yes public street. It was cheaper to pay them than to fight them.

 

[AustinN4]

Yes public street. It was cheaper to pay them than to fight them.

I can understand that, but I not only would have legally fought the "tickets" (and won) but I would have sued the hell out of the HOA for damages.

 

[oldag]

Oh, that.

I just meant to illustrate that the powers-that-be in River Oaks are accustomed to getting their way, no matter how evil/stupid/silly their intentions. I was shocked that a homeowner in there would do something, legal or not, that he would have to know would piss off the HOA.

Fair point. I should have picked up on that.

 

[benenglish]

Friend got HOA tickets for letting someone park in front of his house overnight (GF situation). Yes public street. It was cheaper to pay them than to fight them.

I can understand that, but I not only would have legally fought the "tickets" (and won) but I would have sued the hell out of the HOA for damages.

There are plenty of places in the U.S. where HOAs have state-granted powers that make them the equivalent of a low-level law enforcement agency. They very, very often can write tickets on "public" streets that have somehow, through some legal filings long ago, become "not exactly public" streets. Many of them require advance notice and obtaining a permit to park a car on the street overnight.

AustinN4, have you ever lived in a place that's truly locked down by an over-the-top, control-freak HOA?

One of the reasons I live where I do is that the HOA, for most of my decades here and certainly when I moved in, believed in benign neglect. That has changed. They now send out letters for deed restriction violations for things that aren't mentioned in the deed restrictions. I got a letter telling me to "fix" the hedges at one corner of my hardscape. I called up the management company and asked "Since the deed restrictions are silent on the presence, absence, or placement of bushes, I can just remove them. Would that suffice?" (Yes, I realize this is passive-aggressive as all hell but that's just the way I roll.) The manager immediately revoked the violation letter.

Other homeowners have gotten tickets for hanging a sheet as a window covering. There is no requirement for drapery in the deed restrictions but the HOA has managed to bully people into buying drapes. (Yes, there's quite a discussion to be had about what someone who can't afford drapes is doing owning a home but that's beside the point.)

At least in my HOA, they may try crap but when you call them on it they back down. I'm still considering moving.

If I lived somewhere that mandated no overnight parking without an advance permit, you'd better believe I'd find a way to comply or know that the ticket would have to be paid.

Texas, btw, is not the worst about this. There are other states where abusive HOAs are apparently the intended goal of state law. Don't go on youtube looking for videos on the subject; you can lose hours down that rabbit hole. Also, your blood pressure will suffer mightily.

 

[benenglish]

How many of his neighbors actually have a $600,000 vehicle parked out front?

It's River Oaks. There will be a few.

 

[AustinN4]

How many of his neighbors actually have a $600,000 vehicle parked out front?

You don't?

 

[easy rider]

You don't?

Somebody bought the Sherman I was interested in.

 

[Texas42]

Wonder what the appreciation/depritiiation numbers are like. Maintenance is probably a bear though.

 

[easy rider]

Wonder what the appreciation/depritiiation numbers are like. Maintenance is probably a bear though.

You have an extra 600K laying around, are you really worried about maintenance?

 

[oldag]

How many of his neighbors actually have a $600,000 vehicle parked out front?

Parked out front? Maybe not. Might want to check the garage, though.

 

[easy rider]

It's not San Diego, I doubt there are many over 250K, but then I wouldn't know. I have seen many nice cars in Texas, but not nearly as many as southern California and very rarely near 600K.

 

[RACER X]

Over $600k cars are rare in general

But I see a lot of $200k cars

You’re not looking in the right places, lol

My parents neighbor had 2 lambo’s and an Alpina Z8 flooded out recently, that’s at the house. His warehouse had several more exotics flooded. And that’s not in R-O


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[Armybrat]

Somebody elsewhere did some research on this Houston tank and posted this:
(Don't flame me, I just copied & pasted it here - but deleted a couple of irrelevant smack talk statements from the writer)

Buzbee is officially full of shit.

The tank was found on a gunnery range at the British army's Salisbury Plain Training Area a number of years ago and sold to a guy who lived in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. That guy then sold the tank to a French guy named Patrick Nerrant who refurbished it for his Normandy Tank Museum, which closed its doors in September 2016. When the museum closed, the collection was sold at auction. Buzbee bought it at the auction and, using the name "Sir Anthony G Buzbee" had the thing shipped to Galveston via freighter.

The tank chassis is serial number 18688. It is a M4A4(75) variant, built originally by Chrysler in 1944. Buzbee has it painted with registration number 3035570-S and has it marked as assigned to the 66th Armored Regiment. That chassis' correct registration number is 3018994. The tank was certified as completely de-milled in July 2015, so the main gun doesn't work. For the record, the 66th Armored was at Normandy on June 9, 1944 and did get sent to Berlin in 1945 but, according to the unit's after action reports, it was 150 miles away from Paris when the city was liberated in August 1944.

When Nerrant sold Buzbee the tank, he had no information regarding its operational history. I haven't had time to dig up the records on chassis number 18688, but no one involved with this tank has any clue where the chassis was before it was found rusting away as an old target at the British firing range. Buzbee has fabricated the tank's operational history. Also, the tank is a composite restoration, not an intact tank from WWII, so saying "it" was at Normandy, Paris and Berlin is non-sensical. The tank Buzbee owns didn't actually exist until the restoration occurred in 2015.

Here is the info on the museum and the brochure for the auction that includes the tank:
http://www.dday-overlord.com/en/norm...on-tank-museum

And, to close the book on Tony Buzbee's "military history" fairy tale, I offer the following from the Tank Encyclopedia:

"This model was not particularly appreciated with US crews and most went to the British and other Allied forces.
The Russians were the most prolific “customers” of this version, but they didn’t like it either, because of the sensitive engine and relatively light armor. The British, Canadian, Australians, Free Polish and Free French all fought in Italy with this model. They also saw service at El Alamein, during the Tunisian campaign, Sicily and Western Europe. But by mid-44, up-armored and up-gunned models gradually replaced them. Losses had been heavy, not only because of enemy fire. The engine rarely caught fire when hit, but caused trouble because of complicated maintenance issues and long or delayed repairs.

http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/US/M4_Sherman.php "

So it appears this tank was sent to the Brits and that it probably didn't see any action with an American unit. That would explain why the tank was found in Britain and why there are no American military records of it having been assigned to a U.S. military unit. This would also explain the inaccurate registration number currently on the tank.

There are people whose hobby it is to keep track of Sherman tanks. They have a pretty good notes on the surviving tanks. For example, the one in the museum in College Station is a M4A3 variant with a 75 mm gun, built by Ford. The chassis number is 12382 and the registration number is 3054537. It has a Union Steel D50878 turret with factory added loader’s hatch.

Supposedly, there are 86 known M4A4 variants (Buzbee's variant) still in existence. That they know it was used as a range target at a British Army gunnery range and the engine has been changed from its original 30 cylinder Chrysler A57 multibank to a Ford GAA V8 is interesting.

Obviously, these people have researched these tanks. If Buzbee knew that the tank saw combat in a) Normandy, b) was used in the liberation of Paris and 3) was sent to Berlin, the people who knew the registration number painted on the tank wasn't its actual registration number would have also known the tank's battle history. They make no mention of any such battle history.

One would think any such battle history would have been included in the auction materials to increase interest, but the guy who sold him the tank didn't mention any battle history in the auction materials. Buzbee's "provenance" of the tank seems to have originated with his ownership of it. And with the majority of that specific variant mostly going to British (and other non-U.S. allies) it's difficult to understand why that model, with its undersized 75mm gun would have been sent to Berlin for use by U.S. troops. By the end of the war, German armor (Tiger, Panther) was robust enough that the 75 mm gun couldn't penetrate its armor and the 76mm gun was the standard U.S. tank gun.

What he actually seems to have is a tank made by the U.S. for use by British forces, and with no particularly interesting history. At this moment, there are seven additional M4A4(75) tanks sitting at the British Army firing range where Buzbee's was found. There is also a Chrysler-built M4A4 at Camp Mabry in Austin, but that one was once owned by the Israeli Defense Forces, who up-gunned it to a 105. There is one on display at Ft. Knox which was a former British Army tank. Buzbee's tank seems to be one of two that were once British range targets and have been restored. The other one is at the Bovington Tank Museum in the UK.

 

[deemus]

What a dick......

"Also, the tank is a composite restoration, not an intact tank from WWII, so saying "it" was at Normandy, Paris and Berlin is non-sensical."

That's like saying my 4-Runner wasn't on the beach at Port A, because I had my clutch redone, and had different tires then.

 

[Jakashh]

It's not San Diego, I doubt there are many over 250K, but then I wouldn't know. I have seen many nice cars in Texas, but not nearly as many as southern California and very rarely near 600K.

Saw a $2 million Porsche 918 Spyder parked on the top floor of the Sugar Land town center garage to escape the flooding during harvey.

Public garage, free parking lol.


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[Armybrat]

What a dick......

"Also, the tank is a composite restoration, not an intact tank from WWII, so saying "it" was at Normandy, Paris and Berlin is non-sensical."

That's like saying my 4-Runner wasn't on the beach at Port A, because I had my clutch redone, and had different tires then.

From what that researcher indicated, Buzbee really embellished the battle history of that tank because there was no documentation of such that came with the purchase. It apparently wasn't even close to Paris.
If the owner is going to make claims about its history, he should have documentation from the DoD or the British Army to back it up.

Otherwise, it is a badass WWII artifact that would be cool to own.

 

[deemus]

From what that researcher indicated, Buzbee really embellished the battle history of that tank because there was no documentation of such that came with the purchase. It apparently wasn't even close to Paris.
If the owner is going to make claims about its history, he should have documentation from the DoD or the British Army to back it up.

Otherwise, it is a badass WWII artifact that would be cool to own.

I agree that the owner should be called out for embellishment. But the guy acts like it was never used in battle, when it appears that clearly it was. My issue is the author of that post discounting the tank's historical significance just because it had some work done.

 

[easy rider]

Saw a $2 million Porsche 918 Spyder parked on the top floor of the Sugar Land town center garage to escape the flooding during harvey.

Public garage, free parking lol.


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Didn't say there isn't any, just rare.