T.Boone pulls an OJ!

As a child, T. Boone Pickens wrote his name in cement at his grandmother’s house next to his childhood home in Holdenville. The signature has been cut out of the driveway and moved. Photo by Bob Melton, Holdenville Daily News


Oklahoman T. Boone Pickens’ signature slab removed from home
Holdenville man says he plans a lawsuit against billionaire

BY SONYA COLBERG
Published: July 14, 2009

HOLDENVILLE — A man here said crews pulled up to the driveway of a home he owns, cut out a slab containing T. Boone Pickens’ signature and drove off.

The roughly 3-by-5-foot concrete slab was taken to the Pickens ranch in the Texas Panhandle.

"I was in shock and started talking to my neighbors. I couldn’t imagine who would actually come and cut my driveway out or when it had happened,” David McCart said.

Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser said in a statement, "The small section of cement was removed recently when Boone was in town to inspect enhancements to a family plot at the Holdenville cemetery.”

McCart said he’s planning a lawsuit to get back the concrete signed by the billionaire oilman.

"Right now I’m pursuing criminal charges against T. Boone Pickens,” McCart said Monday. "It will be for theft and vandalism.”

Rosser, in his statement, said, "We are clearly open to any thoughts the McCarts might have regarding how to best commemorate his association there for their purposes.”


Missing section

As a youngster, Pickens scratched his name in the cement driveway in 1946 at his grandmother’s house, now owned by McCart. Pickens has frequently checked on the house when he visited Oklahoma.

On June 22, McCart stopped by the unoccupied house so he could mow. He saw a hole where the signed concrete had been.

A neighbor and passersby said a large truck with Texas tags stopped at the two-story house four days earlier. Three men with cement saws and pry bars cut out a chunk of cement and loaded it into the truck bed, McCart said he was told.

McCart called police and filed a report, he said. Police Chief Jerry Young didn’t return calls for comment.

Someone put new cement in the driveway after he reported the incident to police, McCart said.

McCart said he contacted Holdenville Daily News reporter Bob Melton to get photos of the signature. It had been published in the paper with a 2008 story about Pickens’ wife buying his childhood home, the one next to McCart’s, and moving it to the 68,000-acre Texas ranch for Pickens’ birthday.

The paper then ran a story saying the historic piece of concrete had disappeared.

Rosser’s e-mail continues, in part: "There is no one prouder of his Holdenville heritage than Boone. He carved his name in that cement 70 years ago, in his grandmother’s driveway.

"It means a lot to him, and is now with his childhood home, which has been carefully restored and relocated to his ranch in the Texas Panhandle to help commemorate his Oklahoma roots.

"He’s pleased to learn that the neighborhood he grew up in and the cement markings were so popular in Holdenville.”

McCart said Police Chief Young visited the property at 211 N Kelker, looked at the driveway and said the missing slab was between the sidewalk and street, so it was city property.

McCart contends the improvements — the driveway — made on the easement belongs to his family.

He said his family maintains it.

When Pickens bought his childhood home next to the McCart house, his workers wanted to move the house across his driveway.

The McCarts didn’t allow that for fear the concrete would crack, he said.

McCart said he bought the house 19 years ago, mainly because of Pickens’ signature in the concrete.


ORANGE-POWER!!!


Mr. OP

Wow, what an idiot.

I guess when the oppurtunity to make money comes up some people will stop at nothing.

I'll lay 50-1 odds that David McCart is a goon fan deluxe.


Why didn't TBo just buy the damn house from the guy?

MY guess is Boone offered o buy it from him, and the guy knowing the buyer was a bilioniare gave him a price like say 10 million.

Then he should have had it declared public domain.

The idiot here is Boone.

Don't go take something that doesn't belong to you. If Boone wanted it that badly why not just make the guy an offer for it and go about it in an up and up manner?

Lol, it's a piece of concrete that has his name on it.

They even replaced the slab of concrete. The guy doesn't even live there.

I really hope your not serious...

How do you know he hasn't tried it, it's his signature and JUST MAYBE McCart was being the unreasonable idiot. I would also imagine that Boone is smart enough to know the legalities of the situation. It's probably much cheaper to pay the fine from the city than to be extorted by this guy. You can make all the improvements you want, but if it's done on government property it still belongs to the government.



Now please remove my altered quote from your sig line.

It's all moot anyway, the guy didn't own it, the city did. And if they don't have a problem with, then there is nothing he can do. Boone is no dummy.

Yes I'm serious. Don't take what doesn't belong to you.

What if one of the Gaylords did the same thing? We would be screaming bloody murder. It doesn't matter if he lives there or not. What if you own a rent house that no one is in it at the time and someone steals the fixtures out of the house?

Oh he's serious.

Regardless of who it was, I would be saying the same thing.

He replaced it, it was a childhood memory, get over it.

Right.

If the driveway is on the guy's private property, Mr. Pickens has not rights to it. Obviously, if the owner was a decent guy, he would have sold it to him, but legally, if Mr. Pickens had someone take it without premission, he could be held criminally and civilly liable, including ordered to return the piece of cement. It is also bad PR.

I guess people can try to justify this action all they want, but if the driveway was on the guy's property, taking it without permission was morally and legally wrong.

So your saying my moral values / opinions and views on things change with the type of person that it is?

Sooner fan or Cowboy fan it doesn't make a bit of difference to me in this instance. It's a slab of concrete for petes sake.

Could Boone have handled it better? Probably so. Is is possible Boone approached the guy to buy it previously? Possibly. Did this event warrant an article in the Oklahoman? No. The most telling part of the article for me is the last sentence: "McCart said he bought the house 19 years ago, mainly because of Pickens’ signature in the concrete." Riiiiiiigggghhhhht. Somebody is looking for a payday.

BullSh*t!

Sarcasm faces are fun!

Back to the topic, there's no way Pickens didn't make this guy an offer first. My guess is that the guy tried to gouge him for a ridiculous amount of money so Pickens went another route.

Was it juvenile? Yes, but on both parts.

In the end, Pickens will win because the guy was being a greedy idiot and should have just done the right thing by giving him his childhood memory for a fair price.

The fact that he's trying to get a payday is not relevant. Boone is in the wrong here.

Right.