"McVeigh did not need to raise money for the bomb, which only cost about $5,000. All told, the truck rental cost about $250, the fertilizer less than $500, and the nitromethane $2,780, with a cheap car being used as a getaway vehicle..." Oklahoma City bombing - Wikipedia
I am sure they track large purchases.
Thugs do not believe in paying for things. Or perhaps, because they want the attention?
“
Why call attention
to yourself stealing the stuff
when it’s sort of cheap?”
Perhaps because whoever stole it wouldn’t be allowed to buy it. I believe there are controls on fertilizer now, must sign for it or something.
Want to be terrorists are often stupid.
That said I agree. I recall McVeigh and Nichols bought their ammonium nitrate a few bags at a time and not all in the same place (or state). Same with the racing fuel they used.
“Why call attention
to yourself stealing the stuff
when it’s sort of cheap?”
Because the government now tracks fertilizer sales. If you purchase a truckload of fertilizer and don’t have a farm, alarm bells go off.
I was in a feed store a couple of years ago when a man came in and asked the owners about fertilizer storage and if they knew who they sold it to. He left some contact info. My guess is that anyone that was not known to the employees that tried to buy certain fertilizer products, would be the subject of a police stop soon after.
That actually happened to a TV station crew in NJ who tried to show how easy it would be for someone to buy fertilizer to build a bomb. The state police stopped and questioned them afterwards. FWIW, the store refused to sell the fertilizer.
The old “You’re not from around here are you?” has probably short-stopped a few budding bomb makers.