RRC Archives

climbhigh wrote:I'm surprised a business hasn't opened a small area of their place, put in lockers, let customers bring their own locks(or rent them)and rent the locker(of various sizes) for a couple bucks. Brings people to your biz for up sales and helps fix an issue. Less easy big scores and the thieves go elsewhere. Used that type of service in Mexico and Argentina when we hit big cities and had our lives in packs.

I vaguely remember there being lockers at Miguel's a long-long-time ago, along the back wall under the shelter. But I don't remember clearly if they were lockers, or just shelves. I think there were some metal lockers with doors... But you didn't have to pay anything for them, so people would just leave their crap forever, some people were leaving stuff there for a week, while they were gone, so they wouldn't have to lug their stuff back and forth every weekend.

It would make sense to have lockers, but I am guessing that it is too costly to instal and maintain the lockers. They'd have to charge something, so people don't just leave their stuff there forever, but it would have to be low enough that people would be willing to pay it. Climbers are cheap, I bet you anything, even with lockers costing $2/day, there would still be people who would opt not to. And if there are provide-your-own-locks type thing, you'd have to have someone in charge to keep track of who put what in which locker, and for how long they paid, and then cut off the locks if people leave stuff longer than they paid for, and do something about the stuff that was left behind... I'm guessing it is more hassle and expense than is really worth it, to most businesses.

lena_chita wrote:

milspecmark wrote:So I guess it is safe to assume that the break ins are back! My policy is leave doors unlocked and my truck empty.

The thing is, it is not really an option for most people. Let's say you had to bring a laptop with you, becuase, you know, some people need to.

You can't leave it at Miguel's, not really. There have been things stolen from tents at Miguels in the past couple years, too. Most of the time, you'd be fine leaving your things at camp, and collecting them at the end of the day. But most of the times you'd be fine with leaving things in a trunk of your car & out of sight, too.

What's your solution? Bring all your camping gear, clothes, and electronics out to the crag with you? Or only go to Muir Valley?

As far as risk/benefit analysis go, I think keeping your stuff in the car, and out of sight, is still an option that most people will go for. Because, unless you are a daytripper, you will have more stuff than you can carry with you to the crag, at least on the last day of the trip.

Good point. I have struggled with this in the past as well, especially if i want to climb in the southern region on sunday and get on the rode to go home after climbing. I camp at Koomer Ridge, I have camped there for years and I usually make friends with the host. I have asked the question for years, "any theft here?" The answer remains the same, "Never". So I keep my stuff at the campground and bring an empty truck to the southern region. I also do not climb there on sunday because of that issue. I dont want to name any names in particular, but I am sure many of the local business owners would be happy to let you store your "stuff" somewhere safe at there location. It is a real bummer that the few bad seeds down there only target out of towners. But i would caution anyone down there of having anything of value in your car, these theives are desparate and they find value in things you may not. They will break your window just to check your glove box.

The guy that the cop is talking about that has been responsible for the break ins is Trial Tutt.
http://kool.corrections.ky.gov/KOOL/Details/18979

He is in jail but there is a ring of theives down in that area. The last time this was going on I saw theives (I am making a pretty accurate assumption). They were leaving the scene on foot and I drove past them coming into the entrance later to find out cars were just broken into. It was a man and a woman, man was tall and skinny with dark hair, late 30s or early 40s. I think there is a continuous racket of organized theivery going on down there, somthing the local police can never get their hands around. Maybe just passing the word around will help, but I think more needs to be done.

A week or so ago I was on my way out of Bald Rock and a man and woman walking along the road on top toward Motherlode waved and smiled too enthusiastically. I didn't think a lot about it but it was enough to get me thinking which led to this post. I try not to make assumptions about people based on the way they look but they looked rough.

Unfortunately I would not be able to describe them.

I wonder if Linda Black would be willing to work with the community. I also know the lady who owns the store at Bear Track which is a little closer. I'll ask her if she would be open to the idea of lockers on site. Koops has the storage buildings already...maybe convince them to expand their business model?

Unfortunately I think the risk/benefit analysis argument is true. If you're going to come climb best to keep everything out of site and try to mitigate the risk as best you can.

And absolutely report any verifiable funny business or break-ins at PMRP or MFRP to the Lee County sheriff (606) 464-4140. If a break-in occurs at Roadside or Lady Slipper those areas are in Wolfe County (606) 668-3569. The main Gorge area is a split between Powell (Military/Left Flank and Tunnel Ridge Road area), Menifee (all of Indian Creek, Fortress/Phantasia, Tower Rock, etc) and Wolfe (Funk Rock, Wall of Denial, Chimney Top Road area). When in doubt in the Gorge call the USFS (606)-663-8100.

Oh, and if you get broken into at BMW Boulders call Kipp Trummel. It was probably him; confused and trying to get into the wrong car.

I've been mulling this over too: back in the early Aughts when this was a problem we didn't have the same technology we have now.

What about community investment in some well-placed trail cams? Y'know, the ones that are triggered by movement?

I don't know the legal implications. Would trail cam images be admissible in court? And even if they pointed investigators to the perpetrators would it make a difference without other evidence?

They will steel the trail cams

milspecmark wrote:I dont want to name any names in particular, but I am sure many of the local business owners would be happy to let you store your "stuff" somewhere safe at there location.

One or two people asking to store things at a business location, sure. If you get friendly with the owner, they would do you a favor. But it is not a viable option for 100s and 1000s of people who go to the Red in season. No business has space to store even a dozen car's worth of camping stuff.

I dont think there would be hundreds or thousands in a given day, but yeah, I see your point.

Last couple times ive been down to MFRP there has been a car stopped on the gravel hill with a man and a woman in it. Not sure if they are watching cover for something or what, but seemed kind of sketchy.

Ok, so the man and the woman duo seems like a trend.

Anyone have any further descriptions of this man and woman seen lurking around? My wife and I with our two dogs and two kids were at Indian Creek about a month ago. We were playing in the creek and then went for a walk down the road. A really beat up car that was spray painted black drove past our car really slow then drove up to us when they noticed that we were about 500 feet away. They had a bunch of old junk in the back seat and wanted to talk which made us nervous since we had not seen anyone else that day in the area. It was a man and woman and they kept asking questions about the construction on the 9B side and wanted to know where the road was closed and if anyone was back there or not and if they could turn around anywhere, I lied and told him that they were working down the bend and there was no place to turn around. We made an effort to keep walking toward our car and away from them and they turned around and sped off. Made us both very uncomfortable. My 3 year old son was on my back and was playing with my camera and managed to snap a few pictures of them, they're blurry but you can clearly see their car.