RRC Archives

I've been around for a while. I have a history in the Red. So what I'm about to write comes with painful experience. I ain't preachin' atcha right now either. This is good, sound, sage advice. Was a time we all practiced these things.

I'm talking about preventing break ins.

Last week I was at Martin's Fork (named for Hackworth?) getting ready for a trail run. I was parked next to a banged up caddie with Buckeye plates. The cabin of said yacht was crammed with backpacks, personal effects, and all kinds of goodies. There was an ipad laying on the back seat. There was a CD case in the front floorboard.

The car looked like the bait in a state police theft ring bust. Maybe it was. That thought was the only thing that stopped me--an honest person--from looting that rig.

This is self protection on my part. I've been broken into twice. Once in the New and once in the Red. And both times I really had nothing of value in the car. The first time they took a bag with 5 CDs and my friend's retainer. We didn't even have a CD player in the car. The second time there was nothing of value in sight except the CD player. Evidence that there were CDs under the seat.

I don't feel that break ins are a problem right now, but I don't want to see them flare up again. It was really bad in the early aughts.

1) leave valuables at home or somewhere else. Don't bring your 'lectronics to the parking lot. Definitely don't leave them in plain sight.

2) don't leave purses, backpacks, or ditty bags in sight in your car. There have been cases where empty backpacks were stolen because they potentially held valuables.

C) Stickers attract thieves.

4) assume that a thief will break your window for the change in your console. They will. Leave nothing of value visible or implied.

V. Carpool with the guy driving the beater car. Seriously. Or the person with local plates (I charge less for a shuttle than potential thieves will extract from your hoopty)

6. Report every crime. Local law enforcement needs to be able to track this stuff if nothing else. When in doubt call the KY State Police.

Break ins were so bad at one point that people were leaving their windows down just hoping they wouldn't get broken. One friend freaked out because I was going to leave my for-deposit Ale8 bottle in his floorboard. The Red had a sketchy rep for awhile. Kept people away. Influenced auto purchasing decisions for some climbers. I still don't drive a nice car for fear of attracting a lustful eye. Well, that's one reason.

Keeping this under control takes all of us. It takes dilligence.

Ascentionist wrote:The car looked like the bait in a state police theft ring bust. Maybe it was. That thought was the only thing that stopped me--an honest person--from looting that rig.

That was a super long winded FYI but basically you would have broken into someones car if you didn't think it was a set up?

Only to teach them a lesson.

Someone from the Lee County Sheriff's department drove through PMRP today when we were leaving. He told us someone had broken into a car in one of the lots. He didn't know which lot and said it was a trail day volunteer. They stole a laptop and camping gear that was clearly visible. He said the guy who usually does it is still in jail. He asked if we saw a red truck with a white stripe or he could have said SUV (He was throwing out specific model names and I don't know much about cars) that had been seen looking into the car. Told us to call dispatch if we saw that vehicle. So yeah, don't leave your stuff out where potential thieves can see it. Your warning turned out to be pretty timely.

Great advice.

About yesterday's situation:

The car was parked at the top of the Motherlode hill and all items taken were actually stored away in the trunk of the car. So even non-visible items are vulnerable. The owner of the car also found the gas cover open and assumed the thieves were going to siphon the gas from the tank (thankfully, that didn't happen). A witness who saw the truck said there were two men.

The part that really sucks is that the victims weren't climbers; instead, they were two guys who volunteered for trail day and worked their asses off for us.

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

Shitty for sure, one feller was a employee of mine and the other his buddy who wanted to tag along. I would like to take a moment and thank all those that donated a bit of coin to those guys. The efforts and concerns of our wonderful community helped sweeten the the taste of an otherwise very bitter situation for those fine gentlemen. Thanks Yall.

Man, I wasn't prophesying, but I have seen a lot of bait cars lately and knew it was coming.

I'm really paranoid now. I don't want to scare people, but lets nip this in the bud before it gets bad. Pass the word to people to take precautions.

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.

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.