[at-l] Sticky fingers....

[lwbooher@halifax.com (Leslie Booher)]

Your speaking of Mountain Mama's reminded me that I had a car trashed
several years ago in the Davenport Gap parking lot.  anklebear

----- Original Message -----
From: Datto <datto_atl@yahoo.com>
To: <at-l@backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: [at-l] Sticky fingers....


> Suggestion: Carry one of those lightweight cable locks
> with you (Coleman makes a light one that I carried and
> used in just about every state on my Year 2000
> thru-hike).
>
> The purpose of the cable lock isn't to prevent someone
> with bolt cutters from walking off with your backpack.
> It's to slow them down so they don't try walking off
> with your backpack in the first place.
>
> Here's what happens when someone steals a backpack.
> They first take a gander at where you have the pack
> sitting...like right on the outer edge of the sidewalk
> leaning freely against a post. They wonder, "can I
> just drive past and hoist the pack up into the back of
> my good ol' pickup truck before anyone notices?" Or if
> they've got a buddy, they'll have him/her toss the
> pack into the back of the pickup truck and then
> skedattle with it. It'll happen so fast no one will
> notice. And yes, they're gonna know the difference
> between a Gregory backpack and a K-mart backpack and
> the likelyhood of valuables inside.
>
> If you've left your backpack at the trailhead because
> you don't want to take it into town with you, believe
> me there are going to be hillbillies in the bushes at
> the trailhead who are out there just waiting for you
> to try to be stupid enough to hide your backpack.
> They'll make an easy $50 (or some drugs) on the
> fencing of your pack and contents. Easy money -- they
> just hide in the bushes during thru-hiker season and
> wait for the thru-hikers to say...go down the road 1.5
> miles to Mountain Mamas for instance. They'll watch
> you hide your backpack, wait until you and your
> buddies are out of sight and then be off with your
> backpack. You won't even know it's gone for hours.
>
> Trail Days -- this is the absolute worst place to
> leave ANYTHING unattended. There was a ring of thieves
> working the Year 2000 Trail Days -- bunch of kids
> really...they'd heist all kinds of gear -- purses out
> of tents, backpacks, the tent itself -- anything that
> might seem to have a value and not tied down. Theyu'd
> exchange the gear for drugs. An organized routine -- I
> met one of the thieves at Thomas Knob shelter. He
> didn't have a dime to his name, no food, not near
> enough clothing for a 20*F night but he'd been
> wandering the Trail looking for things to steal in
> order to feed a drug habit. He ended up having to hang
> out in Damascus for a week or two in order to wait for
> enough gear to arrive to get a quantity to steal.
> Quite upset that Damascus didn't have more people. He
> was from Virginia Beach -- about 20 years old, said he
> was in Special Forces (oh yeah, sure, God did I start
> laughing at that -- he'd been trying to impress a girl
> that had hiked into the shelter that night). I
> understand he went back to Virginia Beach shortly
> after Thomas Knob. You know, the Damascus police
> department really does not get it at all. They simply
> want to ignore the fact that Trail Days is a big
> target for theft rings in the area. Head in the sand.
>
> Note the further north you get, the less likely it is
> going to be that you'll be able to walk inside wearing
> or carrying your backpack. So...you'll end up having
> to leave your backpack outside by the door. You'll
> need to have a cable lock to secure it to a fence or
> gate or something to keep it from walking away. Note
> the people running Shenendoah National Park are
> *particularly* anti-hiker in this regard.
>
> So...the moral: Never leave your backpack at a
> trailhead, never leave your pack without securing it
> to at least a post with a cable lock (but still keep
> an eye on it anyhow just in case Billy Bob is getting
> technologically advanced and coming in with bolt
> cutters). Never leave anything inside a tent or
> leaning against a pole along the sidewalk at Trail
> Days.
>
> Datto
>
>
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