Stolen Gear Stories

[chknfngrs]

We have some idiots on the loose in WV. Just a few weeks ago, 2 friends and I set out on a short winter backpacking excursion in the George Washington National Forest, near the Tuscarora Trail/Wardensville, WV (Waites Run Road/Wilson Cove area)

Friday night, we arrived at the trailhead late (midnight) and hiked into Gerhard Shelter for our basecamp, about 4 miles give or take a few. Granted it was 2:30AM by the time we got in.The next day, we did a loop that included a portion of the trail/road that we parked our car. We discovered that our driver inadvertantly left the car unlocked.

In the back of the car was a $400 Mountain Hardwear tent, $200 La Sportiva trekking boots, $150 Oakleys, $100 Smith Sunglasses, and my $50 New Balance 806 Trail Runners w/ Green Superfeet. Also beneath the backseat, an iPod, a digital camera and a cell phone. Any guesses as to what got yanked?

My shoes and only my shoes. Wha....?

So what's the strangest Loss of Gear for you all?!

[mweinstone]

how would you feel if you knew i took 20 dollars from a thru hikers pack when i was 15?

[Programbo]

This is a related odd story from long ago..maybe 1973?...Anyway..This happened at the Devil's Race Course shelter in Maryland..Me and my brother stopped there early in the afternoon and were spending the night..They was already a complete set of hiking equpiment there laid out..pack..sleeping back..stove etc..plus a dog bowl filled with food and a leash and a half empty box of .357 magnum rounds ..After awhile we heard some shooting coming from the area of the race course back behind the shelter aways..Not like a gun fight but a slower shooting like someone target shooting..Anyway it finally stopped but no one ever came back to the shelter..We stayed there that night and by next morning no one had come back to claim all the hiking gear..We got curious and went back around the race course area and could find nothing..We stayed over the next night also and the morning after that still no one...I think we ended up taking a thermal military blanket that was there...Always wondered what became of the owner of that gear
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[Newb]

I think we ended up taking a thermal military blanket that was there...Always wondered what became of the owner of that gear
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That was you? You bastards. I nearly froze my butt off out there. I haven't forgotten!

[Moxie00]

I was doing a three day from The Crockers to Saddleback. I left my pickup in the Saddleback parking lot and a friend drove me around to the parking area for The Crockers. My 35mm camera fell out of my pack and was laying in the back of my pick up truck. As I was getting near the end of my southbound hike every northbounder I met was telling me about vandalism and thefts at the Saddleback parking lot. When I got there the windows of several cars and trucks had been smashed and cameras, guns, clothes and camping gear taken. My window was not broken as nothing was is sight in my pick up and the thieves had overloooked a perfectly good expensive 35mm camera that was just laying in the back of my truck. The motto is, if you leave your car at a trailhead leave nothing in sight.
Two years ago my wife was backpacking in New Zealand and left her pack with cover leaning against her one person tent. When she got up in the night to pee her pack was gone with everything she owned except the clothes she had on. She had her hikers wallet around her neck with credit cards and identification so they didn't get that. Camera, stove, clothes, airline tickets,medication. everything and 10,000 miles from home. The crooks threw out her airline tickets and they were turned in to the local police. The New Zealand people were wonderful and gave her clothing and gear. A local outfitter sold her a wonderful backpack at cost. She was able to complete her three month hike but it was an awful experience for her. Our travel insurance covered about half her loss, the New Zealand police were wonderful but the crooks were never caught.

[Jester2000]

Re: Devil's Racecourse --
I've seen groups of guys in camo running past that shelter and I presumed they were National Guardsmen on a training thing, so maybe the gear belonged to one of them.

As for a theft story, someone stole one Leki pole from me in Kent. One. My entire pack and both poles were sitting outside a restaurant and they took one pole. If they had taken both I would've still been mad, but at least I would've figured someone was using them. As it is I figure someone took one to be bad and threw it in the bushes somewhere.

[Footslogger]

In the laudramat in Pearisburgh (2003) a hiker left her ziplock bag with money/ID on top of a vending machine so that she could use the change machine. The change machine was on the outside wall of the building but visible through the window. By the time she walked back inside someone had made off with the ziplock. Police were called and it ended up being a local youngster who was just hanging out looking for something to get into that day. Just made me more aware of where my money/ID was at all times.

'Slogger

[MtnBikerGuy]

About 15 years ago, I either left my car unlocked or someone used a slimjim, because no glass was broked, but someone got into my car at the trail head and stole my radio. They were pretty neat about it. It was a Pioneer AM/FM cassette....well, the FM didn't work and neither did the cassette player. I laugh to this day thinking about the time they spent taking it out and the time they spent putting it in their car just to find out it was a piece of junk...lol

[Kerosene]

I did the Georgia section in April 2004 with Hikerhead, who parked his car at Dicks Creek Gap. He and I started off from Blue Mountain Shelter at 7 that morning, and he gave me the keys since I hike quite a bit faster than him.

I got to the car at 4 o'clock, opened the trunk to put my pack inside, and was greeted by a mouse nest made of the paper towels he had left in the trunk (they got into my Snickers cache also...the little buggers). I put my pack on the ground, cleaned out the trunk a bit (keeping the nest in the corner to show Hikerhead just how bad it was), and headed into town to check into a motel.

Turns out that I had left a small green ditty bag on the grass that contained my nice Black Diamond Ion headlamp, multi-tool, my toiletries, prescription asthma medicine, and something else that had a little value. I realized that I had lost the bag when I unpacked in the motel, but I thought I had left it at the viewpoint several miles back up the mountain.

I drove back to the trailhead about 6:30 PM to pick up Hikerhead and ran into some local kid who was bugging all the hikers. We got to talking and I started complaining about losing my stuff, when he gets a funny look in his eye and asks my name; not my trail name, my real name. He had picked up the bag, took the stuff he wanted, and tossed the rest in the garbage can. The good thing is that he gave the stuff back to me; the bad thing is that he expected a reward and I didn't bite. The last I saw of him, he peeled out of the parking lot back towards Hiawassee honking his horn like the demented character he was.

Oh, I sat there until 9:30 waiting for Hikerhead to finally arrive. He may not be fast, but he doesn't stop until he gets there!

[Programbo]

Re: Devil's Racecourse --
I've seen groups of guys in camo running past that shelter and I presumed they were National Guardsmen on a training thing, so maybe the gear belonged to one of them..

I doubt that..This was like 33 years ago and it was all the typical backpackers junk of that era with the exception of the camo "poncho liner" which was a thin thermal/poly filled blacket type thing you could snap inside the poncho for warmth..Probably some wacked out Vietnam vet (It was the early 70's) who missed the war and was out there running around in the "jungle" shooting trees and got arrested by the local law :-?

[bulldog49]

Last November I was camped above Rock Creek Shelter. I set my tent up in the rain which later turned to ice and snow. In my haste, I left my new carbon fiber trekking poles leaning against a log outside my tent.

That night, I heard something making strange noises outside my tent. In the morning my poles were gone. I have no idea who, or what, was out there, but somewhere there is a 4 legged critter walking around with a nice set of trekking poles.

[Topcat]

how would you feel if you knew i took 20 dollars from a thru hikers pack when i was 15?

I would say that at a young age, you made a mistake and hopefully have made up for it in some way in the last 30 years. That being said, as a fan of "My Name is Earl", I would say, if you havent you better cause Kharma is coming to get you someday

[generoll]

Re: Devil's Racecourse --
I've seen groups of guys in camo running past that shelter and I presumed they were National Guardsmen on a training thing, so maybe the gear belonged to one of them..

I doubt that..This was like 33 years ago and it was all the typical backpackers junk of that era with the exception of the camo "poncho liner" which was a thin thermal/poly filled blacket type thing you could snap inside the poncho for warmth..Probably some wacked out Vietnam vet (It was the early 70's) who missed the war and was out there running around in the "jungle" shooting trees and got arrested by the local law :-?


Nice bit of stereotyping there, Programbo. It's so nice to realize that such thinking is still with us.

[mweinstone]

yes,my mission is to give. its what i do and i do it well. other than change from my moms purse as a kid, that travelers check we took from the hikers pack was it for my life of crime.and what about the idea of that check being found ?i think i signed my own name so i could find it and pay it back concievably. the guy was down at the spring when we did the deed.if i remember,my friend was against it,.it was all my evil doings.but ill never forget it.