IMPORTANT!!! Vehicle Break in on Marion Mt. TH

[physicslord]

The middle of the night disturbances have been going on for a while now.

Several years ago now I was camped at Black Mountain and a truck came in the middle of the night and literally started doing donuts in the campground kicking up dirt in huge rooster tails and just tearing things up in general. The truck literally came within a foot or two of hitting our tent with us in it.

At the time I thought it was an isolated incident but after talking to other people I found out it is fairly common.

[whitebark]

Well, if this makes you feel any better, car breakins have been a persistent, long-term problem at trailheads near Seattle, also. Nobody has come up with any good solutions here, either. The usual advice applies: leave nothing valuable in your car, not even hidden (thieves know all the hiding spots). At high theft trailheads, it may be worth rolling down windows and/or leaving doors unlocked to reduce potential damage. It may be a good idea to remove stuff with i.d. info such as registration slips and insurance cards from your car.

And try not to worry too much about it.

cheers!

[AlanK]

Hi Alan! Long time no see! I think the humor was pretty safe, and as inefficient as due process might be, I of course agree that it's totally necessary.

Bait cars work wonderfully, especially as a deterrent when they get free publicity on TV and everyone knows that there's a good chance they're being set up. I have a friend who is an L A County Sheriff who was actually on the Bait Car show. He said it's a ton of fun - like fishing, only fish are fairly smart.

I would certainly relish seeing a couple of these guys get caught and the results heavily-publicized.

The long time, no see business is sad -- I have not made it to the eastern ranges much lately. I'll have to do something about that. MAybe whe the reak-in guys move over to the San Gabriels.

[AlanK]

I understand the sentiments too. I'd be royally pissed of someone broke into my car. I'm just not ready to start killing people for burglary. Also, the trouble with jokingly (I assume it's jokingly) suggesting hiring snipers is that some day someone will take up the suggestion. And then shoot some poor schmuck who is trying to break into his own car because he locked the keys inside.

Snipers are very good at what they do, I'm sure they could tell the difference between the guy breaking his own window to get in and "drive" his own car away once he found his keys - the "thief" on the other hand would be carrying the goods back to his/her car/truck, that's when you shoot them , but you don't shoot to kill, you maim them so they can explain for the rest of their "Pathetic" lives to everyone who asks how come you cannot walk anymore - because I was caught stealing use a destructive round that cannot be traced and walk away, make sure you shoot out the tires too so they cannot drive away, they would have to explain the other vehicle's broken window too. Oh and one last thing capture them on film breaking the window and leave that for them to find so that the thief cannot lie their way out of it, I'm just saying

OK, I noted all of the smilies.

I have to agree that military snipers are very well trained. I had assumed that we could not afford one of them them for our little operation -- they don't come cheap. So, we would have to rely on local hacks who end up shooting the wrong guy. The fact is that a professional sniper would not take this job because he would know that, by shooting a guy breaking into a car, he would be committing a vastly more serious crime. That does not work well.

Here is my solution. We set up a car with all kinds of great stuff inside. Everything is thoroughly saturated with super glue. It's an updated version of the Tar Baby.

[phydeux]

Over on the San 'G' side, wasn't the Poopout Hill trailhead relocated in the 1990s down to Jenks Lake Road after too many break-ins? The NFS claimed to have done it for 'better recreational opportunities', but I gotta believe the periodic vehicle break-ins and outright thefts had a lot to do with it. That trailhead was very isolated after dark, making it easy pickin's for thieves. Thieves could easily see car headlights coming up the last straight part of the dirt road prior to getting to the parking lot, so they could disappear into the surrounding brush.

[WOLFDOG]

Yep, really disappointing that this stuff is increasing. More and more I have to find places away from trailheads in the San Jacintos to park my car and do cross- country in order to hook up with the trails. Back in the early 90's we had that problem at Humber Park with gangs coming up from the bottom of the hill that involved a swarm of car break-ins and grafitti painted on boulders. Finallly, some or our locals staged all-night surveillance watches up there to watch for these low-lifes, which did prove affective, they knew we meant business. Since the PD cannot be everywhere and that they're horribly understaffed, either hired security or public support will need to used more often.

[Backwoods]

Tweekers!

[TacoDelRio]

I am unemployed and I need money.

[The Shovel]

Near Thousand Oaks...

http://www.theacorn.com/news/2012-01-12 ... _hike.html

[Florian]

http://www.theacorn.com/news/2012-01-12/Front_Page/Trailhead_burglar_takes_a_hike.html

Troyan, that's a neat name. Too bad it belongs to a thief.

-Florian