Car Break In Response from AMC Huts Manager

[giggy]

I am with spencer - give them a nice severed head stoning and them haul them up the ammo ravine to start a rotted body landslide. rock on!!

 

[dms]

It happened to me at Pisgah State Park. Came back from a wonderful hike only to see two police cruisers parked next to my truck, not a good sight. The thieves smashed a side window thereby setting off my alarm so all they stole was my gym bag with my after hike clothes. A very lousy feeling after a nice day in the woods. The police told me that the lot was notorious for breakins, I suggested that a sign be posted stating that fact. The police also said they had "staked" the place out before, unfortunately not on the day I was there!

 

[Dalraida]

Breakin sites

Whenever I park at a trailhead parking lot, I look for the telltale glass fragments all over the ground. If I see any, I re-evaluate using that parking lot. One example is the parking lot at Mount Major. Way up in the lot, out of sight of the highway you will see the glass. Down near Route 11 where you can still legally park there is no glass. Guess where I leave my car. It is only about a 200 foot distance, but very increased security.

 

[WalksWithBlackflies]

What about posting signs at the trailhead saying "This parking lot under video surveillance" (like you see at gas stations), and put up a fake camera on a nearby pole/tree?

 

[DougPaul]

What about posting signs at the trailhead saying "This parking lot under video surveillance" (like you see at gas stations), and put up a fake camera on a nearby pole/tree?

Somebody will steal the camera?

Doug

 

[Double Bow]

What about posting signs at the trailhead saying "This parking lot under video surveillance" (like you see at gas stations), and put up a fake camera on a nearby pole/tree?

Just have the sign and no camera. Let them think they just can't see where it's hidden!

 

[Mike P.]

You could put the fake camera up high or don't even bother having one, I slow down heading into Gorham when I see the Speed checked by Radar sign. I would think a motion camera would randomly take pictures of any movement, animals, wind moving branches, early & late hikers walking past cars to get to their own....

Most break-ins on Friday & Saturday nights would coincide with when the huts are busiest & more cars in overnight & the two nights that kids are out partying. I'll take a wild guess here & say the break-ins that do occur mid-week & mid-day occur more often in summer than in the winter when either huts are closed or when school is in session. Sunday break-ins occurring during three day weekends.

How to catch them, you could set up camp 80 feet from the lot & stay up all night with a video camera with IR OR you & a couple of friends could get a 12 pack of beer (or case) at 9:30 & then drive around & drink the beer because that's what they are doing. (I was not always an angelic hiker - I had to rip a couple of pages out of my yearbook to keep my kids from reading some details )

If they had a .22 or other small caliber firearm they'd be shooting windows out so I'd guess they have a Louisville Slugger or metal bar, since no kids have been at the local ER's requiring stitches at 3:00 AM. Catching them means you will likely have two or more armed scared (because they got caught) teens.

Their not out after hiking equipment since that is on your back so while some electronics & after hike clothes may be on their shopping list, it's more the thrill not the profit that is motivating them.

I think Michael J has a point, if word gets outs that parking at some trailheads that cater to people staying at the huts, they may see some drop in reservations. The shuttle idea they had seemed good although self-serving but you would have to run several shuttles on Friday, Saturday & Sunday as people arrive at different times & hike different places & paces on their way out.

(Gee, a National Park with a Gate would be great, we could all park at the central lots at the gates & 302, 16 & 112 + all the other roads would be closed to the public, the unemployed loggers & mill workers could drive shuttle buses so that every 30 minutes a bus would come by a trailhead between 5:00 AM & 10 PM & then hourly overnight, the vandals would only have one a couple of well lit patrolled lots to try & strike at or the Park employees lot & I always thought the only jobs created would be hotel & fast food jobs, who wouldn't want to drive a bus of hikers from well to do locales, of course an AMC sticker (I have one BTW) would get you an exemption so you could drive to the HC & Mt. Washington Hotel Guest would get limo service not buses I'm kidding, I've never been in favor of a WMNP too disruptive to the local people It did solve the break in problem though)

Police patrols are really the only way & in 770,000 acres, there are a lot of places to practice vandalism & not many entertainment outlets that these types of kids enjoy. - Donning the asbestos suit now...

 

[sapblatt]

sapblatt: sounds like parking at the Highland Center is not frowned upon as much as in the past. Thanks for the timely info!

I would bet if your car had an AMC sticker on it they would not dare bother it (tow it) from the Highland Center. It would not be very good fro member relations.

 

[HikerBob]

I know I've seen 'This parking lot is under video surveilance' signs at some of the lots... can't remember which ones. Would be interesting to learn if incidents at these had decreased.

Bob

 

[DougPaul]

I know I've seen 'This parking lot is under video surveilance' signs at some of the lots... can't remember which ones. Would be interesting to learn if incidents at these had decreased.

I suspect the credibility of such signs depends on the locale--far more believable if the parking lot is close to buildings than if it is away from buildings.

Doug

 

[AntlerPeak]

It seems the time of day does not matter. A few years ago I had my car broken into, window smashed while parked on rte 16 during a day hike on Mt Moriah. A friend has his broken into Clarenden George while simply stopping at a rest stop to view the falls. In the fifteen minutes he was gone the window was broken and the theives made off with a bag of trash. A fast food bag filled with litter. There was nothing else in the car. Pretty sad but both of these incidents were in broad daylight in heavily traffic areas.

 

[DougPaul]

I believe the video survellience refers to police driving by slowing in their cruisers videotaping the license plates of vehicles in the lot. I've seen that occur a couple of times at Lafayette Place about 2 years ago, but not recently. I don't think it implies a video camera duct-taped in the leaves of a nearby birch tree doing video survellience in the same manner as convenience stores, banks and others.

Thanks--I wasn't aware of this approach. Just used to video survellience of urban/suburban parking lots from adjoining buildings.

Doug

 

[adamiata]

A shutter or flash going off 10' from the perp will probably mean they'll get the camera too.

What you should do is rig up two cameras, one with a flash and one without. The second one should set up so that it takes a picture simultaneously with the other camera and can thus share its' flash. The thief steals the camera that flashed, but is unaware of the second one nearby that still has him caught on film.

 

[Lawn Sale]

idea

That's a good idea, but when I'm hiking an area for multiple days, I prefer to try and have people drop me off and pick me up. Last time I had to turn around at Baldplate due to snow (in mid-May), and had to make it 18 miles back to Bethel.

Windows are expoensive!!!

Then again, I do have an old Chevy truck I could put on the road, it looks like a lobsterman owns it and I doubt it''d be messed with much.

 

[sierra]

Many times I drive to trailheads and bivi before my climb/hike. This got me thinking, what if these criminals tried to break into my truck while I was in it? Ill leave that to your imagination, but Ill bet they wont get what their looking for.

 

[RoySwkr]

Then again, I do have an old Chevy truck I could put on the road, it looks like a lobsterman owns it and I doubt it''d be messed with much.

Depends on what they want. Some people I knew got to Grafton Notch and their car wouldn't start, somebody had stolen the battery. At Shaws in Concord, somebody stole the starter off a Jeep while the owner was shopping. And they took an unusual trailer hitch off a truck parked by the Liard River, the guy had to wait days for a replacement to arrive.

And if the old truck is easier to hotwire than a new vehicle, you may find it at the next trailhead down like happened to some Long Trail hikers in VT. It was probably a fellow hiker who needed a shuttle who was the guilty party there.

 

[Lawn Sale]

truck

I thought about that today as I was rebuilding the dual battery cutoff switch for my Samurai. I'll have to find some way to lock the hood so people can't get into the engine bay (it has a healthy 350 that's been built, the truck is quite a sleeper), and something to prevent it from being driven. I know where there is a will, there is a way, and people like that are lazy, so I have to make it not worth their while.

I'll have to think about this and come up with something.

 

[David Metsky]

dms reported a daytime breakin at Pisgah where they are apparently common enough that the police had checked before he got back.

Sigh, well there was a time when dayhikers were safe, I guess that has gone the way of the buggy whip.

-dave-

 

[Rich Lachapelle]

A summary of tactics...

To Summarize the best ideas of "passive discouragement":

The idea is to create in the mind of the dirtbag, the fear that
somehow, this might not be the time or the place or the
vehicle to victimize.
( I hope the dirtbags arent reading this)

-(as I suggested earlier) Spent shotgun shells on the
dashboard and rear deck with NRA stickers on several
windows.

-(as another poster suggested) Ratty daypack, walking
stick and water bottle left on the hood or trunk lid.

-(a new suggestion I have used in the past) A prominent,
easy to read note in the front windshield with the manly
sounding names of some fictitious late-arriving friends.
Something like this: "Hey Kurt and Butch, we'll be back
in a bit. Hang out and we'll catch up with you for some
late night adventures".
===========
Also, I heard about some Army buddies who were being
harrassed by raccoons on an overnight training bivy.
They killed one of the 'coons and hung it in a tree.
They were not bothered again. If someone does catch
some car-break-in dirtbags, it might be worth giving that
a try.

Rich in Vermont

 

[bjc]

Not again...

I just got hit at Monadnock yesterday, sometime between noon and 3:30. They smashed the side window of my brand new vehicle (1,100 miles). There was nothing in there to steal, as we stopped leaving things in the car after we got hit two years ago off the Kanc.