Stolen gear - please be on the lookout if you buy used gear

My car was broken into last night (in Denver - highlands area) and the majority of my trad gear was stolen.

If you happen to see any used gear for sale that meets the criteria below, please give me a heads up and call the police. Most everything had pink tape on it (though who knows if it has been removed).

- Mountainsmith soft modular gear hauler (grey) with multi-color removable compartments
- Wild Country Friend - 1 gold
- Wild Country Friend - 1.25 purple
- Wild Country Friend - 1.5 grey
- BD Camelot (old pre-C4 style)- 1 red
- BD Camelot (old pre-C4 style)- 2 yellow
- BD Camelot (old pre-C4 style)- .75 green
- BD Camelot (old pre-C4 style)- .4 grey
- Camp Tri-cam - pink
- Camp Tri-cam - red
- Full set of Cassin nuts (multi-color)
- Bright blue cordalette
- Various guidebooks for front range locations (BC, Eldo, CCC, Flatirons) - most have my name and number inside front cover or first page
- All gear was on the old style oval Omega Pacific biners
- A number of slings from various manufacturers

Thanks so much

Holly
303-319-0322

Holly,

Sorry to hear that your car was broken into and gear was stolen.

You might want to let Wilderness Exchange Unlimited know and also call the rock gyms to let the staff know. Also, if you havne't already, post up on supertopo as well, as they are many Colorado folks active over there as well.

Good luck in getting it back.

Cheers

John

Thanks John. Appreciate your advice.

I talked to Don down at Wilderness Exchange and posted on the other sites as well. Hopefully if the louses aren't caught, they at least won't be able to make any money off it.

Forget Wilderness Exchange.....Go to every pawn shop within 15 miles of where it was stolen...guarantee you'll find it.

Holly--

Good luck getting your rack back, I would be devastated if mine were stolen.

Personally, I never buy used gear unless I know the source/seller well. If all climbers made this a policy we should theoretically be able to eliminate any desire to steal climbing gear. Just a thought though, I know that's not how the real world works, but I try to do my part anyway.

--Marc

Hey,

I will send you $5 to help replace your gear. If everyone joins in, you should be able to replace your rack. Give us your address.

Paypal address?

Kevin

Just so you know Wilderness Exchange is just down the hill from you on 15th across from Brothers Bar.

Holly,

If you own a home your home owners insurance might cover your loss. I had over $8,000 dollars worth of gear stolen from my truck and my home owners insurance covered the loss. Just had a friend this summer get his gear ripped off from the cave bivy at Chasm Lake below The Diamond. It is a sad day when this happens.

Kevin Coopman wrote:Hey, I will send you $5 to help replace your gear. If everyone joins in, you should be able to replace your rack. Give us your address. Paypal address? Kevin

This is a great idea, lets try to get this kicked off... Holly, do you have a paypal account? Lets get the word out!

John McNamee wrote:This is a great idea, lets try to get this kicked off...

Oh, my gear was stolen, too! Paypal your money to thanksalotsuckers@gmail.com.

How about everyone who has invested a lot of money in a trad rack either have homeowners or renter's insurance? Not that expensive and covers theft of not only your gear but anything else in your car, too.

John McNamee wrote: This is a great idea, lets try to get this kicked off... Holly, do you have a paypal account? Lets get the word out!

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how responsive and giving the climbing community is. However in good faith I cannot take your hard-earned money - even if it is just $5. But I do thank you for your kind words and ideas on how to recover my losses. And if you happen to see me whimpering in Eldo parking lot (I'll be the girl with a rope and no hardware) an offer to be my rope gun would be much appreciated.

In the words of a good friend: Really, I just hope that whomever stole the gear trips, falls and ends up with a few cams strategically placed where the sun don't shine. :-)

Post your same "Gear Stolen" ad at yourclimbing.com. That is another climbing community. Most are local here in Denver and C.Springs. Spread the word, so everyone is aware of the thief!! Oh yeah, you should also probably start looking on craigslist.com and eBay as well(you probably already know that, but if you haven't thought of it yet!). Good Luck!!!

How coincidental, but there are 2 separate ad's from Boulder that combined look similar to what you are missing on craigslist.com
Check it out and inquire about buying them back to see if they are yours. I thought I would look for you!! Also check out the posting from Lakewood as well. All three postings were posted today 11/6/2007 and appear like - (1)rock climbing gear & (2)rock climbing cams. Good Luck!!

(I WOULD SEND AN EMAIL TO BOTH PEOPLE TO SEE IF THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON. IT SEEMS A LITTLE SUSPECT TO ME!! OFFLY CLOSE MATCH TO YOUR MISSING GEAR!!)GOOD LUCK!!!!
Here are what the 2 ads say that I just told you about on craigslist.com:

(ad #1) rock climbing gear =
Nuts/stoppers
Set of DMM wallnuts, 8 of them=$40
Set of BD stoppers, 10 of them=$55
also pink/.5 tricam=$5
couple of draws with bentgates on one end=$6 each

(ad #2) rock climbing cams =
a bunch of cams I no longer need, all in good working order.
#3 friend, rigid stem=$20
#3.5 friend, rigid stem=$25
#3.5 flexible friend=$30
2 small tcu's=$15 each
red alien=$20
purple alien (the larger one, about the size of a #1 camalot)=20
#4 Trango flexcam=#20
Camalots:
.5-C4=$35
.75=$30
#1, older u stem=$20
#4, older u stem=$35
Make an offer on multiple or all!

Damn, Holly. Sorry to hear this. I assume you filed a police report and provided some photos of the gear? I'll keep my eyes open for online stuff on eBay and in pawn shops.

It was nice running into you at the gym the other night, btw.

Mark Cushman wrote: Oh, my gear was stolen, too! Paypal your money to thanksalotsuckers@gmail.com. How about everyone who has invested a lot of money in a trad rack either have homeowners or renter's insurance? Not that expensive and covers theft of not only your gear but anything else in your car, too.

Cold, but it had to be said.

I had a car load of alpine gear stolen about 15 years ago while staying overnight in a city. My car was parked on the street as my friend didn't have offstreet parking. I arrived late and tired and didn't unload my car. Also I had just quit work and was about to start on a 3 month winter climbing binge.

If it wasn't for the generously of other climbers I would have had to spend all of my savings to replace the gear or gone back to work. Both options weren't very exiting to me. As the news spread around people started to call me up and drop off gear that I could borrow for a few months. I few shops even gave me stuff and some gear manufacturers gave me demo's or loaners to try out.

It's all very well to call people suckers for offering to help, but just don't ever ask for help yourself. You may think you will never ask, but sometimes a curve ball is thrown your way. A little human compassion can go a long way.

Hey islandertek,

Great to do detective work, but be accurate please!
The gear in the craigslist ads is mine and I don't appreciate the insinuation that it is stolen.
Read a little closer and you will see that only 2 items (a pink tricam and a pre C4 .75 camalot) are on both lists.
Lots of those out there btw.
On the other hand, thanks for the free advertising!
PS-I called Holly that day to offer condolences and offer to sell her my gear.
And yes, gear thieves are an extremely low form of life!
Mark

John McNamee wrote:It's all very well to call people suckers for offering to help, but just don't ever ask for help yourself. You may think you will never ask, but sometimes a curve ball is thrown your way. A little human compassion can go a long way.

I wasn't trying to be too callous, but I guess it just struck me funny that Holly12 (I am sure Holly is a super nice person) with no profile and barely any posting history can come on this site, post that gear was stolen (every climber's nightmare) and suddenly get Paypal'd cash. Especially when we don't even know if Holly had insurance to cover.

I'd be the first in the line to help out my friends if they needed it.

Mark Cushman wrote: I wasn't trying to be too callous, but I guess it just struck me funny that Holly12 (I am sure Holly is a super nice person) with no profile and barely any posting history can come on this site, post that gear was stolen (every climber's nightmare) and suddenly get Paypal'd cash. Especially when we don't even know if Holly had insurance to cover. I'd be the first in the line to help out my friends if they needed it.

I'm a lurker, not a poster (hence the newly created profile). But you'll find that a handful of quality folks on this site climb with me and know me pretty well. I assure you I'm not looking for your money, I simply want to raise awareness so that the theiving louses don't have a shot of selling my rack inside our community.

I have been keeping an eye on Craigslist and have heard from a few folks who are selling and have seen my posts (thanks Mark for your call). I'm positive that the person who made off with my gear was not a climber (the horror) and probably couldn't speak intelligently about what they stole.

Thanks again for all the well wishes and advice. And if you don't have homeowners/renter's insurance, GET IT, because auto insurance won't cover your losses.

Holly

Homeowners insurance will cover theft from your vehicle? This sort of thing scares me which is why I always photograph each piece of gear I get and keep a list of everything I have.

Good luck in getting your stuff back!