BCC Car break in

Watch out! Leave no valuables in your car in the cottonwood canyons.

Eric Chabot wrote:

I foolishly left a rope and rope bag visible in the trunk of my hatchback at the choss garden parking pull out last Friday. When I returned just after dark, the rear passenger window was smashed and the rope and rope bag were gone. 

Watch out! Leave no valuables in your car in the cottonwood canyons.

I've got a rope and rope bag that I'd be happy to sell you, it may have some glass pieces in the bag, but don't worry, it's totally safe;)

According to Unified Police Canyon Patrols on Friday there were at least four car clouts in the Canyons and on average one per day in the Canyons. They perps are specifically hitting climbers as they know they will be away from their vehicles.  As Eric said, leave nothing visible in you vehicle.

Yesterday evening while my wife was up Bells canyon with a friend, someone smashed our passenger side window and stole her friend's purse.  She had tucked it under the front of the passenger side seat but apparently it was still visible.  They were parked at the overflow lot on Wasatch Blvd.  The thief tried to use her credit card immediately after.

The Mt. Olympus trailhead has been hit hard over the last few weeks as well.

Wow what kind of POS steals from climbers?? Most likely not other climbers...that is some SUPER bad karma. I would never climb on stolen gear

Do you have a description of the rope/bag? I'm always trolling through ksl pages, they could be dumb enough to post em. (I got a stolen mtn bike back that way two years ago)

grog m aka Greg McKee wrote:

Wow what kind of POS steals from climbers?? Most likely not other climbers...that is some SUPER bad karma. I would never climb on stolen gear

The kind of POS who breaks into cars doesn't give a shit about karma and certainly doesn't steal gear to use it. If you drive up BCC on any given weekend there are 50 cars parked on the side of the road at storm mountain, everyone of them displaying their fresh MP/Prana/REI stickers on their brand new Subi, everyone of them with a display of brand new shiny gear in the back, highly visible. Easy money. People need to wise up a bit, this shit has been happening for years in the canyons, meth-heads were even hiking to the base of climbs in LCC to steal packs a few years ago. It's not going to stop, even if you were to brain a dozen thieves with a #6 it would mean a bigger market share for the other dozen... Hide your shit, don't leave valuables on display, basically assume the worst, I guarantee you're still underestimating how shitty people can be. 

grog m aka Greg McKee wrote:

Wow what kind of POS steals from climbers?? Most likely not other climbers...that is some SUPER bad karma. I would never climb on stolen gear

Meth heads. Definitely the Tweaker modus operandi. 

Allen Sanderson wrote:

According to Unified Police Canyon Patrols on Friday there were at least four car clouts in the Canyons and on average one per day in the Canyons. They perps are specifically hitting climbers as they know they will be away from their vehicles.  As Eric said, leave nothing visible in you vehicle.

It would be fantastic is the great men in blue spent less time pounding doughnuts at the Silver Fork Lodge and more time doing their fucking jobs wouldn't it? Compiling stats is great, a bit of pro-activity would be better. I'm not sure yelling at the lady who drove to BCC to take a few chunks of quartzite for her yard is doing much for public safety. Monitoring trailheads and parking situation, now that's a novel concept I wish they'd consider.

So what it the accepted practice if you witness someone breaking in to a car? I would love to beat the shit out of a tweaker with my rage and giant muscles but I also don't want assult charges. Take a picture of their face?

My rig was busted into a week ago Friday (5/12) at the Higher Education parking area, just down-canyon from the Choss parking area.  We were climbing less than 5 minutes away.  Heard the car alarm go off and tires screeching; we were there in 10 minutes (had to get off the route).  They broke the passenger side window, obviously with a tool, and stole a Five Points black satchel I use for the climbing gym with new pairs of Anazasi VCS (44) and Katana lace ups (43), a harness, a locking, and hand jammies (so if somebody sees this stuff posted up for sale, please let me know).  It took place about 6:20pm, and we reported to the Unified Police who opened up a case and have a detective working it.  The officer said that break-ins are occurring every day in the front range canyons, and they appear to be targeting climbers (I also posted this on the BCC page the day after it happened).

My suggestion is that we work with the police as closely as possible (and not take matters into our own hands, although pleasing that would be).  If you see anyone cruising lots or looking into windows, get what information you can and call it in or ping me and I'll get the word to the detective on my case.  I think the police are serious about hunting these guys down (I wouldn't give them too much lip B-man).   They did catch one group last year who were also working the canyons and recovered a room worth of stolen things.

John Steiger wrote:

Another incident today (5/30), fortunately minus a broken window. I got a text from a friend after I left the pull-out for the White Pine boulders in LCC--he left his car unlocked and had his passport stolen from the glove box. My car, parked next to his, was locked, and (I leter noticed) had smeared cupped hand-prints on the windows where the bastards were looking for something worth breaking a window for.  Luckily this thread made me more conscious (paranoid?) and I had all of my gear/valuables out of sight or took them with me, so they left my car alone (Thanks MP!). There were 6 or 7 other cars parked in the lot when I got back to the lot (around 7 or 8 PM).

Lock your doors.

Hide all of your valuables. 

Good luck.

Another option is to leave nothing of value in your vehicle and leave the doors unlocked.  It may save you the expense of a broken window.  I suppose it could make it easier for someone to steal your vehicle, but the tweakers typically just want the quick cash of a smash and grab.

JSaarela wrote:

Another incident today (5/30), fortunately minus a broken window. I got a text from a friend after I left the pull-out for the White Pine boulders in LCC--he left his car unlocked and had his passport stolen from the glove box. 

Hope your friend knows that a passport is as valuable as all of your personal information, seeing that you can use it to get a replacement social security card.

Regarding valuables, you also do not want to keep your registration and garage door  opener in your vehicle: thieves have used the registration to get an address, then use the garage door opener to gain access to the  house.

Marc801 C wrote:

Regarding valuables, you also do not want to keep your registration and garage door  opener in your vehicle: thieves have used the registration to get an address, then use the garage door opener to gain access to the  house.

Good call, but if you ever get pulled over, the first things they ask for are registration and insurance.

Charlie S wrote:

Good call, but if you ever get pulled over, the first things they ask for are registration and insurance.

When I lived in cottonwood heights never took my wallet up the canyons.  Sherrif deputy I once ran into in butler told me good call he said we know who you are before we walk up to your car.

Charlie S wrote:

Good call, but if you ever get pulled over, the first things they ask for are registration and insurance.

I'm not saying don't have them with you - just don't leave them in the vehicle.

Has anyone proposed putting security cameras around some of the more commonly used & abused pull-offs?