Protecting gear in your car

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Seems like it would actually be fun to set bait cars and catch real crooks instead of practicing the taxation through law enforcement that is largely responsible for alienating the police from the civilian population and fostering the us vs them mentality. 

This has happened on occasion, including in the Gunks and at Cathedral Ledge. Sometimes it’s the cops, but more often it is climbers volunteering for ‘lookout’ duty. Obviously there are risks involved in the latter, but at least in the US most ‘smash and grab’ thieves are opportunistic amateurs, who panic and take off when confronted. In Europe, it is more often organized professional thieves doing this, for example, around the Calanques in France.

Alan Rubinwrote:

This has happened on occasion, including in the Gunks and at Cathedral Ledge. Sometimes it’s the cops, but more often it is climbers volunteering for ‘lookout’ duty. Obviously there are risks involved in the latter, but at least in the US most ‘smash and grab’ thieves are opportunistic amateurs, who panic and take off when confronted. In Europe, it is more often organized professional thieves doing this, for example, around the Calanques in France.

The YouTube boobytrap guy I linked earlier came to the conclusion on one of his later vids that the thieves were becoming organized and not just random shitheads anymore. 

Alan Rubinwrote:

This has happened on occasion, including in the Gunks...

How common are smash and grabs at the gunks? I would have thought the staff at the trailheads/parking areas would be enough of a deterrent?

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

If you are living in a sprinter or other decent van its impossible to not look like a camper van. even with curtains and privacy glass you have that roof vent and solar panels that tells everyone that all your belongings are in there. 

I recommend puck-style locks for vans. There is also a company called Heosafe that makes some pretty neat deadbolts for van front doors. The deadbolt has a key that locks it into position so there is no way to open the door if the window is smashed. Thieves have to crawl in and out through a broken window to rob you with those. If you have these locks you also need an exterior mount (puck or otherwise) style lock because the deadbolts must be set from inside and you have to leave through the side door.

Paul Wwrote:

How common are smash and grabs at the gunks? I would have thought the staff at the trailheads/parking areas would be enough of a deterrent?

Those breaks in the Gunks were BITD, before the lots, when we parked along the road below the Uberfall. I agree that the current Preserve and Minnewaska lots are significantly more secure, though I have heard of break ins of cars who couldn’t get into the lots and parked elsewhere, including the overlook below the Nears.

We felt reasonably secure when we had Rosie on the grill. 

In part because she smelled really bad. i think folks were a bit leary of us. Sometimes even sketchy characters would be giving us the hairy eyeball and I would be getting a bit concerned . then I would remember Rosie....