New Hampshire Break-Ins

[dentonfabrics]

IMO, such a sign could either increase or decrease the probability of a break in.
Doug

I think you're right about this. Or you could be totally wrong. One or the other. Possibly.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Potential thieves may be reading this thread to determine when/where/how to break in. Or they may not be. Assuming they are, I wonder if that increases or decreases the chances of the sign / phony-or-not-phony alarm sticker from having the desired affect?

Tim

p.s. Anyone know any thieves we can ask?

 

[rocket21]

p.s. Anyone know any thieves we can ask?

We're not allow to talk about politicians in this forum

That said, my guess is that thieves don't go to VFTT for theft techniques...its probably more of a trend thing - if everyone starts doing the sign thing, it won't be effective anymore.

 

[RoySwkr]

if everyone starts doing the sign thing, it won't be effective anymore.

It will work splendidly if like Dr.D you make the sign truthful by actually leaving nothing of value, the crooks will learn to leave hikers alone.

When I was in college in the Boston area many years ago, there was a series of robberies of students walking home late from labs. Half the time the guys had no money at all, once he had 35 cents (left over from soda machine?), the max was a couple bucks. The campus police warned to expect more from this robber but I predicted he would give up and go elsewhere which is what occurred.

I have a sticker on my car that says VFTT, any robber reading this thread knows that I might be an unstable vigilante and hence will leave my car alone

 

[Pete_Hickey]

Sign-schmign. Just leave your doors unlocked. At least that way they won't break your window. They'll see for themselves whether there are valuables in the car or not.

 

[dug]

I think you're right about this. Or you could be totally wrong. One or the other. Possibly.

In the immortal words of Sam Malone in his brief sportscasting career:

"I guess I could go either way on this one, Bob".

 

[dms]

My truck was broken into at Pisgah State Park at the Route 63 parking area. As I finished my hike and got back to the parking area, I saw my truck surrounded by two police cars, I remember thinking that this can not possibly be a good thing. The police told me they had actually staked out the lot several times in the past month, unfortunately not on the day I was there. They asked me if there were any other vehicles in the lot when I had arrived, when I said yes, they told me exactly what vehicle it probably was, and it matched perfectly. All the thieves got away with was a gym bag with my change of clothes and a Mannheim Steamroller cd, and I always thought that i was the only person in NH who liked Mannheim Steamroller!! Needless to say it's a crappy feeling to come back to find your vehicle having been broken into, and a missing window on a cold fall day!

 

[tallguinness]

Appalachia?

What is, unofficially, the worse lot for frequent car break-ins?

 

[LarryD]

I thought I would move this thread up and provide some information I received yesterday that might be of some interest to those who leave their cars at NH trailheads. Sapblatt, bobby and I had the occasion last evening to meet a Coos County Deputy Sheriff. We flagged him down after 9:00 p.m. to help us with a car problem at Randolph East (see Sapblatt's TR on Madison Gulf if you want more details).

The Deputy--who provided assistance beyond what we had any reasonable right to expect-- told us he was working that evening on a detail for the USFS; his job was to patrol the trailheads (at least those in the Gorham-Randolph area) to make sure everything looked OK. I know there has been some question raised on this board as to how much of a priority the trailheads were for local law enforcement. I was happy to learn that there was at least some effort being made to target parking areas for monitoring/enforcement purposes.

 

[Nutsosa]

update

I was at the Garfield Trail parking area early on Sunday morning, about 5AM I think. A USFS truck pulled in, and the driver rolled down the window to chat with me (I guess I looked a little shady, with my trunk popped open, gear all over the ground, and the half-dazed look I get without enough coffee ). He said he was patrolling the the trailhead parking lots because there had a been some breakins recently, one at the Gale River trailhead within the last week, and a couple of others elsewhere (I missed where). He told me to be sure to take my wallet with me.

It was good to see that they are making some effort to monitor the parking areas.

 

[Sandtooth]

A car was broken into at the Mt Clinton Road parking lot (Crawford Trail lot) on 8/29. A GPS and camera equipment was still in the car an no other cars violated.