thieves

[farrar]

The sport of airsoft is growing fast. however the growth also brings new problems and adds to old ones like none hit calling and just all around lack of honor. That is however not the point of this topic. I am referring to the theft of personnel items at Secret City. I have had 4 mags 2 speed loaders and a red dot stolen from me. There is also a glock that was stolen from a friend of mine. this is absolutely unacceptable. we as a community need to start to take steps to stop this. thats all i will say for now.

As a side note if you have any information to the whereabouts of said items Pm me please

[USMCRecon]

Yeah, it's getting a little frustrating to say the least. Hopefully we will have a plan to control this by the next game. BTW, I still have 2 of your mags from the February game....only seen you once on Saturday, and never got around to returning them to you.

[Rhoades]

Like I said before its sad that you have to go to these extremes but lock your stuff up. Dont leave stuff laying around. If you do then your begging someone to take it. are you 100% sure all your stuff its theft. Recon has two of your mags. If your lending them out and then not getting them back dont start yelling theft. I expect I'll lose something from time to time that is on me. Your stuff is your responsibility no one elses. Keep up with it. not saying any of this if your situation. just saying things aren't always theft. I seen a guy last weekend that dropped a mag out the back of his vehicle. I pointed it out, had I not the guy probably woulda yelled theft later on. Things are not always as you see.

Much like the no hit calling thread. Sometimes your really not hitting them. To many variables to know for sure. Everyone always jumps to no hit calling. Again not always the case.

Don't get me wrong blatant theft is out there. But you should keep an eye on your stuff to prevent it happening to you.

[farrar]

That is nice and all but it is hard to just loose things that are in your car. I had 4 mags and one speedloader in my car, one game gone the next

[farrar]

[quote="KnoxVegas"
The worst part of all are the people who suggest that the way to deal with cheating is to keep shooting or to deal with theft is to lock up your stuff. The issue isn't dealing with cheating or theft. I shouldn't have to waste ammo to keep someone from cheating and I shouldn't have to guard every last item like it's made of diamonds and gold. These little kids need to learn alot.[/quote]

Enough said

[Rhoades]

i suppose you leave your front door unlocked?

its preventative measure....

your exactly right you shouldn't have to in a honor sport... but at the same time, if your actions show a blatant not giving a stuff about your stuff, until its gone... ITS YOUR STUFF, YOU KEEP UP WITH IT... which if that means locking your damn door then thats what you have to do... i suppose you didn't learn your lesson this time and you'll continue to bitch about thieves yet do nothing to take steps to prevent it.

have you looked around at the word we live in lately? its ludicrous to say im not going to lock my stuff up cause i shouldn't have too... thats just hysterical... well when all your stuff gone i don't want to hear your bitching. its a simple as clicking a key fob these days or pushing a plunger on your door lock.

on another note, someone said something about doing a search.... i suppose next time someone loses a m4 its going to be super easy to spot that one in a crowd.... i suppose we all need to keep receipts for our purchases so that when someones gets stolen and they swear up and down your m4 was theirs... that you have proof so they don't "steal" it right in front of you. you better have more than attachments to prove an item is really yours.

seems to be it would be easier to prevent the theft in the first place...

p.s. i'm sorry to get a little direct but read your comments man logically for a second... you suppose that because its a honor sport you shouldn't have to lock your stuff up and your actions show that your not. and your mags got stolen. so my next step in logical thinking is hey im going to lock my stuff up so this don't happen again.

also what do you purpose they do to prevent theft since locking your doors isn't the answer?

[Rhoades]

as far as the no hit calling thing... i suggest you take that to the other thread on the subject and read borscopes thread... its explains alot that you may or may not know... yes im sure there is blatant no hit calling but sometimes your really not hitting them... go check it out... him and kube were 100ft away blasting away at eachother and seriously were not hitting one another... it really is a whole other subject.

[Borscope]

Let me say this first so noone gets the wrong idea: I despise thieves and cheats and if we could I say stick their larcenous heads on a pike at the entrance of the field.

Now, let's have a mature, intelligent discussion about what to do:

First off, let's take mil-sim a step further and practice some weapons and gear retention. At a field like Dead End we have a lot tighter group of players and little to no spectators or passserby so things can be left around, but SCA is not only a much larger sampling of players, with bikers and whatnot wandering around but human nature, especially combined with the large portion of teens & young adults to whom the negligible risk of being caught stealing is outweighed by the reward of a gun or gear that they have to beg momma money for or wait until they get their student loan check . I will say I think the person who turned in info regarding the rifle should have had a visit from LEOs from the airsoft community to get the punk who stole it. I guarantee anyone but a repeat offender would have been forced to return the gun and gotten community service at worst.

Ready for more? MARK YOUR KIT! Scratch your name into mags, laundry marker your soft kit. The guys who have their phone# on their mags are smart cookies too!

Next: lock up your stuff. I carry a car key on a paracord lanyard ran through a buttonhole. Get a gangbox or footlocker or something with a combolock your team knows, whatever.

Look out for your brothers and sisters! I thank God we have so many Marines and like-minded folk in our group, takes a lot of pressure off when you know people are looking out for you. Get in the mindset that you and your "circle of monkeys" are the only ones that are actively giving a rats arse about you and your stuff, so make sure the monkeys you hang with are good and solid folk.

It sucks...but as the patch says "Embrace the suck". Or better yet, as my dad says You don't have to like it, you just have to do it. I believe following the above rules will reduce our problems significantly, and if you have better ideas that don't involve rainbow and unicorn fart solutions let's hear it.

[Rhoades]

Amen, borscope

[swimpat16]

I don't disagree at all with Borscope, but I think you guys missed the fact (not even sure that it was stated in this thread) that the Glock was taken between games, while the borrower had his back turned for a second to put mags in his vest. It wasn't a blatant "This is an honor sport, so I shouldn't be responsible about my stuff." (This is even more foolish at Secret City because of the raging lack of honor there) The gun wasn't left somewhere for an entire game, it was set with the guy's stuff, while he was there.

This is also wasn't a "I can't find the last of my 8 mags, someone must have took it." (When in reality it dropped out in the field). This was a blatant almost pickpocket. THAT is what has people disgusted over this.

And I also firmly believe that we should destroy any chances of thieves playing ever again by posting their name/picture on the internet for other field owners to see. I would be in favor of a search, because I KNOW all of my guns. If someone stole one of my guns, I could describe it better than the thief by a mile. Make an example of a thief, and it will only happen once...

EDIT: But really, keep your stuff locked up too...

[Borscope]

Swimpat I totally agree with you, I posted on the SCA facebook regarding the rifle that the scum who took the rifle be made known AT LEAST to the local field operators so they could ban him at their discretion. I don't know why that person, and even his associate(s) weren't outed, I know I would feel better knowing who to at least keep an eye out for.

I hope the pistol is returned, I practice the golden rule and I know if something was stolen at a match I'd probably just call the cops after offering a quick "return it now or I block everyone in until the cops show" which would probably get me arrested lol. But seriously, when I say "what can be done" I don't mean it as a cop out I want ideas to lock this crap down. There's a lot of smart guys & gals in our extended family but the precautionary measures I listed are about as good as it gets. Can we get a pic of the gun so we can keep an eye out on fields & forums? We all want to help but what can we do practically?

Ok here's an idea, have the mods make a sticky post with stolen items listed so people all over east TN can keep an eye out.

[Rhoades]

Even if you can describe it... Like with my m4 example take off extras throw on others if you haven't scratched your name into it or marked it. How would you know for sure.

Then you swear up and down the gun is yours...

There is up and downs to all of this best thing is to prevent it in the first place.

so your saying your mags were on you and someone pick pocketed it off you? What kinda vest you wearing? That wouldn't be possible on my setup.

[farrar]

I agree with both swimpat and borescope

[Borscope]

Hey had a flashback from my dealings with insurance claims. Everyone mark your stuff as I described...then take pics of your stuff. Good ones like you're trying to sell it. Then write down any serial numbers. Keep this in a file next to your tax returns. If you sell a weapon or bit of kit, make a note of it.

You'd be suprised, even without this your friend might be able to claim a loss, just say it was in the car...but unless the "street value" is more than the deductible it isn't worth it.

Car owners/renters/homeowners- You pay for insurance, why not do this for all your assets!

Hey, KWA, can I get a floater insurance policy on my gun? It cost more than my phone did!

*edit* Hey Chris, if you still live up here in Oak Ridge, I can get those mags from Gunny and you can pick them up locally.

[not_a_member]

I have an idea!

Have a few volunteers stay in the parking/loading area to watch for robbers. As a reward, they could get a discount on their next game or get one of those special airstrikes free the next game. (For the latter you should probably split them up between teams, i.e. a white team and green team member.)