Just wanted to give a quick shout-out reminder to watch your cars - even in high traffic, paid parking areas. Today, I fished the American at Upper Sunrise and also up at the Hazel parking area just below the Nimbus Hatchery. I was there from 3:30 until the ranger found me at about 6 pm, and informed me my driver's side car window had been smashed. Being one of 2 anglers on the water, and having a license that says 8FT ROD he had me pegged.
The scumbags took my gym shorts with a hole in the crotch, a roll of quarters, a free gift-with-purchase dopp kit for the gym, and most irritating of all - my favorite travel flyrod!! The idiots left the valuables in the car (cash, cards, wallet, etc.), and tossed 2 of my bags that were recovered. Both bags worth much more than what they took with the exception of the flyrod. Of course, it was my favorite 5 wt and that means no outing this weekend :(
The idiot scumbags crwled across the broken glass on my driver's seat ruining the leather, all the way to the cargo bay in the back, and then back out of the broken window. I am not sure why they didn't break a window in the back to begin with! Not too bright.
Not only did I get skunked on the American AGAIN... I had the aforementioned violation to add insult to injury!
Been there done that. Sorry to hear about your car. Had my truck broken into 2 years ago, sounds like the same spot as well. I was parked at the very end of the road at Upper Sunrise. Ended up taking a cheap jacket and ripping up the cab a little bit. Ended up costing 120$ to get the window replaced, way more than the stuff they stole. I called the sheriff and asked for a unit, didn't get one. Took a report and that was it.
I learned to leave my truck totally empty, nothing in sight. Only thing they could steal would be my shoes. I take everything with me now. I've thought about leaving my windows down, but don't really want them to steal my shoes because they will. Unfortunately it seems that it is not a question of if you are going to get broken into, but when. Very sad.
It seems to be break-ins have been on the rise lately. Seems to happen about this time of year since there aren't as many people out as just a few weeks ago. Just last week when I was out a police helicopter was searching for something, I thought someone had fallen into the river. Well the helicopter ended up finding me walking back to my truck, cops had me surrounded in about 10 seconds. Scared the crap out of me. Turns out someone had broken into a car by the Sunrise footbridge and stolen a gun from the car and there was a guy toting a gun around. First time I had ever seen police officers inside the park unfortunately. At least the rangers are patrolling and told you about your car, thats a lot better than before when you would NEVER see any enforcement.
Way back in the day I did a bit of "backpacking", traveling outside of the country on the cheap. A trick I learned is that if you're concerned that someone is going to take your bag full of worthless stuff while you're away you just dump it out in plain view. It's not a guarantee they won't break in anyway, but it avoids some hassle. A full bag is full of promise and is easy to grab. A scattered pile of socks, underwear and smelly sneakers has far less appeal.
This is also a problem when camping too, and a nice trick I heard was to put some sort of lice treatment in your bag... or if camping under your pillow.... most crooks dont want to deal with lice
Flyngo, Dont you drive a burgundy volvo xc90 ? Emerger and i talked with you a bit about a month ago in the parking lot down from the hatchery, You were heading out as we were calling it a day. I remember your license plate. That really sucks man.
Thanks for the advice and comments. I have travelled a lot (US & abroad) and never had to do the lice or backpack trick, but those are kewl tips!!
Yes, Captain, I do drive a burgundy xc90. I think either you or emerger also has a volvo??? Funny thing is, I had come back from being upstream of the parking lot, and wanted to look over that steep bank and see what I could see. Unfortunately, I saw a school of about 5 steelies holding in that deep, steep bank area and decided to go after them. No luck though!
I usually don't like to leave stuff in the car visible, but I usually have too much stuff with me to drag to the river. I may get a lockbox for the cargo area because I sure as hell won't give up fishing.
Anyway, thanks to you all, and be careful out there.
