Always Lock Your Doors!!!!

[Bushwacker]

Like so many others, I always thought "it won't happen to me." I was wrong. Yesterday, my buddy and I went out to a little "secret" lake that is tough to get to in the winter and requires carrying your boat to in the summer. We drove a little ways on the lake and there were no tracks so we parked there and draged all of the gear around the other side of the point,150 yards away. We left a few of the non-essentials in the Blazer and went on our way. Three hours later we returned to the Blazer and found that all of the non-essentials were gone. A my month old Mr. Heater Buddy Heater, my partner's brand new, never used rod and reel, and his full tackle box. We could see the Blazer from outside of the fish house, and some daring sole thought it was worth taking the chance to steal our gear. I guess it could have been worse, we figure it was only about $300 worth of stuff total, but still, we learned our lesson. Always Lock Your Doors!!!!

[Renneberg]

Sorry to hear that. At lease the person stopped at your fishing stuff and didn't try to take your Blazer too.

[Bushwacker]

Renneberg,
That's the funny part of the story. It was my buddy's Blazer that has four FOR SALE signs in the windows. He's been trying to sell it for a couple of months with no luck. It wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world if they would have taken it!!! It just wasn't our day.

[trophyhunter]

Sorry to hear that Bushwacker. We live in a crazy world. I don't know how these people live with themselves.

[Bushwacker]

We are thinking it is some kids, but they have enough stuff to be ice fisherman now!! We were the only ones fishing on the lake and there were only four spots on the ice that looked like there had been houses set up all winter. The thing is this lake is at least a mile from any decent road, it is back on a low maintanence road.

[Guest]

Sorry to hear it Bushwack....Some people are never taught right from wwrong while growing up.....Teach your children well......

[Nicholas_23]

Locals? not to point fingers but....

[Guest]

Sorry to hear it BW but it's no big suprise these days.
Couple of years ago I had my ATV trailer stolen right off my truck while I was out icefishing for the day. Imagine my suprise comming off the ice to find my trailer gone ! GRRRRRR
I had just bought a new truck and they did'nt have a locking pin for my receiver in the size I needed at Fleet. They said they would have em in in a couple days. I thought no big deal and was gonna wait till they came in to get one. DUMB MOVE on my part !
Live and learn I guess. I lock EVERYTHING up now a days. At least that will keep an honest person honest I figure.

[Swill]

Man that sucks...
I was out on Chisago and did not lock the truck becuase we were fishing close to it...Well close turned out to be a 1/4 mile be the time we found the fish with our portables.
Anyways think I am going to lock my doors now too because you just never know who's out there.
Do you guys think it was fellow fishermen or some punk kids?

[Guest]

In my case it was the son of a dude who lived 3 houses down from me.The son was close to 40 yrs old, an ex county cop and has a rep for shady dealings and such.

LONG story but I saw him drive past my house pulling my stolen trailer about 6 months after it was stolen. QUITE a string of coincedences/luck brought the recovery about. Anyways , Cops got involved in the recovery and everything but at least I got my trailer back. He got nothing out of it as far as criminal charges go either. GRRRR

[Bushwacker]

It had to be locals in my case. Nobody else would know that there was even a lake there. Its about a mile off of any civilized road. You need 4WD to get within site of the lake. Now every truck or suv I see in the area makes me wonder if my Buddy Heater is keeping him warm in this frigid weather. Maybe its keeping their family warm this week and they'll return it to the name and address scratched into the back of the heater when it warms up. Maybe.

[Pig_sticka]

aight this isn;t about fishin but close.
at a basketball tournament someone stole my nice basketball. almost 3 months later at the community center a ball rolled up to me and i grabbed it and noticed nobody was looking to pass it back too. i looked at the ball and it was the one that got stolen with tons of different markings trying to hide it. i couldn't believe it.
not gonna mention who took it but i am just gonna say he has met cops before lol.
i have never left my car door open and i never will. some people laugh at me when i lock my doors even parking for 15 seconds. but i will never trust anyone because there are too many people in this world that need serious help.

[Guest]

An honest person will never feel insulted that you didn't trust them when you lock things up. They will never know. It only takes a second to lock your vehicle or shack. I just make sure that I have duplicate keys so that I do not lock myself out.

[Coldfeet]

Not everybody is dishonest. Last year I borrowed my dad's Vexilar and Ranger to go fishing in the backwoods. There are many lakes back there that are hard to access in either summer or winter. My dad has two dogs that always try to run in front of the Ranger and won't get out of the way. I usually try to get them going one way, and then whip the Ranger around and head the other direction at full throttle in order to outrun them, eventually they give up the chase. Anyway, I pulled off that trick and made it about two miles down the trail when I had to pull over for a pickup that was heading the other way. I kept going and after another two or three miles, I looked over and realized that my dad's Vexilar was no longer on the seat beside me. I turned around and headed back to the house. Sure enough I see the tracks from the truck had pulled off to the side where I lost the dogs, and I also see a set of footprints going onto the shoulder of the road. The Vexilar was nowhere in sight. My dad had an FL-8, and I felt so bad about losing it that I went and bought him and FL-18 the next day. I hadn't told him what happened yet, so when I got to his house I left the new Vexilar in the car and got up the courage to give him the news. When I walked into the house, the first thing he said was "Why was my Vexilar on the front doorstep when I got home today?" I told him what had happened and he didn't seem upset at all. Needless to say I have a new FL-18 now. I offered to trade, but he said that it wasn't necessary. I saw that same pickup the next day, stopped him and thanked him for his honesty. He told me that he had gone up to the house when he found it, but nobody was home, so he set it on the doorstep the next morning when he went back to work (He's a logger). It's nice to know that not everybody is a jerk.

[Guest]

I'm an RN and everyone leaves there work shoes at the hospital when they go home (for obvious reasons) I came to workthe next shift to find that my disgusting hospital shoes had been stolen...I would love to catch someone doing that. sorry about your fishing stuff.
stever.

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" the water's cold...deep too"

[Polar Bear]

MUST SELL: One month old Mr. Heater Buddy, New rod and reel (never used), tackle box full of ice fishing stuff. Polar Bear

[Guest]

Everyone,

The best advise I can give you is try not and leave your gear in your truck. If you do your almost better to leave your doors unlocked. It's a cold ride home when they smash your window and take your stuff anyways.

Good luck

Ukes

[Sinker]

Coldfeet, that's a darn good story.It's been said that the majority of people are decent,but it's only the bad ones you hear about.

[Guest]

Tubejig...at least when they break into your vehicle your aoto ins. covers everything. I know if you leave it unlocked they won't cover it. At least this is what my ins. rep. told me.

[John19]

So if you get ripped off, smash out your window, so that it's covered! Just kidding of course!