A Hard Lesson Learned (+)

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OneBrightGator

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
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Location
St. Augustine, FL
# of dives
In preparation for my IDC class I put my equipment in the back seat (inside the cab) of my truck on Wednesday night, Thursday morning I went out to find my truck was broken into and my stereo and all of my equipment including my Apeks regs, backplate, wings, computer, basically everything I own expect my Classic wings (which are at home) and my tanks (also at home) were gone.

I never considered my truck would be broken into parked under a street light in my apt complex parking lot, but I will think twice about leaving anything in it again. Mine was one of 3 broken into that night

I've e-mailed all the shops in Gainesville, Blue Grotto, Devil's Den and Ginnie Springs alerting them, I am also taking a list to the local pawn shops and Play It Again Sports stores in Gainesville.

Anyone have any other ideas or helpful info?

Thanks for any advice,

Ben :(
 
That totally sux man. Did you get the Serials off the gear? In my experiance the police won't do crap without them. Maybe I just have a bad temper but that kinda action deserves a good ole fasioned leg breaking, heck I'd crack both knees. Good luck on the recovery and get the super DAN insurance, I think it would cover this, anybody know for sure?
 
I feel so bad for you...

You develop an attachment to your gear after a while...

Yeah, someone needs to have their legs broken...

Hope they can recover some of it, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.
 
JohnStrr once bubbled...
In my experiance the police won't do crap without them.

There's not a whole lot that can be done WITH them either, aside from the notifications that have already been made. There are so many LFAs (larcenies from autos) and so few detectives for such cases that the police can't do much.

I'm not trying slam OneBrightGator or anything (I feel sorry for you man!), but folks...DO NOT leave thousands of dollars worth of dive gear (or anything for that matter) out in the open in the back of your vehicle! I know it goes without saying, but you would be surprised about the number of LFAs that occur in this manner and the amount of auto thefts that occur because people leave the doors unlocked and the keys in the car. An ounce of prevention goes a long way.

Gator, one thing that you also may want to do is monitor eBay for auctions of similar equipment in your area. Also, do you know any divers in your apartment complex? Keep an eye out, I wouldn't be surprised if the offender lives somewhere in the nearby area. The fact that they stole the stereo too leads me to believe that they weren't JUST in it for the dive gear, however they may have seen what it was and decided they wanted it for personal use or a present for a friend. If they try to pawn it off, it shouldn't be to hard to find as I doubt you have a commonly seen setup. eBay is what really concerns me though. Also, branch out from around Gainesville. Lots of experienced thieves will head out of the area to sell stuff. It wouldn't hurt to e-mail some dive shops outside your immediate area and describe the gear.
 
Your auto insurance probably won't cover that (only stuff permanently mounted in your vehicle). Renters insurance probably won't either. There's always the "sit-up-at-your-window-with-a-sniper-rifle insurance".

I guess this could be a learning experience in more ways than one. Two big insurance programs for dive gear mentioned around here are:

DEPP
H20 Insurance

I don't think any of DAN's plans cover equipment loss, only if it results from a "dive accident".

The good thing that Patrick mentioned about dive gear is that it's kinda unique, and there's a small market of users. Definately keep an eye out on E-bay and talk to the multitude of dive shops. Hopefully the theiving bastards will slip up and you will at least get some of your gear back. Another good thing to do would be maybe to cover up stuff you've placed in the cab and hope they don't waste their time seeing what's under the covers. This might work ok if you don't have a trunk to place expensive stuff into. I get cases all the time where shoppers will pile loads of bags into their back seat and wonder why their vehicle was targeted. Prevention makes a huge difference, and is much better than the sniper rifle approach.

Best of luck to you.

And please don't do the sniper rifle thing...:)
 
I echo PatrickM98's advice to check ebay and the likes. Often, thieves aren't stealing for themselves, but rather for a frontman who gives them cash and sells the stuff.

I know this to be true in at least one case. My friend had a couple thousand $ worth of camera equipment stolen from his car, and lo and behold, a few days later, the exact stuff in his photo bag was listed on one of the local bulletin boards. My friend called the seller and arranged to meet. They met, and my friend ascertained that this was indeed his stuff. My friend's companion (don't go alone to these things!) called the police from the restroom. The police show up, but the guy professes that he found the stuff in a trash can. My friend decides not to press charges, however, because the police said, either you can get your stuff back right now, or we'll have to impound it as evidence for the trial, which may be in the distant future. The cop may have been attempting to minimize his paperwork, but whatever, my friend decided to take his stuff and call it a day.

-Simon
 
I sympathize, really I do. Hindsight is always 20/20. Cops tell little old ladies at teh mall not to leave attractive items in plain view - stow them under the seat or in the trunk. Yet we all do it. It only takes the once before we learn usually a very painful lesson.

AngieDiver69, I disagree. OneBrightGator has suffered a very painful lesson at the hand of the School of Hard Knocks. You can be sure he will be much more careful with any more gear in his possession in the future.

Could be worse. (no offense). He could have been borrowing a buddy's gear.
 
AngieDiver69,
That’s a little stiff of a whipping. We all make mistakes. Heck, it could be in a locked car and someone breaks in when your in a store, or dinner on the way home from a dive.

Have a little empathy man...
 

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