Do NOT Touch! Just Venting

[SteveDiver]

That another cave diver would touch someones equipment as has been said it surely would lead to at least a manslaughter charge.
When I was 15 years old I went with my farther one Saturday to work on a building sight. One of the workers was caught stealing from jackets left in the break hut, Every worker went into the hut and they took a ball peen hammer to his hands. Bet he never stole again.

If this is happening consisently at the same spot I would stay back and observe from a distance to see if I could catch the a**%%!! and if so I would come up behind him with my dive knife and cut his hoses off!!!!

 

[KBulla]

Support divers with spear guns.. I'm sure my husband would volunteer to intimidate idiots trying to steal your support gear.

 

[scubatexastony]

And what do you have against S&W, Ruger or Colt?

Bill Ruger was one of the most progressive gun designers of recent times and Glocks are for strokes

P89 and P95 for years and never a jam! Have had jams with both Barretta and Glock, never owned an auto Colt or S&W. But why limit smoking a thief with a handgun, reach out and touch a crook! LOL.


tony

 

[fmw625]

I can't imagine anyone taking life support gear knowingly! Is this taken by people knowing someone may be depending on the gear they are taking to live? Here at work we tag supplies that are staged so that they will be there when needed. Would tagging the staged cave gear help prevent someone from thinking they have recovered lost equipment? Don't know. I'm not a cave diver. Seems that it should be concidered a criminal act, severely punishable.

 

[Flamebug818]

if u catch the SOBs that do that take them into a cave and leave them there
Flamebug
PS itll look like an accident

 

[RICoder]

Glock...Ruger...pfft...HK baby. But I digress.

While I can appreciate the suggestions to drag this a$$ into a cave and leave them there, I'd think that reporting it to the police and media would be a good first step. From a legal standpoint, a crime that leads to death is manslaughter, so they should be interested.

I'm a bit shocked, and highly disgusted that a diver would do such a thing.

 

[jjoeldm]

There has been an increase in the amount of gear which has gone missing at some of the local cave systems here in Florida. Deco cylinders and reels from the water, to full set ups from the staging areas. Believing that this sort of BS act will continue I encourage divers to be vigilant in protecting their investments. However the real concern that has me and I am sure most of the cave diving community p*#@'d off is when this gear goes missing from the water when the cave dive team is conducting their dive. Recent events suggest that even reels have been removed from jumps and gaps within the cave system putting the dive team at a potential of great risk.In addition to reels things such as O2 bottles and deco bottles have disappeared while a dive team is in the system only to discover a lacking gas supply to complete a required deco obligation, again a heightened risk.

In short if it isn't yours, If you didn't place it in the system THEN DON"T TOUCH IT.
This kind of action doesn't place well within the diving community

This certainly isn't new. This has been going on for years and it seems to come in waves. I don't know, planetary alignment? But the best thing you can do is hide your deco bottles well inside the cave and out of plain sight.

JoeL

 

[lamont]

has anyone thought about printing up warning labels with skull and crossbones a big old "DO NOT TOUCH" and maybe a little further explanation in fine print to attatch to dropped stage bottles?

i'd assume that what you've got here are OW divers (probably going where they shouldn't) who see a tank on the bottom and don't know any better.

 

[StarrySkies]

My, this is a very timely discussion. I just had my first encounter with missing bottles. I have heard the stories and I have had wet suits and flip flops removed from a bench at Ginnie but this was something new.

I went up to Devils to meet some friends for a couple of simple dives this past Saturday.

I usually enter the system via the ear and stash my 02 bottle down in the little cove just before the sign but we entered the eye on our second dive so we stashed the bottles in a little nook in the cavern about 40 feet down. After a great dive back through one of the tunnels to the bone room we began our ascent back into the eye. As we progressed back into the cavern area I turned into the nook ready to clip on and...

No bottles...

I wandered about the cavern thinking that maybe they were moved - nope - completely gone.

Turns out that there were two open water divers in the eye (?) that saw the bottles lying in their little nook and thought someone had left the bottles behind so they removed them and were going to take them to the front desk to the lost and found.

It was a little bit more excitement than I had expected that afternoon but I am happy to say that we did get the bottles back and luckily for us no harm was done.

The folks who grabbed the bottles were very apologetic when one of my buddies tactfully explained the reason the bottles were placed in the cavern to them.

 

[GDI]

Hey P2 how you doing?