Jon Woellhaf wrote:
The other day, while removing the left-hand door panel on my 1980 Cessna
182, I noticed small pry marks on the outside of the door frame immediately
below the latch. I looked at the bottom of the window frame and saw it was
bent up a little. It looked like someone had used a small screwdriver in an
attempt to pry open the window. I looked carefully all around the window
frame and found another pry mark in the rear lower corner.

This was obviously the feeble attempt of an amateur thief, since almost any
key will open the stock Cessna door lock. (Another pilot told me he once
tried several small keys on his key ring in a Cessna door lock. His gas tank
cap key and his mother's garage door key worked just fine.)

The plane is hangared at BJC (Metro, Denver, CO) and I'm quite certain the
attempted forced entry didn't occur there, because I never lock the plane
when it's in the hangar. I have no idea when the attempt was made, but the
plane has been overnight only at U42 (Salt Lake City #2, UT) and FFZ (Falcon
Field, Mesa, AZ) within the past year.

I'm wondering what, if anything, to do about this. I could contact the local
police and give them the dates when the plane was overnight. This might help
an investigation if other planes were molested. On the other hand, if the
TSA gets involved I can see them impounding the plane for evidence.
half-grin

What would you do?

Jon



With the exception of needing the paperwork for your insurance I don't
see what you could gain or how any ongoing investigation could be helped
by you reporting it now.