Burglary

Had the dastardly happen a couple nights ago. Garmin 196, two David
Clarks, eyeglasses. In my hangar, too.
Looks like a pro job. No vandalism apparent. Plane was unlocked with
key in ignition. And left that way by perp(s).
The question: Would any of you have an A&P do a thorough check of the
bird or would do as I think I might and just do a more than usual
preflight?

On 5/9/2007 11:15:56 AM, NVArt wrote:

Had the dastardly happen a couple nights ago. Garmin 196, two David
Clarks, eyeglasses. In my hangar, too.
Looks like a pro job. No vandalism apparent. Plane was unlocked with
key in ignition. And left that way by perp(s).

Regarding the above, I would recommend immediately creating an eBay "Favorite
Search" that emails you when auctions appear with the above items.

The time it takes to do this is worth the potential payoff of finding your
goods and perhaps the perps who did this.

See this Smoking Gun link for a story about a teacher who stole an elementary
student's coat and the mother who just happened to stumble upon the auction
for it out on eBay that resulted in the teacher being arrested:


http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...l?link=rssfeed

--
Peter

NVArt wrote:
Had the dastardly happen a couple nights ago. Garmin 196, two David
Clarks, eyeglasses. In my hangar, too.
Looks like a pro job. No vandalism apparent. Plane was unlocked with
key in ignition. And left that way by perp(s).
The question: Would any of you have an A&P do a thorough check of the
bird or would do as I think I might and just do a more than usual
preflight?


Several years ago we had breakins at our local airport. The FBO stayed
at the airport one night and caught the guys in the act. Young kids with
a prower nut driver taking out the sheet metal screws, gettting in the
hangar and then putting it back together. One kid was already out on
probation for breakins. They all got more probation. Love the legal system.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

First question is: has this happened at other hangers or to other owners at
your airport recently? If so, then was this only theft or did the culprits
damage anything?

Sounds like kids since they didn't pull any avionics out of the panel.

I would tend to do a real thorough preflight under the pretense that
aircraft in open hangers could be violated all the time and if the culprit
didn't steal anything the owner probably wouldn't even suspect the bird had
been touched.

If this is not the first event like this in recent history at your airport
then you can probably judge your risk by reviewing previous break-ins.

--
Jim Carter
Rogers, Arkansas
"NVArt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Had the dastardly happen a couple nights ago. Garmin 196, two David
Clarks, eyeglasses. In my hangar, too.
Looks like a pro job. No vandalism apparent. Plane was unlocked with
key in ignition. And left that way by perp(s).
The question: Would any of you have an A&P do a thorough check of the
bird or would do as I think I might and just do a more than usual
preflight?

On May 9, 11:30 am, "Jim Carter" wrote:

Sounds like kids since they didn't pull any avionics out of the panel.


I agree with Jim. The lack of avionics theft, other than what was
loose and easy to pick up, would lead me to believe that you're
dealing with kids that were looking for easy pickings. They
obviously didn't know the payoff for a few seconds extra work involved
in sliding radios out of the panel.

I think a thorough preflight will suffice.

When I had my portable GPS, headset and Narco nav/com stolen years
ago, I quit leaving portable stuff in the plane. Insurance paid for
the panel mounted nav/com, but I was on my own for the rest.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

In article . com,
John Galban wrote:

On May 9, 11:30 am, "Jim Carter" wrote:

Sounds like kids since they didn't pull any avionics out of the panel.


I agree with Jim. The lack of avionics theft, other than what was
loose and easy to pick up, would lead me to believe that you're
dealing with kids that were looking for easy pickings. They
obviously didn't know the payoff for a few seconds extra work involved
in sliding radios out of the panel.

unless they stole a radio, and replaced it with one from a different aircraft...

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

I should have mentioned the panel is all ARC and TKM. Also my wifes DC
was untouched atop the panel while mine was removed. And another in a
bag in the back. Just trying to piece together whatever logic can be
pieced.
It probably sounds crazy, but I'm almost appreciative. That is, that
they didn't carve their initials in the windshield or something. Slash
the seats. Take a ball peen to every steam guage. Just for something
to do.
Thanx for the replies.

Were the presets in the avionics as you left them?
I heard of some folk stealing avionics to order.
They steal them, remove identical ones from another aircraft and replace
them with the stolen ones, then sell the ones they removed.
So while everyone is looking for the serial number of the stolen ones,
they are in another aircraft and the ones being sold are not being
searched for. Sneaky eh?

Good luck in getting your stuff back

Tony

--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

In article .com,
NVArt wrote:

Had the dastardly happen a couple nights ago. Garmin 196, two David
Clarks, eyeglasses. In my hangar, too.
Looks like a pro job. No vandalism apparent. Plane was unlocked with
key in ignition. And left that way by perp(s).
The question: Would any of you have an A&P do a thorough check of the
bird or would do as I think I might and just do a more than usual
preflight?

stealing a coat from a kid...

How low can one go?


"Peter R." wrote in message
...
On 5/9/2007 11:15:56 AM, NVArt wrote:

Had the dastardly happen a couple nights ago. Garmin 196, two David
Clarks, eyeglasses. In my hangar, too.
Looks like a pro job. No vandalism apparent. Plane was unlocked with
key in ignition. And left that way by perp(s).

Regarding the above, I would recommend immediately creating an eBay
"Favorite
Search" that emails you when auctions appear with the above items.

The time it takes to do this is worth the potential payoff of finding your
goods and perhaps the perps who did this.

See this Smoking Gun link for a story about a teacher who stole an
elementary
student's coat and the mother who just happened to stumble upon the
auction
for it out on eBay that resulted in the teacher being arrested:



http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...l?link=rssfeed

--
Peter

On 2007-05-09 08:15:59 -0700, NVArt said:

Had the dastardly happen a couple nights ago. Garmin 196, two David
Clarks, eyeglasses. In my hangar, too.
Looks like a pro job. No vandalism apparent. Plane was unlocked with
key in ignition. And left that way by perp(s).
The question: Would any of you have an A&P do a thorough check of the
bird or would do as I think I might and just do a more than usual
preflight?

I was just released from a jury yesterday where we tried a burglar. He
had stolen some clothing, belt buckles, and knives, total value less
than $250.

Despite the fact that an eyewitness who knew him personally (it's a
small town) clearly identified him coming out of the house, he was seen
giving belt buckles to his buddies at the soup kitchen, and he still
had one of the knives and one of the belt buckles on his person when
apprehended by the police -- it took two solid days of deliberation to
convince the whole jury that this guy was guilty. In fact, the original
vote was 10-2 to acquit. The last holdout never was convinced that the
case was proved, but finally voted with the rest.

I checked out his record after I got home. The guy has a long criminal
record of several burglaries, break-ins, petty thefts, etc. The thing
that threw the jury off was the guy had dyed his hair during the
burglary, but by the time he went back to trial his hair was its normal
color. But the neighbor who had seen him come out of the house had
known this guy for more than three years, regularly spoke with him, saw
him frequently around town, and was able to identify him no matter what
his hair color was. Even so, when the witness said he had white tips on
his hair at the time of the burglary, the fact that his hair was now
all black (4 months later) was enough to confuse a majority of the
jury. It just did not seem to occur to these bozos that people can
change their hair color. His booking photo, by the way, did show white
tips on his hair.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor