My rig was stolen last night:(

[KE7CWB]

Came out to my car this morning to find out that my ICOM V-8000 was stolen. It was neatly removed from its mounting bracket and the coax and power leads were cut.

Be on the lookout for someone selling an ICOM V-8000 with a missing mounting bracket and may have cut RG-58 and power cables hanging off the back.

I am located in Cheyenne, WY so this rig could turn up in either wyoming or northern CO. Also definately keep an eye on ebay.

BTW I have reported it to the police and called all the local pawn shops telling them that someone may try to sell stolen ham gear. Also sent a message to the local ARC so the club members could also keep an eye out for it

[KC0KBH]

Posted anything in the "Stolen Gear" forum on Eham? I never had a rig stolen, but I think it would be worth a shot.

[WB2WIK]

Sorry to hear about that.

This kind of stuff happens most commonly in places like Cheyenne, WY (seriously) and not big cities. Where I live (L.A.) I park my car in downtown parking structures without locking it and nothing's ever been stolen, including my HF and VHF rigs which are always installed under the dash.

Difference is, here if thieves wanted to take something, they'd go for the whole car.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

WB2WIK/6

[WA9UAA]

Hi OM,
I have had two rigs stolen, both were Regency HR-2B s and looked like CBs. Another time some body stole my A/S 5/8 wave vhf antenna. It's no fun though; now,I tend to hide my rigs under the seat and hide the detachable face plates. Hope your insurance comes through.
73,
Rob WA9UAA

[n7rjd]

I am sure you already reported it to the Cheyenne Police but don't stop there. Take whatever you have with a clear picture of the radio and hit the local pawn shops. Give them copies of the picture with the police case number if you have it. They won't call you if someone comes in but they will usually call the police and if they can reference a case number you are well ahead of the game.

Trust me, this helps. I had a couple of radios stolen from my car in Cheyenne in 1995 and was able to recover them and send two enterprising young men on lengthy (although not lengthy enough) vacations. In my case one of them stole my radios along with about 27 others from other people and his roommate stole it from him to pawn for quick cash. One showed up at a pawn shop and one was in the house when they served the warrant.

The Cheyenne Police Dept receives daily lists of anything and everything taken into the local pawn shops and they do look them over for any matches to their hot sheets. They also have very harsh penalties for any of the pawn shops not taking ID's when taking merchandise of any kind in.

It's a lot of leg work on your part but it can have multiple benifits including possibly getting your Icom back and helping to clear the city of the riff raff.

Good luck and hang in there. Good things usually happen about the time you are ready to give up.

[K9STH]

I moved this thread to the more appropriate forum.

Glen, K9STH

[KD6NIG]

Its unfortunate, but every day in the morning I place my antennas on my vehicles, and at night I take them down and hide them, and bring the rigs into the house.

Time consuming, yes, but in this trusting world, it is the facts I and many others face. I have been looking at insuring all of my gear also in case something still happens.

But for now the insurance I use is securing everything and taking the time to put it on/remove it.

[ai4ep]

I had 3 ( three ) c b rigs swiped years ago, but in the 14 + years of amateur radio association, I aint had a single amateur rig swiped ( yet )...rigs as simple as an alinco dr - 110 2 meter rig to a alinco 610 dual bander...but you never can tell, the situation can change in 15 seconds or less.

CWB--- Do you remember if the rig showed the FREQUENCY or a memory CHANNEL NUMBER when you used it last ? If whomever swiped it hooks it up, and sees CHANNEL NUMBER and no frequency, he may think " expensive cb "...but if he sees a FREQUENCY, he may figure out how to change the vfo ( get it modified for out-of-band) and bug the cops and firefighters and play music on police/amateur repeaters and so on.

But for all we know he is reading this thread.
THAT is possible.

We have to remember that our addresses are available for any kind of person ( including thieves ) to look up that are looking for radio gear...both in our homes and in our vehicles.

ai4ep

[KE7CWB]

The rig displayed Frequency. and was last tuned to the 146.775 cheyenne repeater.

I just QSOed with a couple of locals and one of them mentioned how they caught a rig thief several years ago. The thief was stupid enough to get on the air with the rig, the hams who heard him knew that there was a stolen and baited the thief into meeting them with the "intent" of buying the rig from him. Of course the police were waiting at the meeting and the thief was caught.

I have also taken the precaution of plugging any unfamiliar callsigns I hear on the air into the callsign DB.

Will also be getting my rigs serial # from HRO tomorrow (supposedly HRO tracks the serial #s on every rig they sell). This in turn will be turned into the police and the local pawn shops.

Perhaps in the future I will invest in a rig with a seperate faceplate. That way I can take the plate off at night and leave the radio in the trunk.

[KC5SAS]

Sorry to hear that your stuff got stolen. Plenty of good advice here so far. I'd like to add that you may want to look into a cheap security video camera. Paired with a motion activated flood light you would be amazed at the deterence factor of these devices. Companies such as Super Circuits, http://www.supercircuits.com , (no I don't work for them) sell many types of cameras and related security gear. Stores such as Harbor Freight have cameras (like this one http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=39192 or this http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47546 ) that you can run to that old VCR you haven't used since buying your new DVD player. Even Wal-Mart sells home security cameras. Wired into that old VCR and set to record on Extra Long Play you could keep an eye on your stuff and have something to show the cops if your stuff does get broken into again.
I hope you get your stuff back and the thief is caught.
Good Luck.

[n7rjd]

Quote[/b] (KD6NIG @ July 21 2005,10:39)]Its unfortunate, but every day in the morning I place my antennas on my vehicles, and at night I take them down and hide them, and bring the rigs into the house.
I have to admit that the years I spent living in the Central Valley (1983 to 1991 in Tracy and Stockton) the only problem I had with anything was when I was parked in front of a District Attorney's house in a rather affluent neighborhood in North Stockton and had an antenna broken off when I came out in the morning.

Cheyenne was my way of keeping my kids from having to grow up in the crime infested pit that was engulfing California. Now, while still small compared to most standards, Cheyenne is growing and crime is settling in with it.

CWB, I look forward to hearing that you recovered your radio and have seen the responisble parties in orange jump suits. When they do catch whoever is responsible and the DA asks if restitution is enough or if you think they should spend time....well, all I can say is the best feeling is asking that they be sent on a vacation and receiving a letter telling you how many years they will be away from home. Who knows, maybe you can arrange it to have them personally stamp out a vanity license plate with your callsign.

[K0RGR]

You have my sympathies - I hope they didn't do too much damage - I've been hit three times over many years, and it's always been in places that were well lit, and in view of lots of people with police patrols. How somebody can smash a car window under those circumstances and still take the time to remove your radio gear, and nobody notices anything, is a real mystery to me. And yes, it never happened in San Jose. It happened in Des Moines, a small town in Wisconsin, and here in Hooterville.

I've learned to either remove, or hide from view, anything of value in my car. I try not to have anything of apparent value in the car. My son recently learned this lesson the hard way. He equipped his Jeep Cherokee with some big speakers that you could barely see through the tinted glass. The buggers made a sweep of our neighborhood and hit three cars in one hour, stealing only stereos with subwoofers. The deductible was $500, which was a bargain because the tinted rear window on the Jeep was astronomically expensive to replace.

Again, you have my sympathies... I hope you get lucky...

[WA7KKP]

My bet is that the thief probably thought it an expensive CB radio and tried to pawn it. Well CB's of any sort just don't get much more than a 5 or 10 spot, so he pitched it. Probably in a landfill now.

I've had two rigs stolen from my car, so I don't even have a permanent installation, and whatever is in it comes out and goes inside with me.

The first time Pierce County (WA) sheriff didn't want to investigate it That's when I discovered why WA State Patrol was often seen on streets near PLU --

Back during the CB craze of the 70's people stole the control heads from commercial radios thinking it was the WHOLE CB radio. I remember when that was a serious problem; but the head wasn't as expensive as the whole radio to replace. When CB's got cheap, the problem disappeared.

Gary WA7KKP

[KE7CWB]

well got the serial # from HRO so will at least give that to the police and the local pawn shops.

[ai4ep]

...so nothing else to report for now ?

[ai4ep]

I used to own one of those YEASU ft - 1500 mobiles they made that were so small...a friend has his mounted right to the absolute botton of his dash and even if you KNEW where it was, it was hard as heck to see from the outside windows on either side. Plus the fact he is always on ONE repeater, and hardly ever changed memory channels ( if he even had more than ONE programmed in the memory ). I dont know what he did with the microphone, but I doubt if any one will ever swipe THAT one rig in THAT vehicle.

From reading police reports in the local daily newspaper, every one these days is either stealing gas, or swiping C D s and associated players.....or chickens ( fighting chickens )....or some one elses medications.......or kitchen appliances from new homes that arent finished for the new owners yet.. Mostly the C D s , and if you will read the addresses carefully for about a full week, it is from the same part of town (oops).

i havent seen a report for a C B radio stolen since about a month ago, either they dont steal them any more or the victims dont report it ( about 50-50 chance )

If these folks that are DOING the stealing has the opportunity to have something valuable/ that they really cherished stolen from them, they would know what is IS like.

rant mode over

ai4ep

[KE7CWB]

nothing to report. whoever did this definately knew that the rig was there. the rig was mounted under the dash well out of sight in the dark