On Mon, Sep 30, 2002 at 05:15:35PM -0400, TomL wrote: < .. snip .. > > My wife tells me that several boats have recently been stolen in Kittery > Maine's "Kittery Trading Post" parking lot. KTP is one of the northeast's > biggest seller of kayaks. The thieves simply cut the webbing and made off > with the boats. It seems that sometimes they unbuckle the webbing to make > passersby think they (the "unbucklers") are actual owners. < .. snip .. > > But anything I can do to slow down or discourage the "enemy" is > worth considering. A mix of suggestions, some serious, others less so: 1) Leave a large dog in the car (preferably one that looks more ferocious than he/she really is). If well behaved, leave the windows down far enough for the pup to exit if determined. Convince them that anyone taking a boat other than you and yours is bad, and you're all set. If not so well behaved, leave the window cracked wide enough to be sure they have plenty of air, and then sit back and listen to a *real* car alarm when someone tries to spend time de-boating your vehicle. 2) On a more serious note, if you use front and rear tie-downs, replace the rope with cable, complete with loops at the ends. And then instead of tying it to your bow/stern and under-car hooks, pad-lock the darned thing. It's success would depend somewhat on how sturdy the attachment point is on the bow and stern of the boat, but it would actually work on many I've seen. 3) And finally, take the approach of many a city dweller and college student who rides their bike and has to park and lock it in various open locations. Make it (the boat that is) as absolutely ugly as possible. People don't steal ugly bikes (although they've been known to spot the nice parts on the ugly frame) as often as nice ones. The same is likely to go for boats too. And on a quite serious note, find out if your boats are covered by your insurance (car, home owner's, or renters) against left when taken from your vehicle. Car contents can be covered, in the event of break-in or theft of vehicle. I make this suggestion because you might not wish to do anything more elaborate than using lock cores in combination with a Yakima/Thule cable. As someone (Ralph Diaz, I believe) pointed out, the determined thief will win in the end anyway. It might be better to let them have the boats if they want to work at it, whilst not destroying the vehicle in the process. Chalk it up to the descent of society, replace your boats with the insurance $$$, and realize it won't be an everyday experience. Having seen firsthand what thieves can do when stealing car-topped bikes, by taking rack and all, the damage to be repaired on the vehicle can be downright scary. Just some random late-night musings ... -.- jwd *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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