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Gunkie
climber
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...when I saw my bright blue sleeping bag in the green grass of the freeway cloverleaf interchange. I went to a pay phone and called the sheriff's dept. They met me there and after asking me a bunch of dumb questions such as "how do we know you didn't sell this stuff to them?", they decided I was legitimate. They drove over the curb right to the guys, got out and tapped them with their night sticks to wake them.
Wow, they should be happy you found them. If they stole from me and I found them in that state... well, I am on the east coast. Concrete makes every size shoe. Glad you got the vast majority of your stuff back.
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Ward Trotter
Trad climber
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On a backpack trip several years ago, due to a late start, I was forced to camp overnight in Little Yos Valley.The next day I decided to rest a sore knee for the entire day before moving on.
Sometime late that afternoon a big ruckus developed in the crowded campground.Not far away a bear was observed grumbling while going through the contents of a ripped up tent; and had spread most of the objects over a wide area. After the bored bear eventually ambled off, dozens of people converged on the downed tent --and as they did so, many ,if not most of those people began to slowly recognize their missing items, obviously stolen over the course of several days.Tons of food, rolls of film,a couple of cameras,knives,hatchets,etc..
The perps were a couple of inner city kids brought along on a youth camp out and were standing close by shuffling their feet as neighboring campers began quickly identifying and retrieving their items.
The bear, until then a frightening nuisance, suddenly became a staunch (if unwitting) ally in the never ending fight against crime.
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Gunkie, i thought about that for a short period. Just drive right over them; but that is not my nature. My roommate was pretty handy with a knife as well as his fist.
Prudence told me that any altercation could leave me banged up, maybe the loss of my car, or in jail with them; if someone reported a "tussle at Exit_".
When I returned to the valley, i stopped by to brag a little on retrieving my goods. The Chief LEO, (who's name evades me right now), wanted to recruit me for LEO training.
At that time I had certain habits that would not lend to success in that arena, nor did I have any interest in law enforcement.
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Greg Barnes
climber
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Sucks, hope you get your hangboard back. Few people spend time in the Valley without something getting stolen (for me - headlamp and food in Camp 4, then an entire rack from my friend's truck in Upper Pines).
For the sake of clarity, you were not robbed - robbed means someone takes something from you in person, by force (or threat of force). Theft is super common in the Valley, but I've never heard of a robbery there (not that it hasn't happened to someone at some point).
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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rob:
verb \ˈräb\
:to take money or property from (a person or a place) illegally and sometimes by using force, violence, or threats.
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SofCookay
climber
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This was posted yesterday by a woman yesterday on Facebook:
"Just wanted to let you all know to beware of the potential for theft in the Yosemite Valley campgrounds. In all the years I've visited there, I've never experienced such boldness! I was sleeping solo in my tent on Saturday night, with my essentially empty backpack just outside the door (stove, small articles of clothing)...around midnight, I heard footsteps and thought, why is someone walking so close to my tent. I thought it must be a bear, but it wasn't breathing like a bear...I couldn't get my luci light on and I couldn't remember where I'd put my headlight since I'd used it earlier and I didn't want to open the door without a light, even though the moon was shining brightly. So I started yelling, "get, get, get out of here...get, get...." Finally my girlfriend did the same. Then I heard a voice in the distance, coming from the direction of the campground entrance/kiosk, hollering something but I couldn't understand - my heart was pounding in my ears! "I yelled, did you see it, is he gone?" The voice responded, he's gone I think, but I yelled my question again and he said he's gone. At that point I felt I could open my tent door and saw three lights coming toward me - I thought it was three people. Then another friend in another tent walk out, toward this man, who said "here's your pack, was putting things back in it and said where's your bear box?" As I struggled to get out of my tent, having some muscle cramps in my legs, I watched the two of them walk to the bear locker and put my pack away. I finally got out of my tent and walked over to the guy, as did three more girlfriends. I asked him, "Who are you? Are you a volunteer." He answered, "no". I asked, "Are you a ranger?" He responded, "no, I spend alot of time here and 'following' the bears is my hobby". We exchanged a few more words and then he said, I've got to get going to find that bear, and he disappeared on a bicycle. I was pretty shaken up so instead of going back to bed in my tent, I went to sleep in my friend's camper van. Later I heard another bump in the night - it turned out to be a coyote (which I did get to see!) rummaging around in our wood box - our trash bag had been stored there until we emptied it that evening so the odor of food probably lingered there. The next morning as I was preparing to pack, I noticed my stove was not in the outside pocket, the outside zipper compartment was open and empty, I thought "he stole my stove". There was no slobber on my pack, and we looked around for my stove, and then for evidence that my pack had been dragged away by a bear. Those footsteps were silent - there was no heavy breathing like that of a bear, just footsteps. Bears don't open zippers and bears don't pull Jetboils out of a side pocket. They rip and destroy packs to get food, which this bear did not do. We believe that man walked by my tent and lifted my pack. Fortunately no one was hurt and all my gear was returned. I should have stored my pack in the bear locker I know; I wasn't thinking as I had put my food sack in it. And I haven't been camping in a campground for a year - except for dispersed camping once where there were no bear lockers - and backpacking when I take a bear cannister and you don't have a bear locker to store your things and pack - where you don't worry about theft in the backcountry. Another reason to add to the list of why I don't like camping and why I love backpacking - even if not, it feels safer! The guy is about 5'6-5'8", bearded, probably late 50's-60's, wore big glasses, shorts (it was midnight and cool), plaid shirt, ballcap, and he was on a bike - not a mountain bike with super fat tires, but not super skinny tires. I reported it to the campground host who said he would report it to the law enforcement. He also said they were having some issues with transients living there, moving from campground to campground, but no reports of theft, but maybe people had an experience like mine and didn't realize. So if you are camping in the Valley before your trek, or just plain camping, (we were in the North Pines) BEWARE, BE CAUTIOUS, BE SAFE and please feel free to share my story."
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