Aircraft theft?

FloridaPilot

FloridaPilot

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Hello,

At my local airport (48X). There is a problem with Avionics being stolen out of Aircraft that are tied down outside. What can pilots do to prevent this from happening? Is there an alarm system or some sort of security system for GA airplanes? If not there should be. This is rural Florida and not many people around to notice anything.
 
Don't leave your airplane outside, or catch one of the scumb bags and curb stomp him, or at least give him a proper old school beat down, if you get one the others will learn to not mess around on the airport.
 
FloridaPilot said:
Hello,

At my local airport (48X). There is a problem with Avionics being stolen out of Aircraft that are tied down outside. What can pilots do to prevent this from happening? Is there an alarm system or some sort of security system for GA airplanes? If not there should be. This is rural Florida and not many people around to notice anything.
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A GoPro on a motion sensor?
 
Same problem in Alabama. Years ago when I instructed at Wetumpka, which wasn't fenced in, they had a rash of the same thing. Fenced in now.
 
If parking inside is not an option, remove the radio and take it with you.
 
James331 said:
Don't leave your airplane outside, or catch one of the scumb bags and curb stomp him, or at least give him a proper old school beat down, if you get one the others will learn to not mess around on the airport.
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Wow that's so insensitive. We should be providing them with puppies, play doh, and coloring books to rehabilitate them.
 
Had a pair of Bose A20 stolen from my plane a couple days ago. Glad that's all they took
 
mulligan said:
Had a pair of Bose A20 stolen from my plane a couple days ago. Glad that's all they took
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Well shet Mulligan, I needed something to listen to my guitar solos, wife won't let me use my amp in the house, plus she can't find the dog when I do play with the amp.
 
yetti said:
game cameras strategically mounted.
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Why?

So you can frame the photo of your stuff getting jacked?

In my experience cops could care less, even with photos. But they will give you a "report" you could frame next to your photos of your stuff getting stolen.

If you hunt, you're better off using those skills to set a precedence.
 
James331 said:
Why?

So you can frame the photo of your stuff getting jacked?

In my experience cops could care less, even with photos.

If you hunt, you're better off using those skills to set a precedence.
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I'm glad you prefaced " in my experience" because 99% of cops are good people and if you called for a report and had pictures of the perp, you can bet they would care a whole lot. But, saying cops suck is just par for the course and plays well into certain agendas these days.

It's cool to be on "that team" right? Much easier than telling the truth.
 
Unit74 said:
I'm glad you prefaced " in my experience" because 99% of cops are good people and if you called for a report and had pictures of the perp, you can bet they would care a whole lot. But, saying cops suck is just par for the course and plays well into certain agendas these days.

It's cool to be on "that team" right? Much easier than telling the truth.
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Easy killer

I deal with cops quite a bit with work, but when my old CA house was broken into they sucked.

On the last attempt to break into my place, in a very nice area, when I was home, I got a talking too for drawing down on the sub human trash, and no I didn't even fire on them,so my opinion on PD and theft/home invasions, it's a little lacking.
 
So do I in the camera/intrusion stuff and all are eager to get video, stills, audio off a call. I'll do call outs at zero dark thirty to pull video and it could be the diff between a quick case or a cold case.

Killing a guy on a property crime might be a sticky situation, right or wrong. Saw a first 48 where they kept jacking a dudes car steroes. Like, the third time he caught them and stabbed one. They charged him with murder. That was TX too......
 
Unit74 said:
I'm glad you prefaced " in my experience" because 99% of cops are good people and if you called for a report and had pictures of the perp, you can bet they would care a whole lot. But, saying cops suck is just par for the course and plays well into certain agendas these days.

It's cool to be on "that team" right? Much easier than telling the truth.
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I don't live in anything that could be called a high crime area or region, but when it comes to car theft, house & garage break-ins, or most forms of vandalism of private property the police here will help you file a report, compare it to their stats to see if they are dealing with an emerging or known trend, and that's about it. It has become too common for them to be able to deal with the petty cases; they look for patterns to identify the organised rings and that is about all they have manpower for.
 
I have a buddy in SoCal who's a Det at a small dept. the Cali voters have basically decriminalized a lot of crimes down to a ticket and so now, yea, they don't put any effort into it. No manpower and the DAs just toss it if it's not anything huge.

They try to make it a big case so the DA will bite, but every few years more "what are they thinking" laws come down.... Like prop 47 which more or less dumped all these locked up felons on the St and then crime went through the roof!

Couldn't happen to a better bunch......
 
Unit74 said:
I have a buddy in SoCal who's a Det at a small dept. the Cali voters have basically decriminalized a lot of crimes down to a ticket and so now, yea, they don't put any effort into it. No manpower and the DAs just toss it if it's not anything huge.

They try to make it a big case so the DA will bite, but every few years more "what are they thinking" laws come down.... Like prop 47 which more or less dumped all these locked up felons on the St and then crime went through the roof!

Couldn't happen to a better bunch......
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I think it's quite frustrating for people who try to live by the values our parents and grandparents tried to hand down (and that's most of us still I believe). Where I am the police seem to be doing the best job they can, but they have to put situations like domestic violence ahead of property theft or vandalism - and the economy ain't helping matters on any of those fronts right now.
 
When I park anywhere overnight I typically pay for a hangar but sometimes it's just not available or just too damn expensive (spirt of st louis wanted 110 bucks for 4 hours). Lock the doors and put up those window shades that cover up all the windows and try to stay in a well-lit area of the ramp. Not much more you can really do.
 
GRG55 said:
I think it's quite frustrating for people who try to live by the values our parents and grandparents tried to hand down (and that's most of us still I believe). Where I am the police seem to be doing the best job they can, but they have to put situations like domestic violence ahead of property theft or vandalism - and the economy ain't helping matters on any of those fronts right now.
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It's why I left Cali after 35 years. Only once I was gone did I realize what I was missing. Freedom, peace, decency, democracy.
 
FloridaPilot said:
Hello,

At my local airport (48X). There is a problem with Avionics being stolen out of Aircraft that are tied down outside. What can pilots do to prevent this from happening? Is there an alarm system or some sort of security system for GA airplanes? If not there should be. This is rural Florida and not many people around to notice anything.
Click to expand...

Make it harder to get the stuff out.

My old flying club had an issue for a while. Three sets of avionics were taken. They knew when the insurance company replaced them, and hit within a few days. The solution was to put a couple screws in the bottom of each box, so that each of them had to be taken out starting from the bottom box. That turned a 30 second job into a 15 minute job. Longer if you didn't know why you couldn't just slide the boxes out.

An alternate method is to put a hungry rattle snake on the front seat.
 
James331 said:
Easy killer

I deal with cops quite a bit with work, but when my old CA house was broken into they sucked.

On the last attempt to break into my place, in a very nice area, when I was home, I got a talking too for drawing down on the sub human trash, and no I didn't even fire on them,so my opinion on PD and theft/home invasions, it's a little lacking.
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You'd be surprised how fast the police can find you when the perp whines
 
30 or so years ago the neighborhood had a bunch of breakins. It seemed that in the middle of the night a couple of neighbors caught 2 guys & a gal breaking into their house and garage. They had a van that was full of stolen things and to make this short, the perps spent a minimum of a month in the hospital. Someone called the police and the cops found the perps naked in the middle of the street. Seems no one knows how they got there. No more breakins...
 
yetti said:
game cameras strategically mounted.
Click to expand...
That was my thought when my under-construction house was broken into the first time, looking for tools to steal (none were there). I put up a couple of game cameras in spots where they were not likely to be noticed at the construction site. Someone later scaled the deck to gain access and didn't find any tools, but did spot the game cameras and stole those instead. So if you do go this route and buy a used game camera, please check if it has a memory card and, if you see pictures of me and my wife walking around our construction site, do me the kindness of sending me the memory cards so I can track down the geniuses who stole the cameras and ...

James331 said:
Don't leave your airplane outside, or catch one of the scumb bags and curb stomp him, or at least give him a proper old school beat down, if you get one the others will learn to not mess around on the airport.
Click to expand...
...take James' advice.
 
Anymouse said:
Make it harder to get the stuff out.

My old flying club had an issue for a while. Three sets of avionics were taken. They knew when the insurance company replaced them, and hit within a few days. The solution was to put a couple screws in the bottom of each box, so that each of them had to be taken out starting from the bottom box. That turned a 30 second job into a 15 minute job. Longer if you didn't know why you couldn't just slide the boxes out.

An alternate method is to put a hungry rattle snake on the front seat.
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Another alternative is to get realistic looking photos of worthless avionics and photoshop them into a print you can fix in place over the radio stack. If it looks like junk when the thief looks inside with a flashlight, they're less likely to open the door for a closer inspection.
 
CC268 said:
Wow that's so insensitive. We should be providing them with puppies, play doh, and coloring books to rehabilitate them.
Click to expand...

That will keep them calm while they recover in the hospital, prior to being transferred to the county jail . . .
 
mscard88 said:
Same problem in Alabama. Years ago when I instructed at Wetumpka, which wasn't fenced in, they had a rash of the same thing. Fenced in now.
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Did that actually fix the theft problem? Right now our airport is fenced in and it's still happening.

Zeldman said:
If parking inside is not an option, remove the radio and take it with you.
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That really would take the joy out of flying for me.

mulligan said:
Had a pair of Bose A20 stolen from my plane a couple days ago. Glad that's all they took
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I'm sorry to head that, very expensive headphones. I learned a lesson here bring your expensive headphones with you.

GlennAB1 said:
There's a lot of thing you can do but almost none will stop a determined thief.
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Can you give me a few? You want to make it as difficult as possible for the thief. If he/she is going to steal my stuff they are going to have to WORK for it!

Unit74 said:
So do I in the camera/intrusion stuff and all are eager to get video, stills, audio off a call. I'll do call outs at zero dark thirty to pull video and it could be the diff between a quick case or a cold case.

Killing a guy on a property crime might be a sticky situation, right or wrong. Saw a first 48 where they kept jacking a dudes car stereos. Like, the third time he caught them and stabbed one. They charged him with murder. That was TX too......
Click to expand...

That is a very sticky subject, the issue could've turned around quickly whereas the victim could've gotten stabbed or shot.
 
The people that are stealing never steal anything substantial. They steal petty stuff so they have to keep stealing. Eventually they will get caught, no need to risk your life over it.
 
GlennAB1 said:
Law enforcement s way overwhelmed and has much bigger cases, in most cases.
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This. Ever call in something suspicious and wait to see how long it takes them to come out? We had an active attempted break in last year and they didn't get there until 25 minutes later. I rarely even bother calling about anything anymore because I know 99% of the time it is a waste of both of our time since it will be over or gone by the time they get there.
 
FloridaPilot said:
Can you give me a few? You want to make it as difficult as possible for the thief. If he/she is going to steal my stuff they are going to have to WORK for it!
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Put a nice note on the entry window stating that all equipment in the aircraft has had tracking devices installed. May fool some. Or that all equipment has owner's info engraved on it.

As for the whole aircraft being stolen; remove the battery, that may stop some, but it didn't stop the thief that took my friends Bonanza. A cable lock around the prop hub, can slow them down.
 
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