{"id":1820,"date":"2008-03-13T09:28:05","date_gmt":"2008-03-13T17:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2008\/03\/13\/wanted-hiker-vigilantes\/"},"modified":"2008-03-13T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2008-03-13T17:37:09","slug":"wanted-hiker-vigilantes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2008\/03\/13\/wanted-hiker-vigilantes\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: Hiker vigilantes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick at Hike Half Dome mentions getting a sticker on his window <\/a>from the Fremont cops in the Mission Peak parking lot reminding him not to leave his windows open. He’d left a one-inch gap to let the heat escape. That’s all a crook needs, the cops told him. <\/p>\n

Which brings to mind my encounter at Los Tranco Open Space Preserve awhile back, when a ranger from the open space authority was patrolling the parking lots, telling hikers not to leave any valuables in their cars because there had already been a couple break-ins that morning (I got there at 9 a.m.) and there had been a bunch more the day before. Who knew burglars had such an up-with-the-birds work ethic? <\/p>\n

Los Trancos has a little knoll (grassy, no less) looking out over the parking lot — walking on it gave me fantasies of sitting up there with a rifle and scope and just picking off these twits. (Don’t worry, Criminal Window Smashing Scum of the Earth — I couldn’t hit a bus if I was sitting in the back seat — as I said, it was just a fantasy). <\/p>\n

On another hike at Mission Peak, a volunteer patroller told me of almost comically negligent behavior among hikers that practically beg crooks to steal their stuff — leaving laptops on front seats, tossing wallets in the glove compartment, etc. BMW drivers seem to be the worst, I was told.<\/p>\n

Car burglary is a small-potatoes crime — I’d hate to be in San Quentin on such a trivial rap; imagine one’s shame when surrounded by respectable murderers, rapists and heroin traffickers. Frankly, folks who do this for a living aren’t worth the expense of ammo required to shoot them. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, getting your windows broken and having to replace radios, laptops, PDAs, cellphones, wallets, credit cards, etc…, is a major hassle. Bottom line: leave your valuables at home, take your wallet with you, don’t assume things locked in your trunk are safe.<\/p>\n

And keep your Charles Bronson fantasies to yourself. There’s no death penalty for car burglary, though I admit it seems there ought to be an ass-whooping one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rick at Hike Half Dome mentions getting a sticker on his window from the Fremont cops in the Mission Peak parking lot reminding him not to leave his windows open. He’d left a one-inch gap to let the heat escape.…<\/p>\n

Read the whole thing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}