Watch your gear at Cove 2

[ljjames]

I had an ..odd occurrence at Cove 2 this evening.

A theoretically kind hearted individual decided that my camera was 'left on the beach' this evening literally within minutes of my setting it down and walking back to my car to grab my tanks to set them on the bulkhead.

Imagine my surprise to come back to the beach and see my camera vanished. No one had seen anything, Lamont geared up and started running grids in case it had been abducted by a rogue wave. It literally happened SO fast.

I left a note with kayak rental place, checked at Marination and nothing. probably 45 min or so after it vanished i was making one last sweep (half in my drysuit, I wanted to make sure it was gone gone before calling police) when a guy comes up 'are you looking for something?' Yeah, my camera... Oh, i thought it was left on beach so picked it up. Needless to say I was just grateful for whatever change of heart he had and didn't say anything more than a very heartfelt thank you. The odd thing is, Lamont had walked over there and then I had walked back and forth stopping people asking questions right in front of his car on and off for the past half hour.

So, I really don't know what actually happened, I'm just super glad to have my camera back, and will tag team gear unloading with a much more watchful eye from here on out.

[YellowEye]

Wow, glad you got it back! crazy!

I heard an entire truck and trailer was stolen at Redondo the other day!

I miss winter diving!

[Grateful Diver]

I had to warn the video crew I was working with yesterday not to leave anything unattended while we were down. They showed up with cases of equipment ... and, fortunately, two shore support people. Expensive gear has always had a bad habit of "growing legs" at Cove 2 ... there's just too much traffic there for me to feel safe leaving anything unattended that's worth stealing (same goes for Redondo) ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[diverden]

I guess the basic rule hasn't changed in years: keep eyes on your stuff at all times if you want to keep it. Stuff does go missing. Even deco bottles at 20-30 feet under, on the line!

[Grateful Diver]

Interesting experience at Cove 2 this morning. I came out of the water to discover that the folding table I use to gear up had been taken from in front of my car. Now, this happened once before at Cove 2, and I found it out on the fishing pier, so I walked out there and was immediately told by a few of the folks who know me out there that the Parks & Recreation guy with the truck in the parking lot had taken it. So I walked over to his truck and sure enough ... there was my table sitting folded up in the back of his truck.

I said to the guy "Why did you take my table?"

He said, "That's not your table, it's trash."

At that point, I decided to make his life miserable. I told him he was either a liar or an idiot, and that I was going to report him to his supervisor for stealing my table. Suffice it to say I delivered this message rather loudly. So loudly, in fact, that it got the attention of a nearby Seattle Patrol officer who came over to see what all the fuss was about. I told her I wanted to press charges against this guy for stealing my table. The guy kept protesting that it was all a misunderstanding, that he thought the table was trash and he was just cleaning the place up.

What kind of idiot thinks that a table, sitting against a car within a parking stall, is trash? I asked the guy if he went around picking up scuba cylinders and everything else all the classes left littering the grassy area while they were conducting classes? He said no. I said then WHY did you think that a table, literally touching my grill in the parking stall, was trash? He had no answer. The officer asked me if I wanted to file a complaint. The guy kept protesting that he was just "cleaning the place up", and that if I didn't want my table taken as trash I should write my name on it (I did once, it wore off).

Moral of the story ... watch your stuff at Cove 2 ... apparently the people who work for P&R can't tell the difference between gear and trash. Maybe the next time something goes missing at Cove 2, the first place to look for it should be in the back of a P&R truck ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[ljjames]

I miss the crab shack. I'm sorry, I do... the whole scene feels just so different to me... Mad Max competition for parking places, way more random people , way less regulars in the 'old' sense. So loud inside marination... Its probably just me being a grumpy person but I feel an overarching loss of the sense of community that 'cove 2' used to have.

[pogiguy05]

As it is hard to dive and watch your stuff at the same time, I had been looking into small either window mount or rear view mirror mount cameras for inside the vehicle. They seem to be priced reasonable and would give you a much better idea of what happened then eye witnesses.

[Linedog]

I have a game cam pointed at the front of my house. When it detects motion I get a 15 second video night and day.

[Tangfish]

I wonder how much "trash" that P&R guy ends up bringing home from his rounds. Bob, you should report him. That way if this happens again then that victim will have another data point in (probably) a history of "picking up trash" for this guy.

[ArcticDiver]

Bob; that guy must work for a moving company in his off time. In our recent move, despite our best efforts, the movers packed a black bag of trash; an it wasn't even our trash!

Or, maybe TSA? Last dive trip before I got beached I unpacked to find some of someone else's gear in my dive bag.