Ookie Wonderslug wrote in
:

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 03:22:27 GMT, akheel
wrote:

I had a great time at Lake Mojave this 4th of July weekend, but it
ended on a sour note. We "camp" on the lake during the day and pull
the boat each night and stay in a nice air conditioned hotel in nearby
Laughlin. Thousands of others do the same. As is the custom, we left
our gear at our site overnight, covered with the tarps from our
awnings. We've never had a problem before, and felt relatively safe,
since the site is only accessible by boat.

We left about 7pm on the 4th to see the fireworks over the river
outside of the hotel. We got back late the next day at around 1pm.
Well, for the first time in 10 years, someone had ripped us off. A few
hundred dollars worth, but that's not the point. The kids had looked
forward to playing on the floating island we had. We looked forward
to sitting on the beach on chairs. The took everything and obviously
spent some time. The only thing left were our awnings (thank G-d, at
least we had shade) and oddly enough, our barbeque. This was odd,
because believe it our not, they took the half-bag of charcoal we had
left. They took my daughter's water shoes (what the hell are they
gonna do with that?) and my favorite land anchor with the built in
slide hammer. They took my buddy's jet ski anchor, which is just a bag
full of rocks and a rope.

Anyway, when I see boat sales are up 21% I don't necessaryily think
that's a good thing. Obviously, based on my experience, any jerk can
buy a boat. Just another carefree activity that is less so now.
Thanks to whomever.

Let's see, you left your stuff out in the open in the middle of the
lake for almost 16 hours on 4th of July weekend and now you're mad it
got stolen. Well, WTF did you think was going to happen? I don't know
of any place in the nation you can leave anything of any value for 16
hours and expect it to still be there when you get back. This ain't
the 70's anymore. Even then you couldn't count on people being honest.
After all, they DID make locks back then for a reason. I worry about
leaving my worn-out and beat-up POS truck at the launch while I'm
fishing, or leaving my lawn service equipment outside the Lowe's
whilst I purchase a bale of pine straw. It only takes a second for
people to steal from you. Chalk this up to a lesson in common sense
and move on. Those who put their trust in the integrity of others are
invariably disappointed.

First, it doesn't make it right. Second, I live in a big city, have locks
and alarms on everything, have been burglarized, had my car stolen from my
driveway, so I'm fully aware of the perils of modern society. I'm no rube
and have lots of common sense, not withstanding your arrogant,
condescending, didactic post. Nevertheless, it had always been a little
different with the situation at the lake I described. Hundreds, if not
more, do exactly as I described every day, if for no other reason than to
save the spot for the next day, as most people don't want to sleep out in
100+ heat and the hotels are real cheap and full of food and fun. The
social order on that lake anyway sort of depends on an unwritten code of
hands off the other guy's stuff. You can't get to the spot except by a
power boat launched from one of three ramps within a National recreation
area and there are no homes, roads, or any other access. That means you
have to have invested in a tow vehicle and a motor boat. One would think
that would weed out a substantial number of derelicts right there, but
obviously not all. The stuff stolen had no resale value to speak of, even
at a swap meet (wanna buy some used water shoes?) so the thieves must have
been either stupid or wanted the stuff for themselves. I believe the later,
and that's why I posted. Cause even if this incident is a fact of modern
life now, they're still jerks, I can complain if I want to, and who knows,
maybe they read this newsgroup and will realize how pathetic their lives
have become when they stoop to stealing children's toys.