Theft

[jspierre]

How many people have stories about equipment and things being stolen at USFA competitions?

What do people do to avoid theft at competitions?

[Peach]

I have my name in big letters on EVERYthing. A clubmate asked me Monday night why I had my name stenciled on the back of my white jacket (I'm a sabre fencer). That's why. It was a darn expensive jacket and I didn't want it walking. I don't think anyone would steal it now, though.

The other reason I have my name all over the place is I can LOSE anything - in Palm Springs I had to rummage through the lost-and-found for a mask and a weapon I had thought I picked up the afternoon before.

It isn't always theft. Sometimes it's just that everything is scattered all over the place and gets mixed up.

But I do know people who walk around the venue after the event is over picking up anything that doesn't have a name on it and taking it home.

[edew]

Well, Peach knows it from me. (And, btw, I wasn't implicating your clubmate, just that he was in the vicinity...)

I have lost a foil (value ~ $115) and a body cord (purchase price ~ $27. Actual value because it's one of those crappy Uhlmann ones: $6.00).

I also have my name stencilled onto everything. People asked me why my underarm protector has my name on it. Well, duh. They walk otherwise. I can't stencil my weapons, but they're pretty unique, so I can easily identify them. I put my logo on my body cords (a logoized version of "EDEW") and other small items, including tools. Otherwise, they walk very fast.

I once had some tools stolen from my side pocket of my bag at the airport (presumably by airline baggage handlers, since the equipment was there when I checked in and wasn't when I retrieved my bag). I now carry nothing other than band-aids and eye drops in the side pockets and lock the zippers in the main compartment.

[sallearmourer]

You know with all the stuff I carry and loan out to people so far knock on wood I havn't one thing turn up missing yet. Maybe because they know if I caught them their are in deep trouble. Beside that my booth is there for my well being and not the fencers. I even loan out six set of sims at Palm Springs got them all back. But you do need to mark everything in case its turned into the lost and found. Most LOC trys to return the stuff to the owners.


Tim

[DamedEscrime]

I've lost a new body cord that was labled and accicidentally "traded" epees (not labled well). These were, however, at local tournies.
And just last weekend, someone walked off with 2 foils that belonged to one of our high schoolers at a HS event in Chicago. I like to think it was an accident bc so many things look alike.

Now part of my services in the armoury include engraving names on weapons. I've lable all club equipment in big RED letters on the outside of the bell so they are easy to spot.

The best thing to do is keep your stuff where you can see it, lable it, and rememeber to pick it up AND PUT IT AWAY when done.

[jspierre]

I've been involved in the sport going back some years, and theft has always been a feature, maybe because equipment is so expensive or because equipment is always sitting around and begging to be taken (or both).

Has the USFA done anything to address this concern at events? Is there a secure area with a USFA official always posting, a place to leave your stuff if you have to (like at some road races)at NACs, etc?

[Zelda]

I lost an FIE mask at my first BIG interstate competition. Thankfully travel insurance payed me to buy a new one!

[Inquartata]

I have never had anything taken in all my years in fencing. Perhaps because I'm so obessive about taking my stuff back to my bag after every pool or DE, and checking to make sure everything is there. From this and from the failure of fencing friends to do this I have concluded that very little stuff gets stolen. Most of it, I believe, is put down momentarily while talking to someone, reading the seeding and pool sheets, browsing the vendors, eating, etc. and forgotten. ( I hear an awful lot of "Have you seen my..." from people, and usually the item in question turns up eventually: "Oh, yeah, I guess I WAS over there earlier" ).

[its_me_mango]

you probably lost it and it could have been turned in to someone, but my fencing shoes were stolen from me while i was in chicago in 1984.

[Peach]

[quote]Originally posted by edew:
<strong>(And, btw, I wasn't implicating your clubmate, just that he was in the vicinity...)</strong><hr></blockquote>

He's really the last one to do something like that--and you might be surprised by the people who actually DO it.

[Cutter]

I loaned a glove to someone at a tournament once and never got it back. Haven't seen the girl again. Oh well, but hey, if anyone out there sees a white/orange glove with the name McCoy in big black letters on the cuff, let me know.

[edew]

[quote]Originally posted by Cutter:
<strong>I loaned a glove to someone at a tournament once and never got it back. Haven't seen the girl again. Oh well, but hey, if anyone out there sees a white/orange glove with the name McCoy in big black letters on the cuff, let me know.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Well, it's got to be the real McCoy, right?

[Cutter]

real?....who me....let me check, yeah I guess I am real. Or am I? Could I just be a figment in someone else's nightmare. Or perhaps I am only a toy in some giant's play room...but I digress. <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" />

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: Cutter ]</p>

[Inquartata]

Ugh! Eric, that was awful...I wish I'd thought of it first...

[fred]

Post guards. Seriously...having a clubmate hang around the bags usually prevents any five-finger discounting. Many people end up doing this as a matter of practicality, but I could see it being a bigger problem at an out-of-state event like a NAC where you may be the only person.

At the Remenyik a couple of years ago, I had a strip-side reserve foil picked up inadvertently by someone - I did an immediate recon sweep and found it in a nearby bag, just tossed on top, and we had both used the same color blue tip tape, so I'm sure it was an accident. At the same competition, though, we had someone have a pair of plain blue side zip warmup pants vanish out of a bag (?).

I don't know any other sport where hundreds of dollars in equipment are routinely carried to competition venues and left unattended for long periods. Golf and tennis can have expensive equipment, but this almost always is close to the competitor even during competition. It's perhaps a tribute to most fencer's honesty that relatively few incidents occur.

[its_me_mango]

people dont usually steal, but someone iknow, whose name WILL remain anonymous, used to "borrow" stuff from me, which is fine, However, I had to steal my stuff back, and then, he would order stuff for me and other people, and mark the stuff with his salle's name in it, so of course a person feels stupid useing it for a while, but you just live with these things, knowing that his intentions were good but after a while, i think he developed ideas from the first idea, then of course you realize that buried deep in his subconsious is the 2nd desire after all, but then what you do is SPANK him back into reality, but it doesn't always work, so that's the way i see it, and once a very nice pair of fencing shoes went walking, but i was in an entirely different setting in chicago.

[TheScribe]

[quote]Now part of my services in the armoury include engraving names on weapons. I've lable all club equipment in big RED letters on the outside of the bell so they are easy to spot <hr></blockquote>


What do you use to lable it with, a magic marker? While I think its great to have something flashy on your equipment so that its easy to spot, sometimes the person doing the walking may decide to overcome any obstacle when it comes to what he wants. I have had great sucess ingraving the blades of my foils with a Dremel and a little bit. My name goes on the blade, or inside the bell in a not to noticable place, and if somebody does decide to walk with it and you catch them, even if they removed anything noticable, they cant pound out an engraving that quickly.
<img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" />

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: TheScribe ]</p>

[Catlady]

I don't have any experience with others taking my equipment, but I thought I'd post a few random thoughts and/or comments on the subject.

I suppose it's the advantage of belonging to a smaller club, but if anyone around SLF took off with other people's stuff on a regular basis, they'd find themselves in serious trouble pretty quick since the regulars pretty much know each other pretty well. Once they were found out, everyone would be on to them virtually at once. This was pointed out to me by a club mate who picked up some equipment for me when I suggested he hang on to said equipment until I remembered to bring my checkbook rather than giving me the benefit of the doubt.
Our problem seems to be that some people--most of them juniors-- can't seem to remember to put things away. This is a big pet peeve of mine. I had a teacher-- in school, not at fencing-- once who if she found some of your stuff would make you pay ransom--I forget how much, maybe 50 cents or so--to get it back. At the time I though this is incredibly anal-retentive of her. Now I'm beginning to see her point. I'm not immune however I'll admit.

I agree that sometimes what appears to be theft isn't. The problem with foils is to some extent they all look the same at first glance. I don't know how many foil there are at my club with red handles, then there are several that have red handles and white tip tape. I have to be really careful about picking up equipment without examining it carefully. Usually I end up almost forgetting something, or getting half way to my bag before I realize that all my weapons are all ready accounted for. Then I can testify that sometimes, especially if you're trying to hurry, you can forget something and not realize it. Once I forgot some tools and didn't realize they were gone until someone came up to me the next time I came to the club and said they thought they'd found something of mine. Of course, I seem to get flakier all the time, so maybe it's just me.

Then again I have a clubmate who hasn't been able to find his sabre lame since he got back from the Palm Springs NAC. He's checked with everyone who went with him, and with everyone around the club, but there's no sign of it.