Thieves!

[RoyalWe]

My wife and I just moved to Eugene OR in January, and already I have been robbed. I had an 870 that I had picked up from a pawn shop yesterday and it was in the trunk of the car, in a case. This morning I find the car had been gone through, the money that was in it was taken, and to my horror, my shotgun was also gone! I don't know how they got in, perhaps one of the doors wasn't locked as it doesn't have automatic locks and the manual locks don't seem to always engage. I promptly reported it to the police and gave the serial number. I just can't believe the scoundrels in this area! For being a town full of stoned hippies, they sure aren't very friendly.

[johnwilliamson062]

Maybe the stoned hippies took it to the recycling center.

I'm ok with leaving a firearm in the car under certain circumstances, but a car that doesn't lock? When I went out to my truck this morning someone had dusted off one of the tinted cap windows. Presumably to look at what I had in the bed of my truck. I wasn't at all surprised.

[hartcreek]

There simply is no excuse for being not smart enough to lock your vehicle. I to drive old vehicles and the powder door lock on my newest vehicle is now 30 years old so I manually check the locks.....it just aint that hard.

[Targa]

Guy gets robbed and your going to call him stupid? If it was unlocked, well we all have absent minded moments, it is what it is. What I took from this is a reminder of the everyday trash that is continually roaming around on this earth.

[g.willikers]

My previous truck was invaded through the sliding rear window.
I forgot to lock it.
Probably saved me the trouble and expense of replacing it, though.
The thief didn't take anything, didn't like any of my stuff.
The ultimate insult.

[CWKahrFan]

...didn't like any of my stuff. The ultimate insult.

Now that right there is funny... !

[kilimanjaro]

I hate to say this, but theft is rampant all over the country. You absolutely cannot leave a door or window unlocked on your car, house, or place of business. Don't leave so much as a quarter dollar coin visible on your console. I know a man who had his windshield busted out for a partial carton of smokes on the dashboard.

Yesterday, a thief walked into a shoe store here, while his girlfriend tried on shoes, he sidled into the back room and emptied two employee purses of their money and phones.

That homeless guy seemingly staggering along the sidewalk? He's looking into the parked cars and trying the door handles.

[USMC 77-81]

Sort of related to the OP, a guy I work with went over to Eugene for a job interview about a year ago and said the town is full of freaks and geeks, declined the job offer due to the locals. I'm sure Eugene has areas that are very nice, he probably just didn't see them.
Around here we still keep 'truck guns' with us. When I travel I make it a point to take my truck gun out when I arrive at my destination. Of course I realize that the OP was 'Home'.

[FITASC]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. It's a shame that in a very BLUE state, such atrocities would happen; what happened to holding hands around the camp fire with these folks?

(Seriously, sucks what happened) Lessons learned; not knowing where you came from, locking car doors has become mandatory any more. Where I am now, it never was necessary - even at Walmart; but now, it's lock the doors everywhere.

[Sweet Shooter]

@Targa: Guy gets robbed and your going to call him stupid? If it was unlocked, well we all have absent minded moments, it is what it is. What I took from this is a reminder of the everyday trash that is continually roaming around on this earth.

Allow me to me the hard ass . Owning firearms is a 24/7 responsibility. If anyone is going to have any absent minded moments please do us all a favor and hand 'em in.

-SS-

[rickyrick]

Oregon isn't blue at all, neither is Washington..... Except those rascals along the interstate that runs north and south.

Thieves are theives.... If a person stole something from an unlocked car is still the criminals doing and fault.
But.... You should always lock you guns up when not in sight of them.

[pnac]

[pnac]

This was in the trunk? That's usually the most secure part of the car. Did they rip your backseat out?

[TXAZ]

Sorry to hear about the theft. But basic vigilance has become a necessity of daily life.

[Doc Holliday 1950]

Gentlemen,
The World is not a safe place. Your property is not safe. Your valuables are not safe. It really is a jungle out there so for Pete's sake, be careful and don't trust
that your neighbor does not covet your property. I know that this stinks, but this is reality in today's World. This isn't 1950 or 1960.
Please be careful.
Doc

[MurBob]

Maybe you should get together with your local community and see if you can hire George Zimmerman to guard the neighborhood.

I heard he does a fine job.

[hartcreek]

My dad and I finally folded our construction business two years ago. We had a hired man that did good work but he like his weed and unfortunately Meth too.

He wound up homeless. One night he found his way to my place. I grabbed him some food and let him sleep in my hot tub room, even built a fire in the fire place so he would be nice and warm. I gave him some gear and fishing tackle so he could get food ort himself. A year later he came by again so I let him sleep in the hot tub room again....he sole a couple hundred dollars of my gear this time. The bugger had the audacity to show up a third time.......I met him at the door with my Walker with the hammer cocked and gave him three seconds to be gone or dead haven't seen him since.

Yes I was born in the 60s so I grew up smoking a dubie now and then but now we have lost multiple generations to drugs and you have to be vigilent because Meth and other drugs makes people do what ever they have to for their next fix. If you do not lock your car doors and house doors and have good situational awareness you just might be the next victim.

This guy was a decent guy before he became a dopehead.

[USMC 77-81]

Rickyrick is absolutely correct, I'll add California to his list. San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego control the politics. Drive up through the central valley sometime, that is Ron Paul country. Up near the top, those people don't even consider themselves as being in California, they consider themselves to be in the State of Jefferson. Outside of the major population areas there are a lot of good ol' boys.

1sr Marine division, 3rd Marines

[FrankenMauser]

I'm sorry to hear about the theft.

But, honestly, I don't really understand it. It's not a position I put myself in.
Guns never stay in the vehicle, unless I'm in it or I'm hunting. (And they'll be out of sight.)
I never make side-trips while guns are in the vehicle (like stopping for lunch), unless I can watch the vehicle from inside the business/restaurant.
And I never, ever leave guns in a vehicle over night - even at my house.

If I get home from an 11 hour drive, through nasty weather, after a 7-day hunting trip, and I am absolutely, completely exhausted and just want to park the truck and go to bed... I still at least unload the guns, ammunition, binoculars, etc.; and make sure anything else is: A) Not worth stealing. Or, B) Securely locked in some way (such as chaining the ATV to the cargo tiedowns in the truck).

(...)The thief didn't take anything, didn't like any of my stuff.
The ultimate insult.

I sort of know the feeling, but I laughed at the situation when we figured it out...

When I lived in Florida, I had a room mate that ended paying his last month's rent and compensating for some other debts by signing over an S-10 Blazer (poop-brown/milky-rust two-tone, 2-door, '88 I think).
It ran, but it was a bit of a basket case, so I never drove it.

During a period of vehicle break-ins and thefts in the area, the thieves, apparently, finally decided to hit my house at 3 am, while I was at work.

Those poor guys...
When I got home in the morning, I noticed the driver's door slightly ajar, the hood popped, and (the former-roommate's) CDs all over the ground.
At first glance, it looked like someone had been trying to jump-start it with speaker wire.
The Police showed up very quickly (more on that in a minute), and we took a closer look.

I don't know how they gained entry, because nothing was broken and it WAS locked when I went to work. Regardless...
They took the registration from inside, and the rear license plate at some point.
The thieves had tried to start the Blazer, but didn't seem to have gotten enough leverage to break the ignition lock.
So, they untied the speaker-wire battery hold-down, stole the battery, and...

Took the battery to my neighbor's driveway (about 200 yards away) to try to jump-start the Audi that he had sitting there. The Audi, coincidentally, was another of my former-roommate's vehicles, that had been traded to my neighbor for some tools.
The thieves found out the hard way, though, that the car had a bad fuel pump.

The quick Police response was because the thieves only made it about 100 yards down Highway 98 before it died and they abandoned it in a ditch. ...Which is where the Police had just arrived when they were redirected to me.
The dirty, stealing fools tried so hard. But, in the end, my neighbor - who owned a tow truck - just plucked the Audi out of the ditch and drug it home with no damage, whereupon we found the S-10's battery, registration, and license plate in the trunk.

After that night, we never had problems again.

[Frank Ettin]

I feel bad for the OP, but just because a gun was stolen doesn't make this firearm related and a proper topic for the Forum.