Gunks Break-ins (west trailhead)

Our car was broken into and packs stolen today (Saturday) between 10 and 6. When we filed a police report we were told there has been a rash of them. Don't leave nice things visible in your cars!

That is terrible. I'm sorry to hear of it. I've always tried not to leave stuff obviously visible in the open in my car at the Gunks but I've never heard of any actual break-ins until now.

Seems strange when you think you could walk down the cliff and just pick up thirty or more backpacks just sitting on the ground at any given point in time...

Ouch. That sucks. Never heard of that happening there before.

I know... Have not heard of before.
NYCity, not that far. Probably the reason?

This has nothing to do with NYC. It's 70 miles away. No one is driving that far to break into cars. It's local tweakers from New Paltz.

There's a huge drug problem in NP and the surrounding area. This is the first time in my Gunks climbing time (13-14 years) that I've heard of them (or anyone else) targeting climbers cars. Usually it's cars in the ShopRite or Stop and Shop parking lots.

there were smash and grabs back in the eightys. My entire rack was stolen at the base of directisima in 86...

This actually used to be a big problem at the 'Gunks. I think the Preserve started working towards cleaning this up about 15-20 years ago.

Whatever, it just sucks...
I was just poking fun of the big urban area surrounding the gunks,
Like NYC. Drugs in a college town like New Paltz? Wow so surprised!
I never noticed when I had climbed there in the late 90s... ;)

I have heard that police also received reports (Same day/same MO) at Minnewaska and also in Rosendale. It is definitely not the norm, but i think it would be silly to expect it to not happen again, especially if they are not able to catch any of the thieves.

I had heard that the location at Mohonk was at the small parking area just south of the old Warwarsing gate(which is now closed). Saw a police car up there with some people last night about 7:30ish. Visible from the highway,small area which would fill up and then have nobody near cars getting in/out. Perps would have a view of any traffic coming from either side, so easy to get in/out on foot without drawing notice.

No matter where one is, it is smart to not have anything left visible in a vehicle. If someone who is looking to do such a crime, or even is the type who might take advantage OF such an opportunity is very unlikely to pass over a vehicle when they look in and see a clean interior with nothing to grab.

Sorry for those who had this happen to them.

Police were in the main visitor entrance today. I think they were just patrolling.

Three piles of window glass were evident in the parking lot mentioned earlier. I'm hoping a good dose of karma cleans up this problem quickly.

Had a truck window recently smashed by our local northern Wyoming tweakers at the trailhead to one of our local crags...HANG THE MOTHERTRUCKERS!

So are they hiking up to the lots? I doubt they are paying the $17 to park then breaking in.

Good reason for them to raise the rates to the coveted $20, to cover the cost of security measures of course.

Happiegrrrl wrote:I have heard that police also received reports (Same day/same MO) at Minnewaska and also in Rosendale. It is definitely not the norm, but i think it would be silly to expect it to not happen again, especially if they are not able to catch any of the thieves. I had heard that the location at Mohonk was at the small parking area just south of the old Warwarsing gate(which is now closed). Saw a police car up there with some people last night about 7:30ish. Visible from the highway,small area which would fill up and then have nobody near cars getting in/out. Perps would have a view of any traffic coming from either side, so easy to get in/out on foot without drawing notice. No matter where one is, it is smart to not have anything left visible in a vehicle. If someone who is looking to do such a crime, or even is the type who might take advantage OF such an opportunity is very unlikely to pass over a vehicle when they look in and see a clean interior with nothing to grab. Sorry for those who had this happen to them.

Mine was one of 3 broken into in the lot by the Warwasing gate that Terri mentioned. Nothing stolen out of those 3 (in the rear of our car my wife had $3k+ of camera gear plus a pocket book with wallet and cell phone - the thieves apparently were too rushed to look back there).

Cops said none of the 3 in that lot had anything stolen but the 3 in the West Trapps + 4 more at Peterskill did have items stolen.

Eric Engberg wrote: Mine was one of 3 broken into in the lot by the Warwasing gate that Terri mentioned. Nothing stolen out of those 3 (in the rear of our car my wife had $3k+ of camera gear plus a pocket book with wallet and cell phone - the thieves apparently were too rushed to look back there). Cops said none of the 3 in that lot had anything stolen but the 3 in the West Trapps + 4 more at Peterskill did have items stolen.

May be a good idea to get any credit cards left in the vehicle reissued. There have been cases of clever thieves copying CC info and leaving the cards and not making it obvious that was the target of the break-in, to later use the stolen info.

RockinOut wrote:So are they hiking up to the lots? I doubt they are paying the $17 to park then breaking in.

The glass I parked next to yesterday was near the Warwarsing gate (the one that the MP closed last Sept to re-route all traffic thru the visitor ctr lot). The spot with the glass is at most 15 feet from the highway. Super fast getaway.

I am guessing they pulled a car over at th (closed) gate, ran in and ran out.

But why no items taken-especially the camera gear!? Iwonder if possibly there were three smashers and something made them think they were about to get caught, so they bolted?(not a sport climber jab....)

Seems unlikely, but so doesn't smashing and not grabbing visible gear.

While I think redoing and cards which had the potential for access is smart move,I find it hard to believe that CC data thieves would go through such a labor intensive op with low potential for return. Those people tend to deal in bulk. For those who find cybercrime intriquing(I do), I came across a blogger who writes well on the subject - briankrebs.com

Let's hope the theif/theives did something that gets them busted and this was a one-off spree.

interesting about the 3 break ins and nothing stolen-

my car was broken into a couple years ago (in nyc where this kind of thing is less of a shock) and the glove box had been sorted through but nothing taken. behind the front seat was my pack with ipod, headphones, other stuff, they didn't even look.

the cops told me thieves are looking for phones, ipods and cash in the front console and glove box, and don't bother to search the rest of the car. weird. the incompetence actually bothers me a little.

if it's the same group who hit all three spots (has to be) they will likely do it again. goddam oxycontin.

A friend of mine had her window smashed on Saturday which resulted in another friends purse being stolen from her car. Climbing gear was in the back and left alone.
She filed a police report and the next day we met with the trooper who was handling the case. The trooper told us that we were the only victims who had anything stolen. He said everyone else only had their windows broken. I see from this thread that we were not the only ones who had stuff stolen. It makes me wonder why he didn't have his facts straight.
According to this trooper (whose facts are already questionable) there were a total of 17 cars that were broken into between the preserve, Minnewaska and the red brick tavern in Rosendale. Out of the 17 total cars he kept insisting we were the only ones with anything stolen.
As we were on our way to meet the trooper on Sunday my friend got a call from a girl who was hiking at Minnewaska who found her purse. The only thing taken from it was the cash.. everything else was left alone.

What I don't understand is how does that many cars get broken into on the busiest day of the weekend and no one sees anything and no rangers are aware this is going on. Now I understand they can't be everywhere but come on.. each of the parking lots were hit according to the trooper, multiple cars per lot, all between 10pm-6pm and no one saw anything.

Wow that is a lot of break ins! I live down the street from the Red Brick too. Scumbags.

rogerbenton wrote:goddam oxycontin.

and to think Nancy Reagan thought it was the illegal drugs we had to warn our children to stay away from.

the pharmaceutical companies have outdone the Mexican cartel by now, I wonder how those ASSHOLES sleep at night?