Burglarized...

[Jon Ruyle]

Last new moon weekend, I invited some friends for some new moon telescoping and astrophotography at my cabin in twentynine palms CA, and I arrived to find that it had been burglarized. The place was totally cleaned out. The bastards got, from my "secure garage":

AP Mach 1 GTO mount with Losmandy tripod and mount accessories
Takahashi FS102
9.25" Edge HD
2 Short tube 80 refractors with mounting rings. One had a Starshoot autoguider attached.

There was also 25" Obsession in the garage (these are $12,500 new, mine has upgrades), but they didn't take it!

I don't have much hope of recovering any of that stuff, but thought I'd mention it since I suppose there is a chance it will turn up somewhere. Even though they got mostly telescope stuff and not photography stuff, I thought I'd mention it on this site because a lot of the people here are familiar with the equipment. So if you see a shadowy character pushing a suspicious mach 1 mount, please let me know...

[Daniel Browning]

Bummer. That is some *very* fine equipment you lost there. The fundamental requirement of astrophotography (being far out in the boondocks) is also the very thing that makes it hard to secure against theft.

[Jon Ruyle]

In retrospect, I feel like an idiot for keeping all that stuff out there. I guess I was hoping for security by obscurity- the garage was not easy to get in to and it didn't look like it contained expensive stuff. And I really wanted to not have to lug my heavy equipment around. (It was very nice while it lasted).

It's all replaceable. I just won't be able to keep anything nice at my cabin any more. They also took all the furniture from the house, so I guess I just have to keep junky furniture there, too.

[shutterdown]

How sad. How painful, too.

It got me to thinking about your "secure garage." Was it a garage with the standard door on the front? Any side door?

Hearing this made me want to run out and buy something that would keep the Navy Seals out of mine!

Be careful. Your cabin might be the next target. Usually, cabin owners get hit there, first.

[Jon Ruyle]

Was it a garage with the standard door on the front? Any side door?

It wasn't really secure. It had a standard door plus heavy four heavy duty garage doors. All it took was a bolt cutter on the standard door.

Hearing this made me want to run out and buy something that would keep the Navy Seals out of mine!

Let me know when you find out what that is

Be careful. Your cabin might be the next target. Usually, cabin owners get hit there, first.

The cabin was also burglarized- cleaned out almost totally (they left my astro books, though).

[neuroanatomist]

Sorry to hear about this, Jon.

[Jon Ruyle]

Sorry to hear about this, Jon.

Thanks, John. In the scheme of things, no big deal- no one was hurt and the stuff lost is replaceable.

[Joel Eade]

Bummer, that kind of thing really steams me, I would love to have caught those bums in the act!

Maybe you put up some some faux security cameras and motion sensor lights? Wouldn't cost much and might be enough to change someone's mind if htey come snooping around..

[btaylor]

That's terrible Jon. We went through something similar a couple of years ago and you really do feel violated in a sense. It's a horrible thing.

Will any of it be covered by insurance?

[Jon Ruyle]

Fake security cameras might be a good idea- if the same guys come back, they'll think it was a reaction to the first burglary.

I had homeowners insurance at the place, but my policy was canceled about a year ago because the house was too far form a fire station. So no insurance.