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Boy Scout Troop Trailer and equipment Stolen.


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Dear Scouts and Parents,

 

This community in Knoxville is the one where I grew up. It was NOT my Troop as a kid, but a nearby Troop. I would like to start a fund to collect donations for this Troop to help them restock their camping gear. Please contact me if interested in helping out with this effort. You can paypal any money to me (larose@cs.utk.edu) with the subject Troop 506, Knoxville TN written on them, I'll get them to the Scoutmaster and ASMs.

 

It should also make us thankful of the wonderful scout gear that we all have access to -- and how much we should care for and respect that equipment.

 

Yours in Scouting!

Mr. LaRose

 

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/01/thieves-take-halls-boy-scout-troops-gear/

 

Thieves take Halls Boy Scout troop's gear

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A local Boy Scout troop lost most of its equipment recently when thieves stole a trailer containing their gear that was parked at a church in Halls.

 

The trailer and its contents, valued at about $7,625, were stolen from Christ United Methodist Church at 7535 Maynardville Pike sometime between Nov. 23 and 24, according to a report from the Knox County Sheriff's Office.

 

The supply trailer belonged to Boy Scouts of America Troop 506 and had only recently been purchased, according to Dave Parmly, assistant scoutmaster for the troop.

 

"One thing that makes Troop 506 unique has been its extensive inventory of troop equipment," Parmly said in a written statement. "Troop 506 has been scrupulous about maintaining all of the gear needed for all boys to have a full year of Scouting activities with minimal equipment needs from the members themselves. In other words, a young man can join Troop 506 and know that his equipment needs are largely met by the troop."

 

The list of stolen equipment includes tents, stoves, pots and pans, shelters, tables, Dutch Ovens, utensils, lanterns and three-compartment "kitchen sinks," he said.

 

Scouting officials have passed on identifying information about the trailer to local dealers in case the thief or thieves try to sell it, he s

 

 

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A question came to mind after reading the above. Does any unit who owns a trailer and equipment have any type of insurance to cover theft of same? Is it available? Costly? Any insurance professionals out there, can you help?

 

Dale

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That was my first reaction as well.

 

Is the Methodist Church the CO? If so, do they have insurance to cover their equipment? The equipment does not belong to the troop it belongs to the CO.

 

Stosh

 

 

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Sorry Brian -

 

A scout is Thrifty.

 

If I were to donate to this Troop to replace stolen equipment and trailer, I would consider a few things:

 

1) I'd contact the Troop leaders directly and send them a CHECK made out to the troop.

 

2) I'd ask if the troop, or the CO had any insurance over the property. If not, while tragic it certainly doesn't fit the motto of "Be Prepared", now does it.

 

3) You might a nice young guy just trying to honestly help out. But, if you think I'm going to PayPal you money directly so that you can make sure it gets to the SM and ASM's of a troop you weren't even a member of as a youth, then you've been drinking a little too much at college.

 

Hmmm - PayPal me some $$ to a guy that is NOT a member, nor has been a member of this troop. Oh yeah and the poster has 6 posts to his screen name.

 

Sounds like part of the PHISHING merit badge to me :)

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Nah, if this really were a phishing attempt, the trailer would have been being transported aboard an airplane that crashed in Nigeria, and Brian would be seeking the help of us, his good favorite friends, to funnel the insurance money back to the U.S., splitting it 50-50 for our trouble, of course.

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I know how the Troop feels. Several years ago, our Troop trailer was broken into and all of the equipment stolen. They efven brought wine and had a party. Even thought the police had an idea who might have done it, nothing was ever done.

 

The trailer was parked at the church, the CO. Since the church sponsored the Troop, they turned it into their insurance. The insurance company denied the claim. We had an attorney on the Troop Committee and he took it to court. In the end, the Judge said that he wanted to rule for us, but could not for one reason:

 

No one from the church, except the COR, was involved with the Troop (and he was not really active with the Troop). Because of this, there was no one at the church who had a key to the trailer. The Judge ruled in favor of the insurance company.

 

We had fundraisers to replace the equipment. We recovered some of it at flea markets in a neighboring state. No one at the church wanted a key so we moved the trailer to the home of one of the active members.

 

Hope others can learn from this.

 

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Over the past few years, 2 local troops that I know of have had their trailers (and equipment) stolen. Since then, it has been the unofficial advice of our local scouters to not store troop equipment in their trailer. It is inconvenient and timely to fully load everything before every outing, but that is what we have done. We are working on a means by which we can better secure our trailer behind a gate. Our trailer is almost invisible from anywhere, so it has not yet become a target; in spite of this, we take precautions.

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Rule 1, Never leave the trailer in an unsecured location. If you don't have a secure lot, have it parked somewhere that is secure.

 

Rule 2, Buy, install and use good locks to secure the trailer doors, hitch and spare tire.

 

Rule 3, If you absolutely have to park it somewhere questionable, get a long heavy chain and big heavy lock and chain it around the axle to an immovaable object (ie: Tree, telephone pole, or building)

 

If you follow those rules, you make it extremely difficult to steal the trailer, and most thievies are lazy and will take the easy way out.

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"A question came to mind after reading the above. Does any unit who owns a trailer and equipment have any type of insurance to cover theft of same? Is it available? Costly? Any insurance professionals out there, can you help?"

 

Yes, you can insure the trailer and the contents. Our troop carries insurance for this through Allstate,

 

 

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I saw this in on the news papers' website last night, this is my council. I read the article to my wife and she was in complete disbelieve that some would go so low to steal from the Boy Scouts. I remember seeing an article in Scouting a few months ago on how to help prevent this sort of things, I wonder if they had followed any of those recommendations?

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Personally I'm not a big fan of trailers to begin with. As far as I'm concerned if it doesn't fit in a backpack it shouldn't go on the trip.

 

But, others in the forum have mentioned this, in addition to items 1-3 mentioned by nldscout, if you do have a trailer, it is a good idea to have it clearly marked as a BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, TROOP X, Somewhere, USA Trailer in BIG letters with the logo and color scheme if you can.

 

An unmarked trailer sitting in a parking lot is a trailer that a prospective thief is likely to believe is full of expensive contractor equipment and tools, or even better, sound equipment and instruments for a band. All items that would fetch a lot more on eBay than some used dutch ovens, tents and cook kits.

 

SA(This message has been edited by scoutingagain)

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My Google News alert sends approximately one story a month about a troop trailer being stolen somewhere in the country. (This more frequent than the treasurer embezzling the unit funds - that's only four or five times a year).

 

Insurance is vital. Many troops have found that a tongue lock is not sufficient. Chains can be cut. Some Scouters have suggest the addition of a "boot" - the type of device which some cities/parking lots use to detain autos parked illegally.

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I am absolutely not phishing but I appreciate your concern, there are all sorts of web scams out here these days. I live in the real world too.

 

As far as my post count goes, I have been a member of this forum for some time but have not made many posts. It's ok, you don't have to paypal me anything -- I just threw it out there for those of you who do know me or wanted to throw a $5 toward the effort.

 

The good news is that I made an announcement at our Troop meeting monday night and received $45 from parents and scouts. Some of my older guys even took a $5 out of their own wallet and handed it to me. That made me proud of these lads, Baden-Powell would be proud too, a scout is helpful!

 

I will most certainly send a check for the final amount to the Scoutmaster and I'll go ahead and post that information here so I can start gaining the street cred here with you guys. Apparently one has to spend huge amounts of times posting here in order to have people believe you. :)

 

And I always live by the scout law, specifically the first one.

 

And no, this Eagle scout does NOT have the phishing merit badge, but I do have the fishing merit badge. :)

 

Brian LaRose

ScoutMaster

Troop 764

Dunwoody Georgia

http://www.troop764.org

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I neglected to address the insurance question. I'll go ahead and reply again so that I can get my post count up there for you cynics. :)

 

Sure the trailer might be covered, but I doubt the insurance will pay out for the contents of the trailer. Thanks to those of you with the donations, every little bit will go to the effort and every bit helps.

 

Brian LaRose

ScoutMaster

Troop 764

http://www.troop764.org

 

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