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Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildings

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 8:05 am
by ERIC
I've been holding on to this bit of news until owners of the properties were comfortable with it going public. Last month one of the property owners and my father went up to Blayney Meadows to check on any damage from the winter. First sign of bad news was the lock on the Kaiser Pass Road gate had been cut, but that's happened maybe a handful of times over the years so they thought nothing of it. But when they arrived in Blayney they were surprised to discover that people had spent a considerable amount of time and energy breaking into MTR buildings and buildings on two other properties adjacent to MTR. Nearly every room, cabinet, drawer, bin, etc. had been gone through. Several large, heavy items were missing leading them to believe that the thieves were not likely carrying their booty out on foot. They searched the area but couldn't find any tire tracks or signs of camping activity. A small storm was approaching so the two were forced to abandon the investigation and head out. About a week later they returned to find that the Florence Lake Store buildings were now broken into and even further looting of the buildings up at Blayney Meadows had occurred. All evidence points to multiple people, base camped somewhere in the area over a long period of time. It's likely they've either stashed what they stole somewhere in the area or used small motorized vehicles like quads or a mule. When my dad and our family friend went up the first time they noticed a white pickup truck on Kaiser Pass Rd. past the gate acting suspicious. The truck may or may not belong to the burglars.

Buildings up there have historically been left loosely secured so that winter skiiers could find refuge if they were to get themselves into trouble. That's happened many times and people have always left nice notes, money and contact information behind and have left the buildings in great shape. It's unfortunate that something like this may cause MTR and other property owners to rethink how they secure their properties before leaving for the winter. :(

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 8:40 am
by LightRanger
Man. This sucks. Didn't catch the plate number on that pickup, I take it.

Typed with my opposable thumbs

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 9:39 am
by ERIC
Unfortunately, no. It's my understanding that the truck was spotted before any of the damage (other than the gate lock) had been discovered. The truck was traveling in the opposite direction, slammed on the breaks, reversed, and then sped off in the same direction (towards Florence). At the time my father and friend thought whoever was in the truck had just broken through the gate to drive up to Mono Hot Springs (has happened before).

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 8:44 pm
by 87TT
Damn Tweeks :mad:

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:27 am
by RoguePhotonic
That's certainly crazy that it happened all the way out at the ranch. Did VVR or Mono Resort get hit?

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:55 am
by ERIC
RoguePhotonic wrote:That's certainly crazy that it happened all the way out at the ranch. Did VVR or Mono Resort get hit?
Not sure but it wouldn't surprise me considering the amount of time we assume the thieves invested and their thoroughness at Florence and up at Blayney. We notified VVR.

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:19 am
by copeg
Man, that stinks. Sorry to hear this. That far out, at this time of year, sounds planned,

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 10:45 am
by SSSdave
California has long been a magnet for criminals, low-lifes, and rejects fleeing legal issues and conservative cultures in other states. In part because our politicians bending to social liberals have made life easy for them. There are also significant numbers of rural emigrants barely scratching out a living often without income other than handouts from our generous state system. And of course then we have all the massively urban areas with their ethnic, and poor unskilled ghettos, gangs, and crime. And lots of these people are low skilled competing with illegal aliens for low end jobs with high unemployment rates.

Current culture, ethnic makeup, and general ethics of society is far different from when I grew up. Not surprising our parks and mountain areas are increasingly seeing property crimes and grafitti as more of these miscreants discover how open some of our parks are beyond their usual urban cesspools.

Last Saturday morning I was in Antelope Valley photographing wildflowers at the Portal Ridge Conservation and Wildlife Area that is administered by the state with help of eco land trusts. Another camper vehicle from Oregon was nearby and spoke some with the couple there. As I was exploring an area of joshua tree woodland on foot, another vehicle (brand new white Nissan Pathfinder) parked about 70 yards away and a young tall thin hispanic male got out and immediately went over to some kind of tripod setup holding some sizeable equipment off the dirt road maybe 50 feet. I had seen the same setup in another state reserve area a few miles away. He looked at it curiously up down and around as though was trying to figure out what it was and looked my way checking out how I noticed him. A bit later his female companion joined him. I continued what I was doing and they left maybe 15 minutes later. When I later left I noticed the equipment was missing. The urban world of Palmdale and Lancaster are about 20 miles distant.

I suspected the equipment might be some kind of remote automated video equipment with motion triggers for monitoring animal passage. Took a photo of their tire tracks but was stymied trying to find a LA County parks phone number to make input on.

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 11:35 am
by maverick
Just in case you still have not found that number Dave: County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation (213) 738-2961
Please report it you could help prevent future incidents from occurring if the county is alerted.

Re: Thieves Ransack / Loot MTR, Florence Store, Other Buildi

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 3:37 pm
by k9mark
This why I pack and bring handcuffs with me when im out fly fishing and camping. It never ceases to amaze me how the job seems to follow me into the wilderness when im trying to get away from it. :mad: Want to see a p****d off peace officer? Commit a blatant crime in front of him while he's trying to have peace and quiet away from the world!