Stolen kayak. Longview, TX

That really sucks, how did it get stolen

I'm not sure. I'm posting it for a friend of mine.

thats my buddy Dave. His yak got stolen of his truck from his driveway in Longview,TX after he came back from a trip

I told him over on FB that I'd keep an eye out on Lake Athens for it. I think the owner said he pulled in and parked and they have no issues where he lives, went in to get a bite to eat . . . Boom, the thieves made off with it.

And, for anyone who can't tell from the photo, it is a Wildnerness ATAK 120.

If someone floats it anywhere around here, there aren't all that many ATAK 120s out there yet, a new kayak this season, and the color is pretty easy to catch the eye too.

Let's keep our eyes open!

Brad

It's one of the few ATAK 120's that color in the area.

From what I understand to add to the above post, it was seen on Craigslist last night but the post has been taken down. Please keep an eye out for it.

I hope he gets it back.

When my kayak is in the bed of my pickup, I try to back my pickup against a wall or something to make stealing the kayak more difficult. At home, it's backed up to the garage door. To steal the kayak, you would have to untie it or cut the rope and lift it over the side of the pickup bed. I don't want to leave my truck in a position where a thief can back their pickup to mine, cut the rope and slide the kayak from one bed to another.

It helps to take a picture your kayak and one of the VIN number with your cell phone so you can provide that info in a police report if necessary.

Well, I suppose it'll be one of two things: someone seeing it in the back of the truck and following it "home," or perhaps some kids in the area and a crime of opportunity as they call it.

PowerLizard makes some good suggestions, I think. We can't be too careful.

Do ya'll remember the brazen theft of a canoe or kayak many years ago from inside a large mall and a sporting goods store? The two perpetrators simply picked it up in broad daylight, people all around in the store and out in the mall, walked out with it as if they had just purchased it and I guess it fooled everyone. Heck, someone probably held the door open for them.

Rick at APT got hit a year or so ago, a different scheme as I recall where the thieves were using either a stolen CC or a hot check. I saw the same model for sale several months later on FB and it was way too cheap so I called Rick to have him check it out. I thought it might possibly have been his. It wasn't.

Someone can sell something pretty darned cheap . . . if they paid nothing for it.

Brad

You would be surprised at the number of thieves who drive around neighborhoods shopping so to speak.
It's a pain to have to wait until early morning to load up my kayak and gear before daylight....Those days of loading the night before are gone forever.

Jimbo, this is likely the safe thing to do.

Remember, though, that monofilament line is cheap and hard to see at night. I suppose one could easily rig up a trip wire that'd knock down a bell. I even have instructions on how to set a trip wire up so that it turns on an alarm or something.

Anyway, it'd likely work to run them off.

So many of us like to get all the rigging done, everything loaded the night before so we can take off in the dark in the early AM and be ready to get on the lake right before or at dawn.

Brad

What about all these freaking traffic cams at every intersection I'm sure it's on video somewhere coming out of the neighborhood in the back of someone's pickup. I know his tax dollars went to help put them up.

Yep, it's like a neon sign flashing when you have the kayak or even a boat all hooked up ready to go....."Hey, I'm leaving 5 dark thirty, help yourself!"

A simple addition of one or more stainless steel "U" bolts on a sit-in
kayak gives one or more places to run a plastic coated locking cable
or chain thru. I can lock my kayak to my luggage rack on top of my
SUV. Examples of the stainless steel "U" bolts can be found here on
my old kayak. Add a SSeel base plate under the plastic.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4937617/1

I always run a Kryptonite Cable through mine using the scupper holes and lock it to my truck.

I know this isn't 100% thief proof but it will slow them down and probably prevent the ones looking for an easy pick!