You stop off for some adult carb beverage [a real milkshake], after a 4 day trip, in your favorite trailhead town,Leavenworth,Bozeman,Chapel Hill...upon returning to your vehicle you find all your equipment is gone. Any idea how much you just lost?Was it insured?Anything you probably couldn't replace?

Larry,

With the revolution in fabrics, insulating materials, etc. I find that most of my gear is of fairly recent vintage. I always compose a gear list before a hike so that I can critique post hike.

Using this list, I could fairly accurately determine the value of what was taken.

Is it covered? I checked with my auto insurance and the answer was "no". I checked with my homeowner insurance and the answer was "yes" subject to deductables.

Generally around twelve hundred bucks, depending on the trip. If I have the spiffy camera along that could double.

In practice, it is hard to imagine anyone stealing my reeking, filthy, often dripping wet pack full of dirty stinky gear after a trip. Maybe before when it is relatively clean. More likely someone would grab it and attempt to burn it.

My homeowner's insurance would cover a theft. Some auto comprehensive policies do too.

I kinda thought nobody would touch my heap o'fungus too but they grabbed it and my buddies pack. My current problem is it was from his car and my nationwide insurance carrier sez my homeowner's policy won't cover it, my agent just told me to submit the claim and leave out that little detail. I have full replacement coverage after the deductable but evidently there is always more fine print to be read. I strongly recommend you hang onto any receipts because proving I ownership in the first place is a huge hassle. Peace and watch those trailheads...and taverns.

Out of curiousity, can you name the town of infamy where this happened?

I am usually super-laid-back about my gear. Never, ever had any problems with gear thefts. Lots of bad incidents at trailheads (although not as spectacular as the one where someone creamed all of the cars at the Foss River Trailhead near Skykomish with a piece of heavy equipment and left them in a big pile -- that was probably a legacy of the great spotted owl war).

There was an insane wave of trailhead thefts and general visitor rip-offs around Leavenworth in the late '80s. Every now and then something similar kicks up. I remember well being woke up in the middle of the night along the Icicle River hearing voices debating the best way to break into my VW Bug. The headlights from their 70's-era Chevy Noname sedan were squarely pointed at my car, and lit them up rather nicely. Me and two friends were sleeping on a rock slab on the opposite side of the road and had a good view of the coming excitement. Their facial expressions were priceless when their vehicle backed up, turned around, and sped away. They decided it was best to chase after their vehicle than attempt to deal with unseen malicious climbers.

Their vehicle was left about a mile down the road, safely parked at a wide turnoff. The keys were left in the ignition, the engine was left running, and all of the doors were locked. We managed to sneak past them (they were in a tearing hurry), got back to our spot, flung our stuff in the Bug, and moved camp a few miles upriver. What goes around comes aroung, you know.

Great climbing the next day. Saw the tow truck hauling their Chevy back to Leavenworth about midmorning.

Ha Ha! Kudos to you, sir! It really brightens my day to picture would-be thieves chasing down their own car in the middle of the night.

Yep, it was Leavenworth. I live 15 miles away. Trailhead theft is still a problem. Somehow they graduate the old group but another fills its void, every would be thief has been from the local area.
I am pleased you got some justice.
Spouse and I pulled into Mountaineer Creek trailhead [Mt. Stuart] sorta late one Sunday morning and every vechicle, about 20, had been nailed.
This recent loss was a backcountry ski trip, they left the skiis,but my amigo is not covered under his renter's insurance for his equipment.
When they break into cars they are looking for stashed purses and wallets,cd players,most of the equipment gets tossed.

I am quite suprised to hear the advice given to Larry the his insurance agent. The agent suggests committing insurance fraud and consipracy to commit fraud, a criminal felony in most states.

Your friends auto, homeowners or general liability policy may cover your belongings left in his car. File the claim against his policy. He simply needs to file an affadavid that your belongs were in his car at the time of the theft.

I questioned him if this was such a good idea and he replied that he just wouldn't know anything about it,...they assigned an independent adjuster who told me sporting equipment was covered after the deductable by my homeowner' s policy but tools would not be [if the claim was for work tools].
I'm still scrambling for receipts but it looks like it will move forward.

So what you guys want is a Personal Articles Floater. It essentially protects individual items from everything but intentional destruction with no deductible and no impact on your other policies. Frequently used on camera gear and jewelry. The problem with your homeowners/renters policy covering the loss is that typically if you are being savy about your home owners policy you have a high deductible and it won't help with losses under a couple thousand. If you do have a low deductible and make claims for your lost gear, well you just made a claim on your very expensive policy and at some point your rates may go up as a result. Home owners policies are best for when your gear burns up with everything else you own and your house :).

A PAF policy on the other hand covers an individual item or group of items that are of high value and are most likely to be stolen or damaged *away* from your home. The typically cover all "perils" including you being an idiot and dropping the item off a boat with no deductible. Prices vary, maybe around $35/yr or so for $1500 coverage. For a camera this is a no brainer since people love to steal them and they are easy to break if you actually go out and use them. For backpacking gear you'll need to better weigh the risks and decide if the price is worth it or if you'd rather just bring your stinky pack inside with you (it is ultralight after all :). You'd also need to check if your company would even underwrite backpacking gear.

One last thing, people who are really paranoid about insurance companies dinging them for making claims will often get their PAF policy from a completely different company than their auto/homeowners policy.

And of course if you are a gear head getting your pack stolen is just an excuse to buy lighter gear. Heck, in the past few weeks I feel like I was robbed just from all the purchases I've made after reading articles here :).

Ken

The only time I've had anything ripped off while recreating outdoors was when I was an impoverished grad student at the U of Montana. At the end of the year, I gassed up my car and drove to the Rattlesnake Creek Wilderness Area trailhead just north of Missoula to spend a night in the boonies before heading home for the summer. After spedning a night in the wilderness (not too remote, as the lights of Missoula could be seen), I returned to find the gas siphoned out of my car. Fortunately, the trailhead is close to town so I didn't have to hike for gas. Every car I've bought since has had a locking gas cap.

Thanks for the information on the floater.
There is nothing worse then finding out some of your stuff is covered if it was here but not there...after it's gone.