PWT in Orlando attracts scumbags!

I was at the PWT in Orlando this weekend and enjoyed the event until I walked back to my truck and realized that it was broken into by a worthless scumbag who stole my brand new ERA 142 with 05 Sphynx bindings and my wife's Evo with Minx bindings, and our jackets. The only thing they left was an old Double Up Sirena. My truck was parked in plain site, but no one seemed to notice or care about the break-in and removal of my gear. I talked with OWC and was only given a phone number for "customer service" 1-800-GO-#-SAND. Car insurance coverage?, yeah right, they don't cover personal items and the physical damage was less than my deductable. I used to think all wakeboarders were cool by definiton, and in my last 6 years of riding, I have never heard of this kind of blatent theft, but now I know wakeboarding is infested with low life scumbags who have no respect for others!

That sucks, I hate thieves! I wouldn't let one instance of theft ruin the entire wakeboarding reputation... Maybe those scumbags just don't fit in?

What's it like to be named Scott Peterson these days? Sorry, that's probably super old to you by now.

-Blake

Sorry to hear that Scott. That really sucks that people would do that. Makes you wonder how some people can live with themselves.

Hope we can meet up and ride together again soon.

Collin

scott, you should talk to paul. It is funny how you lost a era with sphinx at owc and the next post he asks if the era is any good because he pick on up in orlando last weekend, but was in to big of a hurry to demo it. Seems a bit fishy to me.

Scott, if you have homeowners or renters insurance it may cover the items in your car. A friend had his snowboard gear stolen in the same manner and was covered under his renters policy. Call you insurance company!!

That'd bum me out in a major way. Sad thing is, that as wakeboarding grows bigger the community gets less tight. It used to be that you could leave your boat at the dock with all the gear on it and not event think about it. Now everytime I park my boat I pull everything off, or hide it. Same goes for the days of leaving your snowboard at the lodge for lunch, etc. I never used to worry, but these days I lock it up.

I'd say as a whole the wakeboard community is still really chill, but all it takes is a couple •••••••• to blow it for everyone.

Anyway, sorry to hear that man. I'd be super bummed if any of my gear sprouted legs and took off. Oh, by the way.... I still believe that Karma catches up. That guy'll probably break his leg the next time he rides your board.

yeah, what evan said, karma is a bitch.

I remeber hearing about Shaun Murrays new board he was testing out got stolden right out of his boat coming off the lake. He turned his back to get in the truck or something and it was gone.

Many thefts occur at OWC during these type of events. You might try calling "Play it again sports" on Orange Ave ( close to OWC) they might have your stuff. Alot of wakeboard gear that is stolen ends up there for quick cash.

Uhh..it sounds like he found his board:

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/1/226320.html?1115050483

That sucks especially after having to pay $3 for parking.

What day was this on and where about did you park?.....I went Sunday and there seemed to be quite a few parking guys up front collecting cash/directing traffic so it seemed pretty secure.

NayR
Shaun had parked the boat at the top of a hill outside of Phoenix (2 years ago) and went down to take a last set. When he returned everything was gone. It was surprising that no one ever saw it since it was (as I recall)very unusual - a Temet with the previous years graphics.

It was on Sunday and I was parked pretty much in the open. It couldn't have been that quick of a theft either. I guess all of the parking guys were more interested in collecting money than offering any kind of security even on a basic level of.."Hey, someone is obviously breaking into that truck and taking boards that don't belong to them, oh well, I'll go up front and collect more money"
By the way, did you notice there was no tickets for parking or count, the parking guys probably pocketed a nice share of the cash and then walked around during finals and started stealing sh*t.

Scott I hear you on the parking deal...no ticket or anything for the $3 paid...I was very suspicious myself and concerned that these were not just some idiots that decided to setup their own "parking fee" collection service for a few minutes to make some quick cash (I have seen people do stuff like that downtown).....I went up and asked a few people upfront at the gate and I guess it was legit.

$3 for parking and what did you get???...it was pretty much all parking fee collection guys in the front (like 4 of them) and 1 guy sitting on a chair to the driveway part that goes to the left along the slider park (job = to make sure no one drove up there).

For $3 at least have 1 person drive around in a golf cart or something.

The guys taking the parking money were employees of OWC. It would be difficult for OWC to watch over every vehicle there.

One day I was loading up my car to leave and a pickup was sitting in the driveway. One of the kids wakeskating was running up yelling "hey that's my board". I turned around and saw a guy running and jumping into the back of the pickup with a board, so I stepped out and stopped them from leaving. The board was returned and I realized that I didn't get the tag number. So I hopped in my car and chased them down, got the tag number, and pulled up next to them and told them if I ever saw their car again at OWC I would report them to the owner.

Right about that time I got a call from OWC on my cel phone and they got the tag number from me and called the police. The police visited their house but didn't do anything. Even though there were witnesses and the equipment was worth probably $500 to $800 they would rather arrest someone for $5 worth of shoplifting. It's easy to lose stuff and it doesn't take but a instant for it to happen.

Yeah thats what I figured (OWC employees)...I was just a little curious why we didn't get a ticket/stub.

I would not expect them to by able to watch over every car of course...maybe just throw on a shirt that says "Security" or something official looking and have them drive around in a golf cart etc....you would be surprized how effective a small deterrent like that can go.

I worked at O-dub for a year. Just quit last Monday, so I know all of these guys that you are bashing for no reason. Not one of them would do anything like that and I can understand why you're pissed about your stuff but dont got blaming people for doing their job.

wow, yeah, I've got the backs of the employess of OWC too... they're all great guys not to mentione Rene, the owner, and one his two sidekicks were around all day in the parking area EVERYDAY. And unless someone was breaking windows or hitting your car, I honestly don't think they'd notice. Would you notice if someone was at a car, getting a wakeboard or two out while you're at a CABLE PARK? Probably not.

I agree with these guys, the parking people/OWC guys should Not bear the brunt of this.

Since it is a pretty big event and theft seems to be prevalent then maybe next time management can take some of the parking fees and hire a security guard in a golf cart or something, I think it would help and it can't be more than $10-15 an hour (or 4 to 5 paying cars) for someone to ride around in a golf cart just making their presence known.

The only thing I was concerned about was why we didn't get any kind of parking passes after paying plus they were all dressed in regular clothes (no official looking shirts or anything) so I just wanted to be sure that they were actually affiliated with the event...no worries after confirming that.

I always check stuff like this...seen it happen in downtown O-Town where people temporarily setup shop + act like they own a lot and start collecting money for parking...next thing you know its a tow away zone.

My friend Nick Taylor got his Integrity stoleing in plain sight on Sunday.Its sad.

Alright, everybody chill! I'm not blaming the parking people or saying they should bear the brunt, I'm simply saying that the absolute lack of professionalism in a situation where people are being charged a fee to enter is a catalyst for a situation in which thieves may roam freely and take whatever they want. For safety sake, the parking guys should at the very minimum have something to identify them as employees, especially if collecting money. And by the way, my truck was BROKEN into, not just a simple grabbing of boards from a vehicle.

And I'd really like to know how Austin and Barrett would feel if thier brand new boards were stolen before they even had a chance to ride them. Again, I'm not blaming anybody except the scumbags that actually stole the boards, but c'mon, if you're going to host a professional sporting event then dammit, make it a complete professional event.

Yeah but in your last post you go saying as if they let it happen. I know all these guys and not one of them would let someones car get broken into if they saw it. They would stop it and get the police. Obviously they didn't see it. Sure some security would be a smart idea, but so is a car alarm isn't it?

Car alarm?!? Can anybody honestly say that everytime they hear a car alarm go off, they run to that car and ask the people by it to prove it's theirs. Most people don't even give a car alarm foing off a second look, I don't even consider spending the extra money on them anymore even with a sound quality competition stereo in it. The point is, if someone really wants something they will get it, I wasn't at OWC, but IMO Marc hit it right, on that a little visible security would help. Even fake motion camera work, thats what we use at work, it's a cheap $30 security deterrent.

What works best is to conceal your stuff. Throw a blanket over your goods so nobody can see what's in your car. Take the boots off your board and put them out of sight. How many girls out there would feel comfortable leaving their purse on the seat of a locked car anywhere?

Even one rent-a-cop riding around in a golf cart isn't going to do much when the parked vehicles are spread over a couple hundred acres. Scott being pissed at the whole deal is understandable, but there are low-lifes everywhere. No reason to think that wakeboarding, a sport dominated by young people, wouldn't have it's share.

I wasnt at the pro-tour there this year, and havent been to OWC since they added the moto-X course, but I was at the tour stop last year. First of all, I dont know if it is the PWT itself, or OWC, but when they shut that stuff down for the day, they pay an off-duty cop to sit across the lake in his car and watch their stuff that is sitting out all night. In my opinion, they should be able to pay a single cop the same way during the day at least to sit in the obscure section of the parking area (again, I dont know how they had it set up this year), or to ride around in the parking area. I am a former cop, and any sporting event (even high school football games) we would have the host schools hiring off-duty cops to ride around in the parking areas, no matter how spread out, while the game was going on because of this type of stuff happening. And, no, I'm not talking abotu the same guys who are there directing traffic, this was totally separate. The people hiring us felt that it was worth paying us to do that, rather than have a bunch of car burglaries and people stop coming to their events due to fear of their rides getting broken into. I wouldnt blame it on the OWC guys, but I am sure if you bring it to their attention, and they see that it is as big of a problem (as theres a pretty good chance you werent the only one burglarized), then they will recognize there is just as big of a need for a cop to be securing that area as there is for one to be watching the PWT stuff across the lake at night.

scott sorry to hear about your loss, ihave 2 gb boards that were my samples a harris 143 and a caddy 135 i would be willing to let em go for cheap and a couple pulls. i know what its like, it sucks.
itch

I went to the PWT Orlando stop too. Had 3 stickers on my back windshield, Malibu, Correct Craft, and Mastercraft. Someone took them all off, they did a mighty fine clean job of it too I might add, all except of course the Mastercraft sticker. They left that one on there for me. THANKS GUYS!!!!
Sorry about your loss Scott. SUX!!

Itch, sorry but I just moved from MI to the Orlando area, (let me know if your in the area though)

I gotta tell ya, after all this, I owe the biggest thanks to Performance S&S for helping us out! They hooked me up with demo boards for Sunday night and cut me a break on my deja vu purchase of the same board twice in 3 days. I just wish VISA would cut me a break....

In the end, I'm just stoked that at least I can still ride and enjoy life to the max!

Scott, welcome to the Orlando area. I hope to see you at OWC sometime, although I would understand if you were reluctant to go back. Having something stolen out of a locked vehicle is pretty rare when no events are going on. I ride out there all the time and have an annual pass.

Sweet we'll have two scott Petersons now.