Forum Index > Trail Talk > Ideas for recovering ring stolen at trailhead
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cascadeclimber
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PostTue Dec 22, 2020 9:25 pm 
My daughter left a ring that's been in our family for five generations in a car at a Cougar mountain trailhead today. It was stolen. She's wrecked and knows she messed up. I'm wondering if anyone has ideas about where it might pop up. I don't give a whit about catching who did it and I'd pay to get it back, if I knew where to find it. We asked the police and they were entirely unhelpful. We're going to try to cover pawn shops in the Puget Sound area and I'm watching craigslist, but I thought I'd ask here for any other ideas. TIA

If not now, when?
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Frango
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PostTue Dec 22, 2020 9:39 pm 
Pawn shops are a good start, as is Craig’s list. You also may want to reach out to the ‘we buy coins and jewelry’ folks. Good luck - I hope you’re able to track it down. People suck sometimes.

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Chief Joseph
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PostWed Dec 23, 2020 4:10 am 
A lot more people are selling things though Facebook these days, CL is kind of becoming old news, plus they now charge to sell vehicles and boats. But, I would say Pawn Shops are your best bet.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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timberghost
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PostWed Dec 23, 2020 6:59 am 
Watch Offerup

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Songs2
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PostWed Dec 23, 2020 7:00 am 
In my very large city with numerous pawn shops, all pawn shop owners are required to report the objects they have taken in over the past week to someone, either in city gov or in police department, once a week. One person. That person was on vacation when I sustained a home invasion and lost an item of value. So be sure to discover to whom the pawn shop owners report. I commenced a tour of pawn shops. Owners are immediately suspicious if you do not look like a usual customer. It is illegal for them to accept stolen property, and they will (or did, in my case) vehemently switch the convo, if you say "stolen," from the object of the search to a discussion of all the rules they follow. One kindly suggested that my item was probably already out of the country. Basically, one does have to go through desperate measures, leave no stone unturned, for some eventual acceptance. I never recovered my item. It felt as though my arm was cut off. My sympathies are with you.

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christensent
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PostFri Dec 25, 2020 12:06 pm 
As a positive motivation, I know someone who had a bunch of climbing gear stolen from their car, and they actually found some of it in a pawn shop and I'm pretty sure actually got it back for free after proving it was stolen.

Learning mountaineering: 10% technical knowledge, 90% learning how to eat
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fn1889m
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PostMon Dec 28, 2020 1:13 am 
In all likelihood the ring was stolen by someone who is or was addicted to meth or heroin. Theft is part of their lifestyle. They have a regular place where they pawn stuff. By now, the shop knows they are buying stolen goods on a regular basis from this person. They are just as culpable as the thief. The gold will be melted down, and the stone will be separated from the ring and sold separately. There is a remote chance the ring will be sold intact from a display case or on Craig’sList, but don’t count on it. Once the gold is melted and the stone is separated from the setting, it’s almost impossible to identify the ring as stolen property. So that often happens. Stolen jewelry is the easiest thing to sell. The prevalence of heroin and meth have made such thefts pretty common. There is an entire underground economy based on stolen goods, with marketing, distribution routes, and industry norms, supporting the drug trade. One ring is just a tiny little thing sold into a billion dollar web. Drugs change everything. Whomever took it would steal and sell his own mother’s wedding ring without remorse. I don’t know whether to respond with compassion or violence to these people. But we need to do something as a society, if only to better fund treatment programs. If you want to find out who did this to you, go park at the same trail head for a couple weekends in a row and you’ll probably meet them. They will be back.

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asdf
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PostMon Dec 28, 2020 8:20 am 
I had something of value stolen from an Issaquah area TH a few years ago. I'm sorry. I've often thought we should form a trailhead watch for that area. Volunteer in hourlong shifts, catch the car prowlers in the act, see they are brought to justice. Nothing fancy. Sit in the car, eyes open, call the police when a break-in is observed. Maybe bait in the car, and sit in the forest. I'd be up for an hour a month. That said. This is a heroin or meth addict. They will be pawning this or selling to a shady shop in the area, they will not go far. If you have photos of the ring plaster them at every pawnshop and low rent jewelry outlet, scour facebook and Offerup, you will find it.

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ChanceShowers
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PostMon Dec 28, 2020 10:34 am 
Great, now we just need 719 more people, and we'll have the month covered. wink.gif

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fn1889m
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PostMon Dec 28, 2020 10:55 am 
There are things we can do, such as fund long-term involuntary addiction treatment, long-term halfway houses, education and jobs. We can also increase criminal penalties for distribution. But all of these things cost money. We can’t even fund hiking trails. As a society, we don’t really care about other peoples’ children's addictions. If we cared, we would be demanding to pay for it. I’m really sorry about the ring being stolen. I’ve been there, and I understand your frustration and anger over the theft. I’m just saying that it’s part of a much larger problem. I don’t want to say more because it would approach a political discussion. Some other time. If you find the ring, please let us know.

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thunderhead
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PostMon Jan 04, 2021 7:21 pm 
"But we need to do something as a society" Cutting off hands worked for a long time. And its cheap.

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fn1889m
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PostMon Jan 04, 2021 11:22 pm 
If you could cure addiction by cutting off someone’s hand I’d probably support that. But I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work. There’s no cheap way to fix broken people. We had a “war on drugs”, but we’ve never had a war on addiction. We’ve wasted so much money.

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moonspots
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PostTue Jan 05, 2021 9:15 am 
fn1889m wrote:
There’s no cheap way to fix broken people. We had a “war on drugs”, but we’ve never had a war on addiction. We’ve wasted so much money.
"Broken" people? Addiction doesn't just drop out of the sky and land on someone's head like a random snowflake. They made a choice to try/use it the first time, and now the rest of us have to deal with the results of their bad choice(s).

"Out, OUT you demons of Stupidity"! - St Dogbert, patron Saint of Technology
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Randito
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PostTue Jan 05, 2021 9:49 am 
moonspots wrote:
They made a choice to try/use it the first time,
A substantial number of people started their opiate addiction with a prescription pain killer from an MD that had been given fraudulent information about the level of risk of their patients developing an addiction. I think the moralizing over the "individual choice" aspect oversimplifies a complex issue. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/936022386/federal-judge-approves-landmark-8-3-billion-purdue-pharma-opioid-settlement

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treeswarper
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PostTue Jan 05, 2021 9:58 am 
Over analyzing a bit? It's simple. Thieves have always existed, addiction or not. We simply have to try to not tempt them and I know that's not right, but we live in an imperfect world. Our culture worships "stuff" and money. So, with that in mind, how can you stop stealing to achieve stuff? That's a bigger topic than my small brain can deal with. I'm sorry about the ring. It shouldn't be that way, but, as a friend used to say, "That's just the way it is."

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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