UKC

Kind of similar to the "crag swag" thread, but concerning items knicked from you whilst climbing.  When I got to thinking about it, I've had quite a few items lifted, and wondered how it compared to others.  In (sort of) chronological order:

- 1 nut and 2 friends plus qds (left after a ground fall, my climbing partner (and spouse) didn't fancy soloing up for them - wuss).  Before the internet, but advertised in the usual publications/venues available at the time.

- mobile phone: taken from coat pocket at a certain well known climbing wall

- belay device and carabiner taken from gear stash at Kalymnos (Spartacus sector)

- 3 qds from crux high up on a route in Cyprus (left them there late in afternoon expecting to continue my siege of the route next morning)

- DMM revolver qd taken from gear loop, again in Cyprus

I also had a car knicked whilst at a crag in the UK, but that was unlikely to have been climbers - plus it was a mg metro turbo, so they were probably doing me a favour.

I'm sure there's plenty who have done "better"...

Wow, you've been unlucky!  I've never had anything stolen at all despite forgetting stuff and leaving it lying around the crag or wall!

I've had several close calls - left my phone in the sand on the beach in Kalymnos and found it hours later in the dark, left my Ray Bans on a bush whilst a took a wee and found them, still being worn by the bush, the next day (also Kalymnos) and have had to retrieve various bits and bobs out of the lost property at The Castle.

MG Metro Turbos are quite rare these days, becoming a bit of a classic.  I remember my mates mum had one when I was about 8 years old.  Didn't appreciate it at the time, but they look class now...

Mind you, if I had one I'd have Alan Partridge bellowing "They've rebadged it you fool" every time I look at it! 

Climbed with a club in the states and 'lost' a piece of gear almost every time! Stopped taping hardware and started spraying with paint, especially around the awkward bits and never lost another piece. Others who tape marked continued to lose kit. 

Caught a climber going through my spare gear at the base of Stanage. Called him out in a load voice and his mates told him to go home, they would not climb with him again!

Apart from that I have never had a problem apart from my own causes! 

This in 55 years of climbing!

Had a phone nicked from top pocket of rucksack left at base of climb just North of Arco. It was 18 years ago when phones where rubbish and cheap. It was a hand-me-down that the keypad had broken and needed a little trick to actually turn it on. It was also covered in Cling-film to act as a waterproof cover!!! A really desirable piece... Ah..... the days of being a student with little money. Even though it was a phone with likely 5Euro credit....I'm still a little surprised someone stole it. The route was great though....10+pitchs of slab climbing. 

Gri-gri - Left clipped to a pair of crabs and a sticht plate at a now-closed wall in Brum. The rest of the gear turned up buried deep at the bottom of the lost property box, under stuff that had been there for months, but the gri-gri was missing.

Had a guidebook mysteriously vanish when left on top of my bag at Sheepstor.

Also, and this wasn't climbers, had someone try to pinch my big rucksack off the train somewhere on the North Wales coast. However, since it contained a full rack, both ropes, and several days worth of beer and tinned food, he didn't get very far with it, or at least not very quickly. (It also looked very much as though he'd done something to his back in the process, which I regarded largely as instant karma.)

However, I've also had lost kit returned through here, and have occasionally lent kit to complete strangers and got it back without any problems.

Bag, coat and gear nicked from a well known climbing wall in UK

Oh and a bunch of screw gates appropriated by a member of staff at a lesser known climbing wall - manufactured before they were born I think...

On my first alpine trip (Chamonix/Argentiere), we got up at stupid-early o'clock in the hut to find that my mate's boots had taken themselves for a walk.  They had been a rather nice pair of Galibier Super Guides. 

We sat and waited until the hut was empty and there was only one pair left - which were a bit too small and long past their best.  Someone was no doubt having a lovely day in a nicely broken in pair of boots that fitted, perhaps with an extra pair of socks. 

He walked down in a pair of those horrible plastic hut slippers.  It took forever and mullered his feet.  He didn't have enough money to buy a new pair of boots.  We were thereafter restricted to rock routes accessible by someone wearing Dunlop Green Flash tennis shoes, and this was long before the valley crags were even looked at, let alone developed.  Papillions Ridge had an exciting neve approach (both wearing Green Flash as a sign of solidarity) - you can go quite fast if you miss your footing in such circumstances, but you are quite nimble when you arrive at the boulders below....

I think that's getting close to the bottom of the barrel of crag blag

Left a harness at the climbing wall once, next visit was told "yeah we've got that in lost property", except it wasn't in lost property when they went to collect it. Saw one of the staff members wearing a new-to-him but clearly not new harness of the same model later on in the session, but I had no identifying marks on the harness so I let it go. Regretted that later on, as he'd clearly nicked it and presumably it wouldn't be the only thing he'd twoced from being left at the wall.

At Rodellar my group had four or five routes stripped one night. I got lucky, as mine were on the hardest of the routes and they can't have had a clipstick, so I only lost the first three draws from the slabby start.

I baled at Portland once, because the heavens opened while on my project on the Sunday afternoon and I couldn't get to the top to clean it (before I had a clipstick either). Left the top four quickdraws I think - they were gone by the next weekend.

I've lost a few guidebooks and items of gear but I can't say an intent to steal was the cause. A camera left on a rock next to my rucksack at the base of Bamford Lower Tier was lifted (probably a climber) and my newish approach shoes were stolen from under Birchen (there were some dodgy looking non-climbers around according to other people there). Walking back and driving in climbing shoes is no fun! Amongst climbers I've seen way more examples of honest behaviour, than theft (aside from crag swag).

I think there's probably a reason for that!

 > becoming a bit of a classic.

I'm struggling to think of a reason for that!

Just remembered, I also had a single (not climbing) shoe taken from the same climbing wall that my phone went missing from.  Odd - because I'm sure I'd have remembered any one legged climbers about that day

Are you counting "Can I borrow your clipstick?" meaning "Can I break your clipstick?" Every. F***ing. Time.

I recall (different trip) in Kalymnos watching in interest as a goat nuzzled into one of our party's rucksack, extricated his new Kalymnos guide book, then start eating it.  He wasn't happy when he spotted what the beastie was doing.

Do you climb with someone who doesn't like clipsticks, or are they just clumsy?

It's always just random people at the crag who didn't bring their own, presumably because theirs is in bits. Usually when I'm halfway up a route and they can pretend not to hear me saying "no you can't, but I'll happily come over and do it for you"

I had a belay jacket nicked from my bag at a well known climbing wall in Bristol, and a sling with 10 quickdraws taken from a rucsac at Birchens.

As I wasn't watching them at the time I'm sure they were legitimate swag so I can't complain.  I should count myself lucky nobody took my obviously abandoned house while I was out..

On two occasions (at Cwm Silyn and Toix) I’ve had medium usage approach shoes taken. 

At the welsh one I noticed a girl had them on her sack. When challenged she said her mate had gone down and she thought he had left them by mistake. She had no answer when I enquired why she thought her mate would hobble down off a mountain crag and not notice he was still wearing his EB’s.

Strange isn't it, the way cars come in and out of fashion.... In the 90's if you drove a Ford Capri you were a laughing stock, these days you're laughing all the way to the bank if you've got one!

I had a maltloaf lifted from my bag by a raven. It was in the cromlech and I was half way up a route. It's was all I had for lunch.

Amazing watching it fly to a hight then drop it to open the wrapper.

Some depressing examples on this thread. Although I suspect some won’t have been climbers.

Had a handful of sport draws taken from near my sack at Cheedale about 10 years ago. Apparently a misunderstanding - someone asked their partner to pick up some more draws and they went to the wrong bag. Standard issue DMM Alphas which I hadn’t marked, so understandable that it didn’t get noticed. They must have left the crag by the time I realised. Then someone posted here explaining the situation but it was a friend rather than the person who had ended up with the draws. I never got them back as that person had left the country or something like that. Bit of a lesson learned not to spread my stuff out cragside. 

Mate of mine was in Greenland, drying the inners of his Koflachs.  He had took the footbeds out.  An arctic fox came wandering over looking all cute, made a quick dash for a footbed and legged it !!

I had a similar thing happen in America. Halfway up a route in Eldorado Canyon and looked down to see some dark critters leaping through the trees towards the base of the crag. When we eventually got down our bags had been rifled and the big, juicy watermelon was gone!

That's true (with regards capris) - doubtful that MG anything leyland produced was ever in fashion, although i guess the metro was slightly less naff than the montego versions.

I'd be seriously unhappy to lose my alphas!

We had 4 QD stolen from the pack at a Derbyshire crag, thinking we had somehow used it and left it/fallen down somewhere at the crag, we only found out it was stolen after watching some climbing footage (we were testing out the new camera that day.) The culprit walked passed the camera with our QDs attached to his harness.

Not sure I've had anything nicked (to my knowledge).  Probably says something about the desirability, or otherwise, of my kit.

I don't think think losing anything I'd left on a route after I'd walked away from it was theft, mind.

Wasn't there a guy a few years ago who had to be rescued after having his boots stolen from a mountain hut?

Me and some friends were hiking in some woods in the Far East and sat down for lunch. A monkey bounded down from a tree and in a flash pinched all of one friend's lunch (sandwiches), then back up the tree. But the funniest part was when the monkey took one nibble at them, then hurled them all away in apparent disgust..... they landed in a pile of dirt and were uneatable

That's because the vast majority have fallen apart, so the few that are left are quite a rarity!

Interesting thread. I don't recall this ever happening to me, though I can think of 3 occasions when ravens have nicked my lunch while climbing in the Scottish mountains!