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Tripod? What Tripod?
For the last month or so I’ve not been doing a lot of field work, and what field work I’ve done has been mostly reconnaissance and some satellite work. But today I had to tie some monuments that were under heavy tree cover, and it being a glorious spring day I was looking forward to it. When I got to the site I started breaking out my total station gear, but when I reached for my preferred tripod — the Leica GST-20 that lives in the right-side pocket of the box in the back of my pickup — there was nothing to grab. At first I thought it has slid all the way forward (the pocket is 8 feet deep), but a quick look showed that it wasn’t there. After scratching my head for a few minutes I broke out the other tripod and went to work.
All day long I was trying to figure out what I could have done with that tripod. Did I leave it on a jobsite? Did I leave it in the garage or backyard while testing something? When I got back to the office I looked through my time sheets and raw data files to see on what job I last used a total station, and it was about a month ago. No joy in the garage or backyard. WTF?
Then I remembered the day a few weeks ago coming in from the field and parking on the street downtown while I went to lunch at my favorite bistro. When I got back an hour or so later, I saw that my tailgate was down. I never leave my tailgate unlocked, so I figured that I hadn’t latched it properly and it had dropped open while driving, and since I hadn’t gone around to the back of the truck when I left it I simply didn’t see that it was open. I glanced quickly at the back and didn’t notice anything missing. The Schonestedt was there, the two Seco 2-meter tripods were there, nothing appeared to be disturbed. But I didn’t actually look in the right-hand tripod pocket.
Why on earth would anyone steal a tripod out of a truck on a busy street? It’s not like it’s a high-value item (new maybe $400, I think I bought that one used for $150). It hardly seems worth the risk.
I hate losing things, but if I had to lose something to theft, I’m glad it was just a tripod.
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6 Replies
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Someone just needed a leg up !
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Maybe a survey crew working a 3-4 hour drive from HQ discovered that they left a tripod behind, and found your truck to be the perfect solution to their predicament?
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A while back I was working on a job in the seeder part of Portland. We broke for lunch and boxed everything up in the locked topper. When we got back, the tech that was with me could not find his vest, with radio, in the back of the once locked truck. We were both kind of puzzled about it for a bit when I realized one of the side doors had been left unlocked. Apparently one of the local homeless guys had found the open side door and climbed through to the other side. He got the vest with radio, my bag of small tools, my go bag with extra cloths and my trusty Axe-man’s pal. He did leave behind a filthy ball cap. Funny thing was that he crawled right over my vest to get to the tech’s. Mine had the CS30 and field notes in the inside pocket. Dodged a bullet there.
A couple of days later, someone nicked a backsight setup while I was sighting it. The firm I was subbed to ended up hiring a security guard to watch the instrument while mapping. I turned down the opportunity to bid on construction layout.
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It’s so strange what people steal sometimes! Recently, the tailgate lock on my survey truck was broken. One night, someone stole a box with assorted sizes of mag nails and manhole hook, but left everything else.
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I heard a story from a geodetic surveyor that someone had stolen one of their tripods used for static. They took off the receiver and placed it carefully on the ground and only took the tripod.
My own recent story happened in front of my house. My wife was getting something from the work car and left it unlocked. Next morning I find a small mess inside, things pulled out of the glovebox etc. The only thing missing was a laser distance measure tool, a cheap knock-off. I doubt the thief would even know what it was, just that it looked like it would be worth something. They’ll be lucky if they even find a buyer for it.
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I can top that. About 35 years ago while I was at a dance someone stole the little Rubbermaid trash basket that sat over the hump in front of the front seat. Nothing else was touched. This happened a week or so before Christmas, so I figured someone was about to get the worst Christmas present ever.
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