Trimble 5800 and TSC2 propped up on a bipod 30' from a fairly well traveled road left unattended. So I turned around and pulled up next to it. I had a pretty good idea who's it was, so I called up the company.
ME: "Hi, can I talk to your Survey Manager?"
SEXYTARY: "He's busy right now, can I take a message?"
ME: "Tell him ASAP that I just found a data collector and a GPS rover left unattended along such and such road and I noticed that you have had several crews working in that same area the last couple of days. Have him call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX."
SEXY: "OK. Thank you.
5 minutes later, RING-RING
SURVEY MANAGER: "You found what??!!"
It was theirs and they did get it back.
I found a backsite one time...tripod, tribrac, 40mm glass target set...sitting on the side of the road. I got out and looked down the peep sight...nothing. I explained to my crew that they should never leave equipment unattended. I pulled out a business card to leave under the tribrac and up pulled a truck. Them fellows were on lunch break but still keeping an eye out. Elapsed time...6 seconds...
DDSM
They probably sensed the magnetic pull from your German K+E Compass and therefore went and checked it out immediately.
LOL...a 350 lb. Long Hair'd Surveyor in an Orange Filson vest will get attention...
DDSM
Hey, that could of been mine. Many years ago on a Friday, I set up a back site and we traversed through some woods and ended our traverse on another side road. The following Monday morning when I went to set up the back site....gone.... Not in my truck. Oh crap.... Drove back out to the other site as fast as I could. There it was, still there and still plumb over the point....:whistle:
There it was, still there and still plumb over the point....:whistle
I wrote on the back of the business card...BEER LEG...you owe us a beer for not hiding your back site...
My crew 'watched' a backsite for a week one time...then took it down and we sent an email to the owner..."buy us beer" for the return of your 'ddsm-napped' equipment. I think they left it up just to see what would happen...and a chance to meet another crew in the area...(this was two bamboo poles duct taped to an old 4 foot rangepole...not much of a ransom...but worth a beer)
DDSM:beer:
I put a business card in front of the glass, so they cannot get a distance. It is onery, but heck, they have to know that others are looking out for them!
One time the Leica sneakily went and switched to reflectorless mode on me. Usually when that happens it gives some error message but this time it actually got the shot but didn't subtract the prism constant. So am standing there scratching my head ready to get p.o.ed about the tenth bust when I happened to notice the little reflectorless icon on the touch screen.
OH.
Try again, get a good check.
LOL, Nate
How many of them 'Push-up' dollars did it have to pay Big Help?...Not to mention them lil' girls on your crew...I think it is a wonderful thing for us all to keep in touch...a little BBQ in each others home town.
Remember..."we are all in this together"...
DDSM:beer:
(Are you coming to Mt. Magazine?)
Quite a few years ago I left a backsight out while we went to lunch. When we got back to the site it was gone. It was right after the survey manager had been telling me not to leave equipment out. It was in a rural area that he had been driving through a lot, so I was sure he had gotten it to prove his point. I got mad about it and went straight to him when I got back to the office and asked where my backsight was. Turns out one of our other crews had picked it up to play a joke on me. I felt pretty stupid, and was lucky I didn't get fired. I would have deserved it.+o(
Lucky machete
We lost a machete in fall of 2010. Was back out there in 2011...found it, still stuck on the right side of a 6" walnut. I'm left-handed...Anyway, we had replaced it, so that truck sported 2 machetes then.
The crew's luck has multiplied since them... there's a total of 5 machetes in that truck now. I told them to start looking for Schonstedts leaning up against fence posts. :whistle:
Lucky machete
I found a cell phone I had lost a few years before. It was pretty chewed up by wild russian boars.
Lucky machete
What were you doing in Russia talkin' on a cell phone?;-)
Lucky machete
> What were you doing in Russia talkin' on a cell phone?;-)
Errr...It was an Arkansas Razorback boar...and it was a German K&E Compass...I don't know who made the cell phone...
lol
DDSM:beer:
Lucky Oakley Sunglasses!
Returned to a Corps. of Engineers brass cap, on Lake Texoma, two years later on another job that had the corner in common and found my Oakley sunglasses lying on ground that i had lost on the previous job.
Never knew what happened to them until that day.
Lucky Oakley Sunglasses!
We were island hopping, running a traverse around some small islands near the city of Kodiak, we had left the backsite set up to close to at the end of the day (saving an extra trip in the skiff). Went to turn the closing angle and it was gone! Went to the State Troopers to report it stolen, and one of the troopers got a sheepish look on his face and went out to his patrol car and gave it back. He had picked it up so nobody would steal it. So much for saving the extra skiff ride!
-JD-
As RADU would say: "good on ya mate!"
It happens to all (some) of us, but then theres donkeys too!
did a job in my home town at someone I know well.
Packed up and went home.
A bit after dark I had a ring from the owner saying she was a bit concerned for my whatever was sitting on her lawn as the kids were playing around it.
I raced back to collect my legs and the tribrach, prism etc.
I was very greatful it was left where it was. Might have been a different situation with another backsight location.
I was rather redfaced though.
A couple of weeks back I drove past a couple setting up a base station.
Then they passed me a short time later while I was working.
When I came past again I saw they had set it up over a mark on the edge of the pavement at an intersection.
It was only on those 2 legs plus a stay devices. (Do they really work?)
I was very tempted to get a couple of witches hats from back of ute and leave for protection, but thought I wouldn't interfere.
I suppose the gear stayed upright.
Many years ago my boss was looking for a buried mark. It was pre metal detector days.
He had taken the T1A off its legs and laid it down in its metal case..
Got home and no jigger!
Found it next day under a pile of dirt thrown up from looking for the mark.
It happens to all (some) of us, but then theres donkeys too!
What do you mean by jigger?
In the US a jigger is a small metal cup (usually two sizes opposite one another) used for measuring out liquor.
It happens to all (some) of us, but then theres donkeys too!
Jigger is our term (nickname) for theodolite.
