While vacationing in Delaware, I walked past a backiste, it was on a side road still set-up (and level i might add) it was a prism pole with a bi-pod. It was about 10:30 at night, and no one was around using it. So I knew sombody had forgot it (like I've done before)and left it there. It was a block away from the house in which we are staying.
I thought about picking it up and bringing it back to our house, but I didn't know if the crew would be returning to that site, or when. So I moved it off the sidewalk so people walking by wouldn't run into or trip over it.
What would you've done?
Maybe bring it home safe and leave a note under a rock that would be sure to be found. I think you did o.k., though. If it was still there, it probably wasn't in a lot of danger of being ripped off
I would picked it up and taken it to the motel or hotel where I was staying and had the desk clerk to put it in their office. Next morning I would have called one of the local surveyors and let them know what I had done. I would hope that I would get a call if one of my crews had left a backsight.
For the last several days, I have been driving past a "Survey Crew" sign on my commute to work. It's been there since Monday. I seen them out there that morning and I think I know what company they were from. I am pretty sure that they forgot about it.
A couple of years ago, I found a Trimble rover and data collector propped up with a bipod 20 feet from the road on my way home from work. It was probably there for no more than three hours. I knew which company had been working there and I did pick it up. I called them and they were VERY grateful. I feel sorry for the guy who left it.
I have left a backsight next to a fence line one Friday afternoon and didn't realize it until Monday morning. ....ooops... Went back out there immediately and there it was, still level....
I have forgotten two backsights. One was still there (only a few hours) and the other wasn't (remembered the next morning). The cones were still out there.
Early on I started putting weather-hardy stickers on all my equipment & they have my name, phone number, etc. They've gotten me a lot of phone calls about a lot of stuff I'd left behind. Embarrassing but cost-saving.
My current subordinate employee has disciplined me to do an equipment check through the truck before we leave the site. We open each box to make sure there is really an expensive electronic item in there plus the tripods, tribrachs, etc. That has saved us a few times.
I had the opposite experience from Dave K.
We left a backsight out over the weekend.
Monday morning it was still there,but the cones were gone.
But it's not really theft because cones belong to everyone according to someone here 😉
> Early on I started putting weather-hardy stickers on all my equipment & they have my name, phone number, etc. They've gotten me a lot of phone calls about a lot of stuff I'd left behind. Embarrassing but cost-saving.
That's because you work in Maine, Sir. Mainers know the value of a dollar, and the value of a working man's tools to the working man. 😉 At least the generations older than I am do. In South Florida, you don't even have to leave your surveying tools unattended. There's a group here that will walk up in daylight and pull a gun on you and take your instrument or GPS in the middle of the afternoon!
I try to leave my backsight, but he keeps following me around and getting in the vehicle when I leave.
that's a tough call. While in Illinois on vacation, I spotted a blown over base station. we pulled over, the only number on the base was from the company that services it.. called them, they figured out who it was and contacted them crew was on lunch break and was grateful they didn't go back to work with a funky base, it was still transmitting...
but then, I've forgotten equipment and been relieved to pull up and find it still there. if someone had picked it up and moved it, I would assume it was gone and freak out.
You have all got me to thinking. We should come up with a "Standard Protocol" for finding other's stuff.
I think I will adopt something.
Like, if it is after dark, I pick it up, and then make calls, and post on the internet. (Like here) Maybe that would be a good category. (lost and found) But, for now, I think I should add all my info to all my poles, and stuff.
Anybody have a good source for name tags for our stuff?
I have done the Dymo Lable Maker, but I would like something better.
Nate
you could simply turn off their transmitter radio and then they would have to come investigate.
Boy, I thought I was the only dummkopf!
Y'all make me feel a bit better. I've forgotten and lost two pole w/ prism & bipod BS setups- one had a Leica 360 prism (about a grand to replace) on a carbon fiber pole: total cost about 2K, & all within a month.
I drank cheap beer for quite a while.........
> What would you've done?
I've got "IF FOUND" labels on my stuff with my phone number.
I maybe would have taken the set up with me, but a rock with a note (hope it's not raining) with my cell phone number and told them to call me. C'mon... how much is a cell phone call these days?
> You have all got me to thinking. We should come up with a "Standard Protocol" for finding other's stuff.
>
> I think I will adopt something.
>
> Like, if it is after dark, I pick it up, and then make calls, and post on the internet. (Like here) Maybe that would be a good category. (lost and found) But, for now, I think I should add all my info to all my poles, and stuff.
>
> Anybody have a good source for name tags for our stuff?
>
> I have done the Dymo Lable Maker, but I would like something better.
>
>> http://www.dickblick.com/products/dymo-organizer-express/?wmcp=google&wmcid=products&wmckw=23317-1001&gclid=CK6W78OhlaoCFQsS2godMiae0w
>
> Nate
Nate, I have "IF FOUND" stickers on all my stuff with my phone number.
I think that should be the protocol, to label your belongings. Maybe put a note in a baggie under a rock on unlabeled stuff and tell them to call, especially if you are within a block like Joe was.
> C'mon... how much is a cell phone call these days?
I thought a cell phone call was part of the cost of doing business in 2011. You don't find too many surveyors who don't have one anymore... I know most teenagers consider cell phone calls a cost of doing business, I've just never figured out what business teenagers are in. 😉
As for labels, there are dozens of ways to approach that. I've bought some online that I use around the house that are weatherproof and were intended to be run through a laser printer. They are a polyester/mylar base. They seem to hold up for many years in the South Florida sun. A box of 100 sheets cost me ~$50. When you stop to look at how much our equipment costs, $50 to cover every piece we have is cheap. For $90 per 100 sheets, you can get the ones that leave the word "VOID" behind where the sticker was removed.
As you can infer from my previous post, my labels have paid for themselves many times over.
I've never
left a backsight, but I left a 200 foot tape between the rails on a railroad once. I was REALLY nervous the next morning until we found it still where I left it. On a rodman's pay that would have put a dent in my living expenses.
To the best of my knowledge there is still a bushaxe in the side of an oak tree in north Georgia though. One swipe and the hook stuck in a hornet's nest on the back side. RUUUUNNNN!!! We were going to come back later and get it but somehow never did.
Andy
