Tool Heist
This is a first for WTA - in over 15 years we have been involved in trail maintenance, WTA recently experienced a theft of tools. The Taylor Mountain tool cache theft was thorough – gaining little for the thieves and costing WTA a lot.
Last Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, a cache of tools was stolen from a WTA trail maintenance project on Taylor Mountain. The cache consisted of 14 shovels, five pulaskis, five grub hoes, three Macleods, one lopper, two corona saws - and believe it or not - a bucket (plastic, square, white). See our post on craigslist.
The thieves had to work hard at heist, since it was several hundred yards over rough terrain and then a half-mile roadwalk to the county gate. Tool theft is not an issue WTA had been overly-concerned with in the past, afterall, who would steal tools from the hands of volunteers?
Although each tool costs WTA an average of $60, they aren’t worth a lot on the used tool market. The purchase price for a used tool being about $5 apiece at a pawn shop, the thieves can expect to sell or pawn the Taylor Mountain cache for only around a hundred dollars. The time and energy to sell the metal for scrap gives even less value to the cache. The theft was a lot of work for small payoff - but replacing these tools will be costly for WTA.
Anyone shopping for used tools at pawn shops, etc., especially in the Renton, Redmond and areas east of Seattle, please check to see if the tools have WTA's tell-tale paint swatch on the lower part of the handle – the color of this cache is an aqua-blue, and the letters WTA are branded into some of the handles. WTA’s Field Director, Alan Carter-Mortimer, has been checking craigslist every evening for a listing of the tools for sale.
While the chance of recovering these tools is slim, anyone wishing to help Washington Trails with the replacement cost of the tools is urged to visit our donations page and click on “special donation.”
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Probably Pot heads
I wouldn't be surprised if they were stolen by a clandestine (aren't they all) pot growing group of dirt bags on our public lands. Marijuana growing, meth labs, shooting gallies, and squatting are becoming all too common on our public lands and are creating serious public safety hazards. The horrible case on DNR land on the Washougal River where a sex offender vagrant was hanging out for a couple of days at a public campground and nearly murdered a x-country skier is a wake up call that we need a law enforcement presence on our public lands. Meanwhile, I'll keep my eyes out for those tools-and for scofflaws roaming our public lands.