Clubs Stolen - BOLO in San Diego Area

[ERLoft]

Had our garage broken into last week in the Kensington neighborhood of San Diego.  The only thing of real value that was stolen was my bag and clubs.  Granted insurance is covering it - already have new irons on order - so it's not the end of the world.

 

However, there is one thing I'd love to get back.  My 1995 Scotty Cameron Catalina.  This was custom made for me at 33" back when I worked in the industry.  It was refinished by BOS Golf about 2 years ago and sports their triple finish with a matte top line, satin face and shiny sole.  It is also stamped with my initials "ERL" on the toe portion of the face.  Finally, it has a Superstroke Fatso 5.0 grip in silver.  Obviously, in this configuration, it's a 1 of 1 putter, so there's zero chance that there's another fitting this description.  

 

The thieves were obviously younger - I have surveillance footage, but they were wearing bandannas, so it's not much use to the police.  They were also smart enough to be wearing latex gloves.  However, I'm quite thankful that they were dumb enough to leave behind a lot of valuable items - especially all my tools.  And thankful that they didn't vandalize what they didn't take, like my car.  I'm going to speculate that this stuff will be sold locally and have already alerted all the local shops, many of which I'm known to about the theft.  But on the off chance they put it up on eBay or one of the golf forums, I think having this information out there just might lead to the return of my putter.

 

If you happen to come across such a putter, please send me a PM through the forums here!

 

The rest of the items in the bag:

 

• TaylorMade M1 driver (2016)
• TaylorMade R11S 3w
• TaylorMade SLDR 5w
• TaylorMade Tour Preferred Irons (4i-6i are CB, 7i is MC, 8i-PW are MB)
• Vokey wedges (52*/56*/60*) in the rusty finish
• Bushnell TourX
• Garmin G8
• Titleist 14-Way Stand Bag

Thanks!

[Wally Fairway]

I would think that your insurance and the local police would tell you. But it might be worth your time to check craigslist, local social media garage sale type sites (facebook, etc), and even call or go to pawn shops.
One place I worked at had some tools come up missing, 3 of us split up and went to the local pawn shops and one of the guys found our tools for sale. The owner turned them over to us, after we produced the police report we had filed and it was easy as there were identifying marks on all the tools of value which we had at the shop.

I would think that with the police report and  a photo, or have your description printed out so that you have a detailed and accurate description if you find it. Because you really don't want to just walk in and see it and then try to tell them it is yours without any proof it could get a little ugly.

[ERLoft]

5 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

I would think that your insurance and the local police would tell you. But it might be worth your time to check craigslist, local social media garage sale type sites (facebook, etc), and even call or go to pawn shops.
One place I worked at had some tools come up missing, 3 of us split up and went to the local pawn shops and one of the guys found our tools for sale. The owner turned them over to us, after we produced the police report we had filed and it was easy as there were identifying marks on all the tools of value which we had at the shop.

I would think that with the police report and  a photo, or have your description printed out so that you have a detailed and accurate description if you find it. Because you really don't want to just walk in and see it and then try to tell them it is yours without any proof it could get a little ugly.

Yeah, I already have my police report if needed.  I contacted about 10 local pawn shops and only one of them said they accepted golf clubs at all.  Seems like here in San Diego in any case, the only real places to offload clubs would be Craigslist, eBay or similar outside of a couple of shops that specialize in used sporting goods and the dedicated golf shops, all of which have been alerted.

[David in FL]

7 minutes ago, ERLoft said:

Yeah, I already have my police report if needed.  I contacted about 10 local pawn shops and only one of them said they accepted golf clubs at all.  Seems like here in San Diego in any case, the only real places to offload clubs would be Craigslist, eBay or similar outside of a couple of shops that specialize in used sporting goods and the dedicated golf shops, all of which have been alerted.

One caution, I'm not an insurance expert, nor do I play one on tv, but I believe that if you do recover your lost items, you need to let the insurance company that paid your claim know.  You could be subject to a charge of insurance fraud if not.

 

[ERLoft]

Just now, David in FL said:

One caution, I'm not an insurance expert, nor do I play one on tv, but I believe that if you do recover your lost items, you need to let the insurance company that paid your claim know.  You could be subject to a charge of insurance fraud if not.

 

Absolutely.  I honestly don't hold out much hope for finding them, but just in case.  It's been a week now, and in spite of the fact that the thieves stole a case of vodka and a case of tequila (wife works for a distributor), I would think that they sobered up enough within a week to get rid of the clubs somehow - unless of course one of them is an aspiring golf enthusiast, in which case, I guess I'll have to look for them at local courses...

Edited June 6, 2017 by ERLoft

[mcanadiens]

Best of luck to you.

Had a buddy lose his clubs to theft a year or two ago to degenerate drug users.

[No Mulligans]

I'll be on the look out.

[BamaWade]

Best chance of recovery is to hang out in the local Golf Galaxy parking lot.  Might wanna pack a pistol.  

Seriously--best of luck to you in recovering your things.  Yeah, chances are slim, but you never know.  It sucks being burglarized, I know.  Hopefully the punks get caught.

[Gator Hazard]

What strikes me as odd is that they wore bandanas and gloves, and didn't steal much else nor try to break into house. As if they knew you had a camera system in garage. Have you posted the video on Facebook? I'd post printed still images around the neighborhood as well. It kind of sounds like kids who know what's in your garage. 

[ERLoft]

Sadly, it's not uncommon in our neighborhood.  My wife is on myneighborhood.com and says there's postings pretty much daily.  I've since upped the security levels at our house by adding a camera that covers the alley outside the garage and adding wireless tags from The Wireless Tag Store - basically these are like the same sensors you would have from ADT or similar.  However, rather than alerting ADT, my family all now get instant alerts on our phones when an armed door is opened or closed.  Here's what it looks like on the website login:

Should make things much more secure overall.  And has some pretty cool features like Alexa integration as well as WeMo integration.  I'm going to get around to setting up an applet that will turn on a WeMo smart plug with a siren in the garage if the motion sensor goes off between 11pm and 6am when it's armed...

Edited June 6, 2017 by ERLoft