Dear assholes who think you can sell stolen armor back to us...

[PepperElf]

that happened to a backpack company my boyfriend got me into. they pretty much sell to hunters and military and the customer base is loyal. They notified the owner when some ebay sales popped up that looked questionable (turns out they were right... the seller was a seasonal employee of the company. and yes an arrest was made)

[dalesys]

A friend of mine was hanging out with a SCAdian buddy, watching a TV report about home invasion robberies...

SCAdian asks, with a tear in his eye, "Why don't they ever come here?"

[RecoveringKinkoid]

We have jokes about some of our guys lying in bed at night praying "please God, let a burglar break in."

Non SCAdian guy (portojohn crew, actually) got all messed up at Pennsic one year. Stalking a Tuchux wench (I don't know how you spell that, really). He broke into her tent at night.

He was being pursued by a mob of angry Tuchux and an SCA guy came out, saw this, and clotheslined him.

He fell down A LOT while waiting for the cops to come.

[Moggie]

Friend of mine in one of my SCA Households is a heavy fighter as well as collecting lots of antique weapons. They hang all over her walls and really add to the 'Early Dungeon' decor scheme.

One night my friend was sound asleep when her two big dogs came whimpering in and hid under her bed, waking her up. She elbows the hubby about this and he mutters and goes back to sleep. So my friend slips on down stairs.

To one side of the stairway is the kitchen and on the other side is the living room. She can hear someone in the living room so she pops into the kitchen and grabs her favorite cast iron fry pan, then stands and waits in the shadow of the stairs. When the guy comes into the kitchen, she lays him out with the pan, ties him to the banister, and calls the cops.

When the cops show up they are very impressed by the weaponry all over the walls but are curious why she didn't use any of it to stop the intruder. Her comment? "I didn't want to get blood on my rug!"
When she posted this on our House list we all totally agreed she did the right thing. Much less mess to clean up.

[Nohbody]

When she posted this on our House list we all totally agreed she did the right thing. Much less mess to clean up.

Not to mention somewhat less of an invitation to a lawsuit.

(And that's as far as my comment is going, to not get into fratching territory about lawsuits.)

[LillFilly]

Ugh, yes, blood on white berber carpet is horrible to clean!

Don't worry, it was my own!

[Crossbow]

We have jokes about some of our guys lying in bed at night praying "please God, let a burglar break in."

Non SCAdian guy (portojohn crew, actually) got all messed up at Pennsic one year. Stalking a Tuchux wench (I don't know how you spell that, really). He broke into her tent at night.

He was being pursued by a mob of angry Tuchux and an SCA guy came out, saw this, and clotheslined him.

He fell down A LOT while waiting for the cops to come.

Tuchux is the correct spelling. The guy's lucky. I'm surprised the lady didn't geld him on the spot and then turn him over to the rest of the tribe.....

I remember working security one Pennsic and some drunk townie climbed the fence and grabbed a lady walking alone. Unfortunately for him, she was a knight, and armed. He got taken to the hospital on a backboard.

Messing with a SCAdian is bad enough, but doing it at Pennsic? Suicidal. "There's one of you, and eleven thousand of us, and we are ALL armed. Just how stupid are you?"

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I know! We are all freaking carrying! All of us! And there is no place at Pennsic that is out of earshot. So you got armed nuts who like to fight, all camped in tight quarters together for two weeks.

Drinking.

It defies belief.

The wench in question woke up from a sound sleep with this guy in her tent. I doubt it would have happened had she been awake. Well, I doubt he'd have even got into her camp had people been awake.

Was the lady in your story the woman who worked the guy over with a pewter tankard? I heard that happened down in the Swamp (which is where I live). We do have a problem with townies down there.

[trunks2k]

As I always heard it, "The three fastest forms of a communication are telephone, telegraph, and tell a peer." Specialized equipment that goes missing is going to be noted and watched for. And we know all the places you could possibly sell it...

Something like that happened with my company. We sell a highly specialized product to cell phone companies (two of the three major US companies plus a few small tier II & III providers), and part of that product is a proprietary piece of hardware. It's a highly specialized piece of hardware that we manufacture and is of absolutely no use to anyone other than our customers and we are the only people that sell it. Guess what someone found on eBay one day?

Turns out some guy that worked for $MAJOR_CELL_PHONE_COMPANY was raiding their warehouses and selling equipment on the side. He had previously been stealing stuff that isn't so obviously stolen (mid range servers, routers, etc). Then one day he grabbed our piece of equipment. They had him arrested with a TON of counts of theft against him within a couple days.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, stealing only really works if you can fence the hot merchandise to someone OTHER than who it was stolen from.

That seems to be a no brainer, but then, some people have no brains.

[Kimmik]

RK what Kingdom are you in?? I was originally from the west and now currently live in the middle. Yeah I will say one thing when mundanes think they can come party and then get touchy feel with the folk well it doesn't go good...

I had an incident where a drunk newbie decided that i was his play toy... getting all grabby grabby.. I politely told him to stop or I would be forced to call for assistance... He laughed at me pulled me into him tightly and reached up my skirt.. well I screamed.. Guy took a step back and then I beat the shit out of him not a stick jock but i can fight... and low and behold there seems to be an army of very pissed knights and others that were awoken and or drunk... lets just say that the poor guy had a bad wait for the cops and willingly admitted what he did.

The SCA is very protective of their own... unless you break the laws then you better hope the cops get you before they do. Getting minors drunk or messing with a minor is a very quick way to alot of pain.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Southern Atlantia.

Yeah, I've had some incidents where someone got roughed up a bit for messing with me.

But you are right, you do something heinous, don't look for support here. As long as you're in the right, you will have an army behind you. If you aren't, well...yeah. Your best hope is that the cops are fast and competent.

And I am not a big fan of townies to say the least. Irritating parasites.

[AccountingDrone]

I know! We are all freaking carrying! All of us! And there is no place at Pennsic that is out of earshot. So you got armed nuts who like to fight, all camped in tight quarters together for two weeks.

Drinking.

It defies belief.

The wench in question woke up from a sound sleep with this guy in her tent. I doubt it would have happened had she been awake. Well, I doubt he'd have even got into her camp had people been awake.

Was the lady in your story the woman who worked the guy over with a pewter tankard? I heard that happened down in the Swamp (which is where I live). We do have a problem with townies down there.

That is why our camp loves w10, we are right on the shore and the crazies never make it that far. Of course we are next to Pentwyvern so now and then it can get loud =) SPCA has been in that spot for at least 10 years that I have camped there...and the dum teka a teka a dum teka tek of Orluk teaching drumming can get a tad .... brain numbing....

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Ah! Pentwyvern! Met Az for the first time since we've became good friends six or so years ago (I know. Weird.) Spent many a morning up at Pentwyvern having coffee with very interesting and wonderful people.

I'm down in X09 in Court of Miracles (Yeah. "gypsy" camp. The lowest point, both physically and socioeconomically, at Pennsic.) It's all too easy for townies to jump the fence down there in the Swamp. We've actually had our camp ransacked one year. Guy didn't get caught because it got done while we were out.

Which blows my mind. Again, armed nutjobs roaming around a dark Swamp at night. If a townie got beaten or stabbed or whatever, you think any of the proud-to-be-lowlifes down there would "see" anything? Nobody would see squat in a situation like that. It's dark as the inside of a dog down there, and all of us have each other's backs. It's a real good place to get very badly fucked up, if you are an outsider intent on pulling something uncool.

Our camp is frequently booby trapped now, as a result of that invasion. One year, our alarm system went off and within half a minute, the peremeter was swarming with large, heavily armed men intent on delivering an ass kicking of biblical proportions. Turned out to be a racoon. If it hadn't...wow.

[XCashier]

Anybody who's looking to stir up trouble deserves what they get. Especially if they're stupid enough to do it around a bunch of folks who wear heavy armor and know how to use swords and bows and other medieval implements.