I am the bane (bain??) of MP's everywhere, as I am one of those type's of people who feel that if you can't trust the people you work with, who can you trust??? I rarely lock my locker at work (during work hours) (I do at the base gym, due to the number of civvies and dependants that go there) and never lock my car while it's on the base (unless I'm at the CANEX, for the same reason as above).
Now,as for what I've had stolen: driver's goggles on my first PCF ('88), my bike from the bike rack outside barracks (lived beside Jr Ranks) and yes, it was unlocked ('91), IPE bag with old steel pot and various other pers kit after an ex, and walked away from kit truck somehow (early 90's), watch from base gym (hanging on curtain that divides courts) (about '01), and possibly my civvie GPS while teaching on course last year (it may have fell off vehicle, but I wonder....).
Not too bad for 17 years ( I was in cadets for 5 years, and 4 summer cadet camps, but my memory fails me from that era). The watch (a $35 Timex) was actually the one that pissed me off more than anything else, probably because it was a co-worker (I'm 99.99% sure who stole it). I wouldn't be so gracious as to say the person was a soldier, because even though all soldiers "steal" to some degree (how many rolls of guntape does anybody need, anyway???? If we had a Guntape Amnesty Day, I'm sure we could fill SkyDome with all those rolls.....) but, a soldier should never, ever steal from another soldier. The individual who I believe stole my watch was charged with theft (rumour has it that at his trial, there were X6 6-ft tables (!!) full of kit ( personal, military, otherwise) that he lifted). Anyway, his sob story was along the lines of he had to because he needed the money because he had been sued, blah,blah,blah..... The whole story would fill about 10 pages, but it still doesn't excuse him for his actions.
To think that there are no thieves in the military is naive, but I don't want to live in fear. A lock only keeps an honest person honest, but there is no point in making it easy for the thieves that are out there: mark your kit clearly, and make it well known that you have a highly infectious, uncurable skin-disease :-X ...... Just kidding on that last bit, but whatever works....
One thing that annoys me, as I think that it has been taught incorrectly at the basic training, or word of mouth, level, is the practice of completely blacking out the previous owners name from a piece of kit. I believe a line striking out the name (so that it is still legible) is sufficient, as otherwise, to me anyways, it indicates that you are trying to hide something (ie that you stole it, and are trying to hide that persons name up). If that's what you do, don't blow a nut, and say that I am accusing you of being a thief. Just think of it from that point of view.
Here's a fairly amusing story about a "theft" (and I'm sure anybody with TI has a similiar one): The scene: the laundry room in O-19 in Petawawa. The players: A reservist cook joining the RCD to go to Cyprus, an MP, soldiers living in. The story: The cook places his laundry into a washing machine, comes back a few hours later to find it missing. MP is called in. He is taking the cook's statement about what was stolen, what happened, etc. A living-in soldier walks in, opens a dryer and says to no-one in particular: "Who's kit is this?". Any guess on whose kit it was (and the first 2 guesses don't count). Anyway, the cook wanted whomever put "his" kit into the dryer charged with theft, as "they" didn't have his permission to do so. The MP closes his notepad and walked away in disgust, and much laughter ensued.....
Al
