Thieves foiled
Pictured: Lovers reunited/
So here’s a feel-good story for you. Sometimes, you can get stolen items back, if you’re patient enough, and the thieves are dumb enough.
Mammoth resident Cody Carlisle went snowboarding out of Eagle Lodge on Dec. 12, 2012. He got back to the parking lot about 4 p.m., stuffed his snowboard in the back of his truck (which has a cap, but was unlocked), and went inside to meet up with some friends.
He soon came back out of the lodge and drove home.
He woke the next morning to a foot of powder. Great day to ride. But as he was getting ready to go, he noticed his board was missing. As he lives in a fairly safe neighborhood, he deduced that the theft must have occurred at Eagle.
He did all the things they tell you to do – filed a police report, posted the news (as well as a reward on Facebook), contacted MMSA security, talked to friends, posted fliers at Wave Rave and P3 and Base Camp. Every time he went up to the hill thereafter, he always had an eye peeled for his board.
He finally caught a break on Jan. 7.
Some pals, Sergio Mota, Alavaro Madrigal and Zack Weaver, were waiting at the bus stop on Main Street near the Norco station.
Mota called Cody’s friend Maggie Valentine and said that he thought they had spotted Cody’s board.
“Some chick has it,” he reported. The woman was with a male friend.
The three men approached the two suspects and asked them if they lived locally. They said yes. Then the three men began asking questions about the board – nice board, where did you get it, etc.
The questions appeared to fluster the suspects, who left the bus stop and began walking up Berner Street the back way toward the Village.
On the hunch that they would walk to the Village and then take the Village gondola to Canyon Lodge, Cody hitched a ride to Canyon and began a frantic search.
“I’d just about given up when I looked over towards Schoolyard and I saw a green highback, bright lime binding. As I got closer, I saw there was a girl and a guy and the girl was strapping in to a restricted Alice in Wonderland board – my board. They’d scraped a sticker off the back of it, but everything else matched up.”
Cody said he spent about $800 for the board and that it’s a fairly unique board, maybe two or three people at the Mountain might ride the same model.
He literally just grabbed the board right from under the girl and started asking what they were doing with it.
The guy claimed that he bought it off a friend for $50.
The girl, clearly distressed, in tears and shaking, simply said, “It’s yours. Just take it. Just take it.”
And that was it. Cody left.
Cody, FYI, works as a legal assistant for Therese Hankel. When Therese learned he had recovered his board, she peppered him with questions.
Did you call ski patrol?
Did you take a picture?
Did you get their names?
Can you describe them?
Sheepishly, Cody admitted that he had been seeing red, and got none of that information. But he did say, “If I saw the girl again, I’d recognize her.”
As Cody said, his board was really saved by his community. “I’ve lived here for five years. You get to know people. I had too many eyeballs on my side. And it was a limited edition board. They didn’t change the stomp pad, didn’t change the bindings. The analogy I make – it’s like they stole a car and drove it around town.”
Still, he said, “Never in a million years did I figure I’d see it again.”
