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Baskets stolen at new Kentucky course

There is a course near me where all 18 baskets were installed "rogue" without the knowledge of the parks department. A very well known name in the game may or may not have been involved... ;)

criminal!
 
There is a course near me where all 18 baskets were installed "rogue" without the knowledge of the parks department. A very well known name in the game may or may not have been involved... ;)

Just out of curiosity, how long have these baskets been in the ground there?
 
There is a course near me where all 18 baskets were installed "rogue" without the knowledge of the parks department. A very well known name in the game may or may not have been involved... ;)

Since curiosity is a retired profession of mine, I couldn't help but be curious. Thinking close to you could mean Hawk Hollow:

There's a course to the southwest of you that fit the time frame of 20 years, but seems unlikely that city would not notice a course being put in.

There's a second course to the south of you that fits the time frame, the baskets seem older, and I recognize a well-known name. I've been thru that county several times and have stopped (a shipmate retired there), I'll say when the course was noticed, was probably met with a shrug. Last year I bagged a course near there that recently opened, and you designed.

If I'm correct, it seems you would rather have it not named, and I'll mark it classified ;)









;
 
Since curiosity is a retired profession of mine, I couldn't help but be curious. Thinking close to you could mean Hawk Hollow:

There's a course to the southwest of you that fit the time frame of 20 years, but seems unlikely that city would not notice a course being put in.

There's a second course to the south of you that fits the time frame, the baskets seem older, and I recognize a well-known name. I've been thru that county several times and have stopped (a shipmate retired there), I'll say when the course was noticed, was probably met with a shrug. Last year I bagged a course near there that recently opened, and you designed.

If I'm correct, it seems you would rather have it not named, and I'll mark it classified ;)









;

All incorrect. My family owns Hawk Hollow so no parks dept there. not to my south or southwest. Hint- was an object course for many years prior to having baskets.
 
My thoughts on theft-proofing theft-deterring a basket:

When digging the hole, make the hole a bit wider than the opening.
Drive multiple lengths of rebar through the hole from the top so that it is seated firmly on both sides of the hole.
Put multiple pins, bolts, whatever through the pole at multiple locations up the pole.
Make the concrete in the hole and the pole all part of the same pour, or at least so that they cure at the same time and are connected.

Maybe this can still be beaten with a $20 tool purchase rental from Harbor Freight? IDK
 
Theft is a fact of life. To deter the most basic theft, make sure someone cannot steal the basket without tools.

If a person is willing to use tools to steal a basket, you can't beat them from a practical/economical standpoint.

A basket costs ~500 dollars. With $500 dollars in tools I can defeat any reasonable means of securing a basket.

$200 = battery powered grinder.
$50 = 36" bolt cutters.
$15 = hacksaw and blades (the poles are mild steel at best)

Not saying they shouldn't be secured to prevent zero effort theft, but a determined thief isn't going to be stopped by practical methods.

Think about it from their perspective. You want to take a basket in some random park. Could you devise a way to get said basket in a minute or so? No rush you have time to figure a plan for this theft. It's all you do is try to figure out how to steal stuff.

The upside is baskets aren't worth much unless someone can sell them as baskets rather than scrap. A basket is worth ~500 new? Stolen, -~200(?), or scrap $5.
 
So I wonder if maybe one theft deterrent might be filling the center pole with concrete. Figuring concrete is 150 lbs/CFT and if my calcs are right thats about 1/2 CFT (2.5" dia x 6.5' tall) or almost an additional 65 lbs of weight to the basket without compromising strength and greatly reducing the scrap value. The obvious draw back is it would be a PITA if you have baskets that you might want to move between multiple positions.
 
All incorrect. My family owns Hawk Hollow so no parks dept there. not to my south or southwest. Hint- was an object course for many years prior to having baskets.

I was going to guess Curtis Park, until it's been in the ground 20 years remark. :)
 
This might help deter theft, but a lock also deters casual thieves. I'm not ever going to post how to do it, but pouring concrete into the poles isn't going raise the stealing time to much more than one minute with a widely availabe, $20 hand tool - although it will make taking them more work due to the increased weight. And if there are two determined thieves, as others have mentioned, they can just take the basket, concrete and all, in a very short period of time with no tools.

A course near my home took locks off the baskets because it was too much of a hassle to have to unlock them to change basket positions. They finally replaced those baskets this year and never had any of them stolen. The OP clearly shows that theft is a concern, but it just doesn't seem cost effective to me to put too much effort into theft deterrence. Just put a good lock on the basket and replace them if stolen.

I'd love to see baskets have airtags in them so that the theives could be caught and prosecuted. Installing them in the top of the pole would be exceedingly easy. The owner would just have to put in new batteries every year or so. None of this seems cost effective either unless there were repeated problems with theft.

Yeah, you must not understand what I'm talking about with the concrete in the pole, so I'll move on quickly. But it's more than just weight. If concrete is strategically placed in the pole, the thieves would have to cut through the pole at a place that would greatly de-value the basket -- typically not what the thief wants to do. But I can promise you that yes, definitely will deter the casual thief. As everyone has said, the pro is a different matter. I like the air tags or some other gps-type device that could be in/on them. If it needs charging though, solar might be the way to go.
 
getting warm

Pratt Park? I remember finishing up my round with a local, and he was telling me the course started out as a frisbee course, which also could have included object targets.
 
Yeah, you must not understand what I'm talking about with the concrete in the pole, so I'll move on quickly. But it's more than just weight. If concrete is strategically placed in the pole, the thieves would have to cut through the pole at a place that would greatly de-value the basket -- typically not what the thief wants to do.

If it is just concrete, with no metal reinforcement placed vertically, i.e., a steel pole with a concrete core, then you just cut the pole at the bottom, and kick the basket over to break the concrete. The vertical rebar shown in the pic posted by Steve West is a different matter. That would likely require cutting through the concrete and rebar too.
 
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