Best Way To Deal With Theft Accusation?

[damagedLIVER]

Tell him not to throw his discs in the water anymore:\

 

[Speedly]

If I throw my disc in the water & then I leave, more power to the guy who goes into the water & gets it out. He can keep it! He did the work to go get it out of the water when I did not! If I leave I consider that a release of my ownership of said disc! JMHO!
If I want 'my' disc back then I should be a lot more friendly with the disc retriever. Perhaps offer them a cold beer or other reward ()for getting my disc back to me! :thmbup:

THIS is the correct response. If you throw a disc in and walk away from it, whoever retrieves the disc is now the owner. I'm a huge proponent of calling numbers on discs and returning them to the owners, and I also will typically let people that call me keep the discs as a reward of sorts for doing the right thing.

But if you turn your back and walk away from a disc in a water hazard, you've made the decision that the disc is lost. Whoever fishes it out owns it now, because they went to the effort of actually removing it from its watery grave.

 

[tampora]

If you throw a disc in and walk away from it, whoever retrieves the disc is now the owner.........

But if you turn your back and walk away from a disc in a water hazard, you've made the decision that the disc is lost.

What if you ran to your car to fetch your golden retriever?

 

[DavidSauls]

What if you ran to your car to fetch your golden retriever?

.....or your bathing suit?

 

[DavidSauls]

Man, it doesn't take long for a thread to get to Finders Keepers nowadays.

 

[JBryant]

Well I personally know the Sauls and they return discs! Thanks for my sweet ESP Force, David!

 

[jenb]

In this situation, I've learned to, at the very beginning, just say "IDK, maybe I picked it up by mistake?" And then I take out all my discs of the offending color and let them see me look through them while "inadvertently" showing them all the discs.

 

[5QU166Y]

My friend was on the other side of this situation. He knew someone else had taken his disc (he left it on a teepad), so when he confronted the golfer, who denied taking his disc, my friend asked to check his bag. My friend pulled his disc out of the guy's bag, and the thief said, "I though you said a purple Kite, not a yellow one!"

Try to think of the situation from their point of view. He was pretty sure you had his disc (sounds like he had good reason for suspicion, too), and he was probably very frustrated to find that you didn't.

 

[zgmc]

I had a kid try to steal one of my discs while I was helping my friend find his disc 50' away. My disc was in the circle, in plain view, as were we, and my bag was siting in the fairway. This was a short hole, only about 200', and they had played up on us. Pretty obvious who had taken it. When confronted he said that he found it in the woods, close to where he had thrown. I've been playing for a while, and this is the first, and only time, I've had a disc almost stolen off the course. I don't think its quite time to start packing a handgun in my bag.

 

[SteezeOG]

I had a kid try to steal one of my discs while I was helping my friend find his disc 50' away. My disc was in the circle, in plain view, as were we, and my bag was siting in the fairway. This was a short hole, only about 200', and they had played up on us. Pretty obvious who had taken it. When confronted he said that he found it in the woods, close to where he had thrown. I've been playing for a while, and this is the first, and only time, I've had a disc almost stolen off the course. I don't think its quite time to start packing a handgun in my bag.

Handguns are heavy. Neck knives are not.

A very similar situation like yours happened to a friend of mine.

 

[Kodachrome]

^ similar situation to zgmc, myself. i used to be a bouncer; pretty good at keeping a level head, but not very tolerant once it becomes apparent that people are doing things on purpose AND willing to straight lie about it.

i can be a little more confrontational, though. i get really jazzed when i see people straight taking stuff or when people throw on my position. no problem calling people out - yeah, i'll be polite the first couple times if you throw at me. sometimes it's what needs to be done. and if you're lying about taking something, i know you're lying about taking my stuff; you know you're lying; you just look stupid if you try to play it off when everybody knows you're really just a stupid little punk so just gimme the disc back before i throw you and all of your stuff into a lake. >_<

not that i'm bitter or anything.

 

[elmexdela]

just the other day at plymouth mn i lost my blue wasp on hole one. of course i didnt ink it but there was ink from the previous owner i bought it from. i lost it in the creek on the right side of the bridge. this guy behind me pulls a blue disc out of the creek and it looked exactly like mine but it was on the left side of the creek. so either he niped mine right in front of me or it was his. im 99% sure he didnt grab mine but if he did he is an ass. i didnt confront them and run up to them. it is what it is. ill never know...and never see that wasp again

 

[scarpfish]

But if you turn your back and walk away from a disc in a water hazard, you've made the decision that the disc is lost. Whoever fishes it out owns it now, because they went to the effort of actually removing it from its watery grave.

People at tournaments don't have such a luxury to stay at a location until they find their disc.

Lost, mislaid and abandoned property laws which are on the books in pretty much every state have also been discussed ad-nauseum on here. They do not favor an automatic precept of "finders keepers" unless it can be determined the property has truly been abandoned, and even there, conditions apply.

 

[jenb]

People at tournaments don't have such a luxury to stay at a location until they find their disc.

Lost, mislaid and abandoned property laws which are on the books in pretty much every state have also been discussed ad-nauseum on here. They do not favor an automatic precept of "finders keepers" unless it can be determined the property has truly been abandoned, and even there, the abandoned property becomes the property of the owner of the land upon which the property was found abandoned, and not the property of the finder of the property. So if the city owns the land, you are basically stealing from the city at that point.

FTFY

 

[aajpity]

I had a guys do that multiple times. You handled it fine. Some people are just rude.. Nothing you can do to change it.

 

[pmatt1969]

My bag will never be searched. I may show a person a disc, but only if they are polite. I may...

 

[Speedly]

What if you ran to your car to fetch your golden retriever?

I'll give you this one, but let's be realistic. This one never happens, and on top of it, if the guy comes back CLEARLY equipped to go in and get it himself, he's not abandoning the disc, and so it's still his.

 

[DavidSauls]

I'll give you this one, but let's be realistic. This one never happens, and on top of it, if the guy comes back CLEARLY equipped to go in and get it himself, he's not abandoning the disc, and so it's still his.

"Never?"

I've done it.

 

[Curtis_Valk]

I have "abandoned" lost discs before out of consideration for the rest of the guys I'm playing with. That doesn't mean I relinquish any claim, it just means I realize they would rather play disc golf than wait around endlessly while I look for my disc.

I'm not going to lose any sleep if I never see the disc again, but it is still my disc. The "finders, keepers" argument is rather weak no matter how you try to justify it.

Curtis

 

[New013]

When I get in these types of situations I just look at the person with a disgusted face and say "Did you just touch my penis? What the hell is wrong with you pervert? I'm not your love doll!"

They normally just get away from me really fast or start laughing. Either way situation difused.