Gear Stolen, So Scouts’ Trip Is Off

For weeks, Scoutmaster Carl Martinez helped his six Boy Scouts organize a camping trip. They created a budget, planned meals and tried to be prepared for anything that came their way.

That didn’t include having their camping gear stolen during the night, forcing Martinez to cancel the much-anticipated trip to Joshua Tree National Park last weekend.

Moments before they were to depart, Martinez discovered that his 1990 Dico trailer, containing most of the boys’ equipment, had been stolen from in front of his home in the 500 block of Stardust Drive in Placentia.

Police are looking for the white trailer, license 4D-M1726, said John Ainley of the Placentia Police Department. The trailer contained three stoves, five ice chests of perishables, $120 worth of other groceries, tiki torches, lanterns, paper towels and drinking cups, all worth about $900, Martinez said.

“I’d like to think [the thieves] didn’t know they were stealing from the Boy Scouts,” said Martinez, 48, a computer teacher who still volunteers as a scoutmaster even though his son is too old to participate. “But it seems like someone may have seen us loading up.”

The boys, ages 11 to 15, finished loading the trailer about 10 p.m. Friday, but it seemed too late to get started. The group decided to wait until Saturday morning to leave.

Although the trailer has a lock that prevents it from being attached to a vehicle without the key, the thieves must have broken the lock or dragged the trailer, Martinez said.

“I shouldn’t have left it on the street,” Martinez said. “The hardest part was telling the boys we weren’t going anywhere.”