Puzzle thieves at WCA competitions

[Kit Clement]

Before I start, I would to like to make this clear that these are my own thoughts, and that they should not be taken as an official statement of the WCA.

After some recent experiences at competitions, I wanted to post a bit of a rant for the purposes of awareness and discussion. After competitions, you always hear of a few competitors' puzzles (maybe 1 or 2) being lost, and I've always thought the best of it -- someone innocently picked up a cube thinking it was theirs. Understandable, after all, as among cubers, you will likely find it difficult to distinguish cubes between competitors.

However, more recently, I've noticed this happening to more staff members, who are the ones that don't hang out at the competitor tables often, passing cubes around in a pile of cubes that are hardly distinguishable. This past weekend at Peach State 2015, Anthony noticed that after Saturday, he had one of his puzzles taken out of his own box; that is, he believes someone opened his puzzle box to steal a puzzle. He was not the only competitor on staff to say this, and I have heard that this kind of behavior has occurred at many other competitions across the US recently. Also, we have seen that thievery at competitions has its consequences, which are much more dire consequences than you'd think.

I don't mean to start a witch hunt to find these thieves in the past. I simply feel that it is necessary to spread awareness so that these types of incidents are less frequent. Specifically, I want to tell all competitors a few things regarding personal property at competitions:

1) Be aware of your cubes and other personal belongings. Leaving them out in the open is asking for them to be stolen. (EDIT: lol I forgot to complete this sentence earlier)
2) Using distinguishable and/or custom logos will make it much easier to determine whether a puzzle is yours. If it is possible to make any internal markings that don't make your cube illegal under WCA regulations, I would consider it -- even a custom overlay logos are incredibly easy to remove and make it difficult to prove that it is your cube.
3) If you feel like your cube was stolen and you know the culprit, discuss this with your WCA delegate. Behavior like this is covered by our regulations, and has been punished in the past. Again, I don't want to make this a witch hunt, but if you have clear/obvious evidence that a certain competitor/guest is being a thief, please bring it up to someone. Just saying your cube was stolen without any evidence pointing to a specific person doesn't really help. (Remember, I am not speaking on behalf of the WCA. I don't know what other delegates would like competitors to do in this circumstance, but this is what I imagine many delegates would like, including myself.)

It pains me that I even have to say something like this to such a wonderful, tight-knit community, but I am really disgusted by the fact that incidents like these are growing to be common, and I feel it necessary to make this better known.

(Mods: feel free to move this to another place -- I thought this was the best considering this is specifically about WCA competitions)

 

[DGCubes]

I totally agree with this entire post. At my last competition, my MoYu AoChuang was stolen. I had it in my backpack along with 18 or so other cubes, and I particularly remember having it at the very bottom with the rest of my big cubes so they wouldn't smash into other cubes when I was carrying them. The competition went great, as they all do, and when I was checking my backpack at the end of the day, I noticed I was one cube short, and figured out which one. My major problem with this follows: I DID NOT take the cube out that entire day. It was never sitting on the table or on a chair or anything. It was unturned all day in my backpack.

Cubing is supposed to be a sport in which everyone can be trusted. It bothers me when I see or experience anything like this, especially if it seems deliberate. We're all cubers together and we should try to add positivity to cubing. I've definitely learned my lesson to never leave my backpack unattended, but why should this have to be the case?

 

[AlexMaass]

And second, this is a silly thread.

Kit made this thread to raise awareness so this kind of thing happens less often. How the hell is this a silly thread?

 

[qqwref]

This is not by any means a new problem, by the way - I lost a 5x5x5 supercube at a competition in 2008, and it's likely it was stolen. It's not easy to fix, though. The main solutions I've seen are (a) have a group of people who all look out for each others' cubes and bags, or (b) have a whole bunch of reasonably well known people (faster cubes, organizers, etc.) dump their bags in an area like the scrambling table where organizers will always be hanging out. Or, if you're younger, you could have a parent watching over your bag/cubes. But if you're a relatively unknown cuber, at a competition alone, what can you really do?

The point about using distinguishing logos is good, and I do recommend it - but that really only helps you keep track of your stuff in a pile of cubes, and won't prevent actual theft.

And second, this is a silly thread. Larceny is already illegal. Are we just talking about illegal things that **** us off at WCA Comps?

Right, because cubers are totally going to spend the police department's time and derail a competition to get a $20 puzzle back.

 

[Deleted member 19792]

I still find it a bit odd that my cube was stolen off of the "ready" table at Nationals last year. Its all good though, things like this happen all of the time.

There was a case where a Pyraminx was stolen at my competition but it was later found on the floor across the room.

 

[nalralz]

My shengshou pyraminx was stolen at clocks 'n' stuff 3 minutes before my heat and I was rushing all over trying to find it and I ended up having to use my friends. I agree with this and why would people do it anyway? One of my friends later said that they found it and gave it back.

 

[Dene]

Fortunately to my knowledge we've never had a problem here in Australia/New Zealand, but it should serve as a reminder to everyone to take the utmost care in looking after their own property. The sad reality is you never know who you can trust...

 

[natezach728]

This is exactly why I'm afraid to bring lots of cubes to comps. I'm afraid my stuff might get stolen at Nats this year, I'm doing almost every event :/

 

[Rubiks560]

My shengshou pyraminx was stolen at clocks 'n' stuff 3 minutes before my heat and I was rushing all over trying to find it and I ended up having to use my friends. I agree with this and why would people do it anyway? One of my friends later said that they found it and gave it back.

Keep in mind, not every single case is going to be stolen. It's still possible that it's just a mix up.

 

[TMOY]

Yes, I have found in several occasions puzzles which were not mine in my bag after a competition. When this happens, just ask other cubers if they have lost such a puzzle, and when you find the owner, try to arrange a way to give it back to him.

But it has happened once that I found a puzzle (a Maru 4^3) whose owner turned out to be impossible to find. I asked about it a number of times and never got any answer; the cube is still sitting at my place 5 years after. My guess was that its owner simply wanted to get rid of it

 

[Kit Clement]

As Chris stated, I don't want to confuse what I have seen with innocent thievery. Clearly when you hang out with other cubers, cubes will get mixed and inevitably get placed in the wrong bag. My post is more about cubers that deliberately will go around the competition to find loose cubes and take them for themselves.

 

[Chree]

Organizers can also take steps to prevent theft. Like having a trusted staff doing the jobs where theft is most likely: scramblers and cube runners. Friends of mine volunteered to be full-time judges and cube runners at our comp. It made it easier to tell who was supposed to be walking away with someone's cube.

 

[pdilla]

It's amazing that there are sneaky little thieves even in our cubing community...

 

[JediJupiter]

Maybe unrelated but I left my comp venue on saturday afternoon, and when I got back to the hotel, I realised I was missing my main 3x3. I went back up and as soon as I walked into the door someone handed me my 3x3. When I met up with people in the evening, they all asked if I got my cube back. It's very distinguishable because it's green, and it's helped me keep track of it a lot of times when trying to find it in a pile of other people's 3x3s and stuff. Of course that also means nobody could steal it, since everybody knows it's mine.

 

[TMOY]

As Chris stated, I don't want to confuse what I have seen with innocent thievery. Clearly when you hang out with other cubers, cubes will get mixed and inevitably get placed in the wrong bag. My post is more about cubers that deliberately will go around the competition to find loose cubes and take them for themselves.

Yes, of course. My point was just: don't start to yell "heyyyyy I've been robbed" until you're reasonably certain that you have not been the victim of an innocent mistake.

 

[Reinier Schippers]

Yes, of course. My point was just: don't start to yell "heyyyyy I've been robbed" until you're reasonably certain that you have not been the victim of an innocent mistake.

Its pretty hard to find out if you have been a victim of a unfortunate swap or not. On last Saturday my main got taken from the table (aolong v2 with normal sticker set, no moyu logo.) The only thing it made special was that the orange/blue edge had a orange sticker that was rotated a bit. After 5x5 my 3x3 was missing. Only a different aolong with the same stickers but not the orange/blue edge was on the table and it felt more clicky than mine. Probably a mix up but can't be to sure. For the rest, best thing to do is to have your cube in your case and only take it out when you warm up or practise :/

 

[Ninja Storm]

There have been multiple occasions where I have either left a cube or accidentally taken a cube at a competition. These were totally unintentional, and, apart from one incident, all the cubes were returned.

However, there have been times at Maryland competitions where a certain someone (who thankfully does not go to competitions anymore) has been suspected of stealing people's cubes on multiple occasions. He was constantly attempting to buy/sell cubes, and was always going around asking to see people's cubes.

 

[AlexMaass]

I might buy a small travel lock for my backpack for comps in the future.

Idea to catch thieves: plant a small tracking device in one of your cubes, maybe a RFID tag or something.

 

[Jokerman5656]

On another note, if you are someone who picks up random puzzles and starts using them, please stop. Yes you know how puzzles work but far too often do I see puzzles being turned improperly and then suddenly pop and pieces are easy to lose. I do realize this is not always the case because it's a simple 3x3 or something but it's not respectful to grab everything just because you want to touch it.

If you just simply can't resist touching a puzzle sitting about, without asking permission, at least put it back exactly where you got it in the condition you found it. Just recently I was the delegate for "Clock 'N Stuff" for Joshua Feran. Long story short, some kids decided to pick up his clock off of a fairly low traffic spot and they broke it. It wouldn't have been as bad if they would have said something but it was later found shattered on one face and just left there.

If you're going to do things like steal and break other peoples things, then how do you expect people to keep putting time and money into things for you. This is not behavior that encourages more competitions and it doesn't make people happy.

Grow up.

 

[Carbon]

Also, please don't go up to people with a lot of cubes and just start messing with them. I personally have extremely loose cubes that tend to pop A LOTif somebody else uses them. I have lost over ten smaller pieces at comps just from people playing with my cubes w/o my permission.