Returning from Sea Year-Missing items

dblomomkp2013

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I have heard from a few 'veteran' parents to be prepared that there is a good possibility that while the mids were away at sea, their personal items that were LOCKED and stored at KP may be broken into. You've got to be kidding me!! Can anyone shed some light on this???

If this holds so much of one shred of truth that this type of behavior is on the campus this is shameful. Why have an honor code? :confused: AND if this holds any truth perhaps the new superintendent should become aware of the environment that is tolerated at the academy!!

Someone please respond to this post...
 
Yes, it's true, and I agree, why have an honor code. The most popular item lately seems to be printers, but anything valuable is up for grabs. Until the situation changes, your DS/DD should find somewhere off campus to store anything that is important to him/her.
 
Thank you for your response

kpmom2013,

Thank you for your quick response; and you are correct 'until the situation changes' store the items off campus. Well, I do believe this situation WILL BE CHANGING beginning NOW and with ME.This is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE for Kings Point Mids to do onto one another as this has been common in the past. If our Moderator would send me a PM, I would like his advice.
 
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I have heard this happened in the past but I think we should wait until our DS/DD get back on campus to see what they find when they collect their belongings. Maybe the culture has already changed. We can always hope.
 
DS's printer came home with us before he went out to sea, along with some other stuff that didn't make it into the sea locker. (We're about 2 hours away from campus.) The only problem now is finding the time to return all of it - we can't get to KP until the first weekend in November, so hopefully he can live without it until then.
 
Dblo--I agree with you that this situation is appalling, but I do not agree that parents should get involved. Please see helicopter parent thread on this forum. If something is going to be done, the current mids should handle it and not their parents. Unless my DS's physical safety is at stake I intend to continue to butt out. Please rethink your current planned course of action!
 
helicopter parenting

kpmom2013,
I agree with you that there is no room for helicopter parenting at any service academy. I posted this question because I heard these actions have happened in the past; not to have parenting skills critiqued. What we are talking about here is STEALING not helicopter parenting. I am not questioning the leadership over how a DS/DD is treated, or if the food is bad, or if they are getting enough sleep, etc...I am asking the questions has this happened, can anyone shed some light on the subject, would the moderator like to PM me and give some advice.
 
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kpmom2013 - I'm having difficulty with your logic. You post, "The most popular item lately seems to be printers, but anything valuable is up for grabs." So this reads to me you suspect this agregious activity is commonplace. Then you post, "the current mids should handle it..." I do believe the current mids have a full plate of issues they should handle that parents need not be involved. These are probably the issues the author of the helicopter parent thread intended to address. However if theft is taking place at all, let alone at the frequency or voracity you portray it, I would submit to you the current mids are not qualified to investigate potential illegal activity. Their responsibility in the matter probably begins and ends with reporting the issue and cooperating with any investigation. In my heart of hearts I am choosing to believe that theft is a seldom and isolated instance and not the free-for-all I envision after reading your posts. I believe you may have errantly amplified the magnitude of the situation. Do you actually know the count of printers that have gone missing? I do believe the Honor Code is sound. I believe the great majority of the mids follow it. I believe when an issue is posted on the forum it takes on a life of its own and can get easily blown out of proportion. If a mid gets caught stealing, well I'm just saying I would not want to be in their shoes.
 
If something is going to be done, the current mids should handle it and not their parents.

But aren't the "current mids" the one actually doing the stealing? :confused:

Or did I misunderstand the post and it is an outside person(s) that is breaking into the sea lockers?
 
kpmom2013 - I'm having difficulty with your logic. You post, "The most popular item lately seems to be printers, but anything valuable is up for grabs." So this reads to me you suspect this agregious activity is commonplace. Then you post, "the current mids should handle it..." I do believe the current mids have a full plate of issues they should handle that parents need not be involved. These are probably the issues the author of the helicopter parent thread intended to address. However if theft is taking place at all, let alone at the frequency or voracity you portray it, I would submit to you the current mids are not qualified to investigate potential illegal activity. Their responsibility in the matter probably begins and ends with reporting the issue and cooperating with any investigation. In my heart of hearts I am choosing to believe that theft is a seldom and isolated instance and not the free-for-all I envision after reading your posts. I believe you may have errantly amplified the magnitude of the situation. Do you actually know the count of printers that have gone missing? I do believe the Honor Code is sound. I believe the great majority of the mids follow it. I believe when an issue is posted on the forum it takes on a life of its own and can get easily blown out of proportion. If a mid gets caught stealing, well I'm just saying I would not want to be in their shoes.
True.

Is everyone positive that it is a mid/mids doing the stealing? Civilians can gain access to the area, I would surmise. Definitely not to point fingers; however, I know of similiar cases at USNA where the integrity of midshipmen were initially questioned and it turned out to be the civilian cleaning crew.
 
True.

Is everyone positive that it is a mid/mids doing the stealing? Civilians can gain access to the area, I would surmise. Definitely not to point fingers; however, I know of similiar cases at USNA where the integrity of midshipmen were initially questioned and it turned out to be the civilian cleaning crew.

And I know similar cases at USNA in the past year where a female 1/c Mid got 15 months for stealing keepsakes and valuables from fellow Mids, another 1/c got 1 year in prison for stealing lab equipment and selling it on eBay, and a 3/c who got 2 years for stealing his football teammate's charge cards and using them to buy stereo headphones.

Although it shouldn't happen, it does. And cadets and mids are not above suspicion.
 
And I know similar cases at USNA in the past year where a female 1/c Mid got 15 months for stealing keepsakes and valuables from fellow Mids, another 1/c got 1 year in prison for stealing lab equipment and selling it on eBay, and a 3/c who got 2 years for stealing his football teammate's charge cards and using them to buy stereo headphones.

Although it shouldn't happen, it does. And cadets and mids are not above suspicion.
But they ought to be above totally unsupported speculation on an internet forum that has zero basis for comment . Mongo and VRSCDX have this exactly right. Things on the Internet have a life of their own totally disconnected to any reality that later transpires. This is exactly what the Midshipman was posting about on the Helicopter Parent thread- Barracks rumors tend to magnify things by a factor of >10x. If there really is an issue like this then I'm pretty sure that the Administration is investigating i, t and the Mids responsibility is to report and cooperate.It's the Mids and the administration who will figure out what if anything has gone on and parents -other than the ones really directly involved -may or may not find out what really has happened. The school and the Mids aren't well served by uninformed kibbitzing on line and second guessing about issues that they have no real information on.
 
But they ought to be above totally unsupported speculation on an internet forum that has zero basis for comment . Mongo and VRSCDX have this exactly right. Things on the Internet have a life of their own totally disconnected to any reality that later transpires. This is exactly what the Midshipman was posting about on the Helicopter Parent thread- Barracks rumors tend to magnify things by a factor of >10x. If there really is an issue like this then I'm pretty sure that the Administration is investigating i, t and the Mids responsibility is to report and cooperate.It's the Mids and the administration who will figure out what if anything has gone on and parents -other than the ones really directly involved -may or may not find out what really has happened. The school and the Mids aren't well served by uninformed kibbitzing on line and second guessing about issues that they have no real information on.

Mongo's comments were his opinion that "similar cases" were not the fault of the cadets/mids.

I only point out the recent cases where the opposite was true, where the mid/cadet was indeed the perpetrator. The original poster, as well as other KP parents (some of whom are intimately affiliated with the school) seem to know of this situation, that mids/cadets are the ones taking the items.

Sad to say, it does happen. At every SA.

If the thefts at KP are real (and we have no reason to not believe the OP) then the mids/cadets should not be ignored from the realm of suspects. No names were used, no personal accusations were made.

To ignore that possibility and plant a unfounded rumor of suspicion on some "civilian cleaning crew" is just as irresponsible imho.
 
There was an incident last year where a digital camera was taken from a desk in a mids unlocked room and a laptop taken from another. There was an investigation but the camera was never recovered. Who took it or where it is remains a mystery. Not sure about the laptop. It seems things happen occasionally but since there is fairly open access to many campus buildings it could be anyone. Hopefully any issues involving missing items are resolved.
 
i believe i am the only current midshipman that is at the present time commenting on this thread, correct me if im wrong. we all know that this happens. the baggage lockers are not a safe place for anything, due to the possibility of either theft or, more prevalently, damage or accidental disposal. the administration has recently passed a directive that the baggage lockers are to remain locked at all times, which should SIGNIFICANTLY reduce this problem. still, i wouldnt recommend leaving anything of value in them, if there is an alternative, or if there is no other alternative store it in a container or something where it is not readily visible. large Pelican or Storm cases are popular, as we are no longer being issued sea chests :)mad:) and they are lockable as well as much more resistant to damage.
 
I think that's the point of the post, the mids are suspected, which I have a difficult time believing it is a huge issue. I suspect at a good school with good kids like this - one occurrence feels like 10 and gets amplified, precisely because we don't expect this behavior. But at a public school when things go missing, its expected, and I bet it hardly gets any notice. Thats why I want to know from kpmom2013 who appears to have the inside track on what's hot in the KP black market, just how bad it really is. But I don't think I need a reply, because we will all find out the issue is getting amplified and the isolated instances are being handled most approrpriately inside KP. Nobody in any sort of authority at KP is going to condone this. Period. The problem is getting amplified. Thats what is happening.
 
I've seen kids come and go on 2 sea terms now, and not just my own.
When one fellow returned, he wanted to check that his boxes were still safely in the same place, behind the cages and such. Looked pretty well secured.
They were. everything A-ok.

Some kids put their stuff in team locker areas. Some don't.
I've only every 'heard the stories' of losses, never experienced it (thank goodness).

*I* was transporting stuff anyway, so a few extra boxes coming home wasn't a big deal... although 'a few extra boxes' from multiple Mids DOES tend to fill up a car :) I know plenty of other parents who've done the same thing.

The Mids are pretty savvy about "Here's my important box of stuff" -vs- "Here's my cardboard box with my name on it that has my 'inspection drawer' of socks and junk' " :) THEY'LL figure out what needs to go where.

I'd think 'accidental disposal' was a larger likelihood than malicious pilfering.
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I've heard more about (VERY) occasional stuff missing from rooms , more-so than stuff pilfered from sea year storage.
BTW, if it's a PRINTER someone needs, I'm sure my son would be happy to deliver HIS... along with the issued computer... which he wants to take to the range for target practice ;)
 
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I never understood why every mid has their own printer anyway. I bet most of them would like a nice color laser duplexer on each floor they can network to. It would save a ton of money and desk space. My mid returns this weekend from his first sea trip, and he does not seem even remotely concerned his stuff was up for grabs while he was gone. I think he put it in two rubbermaid action packers with locks on them. Pilferable - yes - but in would take a somewhat concentrated effort to open them. The act would certianly be premeditated and malicious, but like I've said before, I'm not very concerned. Sure there has been theft, but you can bet it is a very rare incidence of it. From reading some posts on this thread it almost sounds as if the other mids are watching the guys as they leave campus with their sea bag and when they see the taxi door close they run back to the storage room to rifle through that mid's belongings to get the hot ticket items in a free for all. I have NO DOUBT that is NOT SO. And I have every confidence that the corps and the faculty would treat even the slightest incidence of theft (be it a stolen mechanical pencil or toothbrush), with the absolute utmost seriousness.
 
I have heard from a few 'veteran' parents to be prepared that there is a good possibility that while the mids were away at sea, their personal items that were LOCKED and stored at KP may be broken into. You've got to be kidding me!! Can anyone shed some light on this???

If this holds so much of one shred of truth that this type of behavior is on the campus this is shameful. Why have an honor code? :confused: AND if this holds any truth perhaps the new superintendent should become aware of the environment that is tolerated at the academy!!

Someone please respond to this post...
I guess there might be some truth to this as my DS just went to sea. My husband and I drove him and sea partner to the airport then needed to return back to KP to retrieve all their belongings (printers, uniforms). I was puzzled in that a few weeks ago he told me he'd be able to store his stuff in locked storage. He too reported that midshipmen are reporting missing stuff from the locked up storage facility. Maybe they should install a closed circuit camera then expel anyone who is caught stealing. I thought the same thing. So much for thou shall not lie, cheat or steal.
 
So much for thou shall not lie, cheat or steal.

As was stated above, don't necessarily blame midshipmen for this....there are a number of people who have access to these type of places who aren't midshipmen.

In the past there were problems with mail being stolen....in the end it was found to be an employee, not a midshipman.

Moral of the story: you don't know who it us until they are caught. Either way if stuff is being stolen that sucks and hopefully the Academy is doing everything they can to investigate.
 
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