Just a reminder to old teams, and a heads up to teams who did not attend worlds last year:
There were multiple break-ins and thefts at last years competition. The head robot inspector had his laptop stolen, and several teams had their driver stations stolen.
On top of that, a remember hearing about a team who’s truck was stolen, along with their trailer and robot, as well as a vehicle with sleeping students inside being broken into.
We ourselves were not subject to any break-ins, but I did want to create this thread as a final reminder to get laptop-locks, and bring vehicles with keyless locks, as well as any other precautions that you deem fit.
To be clear, this isn’t an attack of any kind towards other teams, or the people of St. Louis, but these events all occurred last year, and teams should keep this in mind while traveling not only to Worlds, but anywhere
St Louis is an urban area. Not really more or less dangerous than any other large city. At least you are not likely to get eaten by a bear or trampled by a moose.
Everyone knows you can’t get eaten by a bear! They just eat your food and maybe drink your beer.
And it is good for experienced attendees to remind others or just share their experiences with those of us newcomers.
Is there a thread on best place to park? Decent food nearby? How far it is from one place to the next? What’s the best idea you could give someone who has never been to Champs?
The broke my drivers door lock by inserting a screw driver/crow bar below the lock handle piercing the sheet metal and then they tried to pop the lock up. Destroyed the door. Worst was my two teen age daughters were sleeping under blankets at the time and when they woke the bandits shot off. There was several supposedly security guards watching the parking lot. That was 2015. In 2013 one of the mentors was broken in the same way. So watch your door locks and look for a piercing below the handle! Even the police was disgusted with the security.
I almost didn’t want to go this year but since I am not hauling a trailer for the team, I will park in a more secure spot.
As for writing it off as an urban area, poor security is poor security, whether you are in St Louis or Detroit or LA or New York.
We are not even on the top 10 list of most dangerous major us cities. STL is number 4 with Detroit sitting at number 1. Oakland and Memphis are sitting between the 2. STL also has a claim to fame with the most murder cases per 100,000 residents of any major city in America.
In all seriousness guys just use proper precaution. Make sure to lock doors, keep expensive electronics in hotel rooms and park in secured parking lots. Use proper precaution while walking at night and make sure to never be alone especially if you are a female (Not being sexist you guys are just at a greater risk).
There is an enormous parking area upriver* of the Jones Dome. There are four huge lots with absolutely no markings. They will fill up progressively over the first few days of CMP. I honestly don’t know how I managed to back out of a dead-end I found that I had driven into and found a dead end last year; DO NOT DRIVE A TRAILER INTO AN AREA YOU DO NOT SEE HOW TO DRIVE THROUGH AND OUT OF.
3946 had no theft issues in the gravel lots in the big city in St. Louis, but we had our solar panels stolen about a week ago on our own school campus in the small town of Slidell. To quote Alastor Moody: Be Ever Vigilant!
*[Edit]: Probably just an echo of growing up in the New Orleans area; we understand upriver and downriver [especially refereneced to the Mississippi] as better directions than North, South, East, and West. OBTW, I grew up on the West Bank, and regularly drove across the river “west to east” at sunrise using both bridges with the sun at my back, and home to the west bank with the sun in front of me. (For the record, in New Orleans, the river runs largely west to east, but both bridges cross as the river runs from roughly south no north.)
Edit2: For the record, New Orleans is among the worst cities in North America, so perhaps my witness means less than it might otherwise. My only brother was among our region’s abysmal 1993 statistics.
And one piece of security going the other way: expect your bag to be checked when you go into the building. I’ve even had to unzip my carry-on suitcase, underwear and all, in the front entry of America’s Center to get through.
Besides the usual Missouri State Laws, can’t say in the 5 years of going to Champs I’ve ever been frisked while entering, though also can’t say I’ve ever attempted to bring in a knife with a blade over 3".
I would say that if you are planning on bringing items that you are unsure about, pack them in your trailer, seeing as they tend to be more lenient with things in your build cart/ things of that nature
I love St Louis but like any urban area there are problems. We are a convention of high tech people and are prime candidates to have easily pawnable stuff in our cars. The criminals know this so don’t leave anything in the passenger area of your car, not even a jacket on the seat (it may look like you are hiding something.)
Also the security in the parking areas last year was a non-existent joke. I wrote to FIRST complaining it. Lets hope they do a better job this year.
+1 for this. They even warned not to leave your trailer overnight in the provided trailer parking. It would be better to collect a parking fee to provide some security.
Hoping security in the parking area for trailers and buses is better than last year. Last year our RV was broken into and lost ~$7k worth of equipment in the designated parking area where “security” had been. We thought about adding an electric shock floor this year.
Hope everyone has a safe trip to St. Louis and look forward to having fun.
as long as you carry your important devices with you or leave them with someone who will watch them, you should be fine. and also make sure someone is always in your pit. if something is stolen, there should be security footage that could be reviewed. i asked the security staff to do that at UIC pavillion at the midwest regional.
