Light Fingered Grid Marshal in Sydney

[jg33nm84304k]

I have a lot of respect for marshals and the great work they do to allow race weekends to operate smoothly and safely but that was soured a little over the weekend with a marshell seen "Moving" items from the pit wall during the dummy grid of a support race, a few rolls of race tape, pack of cable ties and a pair of "Snap On" flush cuts.

Confronted after the race to get them back we were told that nobody had them, which washed until the rolls of tape were seen sticking out of one of the marshels personal bags on the ground at the post. The other items werent visable from the outside and were not returned because they refused to open the bag.

Enjoy your spoils, but for somthing so small you bring shame to the honest hard working people who also worked at your post.
We'll get over it and buy new items but there will be an official complaint made.

[Trevor]

If what you are saying is true, then that deeply saddens me.

Officials are in a position of trust and must act accordingly.

[PVDA]

So you immediately approached the security that would've been present or even better a Police officer who would have the power to examine the bag in question.

Bit late to complain now but immediate action could've sorted it out pretty quickly.

[davester]

Originally Posted by PVDA

So you immediately approached the security that would've been present or even better a Police officer who would have the power to examine the bag in question.

Bit late to complain now but immediate action could've sorted it out pretty quickly.

Unless the complainant thought to get security/police prior to accosting the person, "once tipped off" their is no reasonable expectation that the items would remain in their possesion upon your return with the police...if this happened as the OP stated.

[jg33nm84304k]

The dummy grid was cut short and those that were there would have seen the 2 minute board was put out as soon as the cars pulled up. The promo girls had no sooner cleared the wall to do their thing only to be turned around to get straight off, so in all honesty the marshal who grabbed the stuff may have innocently done so after hearing on race control that instead of the usual 15 minutes we were only going straight to 2 minutes. Usually theyd just walk the 10 meters to our pit garage to return them or we'd just ask for them at the post so given that assumption we were hardly going to muster the police for a raid.

Iv watched millions of laps on the pit wall and never met a marshal who didnt have a pat on the back if we did bad or a smile when we did good, sharing their own race experiences with me while cars wernt ripping past. Iv always found track marshals to be a great bunch of guys and girls who do a very hard job in very hot and very cold conditions, (so thanks for your hard work)

Theres also no proof that the man last seen with them owned the bag they were found in and the marshal who (reluctantly) pulled them out of the bag was a woman. All I know is the the race tapes were different colours, some returned with less protest than others so iv got a pretty good idea what colour race car the owner of the bag has.

[Juarez Jed]

The thief in question probably justifies this borrowing of other people's possessions on the basis that they are a hard-working volunteer giving up their time and that they are only taking some small insignificant items from a well-funded professional team . The fact that this could be a battling privateer who stretches their budget to buy this stuff is lost on these grubby kleptos.
Unfortunately it is THEFT....and once you cross that line you have shamed yourself and you have that on your conscience the rest of your life.
It's like the pricks who scratch expensive cars because they assume the owner is a yuppy with cash to burn.......the fact that person may have worked their arse off to buy a nice car is lost on these scum.

[Denosaur]

Occasionally as an official you try and find take home a souvenir of the weekend. Piece of signage, crash debris or anything else that you can tie back to the event easily. I'll admit that I have a collection of signs from over the years from major events. Once I even found a spanner on track with another official.

But this take that to another level. Actually it doesn't!! If the person in question happens to be member of this forum, or any other forum, I hope you read these post's, be a man, and send the items back to the team in question. I very much doubt you would, because if you had any gray matter between your ears at the time, you wouldn't have done it.

You have bought shame and cast a shadow over the good work that all your fellow officials do and did over the weekend. That team or mechanic will never trust another official again! FOR SHAME!!!

[STEALTHY]

I think the title would be more appropriately named 'sticky fingered'

[Trevor]

Never taken a bit of anything that hasn't belonged to me, ethics I guess.

[alfacors]

Makes me think twice about leaving my new big lens sitting on the inside of the pitwall whilst I was on grid at Homebush, luckily for me my lens was still there both times.....

[BFC]

Originally Posted by Big_Trev

Never taken a bit of anything that hasn't belonged to me, ethics I guess.

What about other peoples oxygen?

[STEALTHY]

Originally Posted by alfacors

Makes me think twice about leaving my new big lens sitting on the inside of the pitwall whilst I was on grid at Homebush, luckily for me my lens was still there both times.....

Guess said marshall wasn't into photography.....lol

[Stephen Green]

It really saddens me to read your post. To think that anyone would stoop so low as to steal is a horrible thought. I am sure that most of my marshalling colleagues, wherever they are in the world, would hope the person who did this is caught and banned from race tracks for a very long time. That may sound harsh but I honestly believe this this person deserves to be dealt with and the good name of marshals globally to be left intact.