Bertie Bat stolen from The Belfry

[Darkstar]

Not very used to this forum so sorry if this is in the wrong place!

In the early hours of Sunday morning the old BEC and bertie bat sign (which used to be on the outside of the old Belfry before it burnt down - hence a bit of charring) was stolen from outside the front door of the hut.  The sign seems to have been removed with quite a lot of force!

This is an important piece of our clubs history and if anyone out there has Bertie we would very much appreciate his safe return. There will be no recriminations and no-one will be named and shamed, we just want Bertie back where he belongs.

We have asked the obvious suspects and they deny all knowledge, also there was no ransom note as is the form with these things so we think on balance they are probably innocent.

 

[Christian_Chourot]

What was it made of and how big was it?

The price of scrap metal is still high, yes? That may unfortunately be why it has gone.

 

[Darkstar]

Fortunately it was not metal, but was made of wood.  It is about 2ft square and was in a wooden display case type of frame.  We are very anxious for its return.

 

[martinr]

Sorry to hear that Bertie has been stolen, and I do hope he is returned to the BEC soon.

Would this perhaps be the same BEC whose members recently visited my club hut and tried to remove the front door for a prank? And who once stole our trade-size wheelie bin and left it on the roof of another club hut for a joke? Oh how we laughed.

If you live by the sword...........

(And in case you ask, no - my club hasnt got Bertie.)

 

[Les W]

Sorry to hear that Bertie has been stolen, and I do hope he is returned to the BEC soon.

Would this perhaps be the same BEC whose members recently....

....Painted bats and hand prints on our wall

If you live by the sword...........

  :tease:

(And in case you ask, no - my club hasnt got Bertie.)

Nor has ours.  :halo:

 

[AndyF]

My guess is you will get a postcard of him standing on a beach in the Bahamas

 

[Aubrey]

My guess is you will get a postcard of him standing on a beach in the Bahamas

No - he's gone somewhere to hibernate for winter 

 

[Elaine]

I would be incredibly surprised if Axbridge had anything to do with it. We are most pure.

 

[whitelackington]

Almost certainly adolesent students
they usually did it
:chair:
didn't they
:-\

 

[underground]

Top marks for irony and / or sarcasm!

My guess is it was a conspiracy betwixt the sign owning conspirators; - highways departments, bar owners and taxpayers of a number of countries.

 

[Darkstar]

Sorry to hear that Bertie has been stolen, and I do hope he is returned to the BEC soon.

Would this perhaps be the same BEC whose members recently....

....Painted bats and hand prints on our wall

If you live by the sword...........

  :tease:

(And in case you ask, no - my club hasnt got Bertie.)

Nor has ours.  :halo:

Sorry to hear that Bertie has been stolen, and I do hope he is returned to the BEC soon.

Would this perhaps be the same BEC whose members recently visited my club hut and tried to remove the front door for a prank? And who once stole our trade-size wheelie bin and left it on the roof of another club hut for a joke? Oh how we laughed.

If you live by the sword...........

(And in case you ask, no - my club hasnt got Bertie.)

Errr,
At least we always leave a ransom note so you know where to get your stuff back.... I would also like to point out that the door was very carefully unscrewed, we did not try to remove it, we did remove it .  Bertie has been yanked from the wall, the screws are still there!  Poor Bertie will be feeling very sad away from his belfry.  Bats are territorial.

It would be very much appreciated if you could ask any student groups you know.  I will say again, no negetive action will be taken, we just want Bertie home.

 

[Mark_S]

If you live by the sword...........

Of course the year we had to threaten said club with the police to get back one of our artefacts...... 
I think rather too many local clubs are a bit fed up with the amount of hassle when ever stuff gets nicked. Looks like somebody got really fed up, not that I've heard who.

 

[busty_caver]

The sign went sometime between 7pm Saturday and 11am Sunday when i went up the hut to check up on the students.  There were three studnet clubs using the hut last weekend of which all three had BEC members in their ranks.  All three clubs deny knowledge of where the sign is.  The BEC members in thier ranks have been club members for a while and were shocked and cross about the sign.  They told me they would find it if a studnet had it.  I have chased them up and all have told me upon getting home minibuses were checked and no sign was found.  As it is a sizeable sign it would have been hard for someone to simply put it in a tackle/ruck sac as it would not fit.

If anyone has a photo of it please let me know.

With regard to recent kettle nicking, door stealing and painint pink hand prints.  I must say I was annoyed about the pink prints on thw Wessex as this was clearly vandalism and the member of the BEC who did this has been told off.  Taking other clubs signs/doors etc is all friendly banter and things are always returned.  As hut warden I returned the Upper Pits sign after one over excited BEC member superglued it to the belfry wall.  He was told off especially as it ruined the paint work on my nice newly plastered wall!  Kettles were taken by the same person but a ransom note was left.  All recent BEC pranks have been actioned by the same two chaps and one of those is a wessex member himself so all friendly banter.

If the Wessex want the pink hand prints painted off thier wall let me know and i'll get this actioned at our next working weekend?  I think that was a step too far.

hugs,
Busty

 

[busty_caver]

Also wanted to add that it does feel that over the last 10 years the feeling towards club rivalry has changed some what.  Gone are the days when the Wessex would break into the Belfry to drink the booze when the BEC were at their dinner or the BEC would black paint out the wessex windows.  Or alarm clocks would be set off at 15 min intervals in the Wessex on their dinner night, or the Wessex windows would be covered with no smoking signs....

It seems that clubs and the people within them change with time.  I think there are a couple of over exuberant BEC members who are trying to keep up with old times but the Wessex has mellowed even more (if that is actually possible) and other clubs just don't see the funny side anymore.

I guess the area is over for this sort of behaviour on mendip.

Han

 

[whitelackington]

I would be incredibly surprised if Axbridge had anything to do with it. We are most pure.

We are convinced that the sign / Bertie stealing individuals are almost certainly the same students who coughed up their guts
in Bat Passage G.B. Cavern,
was it the same weekend?

 

[pete h]

Also wanted to add that it does feel that over the last 10 years the feeling towards club rivalry has changed some what.  Gone are the days when the Wessex would break into the Belfry to drink the booze when the BEC were at their dinner or the BEC would black paint out the wessex windows.  Or alarm clocks would be set off at 15 min intervals in the Wessex on their dinner night, or the Wessex windows would be covered with no smoking signs....

It seems that clubs and the people within them change with time.  I think there are a couple of over exuberant BEC members who are trying to keep up with old times but the Wessex has mellowed even more (if that is actually possible) and other clubs just don't see the funny side anymore.

I guess the area is over for this sort of behaviour on mendip.

Han

I have been involved in the friendly rivalry for 30 years but in the past no damage was done, now it is bordering on vandalism.
Yes we are mellowing as we get older but it also clubs are taking more pride in there huts which are becoming more expensive to maintain.

[quote author=busty_caver .  All recent BEC pranks have been actioned by the same two chaps and one of those is a wessex member himself so all friendly banter.

I would be interested to know who the Wessex member is so he can be contacted to help on our working weekend.
PM me if you like.

Pete H

 

[Ouan]

I am so sorry to hear about your missing bat. I'm sure that all you lovely people don't deserve to have such a historic club item borrowed.

...Taking other clubs signs/doors etc is all friendly banter and things are always returned... 

They aren't returned, they have to be fetched. The hut door had to be collected and refitted in the morning before anyone could go caving, ruining a day's caving for some.  Another club artifact was only recovered after a BEC member was threatened with physical violence.

 

[90em]

Just to clarify, three of us fetched the door and put it back, we still went caving and we saw the funny side (but agree, not everyone did). And the artifact was recovered in a drunken Saturday night tussle. 

 

[VivB]

Oh, the temptation to invoke my new favorite word "epicaricacy" is too delicious to resist!

 

[mrodoc]

I googled "epicaricacy" and it seems we have got a word for Schadenfreude