random camp search

[<3Tea]

hey guys so some random shit happened on Saturday night that was a real buzz kill and on the infuriating side.

So after a long tripped out Saturday full of dancing, screaming, and other coachella musts we headed back to camp to do regrouping and some epic relaxing. Now i dont know exactly what camping area we were at but we were in between the after hours techno dance tent thing, by the lockers after you get searched to go in. More directly in the isle with the blue peace flag.

So we get back to the tent, our neighbors are there and its like HEY OMG HOW WAS IT, blah blah blah. We sit down and start talking, catching up on everything. Its completely dark, only about 1/10 of the campers were back, and it was very quite. So im sitting there with my eyes closed almost in a trance and someone walks up behind me and says, "Hey guys what are you doing"?
I turn around, as im the closest, ready to meet someone who i thought was someone walking through our camp. I look up and its some eh 270pound white male with a number 1 hair cut.
i say " nothing much just chillin, whats up"

"Random search guys, where is the glass"
"uh what?"
he the turns on his flash light and precedes to shine it around our tent. Shining it on top of our cooler where my sac was sitting with a grinder and a pipe. He then tells me to give it to him, saying
"give me the bud comon, and the pipe, and grinder.
He ever raised his voice almost yelling at me to put a stem with about .1 on it sitting in the cooler cupholder into a plastic bag.
He then tells us to hand over anythin else if we dont hes going to get the cops and they are going to search our camp. we tell him we have nothing even though we had out bong behind my friends leg, and a few handles.

So to shorten it up they leave and were like wtf really. Is that aloud, blah blah blah, just going off. We/I were tripped out to challenge the guy and it all seemed to happen so fast and be so real. One of the girls with us was then like, something along the lines of he has to be fake, he walked up asking us for glass ( pipes, bongs) Then said bud, and when seeing the stem he said hand me that nug. Its too unprofessional.

we all look at each other and decide to follow them

As it turns out there were three of them. All some of the biggest people ive seen. They were driving in a golf cart one in the back, he looked sumoan, shinning a flash light at camps as they drove by. They were stopping randomly sneaking in on people with there backs turned only. They all had handles of alcohol they had taken, and a sack full of drugs. We talked to a few campers who were raided as well, all were completely unsuspecting.
We then found a group who when raided asked for proper id. but never received any, just the flash of a worker id. They also still turned over their drugs


So here is my theory.
These no love ass's were working somewhere at coach, probably in security. When they got off they took the golf cart and decided to get people that just had gotten back and were sitting the most unexpectedly. I think because they know anyone who is just sitting there after the show in the dark is fucking tired and has been on drugs all day, and is the easiest pray. I back this up with, when we were following them they drove past every camp where people were standing around talking and drinking, they only walked into camps where the people were doing nothing. These guys actually went around acting like security, scaring people, and walking away with drugs. Its really sad and upsetting. I dont understand why anyone would do that.

to wrap it up i want to know how this was aloud to happen. How was this not reported. how was this golf cart aloud to drive around. If they were security why were they ONLY sneaking up on people not checking everyone, or only stopping where the people were to rowdy. i know why because if your too rowdy your drunk. if your drunk your going to question some ass fuck trying to take your herb. If im trippin im not going to be a man throw my balls at you stand up and say lets see some id. they knew that and thats fucked.

any way, that ends my rant. empathies or troll me, either, i just wanted to put this out there and hear other peoples opinions or similar stories. especially if it happened to you

This was probably the most fucked up thing ive ever seen at a music festival. worse than personal health, the lines, tazing naked wizards, and the restrooms.

......but ill still see you at coach 2011+

[Errant]

Sorry you lost your stuff. That's the risk you take when bringing it in. Next time try to be a little more discreet with it (keep it out of plain sight) and you might get to hang onto it

[frozen pilgrim]

errant, go fuck yourself. CSC this year was (literally) staffed primarily by criminals doing "community service", people who were kicked out of basic training, and unemplyed inbred pieces of shit from inland CA. I mean, not EVERY person was awful, of course I ahd positive interactions with some csc staffers. but the overwhelming majority of them were worthy of a cold hard slap in the face at the very least

[shoegazer76]

Everybody pack some mace next year.

[myelectrolife]

I saw a CSC guy take some weed from a guy on Sat. I dont know exactly what happened cuz I was just walking by. But I heard the CSC guy yell something like "Go get the fucking cops! Ill tell em you had this weapon on you (while holding up a very small pocket knife)". I think he may have been searching people without probable cause and taking drugs.

just a speculation though...

[<3Tea]

Sorry you lost your stuff. That's the risk you take when bringing it in. Next time try to be a little more discreet with it (keep it out of plain sight) and you might get to hang onto it

I thought they searched our cars when we came in to make sure we didnt have drugs. If i got it through why would i ever expect another search. And I dont see the point of being discreet. we were in a tent in the dark at about 1am. but..... you are right.

At least it was just my sac, and only had about an eighth left. They could have gotten my whole parties.

[frozen pilgrim]

honestly, if the ONLY thing goldenvoice does is promise not to hire CSC again next year, it'll make up for everything else that got fucked up this year.

[Reidiculus]

Yep, same thing happened to us. In fact I think the group you were talking about who asked to see their I.D was our group. We asked him to show us I.D, and he refused for a while then when he finally pulled out his wallet, he flashed some dinky laminated card. Same Samoan dude with his two lackeys. He confiscated a little over an eighth of our bud, our piece and to add insult to injury, the jackass took a small pocket knife that was sitting out on our car seat.

[oklein]

The same guys you mentioned came up to our campsite. Out of the blue, the came up and asked my friend "What are you holding?" He was not even holding anything and they just sat in the golf cart by our campsite for a good three minutes watching our every move. They had no reason to even come up to us. This is Coachella. There are some of the most zen and nice people I have ever met, and the true assholes who want to try and ruin someone's weekend. Like please get off your pedestal. You guys work security (maybe not) and your job is to bust kids for having a little pot? Really? Its Coachella. Your chances of finding weed is too easy. You just need to have your small power trip because after this weekend you will go back to your ugly wife and go to bed knowing you are no one. Fuck.

But I love Coachella.

[Giannid6]

Reading this thread infuriates me.

[a fart joke]

think they came up to me too, I was sitting in my car in the evening. Big black guy and a bigger white guy who asked me what I had in my hand... I said NOTHING and he told the big black guy "See guess you were wrong then" and then they walked away. What the fuck.

[mfnalaska]

I added this elsewhere, but I am retelling it here for obvious reasons...

I was laying on the ground in our campsite on Saturday afternoon with a bunch of empty chairs around me, so it must have looked like no one was there. I heard rustling around one of the tents, and sat up to see two yellow shirted CSC security guys. One of them was standing and looking out over the tents, and the other one was kneeling, poking his head into my friend's partially unzipped tent, so I watched him quietly for a minute to see what would happen. When he came out empty handed, he reached to his right and pulled my messenger bag closer to himself, and dipped his hand into the (thankfully empty) front pocket. That's when I came unglued. I yelled, "What the fuck are you doing?" and they both jumped, and the kneeling guy fell back down onto his ass. They both started bee-lining for a way out of our camp, but our tents were really close together, so they kind of trampled my friend's tent on the way out. I was yelling after them kind of incoherently, and I should have followed them to wherever they were posted. A few minutes later I went to the closest post (between camp fields) to report what happened, and that security guy literally laughed at me, saying, "Ma'am, we have a right to be anywhere on this field at any time." I am absolutely confident that if I hadn't been there, we would have been robbed.

[eskamo951]

honestly, if the ONLY thing goldenvoice does is promise not to hire CSC again next year, it'll make up for everything else that got fucked up this year.

This. I feel less safe with CSC on site than if we had no security.

[e_rupt]

http://www.csc-usa.com/Contact.aspx

[ELECtROjan]

You guys are being ridiculous. You brought in an illegal substance that is clearly not allowed at Coachella and you are complaining about it getting confiscated by security due to their professionalism and/or how they look? I agree that they were incredibly unprofessional and unhelpful all weekend but when it comes down to it, it is your fault for being stupid with your drugs in the first place.

also... Since when does security where all black and have bandanas covering their faces? If there was an actual problem it would have been near impossible to find them

[mfnalaska]

http://www.csc-usa.com/Contact.aspx

Good call, thank you. I have 15 emails to send tomorrow.

[<3Tea]

You guys are being ridiculous. You brought in an illegal substance that is clearly not allowed at Coachella and you are complaining about it getting confiscated by security due to their professionalism and/or how they look? I agree that they were incredibly unprofessional and unhelpful all weekend but when it comes down to it, it is your fault for being stupid with your drugs in the first place.

also... Since when does security where all black and have bandanas covering their faces? If there was an actual problem it would have been near impossible to find them

... are you kidding me? your actually standing up for them like what they were doing was legit and keeping us safe. did you even read this thread or just assume security is perfect? Please tell me how i was being "stupid with my drugs" last time i checked no one in California cares about pot. Especially at a music festival. So how is sitting in a dark tent with a little baggy of weed being stupid with my drugs?

Off to send many many emails, maybe they can do some background checks before they hire criminals.

[daxton]

You guys are being ridiculous. You brought in an illegal substance that is clearly not allowed at Coachella and you are complaining about it getting confiscated by security due to their professionalism and/or how they look? I agree that they were incredibly unprofessional and unhelpful all weekend but when it comes down to it, it is your fault for being stupid with your drugs in the first place.

also... Since when does security where all black and have bandanas covering their faces? If there was an actual problem it would have been near impossible to find them

Shut your stupid face.

[choprite]

errant, go fuck yourself. CSC this year was (literally) staffed primarily by criminals doing "community service", people who were kicked out of basic training, and unemplyed inbred pieces of shit from inland CA. I mean, not EVERY person was awful, of course I ahd positive interactions with some csc staffers. but the overwhelming majority of them were worthy of a cold hard slap in the face at the very least

this is really true if youve ever dealt with any security team east of the 15 (esp. at edm events)

they're all fucking trash that steal drugs (i say steal since there's no fucking way that someone acting as shady as CSC is legitimately confiscating anything).

[krisskross]

wow. this is fucking ridiculous. im sorry you guys went through this. really bums me out.

[drewniverse]

http://www.csc-usa.com/Contact.aspx

^ contact them

Also, contact the police. Contact the management company that hired CSC. Contact GV. CONTACT EVERYONE!

If you were really assaulted or truly believe the yellow-shirts from CSC were performing criminal acts then you should take it to the right people and not just this forum.

It's already pretty evident people are having similar experiences.

Just sayin...

[jaysocal]

In the United States, any current location that you are living is considered home and PERSONAL PROPERTY. This extends to tents, RVs, and vehicles, regardless of if you are on personal property or not. That being said, Security has no right to search your tent, RV, or vehicle once you have established that you are living in it. An officer has the right to search and seize anything that may be in plain view. However, if you are living in a tent for the weekend, this is considered your home. Therefore, an officer must either have probable cause (this means that THEY must witness a crime or have a specific reason to search your property ) or they must have a warrant to search your property.

Don't believe me? There have been no fewer than three court cases that have extended the US 4th amendment right against illegal searches and seizures to tents and RVs:

United States v. Gooch, 6 F.3d 673 (9th Cir. 1993)
LaDuke v. Nelson, 762 F.2d 1318 (9th Cir. 1985)
LaDule v. Castillo, 455 F.Supp. (E.D. Wash. 1978)

This is the case summary for US v. Gooch: http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c....92-35428.html

If this happens, you have the right to say NO. At that point, the security guards can ask a sworn peace officer under California Penal code section 830.2 to either obtain a warrant and search your property or determine if probable cause has been met. Either way, any contraband that the police may find that was obtained through an illegal search and seizure would not be admissible as evidence by the courts.

The CSC security people at Coachella were especially douchey this year. I was surprised at how intense their searches were and how rude they were. Granted, this general statement does not apply to everyone, but in previous years, I don't recall that they were this bad. I hope that they decide to go with another company in future years. This was my 6th coachella and security was by far the worst ever. The funny thing is that the Indio police were generally nice, personable, and respectful of everyone. I especially enjoyed the "Amnesty Boxes" at the entrances and thought that was a nice touch to reduce the (what I am sure is) overcrowded Indio jail. My understanding of the police presence at Coachella is twofold -- (a) to catch individuals who are selling drugs and (b) to protect the patrons. Needless to say, the CSC security folks really seemed like they were just out to get patrons (who, by most accounts, were not really causing any major harm).

Shame on CSC!

[Radiohead]

My story's not as bad, but as long as we're bad-mouthing security:

On Sunday afternoon I was heading into one of the beer gardens to wet my whistle, and one of the security guards stopped me. I assumed he just wanted to check my wristband, so I held it up so he could get a good look. The he said, "No, no, your water bottle. You can't take a full water bottle into the alcohol area." I was totally confused, and said to him, "That doesn't make any sense. Why would there be a problem with taking water INTO the beer garden?" And he goes, "That's the rule, man. Pour it out, down it, I don't give a fuck. You're not bringing it in" I know he was wrong about this, but I decided to chug it and get on with my life.

Shouldn't these guys know the rules? And even if they don't shouldn't they have the common sense to figure out that there could never be a problem with bringing water into the beer garden? Totally obnoxious.