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darkside
May 19, 2012, 1:16 AM
Post #1 of 3
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Registered: Sep 15, 2001
Posts: 1687
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Last summer I was contacted by a person named Harold Oppelt from Vancouver asking me to do some climbing related work. This morphed into other tasks as well. This guy is an old guy over 80 who claims to own mining rights on lands above the Darkwoods property near Creston, accessed via the Topaz logging road. We struck a deal and he and his son met me and a friend in Creston. His story is of a lost mine that a century ago was abandoned and lost when deemed not economical. He has done some searching with the help of others but described these helpers as crooks. He claims one local guy found the tunnel but then refused to reveal its whereabouts. He was intrigued by a certain cliff also and wanted cliff face samples. Being over 80 he had his son accompany us to supervise the cliff sampling. Subsequent trips up there had me bushwhacking and looking for this tunnel and to obtain samples from Shaw creek in the same area. Although I eventually got some money from him, he ended up scamming me out of about $1000. He made various outrageous claims and initially refused to pay up. His excuses ranged from worthless samples, sampling the wrong cliff, searching the wrong areas, not searching at all, and sending him samples from my home area. He was a difficult person to work for, disagreeable, and showed a disregard for safety. Instead of allowing me to get a VHF radio for travelling the logging roads safely, he insisted there was no active logging and a radio wasn't needed. I met logging traffic every day I drove that road. He was supposedly my check in contact for the end of the day, you know the drill about telling someone where you are. One day obtaining samples from Shaw Creek left me bushwhacking through unending Devils Club with no trail and heavy foliage. When I eventually got back to the vehicle it was 10.30pm and after 11pm before I reached cell service. I was concerned he would be worrying about me being hours overdue but he wasn't even concerned, only about me having got his samples. Fortunately I was prepared for travel in bear country but he was the only person who knew just where I'd gone and I trusted he would be reliable as a check in. The reason I'm posting this now is I recently had an email from him with some bullshit story about him having some of my gear, specifically a rope that was abandoned after it became hopelessly caught on the cliff. It was an old tag line that I ended up cutting but he made no effort to reimbuse me for, yet offered to return it at my cost. I imagine the snow will be starting to clear at those elevations again and he had mentioned finding someone in the Nelson area to sample another cliff. I thought it was only fair to give a heads up on how he operates. If you or someone you know is approached to do any work for him, I'd prefer him to be unsuccessful at finding help although in the event you decide to do a deal with him, get your money up front, he'll try to scam you otherwise and I'm sure he'll refer to me as a crook just like the others before me. I have a reasonable idea about that tunnel but I'll be dammed if I'm telling the old bastard anything else now. As far as the climbing goes, it was definitely not worth the drive all the way back there although there were other cliffs along the way that looked impressive and Hulme Peak looked nice, even has some routes established. The route I did as a FA to sample the cliff is not worth repeating but for the record I named it Hang the Prospector 5.7r/x with negative stars. It was loose, dirty, and covered in bees at the top. If anyone cares to hear more details or has heard from him, feel free to contact me although I don't check these bulletin boards very often these days. I'll even give more climbing beta but trust me, Hang the Prospector is not worth it and neither is Harold Oppelt and his promises of rewards.
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Northern_blades
Jun 2, 2012, 8:49 PM
Post #2 of 3
(2137 views)
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Registered: Jun 2, 2012
Posts: 1
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Last Fall I was contacted by a person named Harold Oppelt from Vancouver asking me to do some climbing related work. This morphed into other tasks as well. This guy is an old guy over 80 who claims to own mining rights on lands above the Darkwoods property near Creston, accessed via the Topaz logging road. We struck a deal and myself and my climbing partner agreed to collect samples from dark woods His story is of a lost mine that a century ago was abandoned and lost when deemed not economical. He has done some searching with the help of others but described these helpers as crooks. He claims one local guy found the tunnel but then refused to reveal its whereabouts. (I have the e-mail) Although I eventually got some money from him, he ended up scamming me out of about $230. As i was forced to take him to court. He made various outrageous claims and initially refused to pay up. His excuses ranged from worthless samples, sampling the wrong cliff, searching the wrong areas, not searching at all, and sending him samples from my home area. He was a difficult person to work for, disagreeable, and showed a disregard for safety. After finding out I had removed the rope from the site, he filed a claim stating that the rope had been left up there intentionaly, and that I would be charged $2000 for him to have the rope place back in it's original location. (Hopelessly caught, and cut) Fortunately I was prepared for travel in bear country And everyone knew exactly hwere we were, we also wound up hiking out, byt the light on our GPS, through very similar terrain. The reason I am posing this now is because as a member of the "Kootenay Climbing" group this post popped up in front of me this morning and my blood boiled. This man had gone so far as to contact my place of employment to demand the rope be returned. The rope had also been brought up in court, where he had claimed the high value of climbing rope and attemped to have be charged for the value of the rope i stole, and the cost of returning it. I imagine the snow will be starting to clear at those elevations again and he had mentioned finding someone in the Nelson area to sample another cliff. I thought it was only fair to give a heads up on how he operates. If you or someone you know is approached to do any work for him, I'd prefer him to be unsuccessful at finding help although in the event you decide to do a deal with him, get your money up front, he'll try to scam you otherwise and I'm sure he'll refer to me as a crook just like the others before me. I have a reasonable idea about that tunnel but I'll be dammed if I'm telling the old bastard anything else now. As far as the climbing goes, We descided the rock was too unsecure to warrent protection, and hiked the far side of it, to rappel down. Congrats on the first ascent. the site was a death trap If anyone cares to hear more details or has heard from him, feel free to contact me although I don't check these bulletin boards very often these days. I'll even give more climbing beta but trust me, Hang the Prospector is not worth it and neither is Harold Oppelt and his promises of rewards. Harrold continued to state that had I done the job properly I would be local management in charge of the site. https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=AFAD976F610F4EF7!491&authkey=!AD5V-RCtzWFYuRw enjoy the picture
(This post was edited by Northern_blades on Jun 2, 2012, 9:49 PM)
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KelseyFranz
Apr 24, 2013, 4:19 PM
Post #3 of 3
(1788 views)
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Registered: Mar 20, 2013
Posts: 2
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Another scam is calling people claiming they can transfer, donate or cancel the timeshare for an upfront fee. Never pay upfront in the timeshare industry for a service. If you do, you are spending more money and getting nothing in return. There is a company called Mexican timeshare Solutions that works under a contingency basis and only collect their fee if the contract is cancelled. Otherwise, no fee is charged. http://www.timesharescam.com/
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