Grand Theft Jet Can

I was the victim of a robbery, and could do nothing to prevent much less retaliate against the antagonist.

Last night I was mining in my Bantam at the Caldari starter system, so it's very safe 1.0 space. I was jet can mining, which is to jettison your cargo from which a jettison cannister (jet can) is created. The reason for this is usually because your cargo hold has a small amount of storage space, but a jet can has a huge amount of space of which you can move units from your cargo hold to the jet can. That way you can stay out at the mining site for a very long period of time.

Part of that strategy includes hauling your mined ore back to a star base for refinement. Ideally you'd also be able to pilot a hauler, or have someone who can do so for you. To put in perspective the advantage of hauling the ore is this. Once created the jet can only lasts about two hours before it self destructs, losing everything left inside of it. Before I got my hauler I can only haul about 1,800 units of ore, and when my jet can has about 90,000 units of ore that's going to take some time getting them back to the star base. With a industrial ship hauler like the Badger, I can get all units to the start base in 2-3 trips.

While doing this I'm watching an episode of The Wire. So within ten minutes of the end of the episode, my jetcan has over 60k units of massive scordite. I continue my mining and the show is nearly over when I notice that my ship is moving, wtf!

Just then a Badger comes into view, pushing my ship out of the way. My heart sunk because I knew what was happening. Sure enough the amount of massive scordite in my jet can dropped by three-quarters. I didn't know what to do, what can I do? Because of his theft the dude was now red to me so I'm free to attack him without retribution from Concord (space police), but I can't attack him because I've got no firepower. I don't have corp mates who can help (the dude was in the same starter corp as me).

So I started hauling ass back to the star base for my hauler to save what was left from my hour of work. Just as I'm about to dock my PC freezes up, so I rebooted. Once logged in I swap ships for my hauler and warped back to my bookmarked jet can. It was gone when I had arrived. That dude was sitting right there, silently mocking me. I lost a ton of ore and a lot of money for it. I turned my hauler around and went back to the star base.

In a way this was good to have experienced this robbery. There was a lesson learned here. After last nights experience I moved my mining operations two jumps away to another system. Last nights drive-by theft was the first time that has happened to me, but it has made me keenly aware as to what's needed to be cautious.