Another caravan stolen - Friday the 13th!

[JohnJ_5040720]

We've been caravanning for 11 years with no problems.
Now today, in broad daylight have had our two year old van stolen!
Angry, frustrated, stunned to say the least.
Stored at Father in Laws small holding just off A14 near St Ives, Cambs, we had a chap knock the door and think he was surprised anyone was in. He made some strange excuse asking if he was in a particular village and we knew he was dodgy. Thinking he was looking to break into father in laws home, we phoned later to tell Father in Law to keep his eyes open. Only to get a call back to say the caravan had gone!
Hitch lock jemmied off. Wheel clamp cut off. Alarm ignored? Now let's see if the tracker works!
So, if anyone saw a swift Challenger 580 se being towed away by a Suzuki Vitara....hardly a good towing match...on or around the A14 between St Ives and Cambridge this afternoon, please let me know.
Ba****ds!

 

[Norwichbluenose]

Hopefully the little buggers will rot in hell

 

[Mel]

Sincere sympathies John. Hope they catch him.
Mel

 

[Gagakev]

Sorry to read this John, sincerely hope they get him before he does any damage, pity you cant express your true thoughts on here!!!!!!

 

[seth1]

Real bad news, its now unbelievable,the world we live in.Three weeks ago i had my house broke into and my nine month old staffordshire bull terrier stolen only to then get run over outside of my property all at lunch time.Even got witness,s but sadly the police cant do much about it.Did manage to get a crime number off them though.

 

[Sproket]

John
Hope you get it back in one piece ...

 

[Raywood]

Sad to hear of the problem. Hope the tracker works,

 

[Craigyoung]

Sorry to hear that , I to hope the tracker works and yous get it back soon , I thought getting our car MOT'd yesterday on Friday 13th was bad enough ! Hope you get some good news soon .

 

[GrahamE]

Sorry to hear this, have you notified @CARAVANTHEFTALERTS on twitter. might be some help.

 

[Dustydog]

John.
I hope the Tracker does the job it's designed for and the police catch the sh*ts.

 

[Parksy]

I'm sorry to see this, it's really bad news.
One can only hope that the thieving toerag will be caught but sadly that's unlikely.

 

[mealsonwheels]

Ugh!! This is awful reading and something all caravanners hope never happens to them, but can, however much security measures we take. We all feel for you and fingers are crossed that the Tracker system works as it should. The scumbags that do this kind of thing have no idea the misery they cause.

 

[Sproket]

I do hope it's as good as they say

 

[Raywood]

I did see that Preston caravans got a caravan fitted with a tracker back in five hours but given the delay this one looks like professionals who knew about it and how to deal with it.

 

[JohnJ_5040720]

Well, more than 24 hours now and Tracker Company haven't picked up a thing.
Police scenes of crime man came out this morning, but as expected only showed that gloved hands were used to rip off number plate etc. He suggested that the van may have been put in a "container" or "the thieves" located and destroyed the tracker. It seems another caravan was also stolen a few miles away yesterday,,so maybe a link?
Biggest lesson learned is that if we replace the van ( or get ours back) will always empty the van as much as we can whenever possible.
Also, might look at secure storage in future. Although, worked out that we've had a van stored in the same place for 11 years now, which is over 4000 days and nights but only had 2 incidents ( 2 too many!) in that time.

 

[ProfJohnL]

............... might look at secure storage in future. ................

Hello John,

I'm really sorry to hear of the loss of what was probably one of your pride and joy's. I'm inclined to agree with SOCO's conclusions. Sad really sad.

Ill be positive no - when you get you new caravan,it really does make sense to clear it of any high value or particularly personal items when it not being used.

I have to pick up on one comment you make in your posting above, there is no such thing as secure storage for caravans, not even the CaSSOA sites. You will still be wise to remove personal and valuable items.

 

[Dustydog]

I'm very sorry the Tracker didn't succeed. At this juncture you don't want the original back. Hopefully your Insurers will settle quickly and get you back to caravanning.

My main concern is that the Tracker has now been tested for real and for reasons unknown failed.
I pay Tracker £140 per annum for their 24 hour cover. A requirement from our Insurer. Is it worth it? Probably not.
I understand there are two types of Tracker . One satellite linked the other radio type waves. The former will only work in line of sight whilst the one I have is allegedly not blocked by being placed in a container.
I also thought disabling the Tracker was nigh impossible as it is buried deep inside the body work???
I suspect your Swift is well on its way to colder Eastern climes.

 

[Raywood]

The problem with fitting the Tracker as standard is that many thieves will know it is there and therefore take steps to deal with it. I think the only long term way is for them to locate it and remove it, it depends where it is as to what damage this causes. Possibly fitting them as standard means they are in a limited number of places and thieves know where to look. I am told there are scanners available that can locate the Tracker so if this is true then there usefulness is limited.
There is no doubt they do work as Preston Caravans also had one stolen and it was recovered within 5 hours. The fact they have them may put other thieves off taking a Swift you just do not know. Nothing is perfect so you have to do the best you can and hope yhat it is enough.

 

[extrucker]

Hi, there was a couple on our local tv who had their van stolen. The police had to go to a travellers site on another matter, but found the stolen van. The couple can't have it back because there is a family living in it. The ins,. Won't pay out because it has been located. They will have to go through the courts to try and get it back. You couldent make it up could you!

 

[SteveW77]

What kind of tracker was it? the type that you have to tell them it's missing, or the pro-active type that flags up as soon as the van is entered or moved.

 

[JonnyG]

Hi, there was a couple on our local tv who had their van stolen. The police had to go to a travellers site on another matter, but found the stolen van. The couple can't have it back because there is a family living in it. The ins,. Won't pay out because it has been located. They will have to go through the courts to try and get it back. You couldent make it up could you!

umm sounds exactly like the daily mail story from april 2013 which was told on here,except in that version the owners had no insurance. and that's why a civil action would be needed. if they had had insurance, it is the duty of the insurance company to take action as it is their duty to return the caravan ie check it for damage prior to returning it, or pay out. sadly i cannot find any update to said story to what eventually happened..

 

[MichaelE]

Firstly sorry to hear about the loss of your van, happened to me around 7 years ago , van was easily replaced but additional security features and storage were made by the insurance companies.
It was all the little bits and pieces which took ages to replace.
The trackers fitted to Swifts around that time were Tracker retrieve, these are always on standby and are awakened by Tracker when you report the theft to them. They work on VHF technology so can be tracked even if hidden in a container .
The Police have VHF tracking units in there cars and they look for the signal so unlike GPS they dont actually know where it is? They rely on picking the signal up if in the vicinity .
As with most units they are standalone units and are hidden in the same places in the caravan , they need to be accessed as the batteries don't last forever so if you know this info then easy to dispose of.

 

[JohnJ_5040720]

Thanks Michael, that's interesting.
Just checked and my factory fitted tracker was indeed the Tracker Retrieve. My Swift is just coming up to 2 years old.
With Hindsight, surely a Tracker that emits a signal on any movement therefore alerting you instantly must be better than one that's only activated after the event. Perhaps hours or days afterwards?
Going to cheer ourselves up and visit the Caravan Show on Thursday! Although clearly it will be a few weeks before we will be in a position to replace. Assuming it's not found that is!
Things could be worse I suppose.

 

[SteveW77]

Thanks Michael, that's interesting.
Just checked and my factory fitted tracker was indeed the Tracker Retrieve. My Swift is just coming up to 2 years old.
With Hindsight, surely a Tracker that emits a signal on any movement therefore alerting you instantly must be better than one that's only activated after the event. Perhaps hours or days afterwards?
Going to cheer ourselves up and visit the Caravan Show on Thursday! Although clearly it will be a few weeks before we will be in a position to replace. Assuming it's not found that is!
Things could be worse I suppose.

In other words, the system used by the Phantom Pro -active Tracker.

 

[MichaelE]

Or like the sure track i have on my van , i only have to move it 100 yds and i then get a txt alert saying its been moved, i then have to alert them if its not me.
For this monitoring you do pay extra though.
The ones that are not linked to alarms are better as they have a build motion detector, the other ones rely on the alarm going off to activate.