Thieving

[SteveW77]

I have just returned from a week away in my 2 month old Eccles Moonstone, on the last day, some kind soul stole the cover off of the gas vent for the water heater. It was there in the morning when I filled the aqua roll, but it had gone when we returned from a day out.

Surely caravaners are not descending to thieving to keep their vans up to scratch.
A new one on E bay was only £14.98.

Steve W

 

[Philspadders]

just take alook around any dealership, caravns cant be veiwed unless chaperoned and those that are open ar missing door knobs, handles, you name it. Caravaners will spend thousands on their van but will quite happily knick a £2.5 door knob.

 

[Gagakev]

Sorry to hear of your theft Steve, It's a sad old world out there, but one thing comes to mind and I dont know if I'm right or wrong but I was told to always remove said cover before using the heater. This I do when I first fill the aquaroll.

Phil, dont know what area you are from but if dealers insisted on Chaperoning us when we started to look for a van I would not even
walk around there site, dont do pressure I'm afraid.

 

[SteveW77]

Sorry to hear of your theft Steve, It's a sad old world out there, but one thing comes to mind and I dont know if I'm right or wrong but I was told to always remove said cover before using the heater. This I do when I first fill the aquaroll.

Phil, dont know what area you are from but if dealers insisted on Chaperoning us when we started to look for a van I would not even
walk around there site, dont do pressure I'm afraid.

I did not remove the cover because I was not using gas to heat the water, I was on an EHU, so was using the electric to heat the water.
Steve W

 

[starlightdj]

Hi steve,

the same has happened to me twice, once at Black Beck in the lake district and the other at warren farm in somerset.
Both times the water heater cover was attached in the morning but gone in the evening, The annoying thing is as like you I dont heat the water on gas so never remove the cover ordinerily, however when i do occasionally to check all is ok its a sod to get off as a really tight fit so the theives must have to give a good tug which must make a noise but nobody ever notices.

However the worst theft i saw was on a site in blackpool, A motorhome went out for the day and left on pitch the aquaroll waste tank and steps when they came back and all had been taken, luckily the caravan opposite this time did spot what happened and noticed which unit they were taken too and took the drivers car reg plate before they left the site, I would love to of seen their face when the police turned up on their doorstep.

Hopefully this is a one of incident for your good self, and hope you can put it to the back of your mind and carry on caravaning.

cheers
John

 

[Rodger Dodger]

Hi Steve,

So sorry to hear of your loss of the £14.98 gas vent cover, still take a positive view, it wasn't your 2 month old Eccles Moonstone.

Thieves can strike anywhere it seems.

Regards

Dodger

 

[DaisyMoo]

Hi Gagakev
I know what you mean about pressure of being chaperoned when looking round vans, and I don't like it either. BUT I can see if from a dealers point of view, and the ones I have spoken to have all had things stolen from their vans - all of which have to be replaced. One dealer even had an oven ripped out of one of his vans!

 

[Dustydog]

Steve
What a shame there are such selfish rsoles out there willing to steal others hard earned property.
You've now set me thinking about all the kit we leave in the awning, eg walking boots cost £120 etc.
Maybe we need a caravan neighbourhood watch scheme when on site??

 

[cairntess]

Just to add, We were on the Clumber CC site last when cycles were taken during the night from the awning, slashed the awning open with a stanley knife, its put me off Clumber.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Just to add, We were on the Clumber CC site last when cycles were taken during the night from the awning, slashed the awning open with a stanley knife, its put me off Clumber.

This has happened lots of times at Clumber Alan. The last I heard was that they had a compound for people to leave their bikes.

 

[Philspadders]

the problem with Clumber is its close proximity to Worksop, Clipston,Mansfied Woodhouse and the easy access in to Clumber for the boy racers that drive aroud at night.

 

[SteveW77]

Surely every site is in close proximity to some town or another. Are you suggesting that the residents of the particular towns you mentioned are more inclined to indulge in petty theft than the residents of other towns?

I would like to point out that the theft I was complaining of was I believe carried out by a fellow caravanner, not a member of the general public.

Steve W

 

[Steve L]

Sorry to hear of your loss steve.

There are some right bar stewards out there and by no means are they all boy racers or the younger generation.

I caught a neighbour causing criminal damage to a truck of mine back in the 90's. You see, he didn't like me parking my VW LT35 curtain side truck on my own drive. (you know the type).
He first of all started bending the wiper arms, but graduated to knocking down my long range spot lamps that I used when driving at 3am to get to kent by 9am and then back to brum and home to leominster.

So having been attacked for several weeks I got even. I dabbed super glue on the backs of the lamps and hey presto the culprit spent the night stuck to my lamps. Admitedly he did try taking me to court, but as the front of the truck was 10Mtrs from the pavement, the judge accepted my excuse that "I must of dripped the glue while trying to repair the built in screen washers on the wiper arms that "someone" had bent! Can't think who!!?? And as he was 10mtrs into my property he was there by design and not a drunken stagger.

Chummy got a suspended sentance and a hefty fine for criminal damage and he also unfortunately lost his job in a phyciactric hospital as they don't accept criminal records.

That was an expensive bit of neighbourly love!!

Now while I do not recomend my approach today, there are some very good permanently wet marker inks available that not only permanently tattoo the culprit, but also collects their finger prints should they be stupid enough not to wear gloves. These should be avaiable for about a tenner from your local security alarm/consultancey company.

I must say that on the site where I permanently spend the summer, there has only been one incident in 3 years. The local crims don't come round. Perhaps they know I'm here?

These days the fuzz are more interested in you not tripping up a burglar while performing a citizens arrest than detecting crime.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all,
the problem is towrags are every where even on quite rural sites the best way to protect your stuff is to lock it chain it and keep it out of sight, its a sad world but there it is.

I like some others have said I dont remove the cover from the heater when using only on electric however my approach is sligtly different because I have drilled two small 1/8" holes in the cover one at the top and one at the btm and inserted a couple of self tapping screws it wont stop the cover being removed but does act as a deterent for theives especialy as the screwheads are torx and yes the aquaroll wasehog and step ARE chained to the van once sited and nothing is left in the awning if we go out also ehu cable warter pipe ect are marked with the car no in perminant marker pen,

thefts from vans while on site may well be a rare occurance but why "chance it" if the thieves do pass my van and see it secure they will go elsewhere may be even to your van????.

regarding steves reminisence "nice one mate" these days a CCTV would do just as well. we have "3 all round the house" including one IR INSIDE the garage.

it did remind me though of the one and only occasion we had a problem. a few years ago when touring with the m/home being on site near to pitlocry and within easy walking distance to town "that was when the wife could walk" we got back from town to the to find some ************ had tried to steal the step from outside of the van unfortunatly for him it was chained to the van and he had cut his hand leaving a trail of blood down to a van 4 pitches away where there was guy of about 60 on his own with a bandaged hand,
the police officer who came out to the site cautioned him. for attemted theft and accepted that his injuries were not my fault,
as I explained he had headbutted my fist several times, the site owner kicked him off site immediatly for his own safety as several other campers want a piece of him,

 

[cairntess]

You guys are making this caravanning lark sound frightening. !!

 

[ProfJohnL]

Sorry to hear of the theft, and sorry to add to the tales of woe.

Once during the NFOL, a serious theft tookplace, some kind person, took a liking to a Carver Cascade 2 Burner module, that was in use in a caravan. The thief removed the unit from the heater some time during the day and left it spilling out gas. Thank God it was a windy day so all the gas disipated. When the owners returned they found no gas and when they connected up thier spare bottle they discoverd the leak due to the missing module.

How dangerous that could have been if ther had been less wind and the gas had collected.

 

[Steve L]

You guys are making this caravanning lark sound frightening. !!

Don't worry Alan.

I've caravanned for over 25 years and only had a handfull of memorable times for the wrong reasons.

Where I am based is a very safe site. There's plenty of crunchy gravel about so you'd hear anyone walking round.

There's only been two sites in the uk where I've felt weary of. One at Steeps on the edge of Glasgow where they had razor wire on 8ft high steel compound fencing around the site to keep the local's out and funnily enough a site (***kally)in pitlochry, where it is apparently the local haunt of the previous city's tourist's.

Fortunately we were on a 4 van tour of Scotland and so we arranged an overnight watch at Glasgow.

 

[JonnyG]

You guys are making this caravanning lark sound frightening. !!

The ranks of caravaners is made up of people from all walks of society, possibly just like the neighbourhood you or I live in.
So there is always a chance of coming across some low life scumbag, but that shouldn't put you off ,you just need to be vigilant as you would in your own neighbourhood