We have been hearing of more and more theft lately, but maybe that’s just because it’s the holiday season and porch pirates are more active than ever (ugh). But let’s talk about campsites for a minute: Have you ever had anything expensive stolen from a campsite before? If you answer yes, will you please share with us what it was and tell us about your experience? Thanks!
Have you ever had something expensive stolen from your campsite?
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I believe most people are honest, and among campers, share a common bond. I also feel that more often we hear the bad news instead of the good. The bad apples spoil it for everyone. Lets hope the results of this poll show that out.
Augusta, Ga., we pulled into a campground and finally got a person to help us find a spot. After parking the rig in our campsite, we took off to the store to get some supplies. When we came back, I noticed one of the compartment doors open. Two of our personalized camp chairs were missing. The only person around was the guy cutting grass. He seen nothing, we were only gone for less than 20 minutes. I did change all the compartment locks afterwards from the standard locks.
Lesson learned.
Lost a cooler full of adult beverages once. Work camped at a large campground in Va. Theft there was rampant.
The one & only thing, in 13 years of fulltime travel to every state at least once, & Alaska twice, was a $5 folding camp chair we left on our site in an Alaska NF campground while we went into town for something.
Not expensive but did have a thistle feeder disappear – saw it on a nearby camper’s tree the next day.
Lost a cooler with drinks. There was a fairly large group of young people tent camping a few camp sites down that had young people walking past all day. The next day as we were packing to leave we found the cooler full of water and sodas gone. No adult beverages, probably a bunch of disappointed kids. Drove past their campsite and they were gone.
Yup, my bad.
I mistakenly left the storage door open and my new Honda 2200 generator grew legs and disappeared. Totally my fault, but why would a camper steal from a fellow camper? Sad, but true.
Someone who steels from you is at fault, you are the victim!
It’s not always campers . One state park we stay in has a warning about theft. Talking to the ranger,he said it was people living in the town that come in usually late and get what they can.
I live by this motto: “If you want it to stay around, lock it down.”
Fortunately we have had no theft Loss. My DW makes sure everything is inside when we take a day trip, even the fly swatter!
Never had a problem, we keep our outdoor stuff to a minimum. We have a weber grill that is locked to the MH with a cable. Will do the same with bikes and kayaks. Depending on the campground we’ll lock up our zero gravity chairs. If someone really wants to steal they can, at least this keeps the honest people honest.
Lost a generator that was bolted down and a surge guard. Really makes you feel violated.
I had a $5 chair (with my name on the back of it) and a small Walmart folding stool stolen while I was in my camper at an expensive RV park. At another park they took the stool, but left the chair (I suppose that thief could read).
If raccoons are considered thieves then Yes to the survey
Same with me. I spent all day fishing in the rain and brought back a very nice catch, all cleaned and ready to cook the next day. That night my Mother heard someone moving around in our camp but saw no-one. Next morning the Racoons got into my cooler and ate all my fish. To make it worse, they ate the remaining minnows left in my bucket. This is one theft that I found amusing.
No. Nothing expensive is outside without adult supervision.
Back in the late 1970s, I was in a national park & returned to our campsite from a day of exploring. While I was washing my hair my brother went into our big tent & informed me my backpacking tent & my sleeping bag were gone. Since it was my birthday, I thought it was the start of a (good) birthday surprise. Nope. They were gone. Between that & finding on arrival that the Park Service had farmed out the campground to a concessions operation, I just couldn’t stay there any longer. We packed up & drove through the night to a different part of that state.
Never had anything expensive stolen from my campsite but did have an almost new car dollie ($1800) stolen from my rented storage site several years ago. I still get mad as hell when I think about it, there is nothing worse than a thief except a murderer.
Exact same answer. ‘cept our dollie was valued at $3,000!
Just replaced it with an identical one that is several years older for $1800. Arrrgh!
We have been RVing for over 22 years and we have never had anything taken. But we travel with 3 Dalmatians so I’m sure that’s a deterrent if someone comes onto our rented lot.
Yes one time. Not sure how to define expensive. In 10+ years only thing that has disappeared is a brand new, only once used, 10 foot section of sewer hose. It was our extra for use when need more than our in use 10 footer. It was encased in our section of pvc pipe which was tied to and on our car carrier trailer. It happened last year while in a RV park in Shipshewana.
Only thing stolen on a regular basis is peace and quiet when the generator starts up.
One Time… one (1) bottle of booze and the ‘kids’ came back the next night and sheepishly fessed up.
define ‘expensive’. early in our RV adventure we did not have a toad. we were in a state park at the Covered Bridge Festival in Indiana. one Sunday morning we left a few things in camp as we took off in the MH to see the sights. returning several hours later we discovered one camp chair, a camp table and a 20-amp electric extension cord had been taken. the chair, a ZipDee stainless model was the most expensive item taken. everything was easily replaced but i was P-Oed. moral of the story: if you don’t want it stoldn by some low-life then lock it up
We generally stay in State Parks, and never had anything stolen.
We’ve never missed anything in upper mid-west travels. In fact, we used to leave for a hike or swim and left everything out and not even locked the door! At nite I put the chairs etc., underneath the motorhome. We stay mostly in NPks or SPks as they have some roving patrols. It would be interesting to know where the thefts are more prevalent – albeit, it is spreading to this area as well – so the emphasis is on “used to”. We now stow and lock when leaving or sleeping. (Never lost anything in over 20 years however).
The only two times that we splurged on expensive coolers they were both stolen. Once was at a state park in Idaho the second was at a state park in Oregon at a Host site no less.
I had a propane tank stolen at Pismo Sands R V Park near Pismo Beach.
It was stolen by someone in the homeless camp close to the park.
The management knew about the problem and never told me.
They replaced the tank.
Driving a Class B, our motorhome is our driving around car, so we just unplugged and headed out for the day. Once, working a weekend event, we came back in the evening and all our gear was gone (several hundred dollars worth). Since then, we only plug in the electric and take our wire with us when we leave.
ONlLY once and not AT campsite but while traveling….crooks punched door lock while in ABQ and rifled glove box and got 300$ emergency cash.
FYI, ABQ is the armpit of New Mexico………avoid it like the plague but enjoy the rest/normal part of the state.
Not sure why the adjective “expensive” is part of the question? It would be interesting to know if people have had anything stolen. We haven’t so far – knock on wood.
My site was stolen!! I was attending a music venue just upstream and came back after having left my chairs and tablecloth on the table to show this site was spoken for! A group of rowdy drinking men had moved in and when I asked them to leave that this site was spoken for – they told me my stuff was leaning on the tree and said they were not going to move – too bad! The next morning I told the campground office and they were “oh, Well” 🙁 Won’t go back!
I’m pretty sure someone stole our wheel covers from the storage space. We have high winds, sometimes, but all 4? They missed the one on the spare.
We lock up everything of high value on our campsite and so far so good. I’m glad to see the odds of not having our RV burglarized are still in our favor.
At the storage lot where my RV is stored my RV has had a break-in and the locks have been tampered with several times. One incidence they opened my RV sewer cap and valve and opened my fresh water tank cap. another someone entered my RV to change some of the fuses and they were not properly installed, the package of fuses were thrown into the cabinet next to the microwave. another time two RV’s in the other above and to the other side of mine. My light was also turned to on and they had played with the battery compartments trays, but I don’t store it with a battery. Another time the license plate holder – part of the tail light- was broken off. The tags were a month from expired, so I guess that was why it was on the ground. Also had the decorative end cap to the slide pulled off, new blind slat broken, bathroom vent inside decorative cover screws loosened, RV cover cut up high suggesting a tall person and new step handle rubber grip torn.
We ALMOST had our electric bikes stolen from a Harvest Host site in Albuquerque this year. The cable lock wrapped around the bikes connected to the bike rack was cut. In the dark, the thieves probably didn’t initially see the other three “U” locks, the Velcro straps holding the wheels into the bike rack and the locked bar holding the bike frames down into the bike rack. While it’s next to impossible to deter a thief who is intent on stealing the bikes, we try to make it as difficult as possible and take the longest amount of time. That was the only attempt we had over a 2-month trip through 8 states.
I* don’t own anything that’s expensive.