Thieves

Sad to read this thread.

We travel rather spartan by design, usually not with anything we don't want to lose, but we've never had anyone lift anything from us.

Thieves tend to be opportunists, and I always do my best to make it difficult for thieves to pack off with stuff. For example, we travel with our two bicycles. During the day, we usually keep them parked somewhere alongside the coach, but at nighttime, I wheel the bikes around the backside of the coach and chain them together. They are still outside, but it would be a real hassle for a thief to pack off with them.

The only thing I've ever had taken was a Sony Reader at a NJ SP - I had accidentally left it in a common area (playground). I've never had anything taken from our camp site, and there's always stuff sitting out. We almost always stay at SP, PP, NP and NF campgrounds.

It is really strange of what items disappear. I had a small folding military shovel taken from my camp site while we were gone one time.

Last year while spending a month in Winter Haven, FL we had left the campground for the day but left my leveling blocks on the table ten of them, & when we returned someone we assume had walked off with one of them. Still don't know why someone would only take one unless they had damaged one of there own, or lost one & only needed one? They needed it worse than I did I assume.

We have had some close encounters with overly-friendly rowdy types at King City CA campground which is a really nice place to camp otherwise. There is a state prison nearby. We moved our rig to where there were more rigs parked.

Willing to bet it wasn't campers!!

Sad to here of theft problems.... In my experience almost all campers are honest.

I learned, if you see them, find somewhere else to go. The local LEOs are very hesitant to arrest the bums, because they know the police car will get soiled, which means three hours of desk duty as the vehicle gets decontaminated. The smaller Texas cities deal with this by having extra patrol cars at the ready.

We were in the Calf. Russian river area, near Guerney Ville. A lot of California bums roaming around there. I noticed the hose missing after that trip.

Big Sur in CA had a reputation for "hippies" stealing camp stuff for resale at swap meets, don't know if it still does, but where ever there are colonies of jobless ner-do-wells hanging out, expect possible theft. Try to camp with other campers, parking your rig where it is isolated invites unwelcome visitors. It's wise to be a little paranoid.