Thieves

A few years ago someone walked off with a Generator a few camp sites from mine. I was one of the hosts at the time and the ranger had us do extra patrols and told us to keep our eyes open for anything unusual from then on.

There was a road that ran around three sides of the campground and the camp site that was the scene of the crime was about 200 feet from the road. There was a three foot berm between the road and the camp sites that was moderately vegetated with indigenous plants.

It seems the thief stopped on the road, walked over, snagged the generator and walked back... well struggled back anyway as it was not a small one.


Several months later I had moved to another camp ground in the district. It was at the bottom of the bluff and could not be seen from the main road. There was an old housing complex on the bluff above the camp ground on one side and the beach on the other.

One end of the camp ground had the entrance road that curved in from the top of the bluff and the other end opened in to natural dunes.

I was the host on duty and the other host was gone for the week.

I woke about 7am to someone knocking on my door to file a theft complaint.

I wrote down all the information and proceeded to do my rounds. By the time I had made m rounds I had a half dozen or so complaints of various small items stolen from camp sites. I went to the entrance kiosk to do my morning paperwork and to call the ranger station. Before I could, one of the district maintenance staff drove in and reported smoke from the dunes about a hundred yards off the end of the camp ground.

I reported everything to the ranger when he came on duty and he went to investigate around 08:15 or so.

I went to the picnic table of the camp site closest to the center of the camp ground and spread the word for anyone that was missing anything to report to the site. I took detailed reports and while everyone was still there the ranger called and asked me to send anyone that was missing anything up to the residential street at the top of the bluff via a small path.

By the time I made my way up there the ranger had a suspect in the back of his pickup and a wide array of camping supplies.

Lanterns, ice chest, fuel, pots and pans, all sorts of stuff.


Turns out that three young guys in their early 20's late teens had wandered in to the camp ground, collected everything they needed and then camped out in the dunes! Two of them left when the sun came up and they left their buddy sleeping to take the rap.

With the exception of some steaks and beer and firewood everyone got their stuff back, thief went to the pokey and the ranger and I had a nice laugh at the kid's expense.

The funniest thing was that there was a plastic tub full of kitchen utensils left over and no one knew who they belonged to. Around dusk a guy shows up at my site to report the theft of his stuff. Turned out he was working in the area and was living in the camp ground for a couple weeks during his job. He left for work before the sun came up and never noticed his stuff was gone.

He was amazed when I told him the story of the morning's events while we waited for the ranger to bring his tub back from the office!




Thing is that camp grounds are no different than neighborhoods. Bad elements get in so it is best to keep your valuables either locked up or out of sight.

Most theft in camp grounds is opportunistic so basic safety and security measures will thwart most camp ground thieves.

I've been lucky. I use multiple locks, including a security chain through both handles of my generator (it is a 3000 watt porker), combined with a tailgate hinge lock. That way, I don't come back to a truck lighter both a tailgate and a generator (here in TX, tailgates are very often stolen, since they cost $2000+ to replace, not to mention the repainting costs.)

So far, the worst I've had stolen was a leaf bag full of camp trash and "output" from my bag toilet. The thieves stealing that did a pretty good job of pulling by my truck, relieving it of the bags, then hauling out like they filched the Hope diamond.

The one thing I've learned by living in the city. If you can't cement it down, use bolts. If not bolts, security chains, if not security chains, cables, if not cables, wires. Then after locking it down, insure it. Otherwise, some tweaker will be enjoying their meth rock on your dime.

Dakzuki wrote:

jdog wrote:
Here we go again. This time my $70.00 macerator extension hose went for a walk.

Hopefully the thieve(s) will use it for drinking water.

That is just what I said to my wife! Hope the person doesn't know it's a sewer hose!

Dakzuki wrote:

jdog wrote:
Here we go again. This time my $70.00 macerator extension hose went for a walk.

Hopefully the thieve(s) will use it for drinking water.

Just what I was thinking.

jdog wrote:
Here we go again. This time my $70.00 macerator extension hose went for a walk.

Hopefully the thieve(s) will use it for drinking water.

We stayed one night in a WA state campground just west of Mount Baker.
We did not tow a vehicle in 2013 so we marked our site with our two bag chairs.


We got back late that night and found the two chairs gone.
We thought maybe a neighboring camper borrowed them but was not the case.
I was bummed out because they stored perfectly in our outdoor storage.
The following morning we were moving on and stopped in at the office to report the theft.
The ranger had the chairs in her office, someone turned them in as "left behind".
Go figure.

So.....

Sometimes the story can have a happy ending.

You guys need to pick your trailer park a bit better. In the campground where I am, I leave my folding trike sitting out unlocked and no one bothers it.

All kidding aside I have seen one dude had one of those fence chargers hooked up to the frame of his RV trailer...

Of course in todays world you would be the one that goes to jail for hurting the thief...

All I can do is just keep everything out of sight the best I can.. Anything important to me is secured and under a lockable hard folding cover in the bed of my truck and goes where I go... I have motion sensor lights come on when I leave my trailer unattended but of course that probably just gives them better light to work with...


darn shame....

Roy Ken

Next time just wire it to 120 volts, and beleive me they'll still be laying on the ground when find them. Just kidding.

Ah man, I'm sorry to hear that. :(