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Vicky's avatar
Vicky
Explorer
Jan 03, 2016

Break-In

Our new-to-us, winterized fifth wheel was broken into during the past month and I need help understanding how the person(s) did it. Our trailer is on a permanent site in a small, rural area park. Park owners are very consciencious but our unit backs up to several miles of wooded area. Park owners noticed fridge vent cover was off and left on top of the camper. I gave them permission to enter the trailer and they reported it looked like a tornado went through it. I drove to the camper to find a gut-wrenching mess. It was apparent someone was, at some point, living in our trailer...probably just during the late night-early morning hours. Windows were covered from the inside so no light would show to the outside. One tv is missing and the other plus a dvd player were on the couch as if they were going to come back and take them also. I could give a thousand more gory details especially about the bathroom stool, but I'll get to my questions. The lock on the door did not appear to have been tampered with but the screen to one of the small rear windows was carefully cut around the frame.Obviously that screen is inside the actual window. I thought that window couldn't be opened from the outside without structural damage and it is so small, I question how anyone but a child could get through it. Are the locks on campers easily "picked"? Is there a way to jimmy the windows to get them to release? The windows are the typical ones where you must squeeze two buttons/knobs inward together and lift at the same time to get them open. Sheriff's deputies weren't even going to make a report for my insurance until I really pushed them because there was no "forced entry".

Second question involves pipes and plumbing. Incoming water was shut off but the slime-balls brought a gallon of water in the trailer and, among other things, shaved a beard and brushed their teeth in the bathroom sink. Am I right in assuming anything they put down the sink drains went directly to the holding tank and doesn't pose quite the freezing danger as if there was incoming fresh water in all the lines. Along those same lines, I need to deal with the literal mess in the toilet stool. Can I bring water in the trailer with a hose and use it to drain the stool, then run a lot of water into the holding tank and drain it again without worrying about freezing issues after I leave the trailer.

I'm sorry for the long post but I truly need help dealing with this. I should tell you there is something about this horror that is hysterically funny and each time I want to cry, I think about it. After I winterized the camper and just before I left, I put down 3-4 of the insect glue boards all over the trailer and the two-legged animal who came in our trailer stepped on at least two of them. There are pieces of the glue boards stuck all over the trailer where he had to pull them off. Even his rubber gloves he had on were wadded up in a ball with the glue all over them. He got alcohol out of the medicine pack and used it and cotton balls to try to get the stuff off. I just wish I had been there!!!!
  • That's a terrible thing to have happened. Too bad the dirt bags weren't caught. Without careful examination it would be hard to speculate how they got in. Probably the window. Or maybe a key. A lot of RVs share the same key cuts.
    Anyway, that's why you have insurance. Once cleaned up and reconditioned, it will be like new again. I would insist on replacing or re-coding the locks.
    Good luck and ask for a space in the front of the storage lot instead of the back.
  • Don't quite understand how access was done through the window without the police seeing it as a "forced" entry, especially if the screen was cut. Doesn't make sense unless the entire window was popped out of the frame.

    Sorry your your troubles.

    To clean the toilet and and such, you can run water through a garden hose (even if there is snow on the ground) as long as the water does not sit. You can clean up the mess, and then drain your holding tanks immediately. Unless you are in minus 100 degree weather, you should be able to clean it up, rinse it down, and flush it out before any freezing takes place. Just don't let the water sit giving it any chance to freeze. Drain all your sewer lines when done too.
  • I think master keys are fairly easy to get for the door and storage compartments as well. I normally keep my RV unlocked with very little things of value in it. Thieves can do an enormous amount of damage just to gain access to the interior. A hard lesson learned with my HD ultra when a thief damaged both saddle bags and trunk just to find my hat. I never lock my convertibles either for the same reasons.

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