Campground registration cards Possible home break in.

I cannot imagine living where I did not know my neighbors.
My wife knows the names of the grandchildren of everyone in our small subdivision!

I do a lot of deer hunting and I use game cameras during the hunting season.During the camping season I have them set up to take pictures of my driveway and the back of my house. We live in the country so it's always nice to see who is coming in going from my driveway. The cameras won't stop someone from breaking in but at least you will get a tag number even at night. The cameras also time stamp the date and time on each picture. The newer more expensive ones will call your I Phone and you can see real time who is around your home.

Okkkkkk... I have to jump in on this one.

We've lived here for 12 years and it's been mostly crime free. Last summer we had two day time hits just around the corner from us. Then we recently had 2 burglaries in our laps! This is a very quiet neighborhood. The last burglary was only ONE HOUSE away! The next door neighbor also found her back gates open and her front door knob was loosened to the point of falling off. The police feel her barking dogs scared the thug off so they moved to the next house. They cleaned that neighbor out... guns/passport... tools...jewelry .. even copped his vintage Mercedes and wrecked it. He's elderly, lives alone, and he was only gone ONE NIGHT. We felt/feel sooo bad for him.

With the increase of drug abuse and easily purchased highly addictive street drugs times are a changing. This isn't paranoia speaking.. I worked in a local ER for years and I watched the waves of patients go from your typical weekend (fairly amusing) drunks getting a little too rowdy and punching each other out to vicious completely crazed Meth/Heroin addicts hauled (in wearing multiple restraints) screaming that they will kill you and your family when they see you again. It was unnerving to say the least.

It is VERY OBVIOUS when we are gone as we park our TT and tow vehicle out in front of our place. We had an out of state family reunion we had to attend just 2 weeks after our neighborhood was actively getting hit and nothing had been solved - no one had been caught. We did not feel good about leaving at all. So, we did some research and purchased a very affordable home security system that we installed ourselves. (Simpli-Safe). We got it set up. (easy job).. tested it for 3 days, and sent the necessary paperwork to the Sherriff's office, fire dept etc. We left here knowing that we had done ALL we could do to protect our home. We don't have a cache of super valuable things.. but once you've been burglarized you lose your sense of security in your home. There's NO WAY to put a price on that.

I'll just say this (and I'm not trying to stir up any battles). EVERY PERSON I KNOW who's EVER been burglarized puts in a security system A-F-T-E-R they've been cleaned out by some low life thug. We decided to get proactive, and put in a system before anything happened. We took 4 RV vacations this summer and it was a huge sense of relief knowing that odds were very high that if someone broke in they would be caught, and at the very least scared off when the 102 decibel "screamer" siren went off that we put in the highest peak of the exterior roof. We paid a little extra for heat sensors in the house in 3 strategic places. They say a pro-burgler will get in if they want in, but if they manage to make it past the door/window sensors they will have to be walking on the ceiling to avoid the rest of the system. Also, it's not run off the phone line (so cutting it is useless). It's all set up on wireless, with batteries that last 4 days in the event of a huge power failure.

Best money we've spent. We leave feeling good, and not looking over our shoulders worrying. Being proactive does not = paranoid. It just means your paying attention.
.
.

jessjerr, you may think that is not a chance.. but the time my house was broken into, I was gone over a holiday weekend, so I guess it was obvious I wasn't here. Not sure if they saw me loading truck or not, since I was tent camping that weekend.

FYI, several of my neighbors have commented on when my trailer is home and when it is gone and even more commented when I got the new trailer... and I don't know most of these people, they just know I live in the house at the entrance to the subdivision.

Eycom wrote:
LOL... when the burglars show up at my address while I'm away camping, they're gonna find a ton of mail. Mine and a whole lot of other peoples'. Imagine the value of all those bills and catalogs!:B

Actually, it might be valueble to them...credit card statements, bank paperwork, even DMV paperwork!

If they know you're gone for a while, maybe they'll decide to use your house to whip up a quick batch of meth in the kitchen!

So, let's see, I have my TT parked next to my house all year long. So am I supposed to worry that when we leave on trips the crooks, burglars, low life's and assorted whatever will notice my TT is no longer there so I must be away! Perfect crime scenario! Sorry, I am aware but not paranoid about it. Out having fun and enjoying America.

Jim & Betty wrote:
I camp hosted in Oregon for PGE we did not put names on any site just the reservation number and day out. On a first come first serve site just the tag with number and date out no names no addresses.

jimR

that makes sense to me. personal information on a registration tag would be like me having my exact home location programmed into the GPS in the car. :h

I camp hosted in Oregon for PGE we did not put names on any site just the reservation number and day out. On a first come first serve site just the tag with number and date out no names no addresses.

jimR

Crooks are not dumb nor lazy much of the time. They are crafty and thievery and other crimes is their life. there are centers, of a culture of crime.
Rest assured someone has looked at RV net and other RV sites looking for folks away from home.
Too many clues and you might come home to a shell.
With license plate readers and hacked or other access to particulars of your plates, they can scan all the out of state cars, for who is away from home. A care full of traveling gear etc and....
There is always someone home here, even when we are gone.
RVers generally have more disposable income and more stuff the crooks want.

A long time ago I was advised not to put my return address on luggage tags for the same reason. A person stationed at the airport or boat dock will make note of family travel and notify associates of the house numbers. The home address is kept inside the suitcase or on the back of the label. When driving and sight seeing while on vacation we also take the RV park car tag out of the windshield. Same reason, why tell people the RV at XYZ is unoccupied.
Basically, although we have never had a problem in our years of travel, and although most people we meet along the way are honest, wonderful, friendly, and memorable, it never hurts to be cautious.
Happy Trails