Theft

CincyGus wrote:
Food from the cooler by the mask wearing night bandits before I became smart enough to only leave drinks in the cooler and put all food in the frig.

The mask wearing night bandits got into our cooler and hauled out beer. Cans had tooth holes in them.

Our family has been camping for over 65 years. Neither my folks, ourselves or my 3 brothers or DW family has had stolen while camping. My opinion is that campers are in general way more courtious and honest than the general population.

Now a few squirrels, birds or other pests have made off with some peanuts, or munchies,

And more than once other campers have offered us extra fish or crabs from there daytime outings!! We reciprocate with munchies and desert around the campfire.

Had a fox, steal half of a new pair of my wife's boots from outside the camper door at Moosehead Lake Me. Ranger told us it happens all the time, they bring them back to the den for some reason.

donn0128 wrote:
I think the theft issue is worse the closer you are to a big city. Used to camp at a NF camp ground in the Mt Hood NF, but it got invaded by a bunch of non english speaking peoples. They thought everything was theirs for the taking. One fells saw them in his boat on the lake. Others reported coolers and another canoe gone. The camp host was so frustrated they swore they would never come back to this park. We haven't been back since that weekend.

Were they a group of gypsies? My grandparents and my dad didn't speak English. Maybe it was one of them. Were they from Slovakia?

I was camping in Oceanside on the beach park, and a guy in a 400 year old Winnebago stole my rusty, worn out grill. Several years later, I went back there and he was there USING my old grill. That's all I ever had stolen.

brirene wrote:
No, I've always heard it in the north too. You folks getting offended, please relax. Just an old saying meaning to take minimal precaution "to keep the honest people honest". We all know honest people won't steal it anyway; dishonest people will find a way to take it no matter what, if they want it. I'm sure no offense was intended.

I've heard this before as well. grew up in the nawth but spent a lot of time as a kid in SE Missouri. if honest people didn't need to be kept honest then the personal lockers in a police station wouldn't have locks on them. ;)

The only time I had things stolen was years ago when I was parked temporarily at a customer's industrial facility in Gardena, CA. I had a motorhome at the time and it was situated within a fenced area. Somebody drove their vehicle into the fence gate one evening while I was away, knocking down the gate in the process. They then proceeded to force their way into my RV and stole lots of stuff. In retrospect it was really my fault for parking my RV in such a high crime area, notwithstanding the fact it was fenced in.

Since that fiasco I've always stayed at commercial RV parks and have never had anything stolen. The only item I leave outside besides lawn chairs is my bicycle, which is chained to one of the landing jacks with a Kryptonite chain and lock. Sure, someone with a large bolt cutter may be able to break it but in an RV park I think that's a remote possibility. I bought the bike for $75 from a friend. If I had paid many hundreds or thousands of $$ I would probably store it inside my RV, which would certainly be a pain.

I had an axe stolen,
then a pair of lawn chairs
a bundle of 5/16 rope, about 100 feet,
a lantern on a propane bottle
a 20lb propane tank
a radio with cassette deck off picnic table, (we were snoozing in the tent)
beer out of a cooler.(no I did not drink it, it was stolen) Then.
an entire cooler with contents figured must have been teenagers cause both places there was a group of them eyeballing sites at around nightfall
next time I see a group doing that I am going put a triple dose of EXlax a couple beer bottles put the caps back on and leave them in a 6 pack box on the table

I watched a teenager walk right up on a campsite and into a trailer about 10 minutes after the owners left, my son knew what site he was on. so when they got back a couple hours later from the beach, we ask them if they knew that kid, nope they did not other than he had befriended their kid earlier that day, a watch and some change was missing which the cops made short work of retrieving to the embarrassment of that kids parents as they were told to leave the park, as the cops hauled the 16 year old for multiple counts of petty theft throughout the park.


all the thefts that happened to me were over 35 years of camping, so its not terrible, but it can and does happen

My wife and I were camping at Millersylvania state park in Washington state. We had a small camper so our two coolers of food for the next 4 days were outside. We went for a short walk, about 10 minutes, and both coolers were gone. Come to find out the local teens staked out the sites and wanted to score on alcohol, which they did in this case. Ranger found our coolers later on, all the booze was gone and the food thrown around as if they had a big food fight.

Lost some croissants to a skunk once. He was welcome to finish them.

Had an axe and some firewood stolen once.

In the driveway at home I had the battery box stolen. No battery, that was in the garage for the winter.