thieves at Rondeau
well overall we had a nice 8 day stay at Rondeau provincial park (north west end of lake Erie)
With the exception of the first morning I woke up to find my cooler missing and only the cooler with the adult beverages,,,, of course.
I found my ice and a couple water bottles that were in there a couple sites down on the side of the road. being not quite 7 am the park wardens don't get there until 8:30 or so I called and left a message to get on their list of priorities. then went for a bike ride up and down the camp ground roads to see if I could spot either my cooler of remains of the wine bottles of beer cans that were in there, but no luck. I did bump into a few early risers out for strolls and asked if they heard anyone partying late, or seen anyone wondering the park with a cooler, and found to my surprise that I was not the only one victimized that evening and that was not the only night that has happened, it has been ongoing as far back as 3 weeks prior to a friend of another camper that was there then.
When the park wardens came around they were very courtious, and concerned, and also mentioned there have been several complaints, they did not mention it was ongoing though. They took my report and description of cooler(coleman stainless steal model) and total contents.
So we headed up to CTC in Bleinhem to get a part for one of the kids bikes, I bought a new cooler and on the way back new contents. However that evening I got out a 12 foot length of chain and a ratchet strap with the ratchet under the bench, strapped it to the picnic table bench and then put the chain around the bench and through the handles and a heavy padlock under the bench (out of plain site) then cut a big piece of cardboard and in magic marker wrote a note to the thief encase he returned describing what a lowlife piece of s##t he is and telling him where to go (i put the note out of site of the young'ns during the day) I also dug up a motion light that I has made into a portable light that could be hung under my awning with the cord cable tied under the unit to hide the plug, the sensitivity was set so it would come on if anything got within 5 feet of the awning so not to be set off from anyone walking down the roadway.
Sure enough, on the third night it was set off and my other half awoke to the sound of someone running out of the campsite, she made the decision to save me from some jail time by not waking me up, I did however criticize her for not contacting the police like the park warden had said if we spotted anyone prowling.
That morning on our walk to the comfort station we saw not one but 2 coolers along the side of the road dumped out. later I went for a ride around and found 3 more with evidence of another 2 having been dumped (Ice and soft drinks laying in a pile but the cooler gone)
The OPP were brought in on Wednesday, I had a conversation with the officer and she said she will be patrolling the park till 6 am both Wednesday and Thursday and gave me her cell phone number in case we see anything, I asked her would it not be more proactive to have a plain clothed officer or 3 in the park to be more covert as the site of a police car and uniformed officers will surely deter the thief and they won't catch him, I have no idea if anything happened these evenings, however the following Saturday someone lost a cooler.
the park did little to nothing to warn people of the problem, which you don't want to spook people but the best to deter a thief is take away the temptation.
by the amount this was happening I have no doubt that it is someone outside the park, not a camper, and the wardens suspect the same.
I would only hope and pray that this scumbag happens to make a little to much noise and gets beat to within inches of his life by a pissed off camper
Perhaps 2017 should mark the end of the lease for the cottages that surround the campgrounds.
With the exception of the first morning I woke up to find my cooler missing and only the cooler with the adult beverages,,,, of course.
I found my ice and a couple water bottles that were in there a couple sites down on the side of the road. being not quite 7 am the park wardens don't get there until 8:30 or so I called and left a message to get on their list of priorities. then went for a bike ride up and down the camp ground roads to see if I could spot either my cooler of remains of the wine bottles of beer cans that were in there, but no luck. I did bump into a few early risers out for strolls and asked if they heard anyone partying late, or seen anyone wondering the park with a cooler, and found to my surprise that I was not the only one victimized that evening and that was not the only night that has happened, it has been ongoing as far back as 3 weeks prior to a friend of another camper that was there then.
When the park wardens came around they were very courtious, and concerned, and also mentioned there have been several complaints, they did not mention it was ongoing though. They took my report and description of cooler(coleman stainless steal model) and total contents.
So we headed up to CTC in Bleinhem to get a part for one of the kids bikes, I bought a new cooler and on the way back new contents. However that evening I got out a 12 foot length of chain and a ratchet strap with the ratchet under the bench, strapped it to the picnic table bench and then put the chain around the bench and through the handles and a heavy padlock under the bench (out of plain site) then cut a big piece of cardboard and in magic marker wrote a note to the thief encase he returned describing what a lowlife piece of s##t he is and telling him where to go (i put the note out of site of the young'ns during the day) I also dug up a motion light that I has made into a portable light that could be hung under my awning with the cord cable tied under the unit to hide the plug, the sensitivity was set so it would come on if anything got within 5 feet of the awning so not to be set off from anyone walking down the roadway.
Sure enough, on the third night it was set off and my other half awoke to the sound of someone running out of the campsite, she made the decision to save me from some jail time by not waking me up, I did however criticize her for not contacting the police like the park warden had said if we spotted anyone prowling.
That morning on our walk to the comfort station we saw not one but 2 coolers along the side of the road dumped out. later I went for a ride around and found 3 more with evidence of another 2 having been dumped (Ice and soft drinks laying in a pile but the cooler gone)
The OPP were brought in on Wednesday, I had a conversation with the officer and she said she will be patrolling the park till 6 am both Wednesday and Thursday and gave me her cell phone number in case we see anything, I asked her would it not be more proactive to have a plain clothed officer or 3 in the park to be more covert as the site of a police car and uniformed officers will surely deter the thief and they won't catch him, I have no idea if anything happened these evenings, however the following Saturday someone lost a cooler.
the park did little to nothing to warn people of the problem, which you don't want to spook people but the best to deter a thief is take away the temptation.
by the amount this was happening I have no doubt that it is someone outside the park, not a camper, and the wardens suspect the same.
I would only hope and pray that this scumbag happens to make a little to much noise and gets beat to within inches of his life by a pissed off camper
Perhaps 2017 should mark the end of the lease for the cottages that surround the campgrounds.
