thieves at Rondeau

[relaxin]

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.

[buta4]

Bob B wrote:
The only thing I ever had stolen at a campground was a hot dog......Laid it down on a picnic table seat that was beside me.....got some mustard...reached back over to get it and it was gone.......No I wasn't drunk.
I put another on there for bait, and out of the dark comes a really big coon. Freaked the daughter out, and she wouldn't get out of the camper for the rest of the evening.

LOL

[Bob__B]

The only thing I ever had stolen at a campground was a hot dog......Laid it down on a picnic table seat that was beside me.....got some mustard...reached back over to get it and it was gone.......No I wasn't drunk.
I put another on there for bait, and out of the dark comes a really big coon. Freaked the daughter out, and she wouldn't get out of the camper for the rest of the evening.

[bsinmich]

In Algonac State Park in Mich. it happens where the highway goes past the CG in the fron row of campers. I know that isn't in Canada but if you look across the river you see Canada.

[DiskDoctr]

Put a hornets nest in a cooler. By the time they drag and shake it to the woods, they should be good and awake- even at night!

Guaranteed to ruin someone's night 😉

Problem is, you'll be tired the next day from laughing all night when you hear the screaming and cursing.

[buta4]

relaxin wrote:
I doubt this was the work of some 13 or 14 year olds, and it was definitely not someone in the park(a camper), the rangers found a couple coolers and non alcoholic contents dumped out outside of the campgrounds, like it was a gathering point, constant repetition, someone is stockpiling,,, either for winter or to sell. I have a strong suspicion that its someone over 19 is alone or with buddies at one of the cottages.

I have Never had this happen in a provincial park, I have had it happen a few times in conservation areas, but there is a noticeable difference in the to types of parks,, and how they are run,, if you are in Ontario or spent time in several of both you would know what I mean. and have had it happen in private parks.

when ever I have run into this in the past its only 2 or 3 coolers, not 8 9 or 10, and its a couple teens or early 20 somethings that run out of booze, some end up getting caught the next day when they leave all the evidence laying around their campsite, especially when theres wine bottles that they can't explain where they got because they can only be bought at the winery which at that particular place is 100 and something miles away and they have no clue where.

Theft is theft no matter how you try to dress it up, its not kids being kids,,, its someone being a criminal and they need to be treated as such, back when I was a kid you did not do sh** like that cause if you got caught you would get beat real bad not just by the person you stole from but your parents to,, and the cops if they were called, there was non of this whiny liberal BS "ohhhh but he/she is just a kid,,, being a kid"

X 1,000,000!!

Blame Dr. Spock --- where molliecoddling the brats became the accepted the new norm.And as brats get older, they don't mature, they just remain brats.

[relaxin]

I doubt this was the work of some 13 or 14 year olds, and it was definitely not someone in the park(a camper), the rangers found a couple coolers and non alcoholic contents dumped out outside of the campgrounds, like it was a gathering point, constant repetition, someone is stockpiling,,, either for winter or to sell. I have a strong suspicion that its someone over 19 is alone or with buddies at one of the cottages.

I have Never had this happen in a provincial park, I have had it happen a few times in conservation areas, but there is a noticeable difference in the to types of parks,, and how they are run,, if you are in Ontario or spent time in several of both you would know what I mean. and have had it happen in private parks.

when ever I have run into this in the past its only 2 or 3 coolers, not 8 9 or 10, and its a couple teens or early 20 somethings that run out of booze, some end up getting caught the next day when they leave all the evidence laying around their campsite, especially when theres wine bottles that they can't explain where they got because they can only be bought at the winery which at that particular place is 100 and something miles away and they have no clue where.

Theft is theft no matter how you try to dress it up, its not kids being kids,,, its someone being a criminal and they need to be treated as such, back when I was a kid you did not do sh** like that cause if you got caught you would get beat real bad not just by the person you stole from but your parents to,, and the cops if they were called, there was non of this whiny liberal BS "ohhhh but he/she is just a kid,,, being a kid"

[relaxin]

Wrong Lane wrote:
We had a rum bottle stolen off our picnic table one night. Unfortunately for the thieve it contained naphtha fuel.

The original naphtha can got dropped and punctured and the only available empty, none plastic, container was a rum bottle and necessity being the mother of invention, the bottle became a fuel container.

I often wonder if the thief survived?

LMAO !!!

gets what he deserves, cough cough puke gag, geez that might curb one persons stealing habbits

[relaxin]

garyhaupt wrote:
From my experience at Shuswap Prov Park over two summers, it sort of runs in cycles. We'd go for a couple weeks then all hell would break lose. Even during the day. In two years we never caught anyone and that wasn't from lack of trying. We'd lie doggo out in the weeds and nothing...go have lunch one day and the radio would just take off, with reports of mad campers, coming back from the beach to no beer, no dinner steaks.

And the economics of having the police spending much in the way of resources just doesn't make sense. A cooler is anywhere from 20-100 bux. Some beer or food...a few more dollars vs $100,000 a year for a patrol officer doing that rather than their regular work. I know..it sucks, but there it is.



Gary Haupt

understandable, however when several sites are being hit every other evening for weeks on end, then I would say its time to bring in the police, confidence in the security of the park, everyone's ability to relax and enjoy themselves without having to worry about someone prowling around your trailer or tent at night while you and your children are sleeping.......

I have a police officer that lives next door to me and he is an avid camper, he said himself "give me a free site for a weekend and I'll catch the guy"

[Tom_N]

Campfire Time wrote:

Tom N wrote:
This is a common occurrence in many RV parks.

What kind of places do you camp at? In over 25 years of camping we've only run into this kind of thing a couple of times. So yes it happens, but I don't consider it common.

Ever been to the "Redneck Riviera", Myrtle Beach?

[tony_lee]

Isn't it the same as leaving valuable stuff on the footpath back home and expecting it to be there next morning.

[DiskDoctr]

buta4 wrote:

Wrong Lane wrote:
We had a rum bottle stolen off our picnic table one night. Unfortunately for the thieve it contained naphtha fuel.

The original naphtha can got dropped and punctured and the only available empty, none plastic, container was a rum bottle and necessity being the mother of invention, the bottle became a fuel container.

I often wonder if the thief survived?

LOL. Similar to a thread somewhere in here about someone who would gift wrap his trash/garbage in a box and leave it in his pickup bed and park in a shopping mall lot.

When he got back to the P/U his trash/garbage was gone!

Awesome 😄

[buta4]

Wrong Lane wrote:
We had a rum bottle stolen off our picnic table one night. Unfortunately for the thieve it contained naphtha fuel.

The original naphtha can got dropped and punctured and the only available empty, none plastic, container was a rum bottle and necessity being the mother of invention, the bottle became a fuel container.

I often wonder if the thief survived?

LOL. Similar to a thread somewhere in here about someone who would gift wrap his trash/garbage in a box and leave it in his pickup bed and park in a shopping mall lot.

When he got back to the P/U his trash/garbage was gone!

[Dog_Folks]

2RR2NV wrote:

buta4 wrote:

poncho62 wrote:
Not saying that its right, but put the cooler and beer away.......Kids are kids.....and they were that way when we were kids too.

That's odd. The inference that kids were that way when you were young?

I was a kid once also and myself and my friends NEVER went around stealing other peoples' property.

same.

Of course, having a Dad with hands as big as your head (with room to spare) kinda keeps ya in-line. oh, and living in a 1000 person town helps. everyone KNOWS everyone and what's going on. Thievery only became a concern when baddies were showing up from out of town. grrr.

Have to agree. In our small town, our parents knew about any shenanigans we where responsible for, BEFORE we got home.

[Wrong_Lane]

We had a rum bottle stolen off our picnic table one night. Unfortunately for the thieve it contained naphtha fuel.

The original naphtha can got dropped and punctured and the only available empty, none plastic, container was a rum bottle and necessity being the mother of invention, the bottle became a fuel container.

I often wonder if the thief survived?