Campground registration cards Possible home break in.

[skyflyer]

I'm staying at a local campground for Labor day. Very nice campground but they are a first come park no reservations. It's not unusual for people to look at your registration card to see when you are leaving.

The DNR and campground host came by last night and pulled all registration cards off the site posts. Two campers had stick homes broken into and its believed thieves got their home address off the registration cards.

Both live in the same city near here but not close to each other.
Neither stored camper at home and didn't know each other.

The cards will be changed so home address is removed.

[campn4walleye]

We never give FULL info on those cards. We use only initials and give only the town. We trust no one, for those reasons. Better safe than sorry.

[packnrat]

this is the best reason to get a po box a d register all of your motor vehicles there not the home address,
also all of your dl and other mail has the box number
some one breaks into or takes your car while shopping at the mall, parked at the airport etc, they DO NOT get your home address.


.

[davidaf]

Our house was broken into 2 years ago next week. We were in Florida (via plane) and my grown daughter walked in on the intruder. Thank God he jumped out the upstairs window instead of something far worse. That was a life changer. He didn't get a cent, all the goods were down by the front door but he took our sense of security. I've not been 100% comfortable since, in fact I carried a revolver for the first month after, in my own house! Since this happened, nobody except my direct family and my neighbor the cop knows when we leave. Lights go on and off all night, mail is stopped, alarm is monitored 24/7, cameras send pictures when somebody passes certain points. Paranoid maybe, but think about my kid walking in on this again with a another outcome.

For what it's worth, I don't live in the poor part of town, but those folks have cars and can drive right in. Since the break in, my mail has been stolen several times and my truck was broken into. The perp that stole my mail was caught 15 miles from my house. They know how to drive to get what they want. So, what to do? Put the house on the market, sell the stuff and hit the road for a few years. 3 weeks until escrow closes. Dave, out!

[Tachdriver]

Sweet Ole Bob wrote:
I got a beware of dog sign at the dollar store and painted an "S" behind the dog
The I went out real early on morning to a neighboring subdivion and took one of those ADT Security signs out of someones front yard. Between the two I've not had any problems.

So you took a sign from from someone elses house to use at your house? :B

OK

[DiskDoctr]

PA State Parks fold up a piece of paper that has your full name, address, incoming and departure date, maybe even your phone number.

I said to DW one time that some day two campers are going to get into a fight and some nut will follow someone home using that paper. Only THEN will the parks change it 😞

IMHO, it is not a good practice. Name and dates are plenty of info for the card.

[relaxin]

Sea Dog wrote:

relaxin wrote:
silly rv'rs don't you know one of the biggest giveaways is when you park your RV in front of your house (some to possibly show off to the neighbors) and load it up wash it and do this and that for a few days to a week and then poof its gone and your house is quiet, what a better layed out sign that says "I am no where near so rob me" than that
My unit never sits on the driveway for more than 1/2 an hour. the rest of the time it is nicely hidden way out back behind my workshop not visible from the road hopefully soon to be in its own cozy little garage back there to not even visible to a tresspasser.

as an extra precaution I have someone feeding my pets they randomly leave things on like a tv in the family room then the tv in the guest room the next day, and they will shuffle vehicles around a couple times over the period of a week. plus I forward all my calls to my cell, so anyone calling to check and see if I am not home, will reach me.

I own a business which is a frequent target for thieves, and I have learnt from the misfortunes of my competitors

I did not realize that Fenwick had become a hotbed of crime!

crime happens everywhere. areas like I am attracts the criminal element from places like welland, thorold and port colborne, as the crackheads think we are all rich out here in the country. my company vehicles have alot of tools and materials,,, which is common for the industry, a competitor of mine way out in timbuck no where wainflete was broken into twice (over several years) both times it was obvious he was gone. A competitor and friend in a nice area of Niagara falls , who keeps a low profile got broken into a couple years ago while on a vacation in january, never touched his house, just a detached garage and his van, tools and materials. another guy in st Catharines had his van stolen, a tow truck backed up his driveway and hooked it up and hauled it away, he had the heavy locks on the side and back doors, they chopped through them with a cut off saw and emptied out the vehicle then torched it back behind the GM plant by the old Canal.

just a side note as to the price and tempation of scrap metal, a slaughter house in Allenburg (the HWY 20 bridge over the canal) that had closed had a couple criminals spend a weekend in there stripping out wiring and copper piping, estimated to be around 4000 pounds (I knew as I was asked to price some of the repairs by the property owner) 4000 X about $3 a pound at that time

its not a massive every day thing but it is something that if you have stuff that is easy to sell for a good buck,, that makes you a target and about 5 times more likely to have an issue that your neighbour

[Sea_Dog]

relaxin wrote:
silly rv'rs don't you know one of the biggest giveaways is when you park your RV in front of your house (some to possibly show off to the neighbors) and load it up wash it and do this and that for a few days to a week and then poof its gone and your house is quiet, what a better layed out sign that says "I am no where near so rob me" than that
My unit never sits on the driveway for more than 1/2 an hour. the rest of the time it is nicely hidden way out back behind my workshop not visible from the road hopefully soon to be in its own cozy little garage back there to not even visible to a tresspasser.

as an extra precaution I have someone feeding my pets they randomly leave things on like a tv in the family room then the tv in the guest room the next day, and they will shuffle vehicles around a couple times over the period of a week. plus I forward all my calls to my cell, so anyone calling to check and see if I am not home, will reach me.

I own a business which is a frequent target for thieves, and I have learnt from the misfortunes of my competitors

I did not realize that Fenwick had become a hotbed of crime!

[Sweet_Ole_Bob]

I got a beware of dog sign at the dollar store and painted an "S" behind the dog
The I went out real early on morning to a neighboring subdivion and took one of those ADT Security signs out of someones front yard. Between the two I've not had any problems.

[jessjerr1831]

Like I said, I am aware of it. but "Not Paranoid" about it. Also, on my lot that is the only place to park it. When I bought my TT I stored it at a RV Storage place for 3 months, was not comfortable with that at all. There have been numerous threads pro & con about storage lots, storing it at home. But, in my case this works for me.

[relaxin]

silly rv'rs don't you know one of the biggest giveaways is when you park your RV in front of your house (some to possibly show off to the neighbors) and load it up wash it and do this and that for a few days to a week and then poof its gone and your house is quiet, what a better layed out sign that says "I am no where near so rob me" than that
My unit never sits on the driveway for more than 1/2 an hour. the rest of the time it is nicely hidden way out back behind my workshop not visible from the road hopefully soon to be in its own cozy little garage back there to not even visible to a tresspasser.

as an extra precaution I have someone feeding my pets they randomly leave things on like a tv in the family room then the tv in the guest room the next day, and they will shuffle vehicles around a couple times over the period of a week. plus I forward all my calls to my cell, so anyone calling to check and see if I am not home, will reach me.

I own a business which is a frequent target for thieves, and I have learnt from the misfortunes of my competitors

[Sea_Dog]

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!

[moose888]

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.

[The_Dung_Beetle]

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.
.
.

[wannavolunteerF]

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.