Just Gassing ?

Riverbankannie said:
Of course when we were tenting no high value tech to steal.
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just the Primus stove

I recall many many years ago, 1950s, my dad took us camping every summer to Cornwall. , One night at Gretna Green , our first stopover of the three day journey, the tent, a Blacks Niger , was 'broken into' and they stole his treasured Roberts Radio .. it had been hidden under the end of my camp bed !!

.. never heard a thing.
 
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What this story has brought to my mind is that on the rare occasion we actually use a campsite, these are the places I rarely use the alarm.
First I thought I would be safer and second even on on dim, the growler alarm led is bright and I’m not for disturbing those close to me. 🤫
Not no more though. 😉 if too bright, I’ll tape them.
 
Montezuma said:
As best I can recall the majority of the vehicles, which were broken into, were caravans.

To be honest, I did not notice many particularly large motorhomes on the site. There is really only one parking area (in front of the Château) suitable for larger motorhomes the rest of he site is a bit tricky for large outfits.

I did not see any tent campers on the site at that time.

I don't think the site was involved with any of the Rent-A-Tent outfits ?

As to the the use of Clouds for backing stuff up, maybe the bloke was a dinosaur like me.

I am beginning to wish I had not started this particular story, . . . . . my head is beginning to hurt ! :LOL:
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I am glad you did, it is always worth highlighting this issue to make people more aware.
I know you are getting the third degree 🕵🏻‍♀️ don’t let it put you off.
Glad you were not directly affected apart from the step being “borrowed”.
Safe journey home.
 
Montezuma said:
Just a few thoughts on the subject of “knock-out” gasses being involved in leisure vehicle break-ins.

I have always been highly sceptical of the theory that motorhome/caravan break-ins, (while the vehicle was occupied during the hours of darkness), have been accompanied by the use of some sort of knock-out, or narcotic gas.

Experts in the field have expressed professional opinions with regard to the expense involved, the quantities required, the type of gas available, the delivery methods, and much else.

Personally, I think that driving 500 klicks, having a large evening meal, accompanied by a bottle of heavy red wine, is an excellent precursor to a sound night’s sleep, and no sleeping medication of any sort will be required. In such circumstances, is it not possible that ne’er-do-wells might be able to access one’s vehicle, without disturbing the slumbers of tired, over-fed, over-indulged campers ?

On a recent return journey from the Cost Brava, we overnighted at a lovely site in the Auvergne. It is a site that we have used on several occasions, and for that reason I will not name it, as I suspect this incident was a one-of.

Although being no more than a few miles from the Autoroute, the site is quite remote, there being no nearby habitations of any description, apart from the Château.

Following a decent meal, and a goodly drop of ‘vino-plonko’, a good night’s sleep was had by all. The following morning, I aroused myself and exited the motorhome, only to miss the step, …… literally, it had disappeared, . . . . vanished, . . . . gone. This I thought very odd.

I had a quick look around, and spotted a group of Dutch, folk, muttering and mumbling together in a small group, and so I wandered over to see what was going on.

Several caravans and motorhomes had been broken into during the night and much plunder had been taken, including three electric bikes, a couple of expensive bicycles, several laptops, satnavs, iPods, iPads, Kindles, cameras, mobile phones, and of course cash . . . . . . . you name it, it was stolen. Interestingly, credit and debit cards were discarded along with the handbags and wallets which had contained them, and nobody mentioned losing a passport or other form of identity document, although this may have happened.

A veritable horde of valuable gear had been taken, much of it from inside the vehicles whilst the owners slept. To a man, all the victims were convinced that they had been the victims of some sort of knock-out gas.

Nobody heard, or saw, anything.

Two vans, who’s owners had dogs with them, were not burgled, but vans next to them were broken into, and the supposedly ‘very alert’ dogs in the adjacent vehicles were not disturbed.

The 4X4 towing the caravan on the pitch next to us had the rear window broken and some camera equipment taken. The window was broken using one of his awning poles. They also lost other valuable items from inside their caravan.

One British victim, travelling in a motorhome lost a lot of professional photographic equipment, and his laptop, not to mention the work contained thereon; it seems he was compiling some sort of travel dossier for a magazine, and now 6 weeks work had been lost.

All in all, a very good night’s haul for some ne’er-do-wells, possibly more than €25,000 !

Interestingly, as far as I could see, the method of entry to all the vehicles had been through side windows. Where windows were closed, a sharp blade had been used to slice the rubber seals along the base of the windows and a simple “coat hanger” device had then been used to flip the flimsy catches, and bingo the intruders were in !

Our steps had been used to aid a small person, probably a child (according to the local police) to gain access to a very small side window. We were given our steps back once the police had investigated the van in question. The police, who arrived quite promptly once summoned by the site manager/owner, were convinced that the thefts were carried out by a professional gang of Eastern European travellers, who had targeted the site, maybe after receiving information from one of the casual labourers who had been employed during recent, building work that had been, and still was, being carried out on the camp site.

I do not know why we were not selected by the burglars. Maybe because our Adria windows are very heavily smoked, and from outside it would have been difficult to see what was lying around ready to be stolen, which in our case was nothing, as my wife is quite fussy about leaving things in plain sight within the motorhome, regardless of the time of day or where we are parked.

More likely it would have been our drop-down bed which completely prevents access through the side windows, which helped the burglars decide to look for easier targets.

Do folk have to decide whether, or not, to fit some sort of gas alarm, or is this “Gassing” theory just a load of old cobblers ?

At least half a dozen vehicles broken into whilst the occupants were sleeping. Some had consumed no alcohol the previous evening, nor had they travelled far during the previous day. All very strange ?

As an aside, the manager at another site at which we stopped, claimed that these gangs use children, not just because they are quite obviously small, but because if they are caught committing the offence, they will not be prosecuted, under French law, because of their age, and the parents will obviously plead ignorance of the child's activity ?

C'est la vie, n'est ce pas ?
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To answer your question. "Do folk have to decide whether, or not, to fit some sort of gas alarm, or is this “Gassing” theory just a load of old cobblers ?" Yes gassing is cobblers but anyone sensible will use a standard alarm for doors and windows .

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We have a Vanbitz Strikeback alarm and always set it at night.

Why wouldn’t you, having spent the money on it in the first place?
 
We have the blinds down whenever we're out. And obviously overnight. Try to keep stuff tidy and out of sight as much as is practical. We've got an alarm that we use pretty much everywhere (although often not on campsites :unsure: ). And Lock M Out tabs on the windows. But there is only so much you can reasonably do.
 
Barclaybasher said:
Interesting, thanks for the heads up

Did anyone have an alarm set?
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Dickyb said:
Alarms won’t work unless the windows are sensored as the interior motion detectors are off at night
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DBK said:
And fit a safe or at least a strong box fixed to the floor. All our tablets etc are locked in one when we leave the vehicle unattended
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All of these are bread and butter to me it’s the norm, why more people don’t take these simple measures which is at a relatively low cost it unbelievable.

The windows are generally the weakest point of entry,l have recently found some silver ones that are slim/sleek look good but the blow your bloody head off when they go off,you couldn’t sleep through them and you would certainly be on your toes if you were the thief, the cost a few £ quid.

Get wise folk.
 
Littlewheels said:
All of these are bread and butter to me it’s the norm, why more people don’t take these simple measures which is at a relatively low cost it unbelievable.

The windows are generally the weakest point of entry,l have recently found some silver ones that are slim/sleek look good but the blow your bloody head off when they go off,you couldn’t sleep through them and you would certainly be on your toes if you were the thief, the cost a few £ quid.

Get wise folk.
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Link?
 
I wish I slept well enough to sleep through someone ransacking my van 3 metres away from me. (What about those sleeping in drop down beds in the middle of the van? I could imagine a burgler having to crawl over them!!

I awake constantly with any noise outside, or creak within. Or the wife snoring. I'd definitely need anasthetic if they wanted to break in here.

Re: putting all the blinds down in the day - to me just just says 'i have stuff in my van I don't want you to see. It's quite easy to hide away valuables without pulling blinds down.
 
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Riverbankannie said:
I am very sorry for him and the loss of his equipment but his work? Surely in this day and age he should be professional enough to have automatic cloud back up.
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unlikely he'd use the cloud. The files could be huge and there might be thousands of images so backups on hard drives is more likely especially for editing, and he'd need a huge amount of data or starlink to make it work well if there was any chance of working and storing files on the cloud.
 
Looks like this time they took everything except the 2000 euros and the Rolex.

It's all bollox, what burglar in his right mind would risk robbing numerous vans one after another and hope nobody at all would wake.

One van maybe, but one after the other!

Utter rubbish.

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A slightly tongue in cheek reply: Maybe us Brits are now known as the poor men of Europe so thieves will got for those rich Europeans and leave us alone?!!!

Chris
 
pappajohn said:
Looks like this time they took everything except the 2000 euros and the Rolex.

It's all bollox, what burglar in his right mind would risk robbing numerous vans one after another and hope nobody at all would wake.

One van maybe, but one after the other!

Utter rubbish.
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You are welcome to your opinion me ol' wazzok, but it's a sad fact that it did happen, with or without gas.

I dare say there will be a report somewhere in the local police files. Maybe you could give them a ring ?

There will certainly be several insurance claims recorded with various Dutch underwriters, maybe they could help you verify this happening.

Dunno why I am being so defensive, but nobody expects the bleedin' Spanish inquisition.


;)
 
I suspect most of us believe the event actually happened, but that no gas was involved. You raise that possibility in you first post. Some here clearly don't believe it but that's their prerogative. .I admit to raising the question about possible involvement of other parties. I still think it was all a bit convenient. However, I am sure that the thefts took place.

The blaming or Easter European's may or may not be correct. The obvious question is that to know that the police would need to know who they are, and if they know taht, why haven't they arrested them? Well known that 'bandits' are around the French/Spanish border. They have always been blamed on the Spanish. Maybe like here that it's sometimes too easy to blame those from Eastern Europe.

The short and long of it, is that low life are everywhere. No doubt people were victims and you were there.
 
chaser said:
I have often wondered what these thieves would do if they broke into our van as we don't have any of the stuff that was reputablely stolen out of these vans, would they take it out on us or just leave.
Really often wondered.
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if they read motorhome fun they would probably leave the poor retired farmer a few euros
 
OK, so having given it some thought overnight my conclusion is, there all crooks who stole stuff from other peoples vans on the same site.
Et Voilà,mystery solved. ;) 🤷‍♂️
Mike.
 
Littlewheels said:
Ooo’ps, l do hope Jim doesn’t see this😂😂
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Anyone noticed the banner pop up change ?

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This is getting silly now !

I thought that the Spanish Inquisition might knock it on the head.

Who is Jim, . . . . . . . just curious ?

A question for 'Doubting Thomases'

If one burglar can burgle one vehicle in 2 minutes, how many vehicles can ten burglars burgle in the same time frame ?

Somebody may well have had their Rolex nicked, but I didn't ask the police to see a list of stolen items, so we shall never know.

There were CCTV cameras, but only adjacent to the office. It was, and maybe still is, possible to exit the site without passing the office. Very silly really. I am reliably informed that there are now a few more CCTV cameras dotted about. The site being in trees, and with high hedges around a large percentage of the pitches, does not help. There is also access from a public riverside walk that passes the site.

As an aside, this site was recommended to me by a fellow motor-homer, and when I informed him of this happening he was most discumnockerated. He was so upset that he put in a report, as did I, to the ACSI website where fellow travellers can pass comment upon issues and situations at any site in the ACSI network. The reports were initially promulgated on the ACSI site, but strangely they both disappeared some short time later. These reviews are meant to be sacrosanct, but it would seem that such reports as my friend and I submitted, were somehow, an exception to their rules.

I have included some photos of the site taken at an earlier time, about 2016 I think ?

Can we now consider this thread terminated?

The decision is that BURGLARY BY GASSING IS IMPOSSIBLE !



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3.jpg
 
Montezuma said:
This is getting silly now !

I thought that the Spanish Inquisition might knock it on the head.

Who is Jim, . . . . . . . just curious ?

A question for 'Doubting Thomases'

If one burglar can burgle one vehicle in 2 minutes, how many vehicles can ten burglars burgle in the same time frame ?

Somebody may well have had their Rolex nicked, but I didn't ask the police to see a list of stolen items, so we shall never know.

There were CCTV cameras, but only adjacent to the office. It was, and maybe still is, possible to exit the site without passing the office. Very silly really. I am reliably informed that there are now a few more CCTV cameras dotted about. The site being in trees, and with high hedges around a large percentage of the pitches, does not help. There is also access from a public riverside walk that passes the site.

As an aside, this site was recommended to me by a fellow motor-homer, and when I informed him of this happening he was most discumnockerated. He was so upset that he put in a report, as did I, to the ACSI website where fellow travellers can pass comment upon issues and situations at any site in the ACSI network. The reports were initially promulgated on the ACSI site, but strangely they both disappeared some short time later. These reviews are meant to be sacrosanct, but it would seem that such reports as my friend and I submitted, were somehow, an exception to their rules.

I have included some photos of the site taken at an earlier time, about 2016 I think ?

Can we now consider this thread terminated?

The decision is that BURGLARY BY GASSING IS IMPOSSIBLE !



View attachment 907669

View attachment 907670

View attachment 907671
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Jim is the ringleader !

Owns the forum and jasmine camping

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Littlewheels said:
Ooo’ps, l do hope Jim doesn’t see this😂😂
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It seems I may have upset somebody (Papa John, perhaps) by using the colloquialism "Me ol' Wazzok", and I have been advised to apologise.

This term, when used in the context in which I applied it, is more of an endearment than an insult.

So, if anybody has been upset by the use of such regional, dialectical, language, I most humbly apologise.

Mean to say, I've only been here a week or so, and I'm in the brown stuff already !
 
It was certainly not my intention to report you as such it was meant to be comical.
Being deeply engrained Yorkshireman the term is used in our vocabulary as the norm when someone makes. Cock of something as l am sure you know even though you are from ….the rainy bit of the Pennines😳👍
 
chaser said:
I have often wondered what these thieves would do if they broke into our van as we don't have any of the stuff that was reputablely stolen out of these vans, would they take it out on us or just leave.
Really often wondered.
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They would probably leave half of what they nicked from the others in sympathetic of your apparent poverty. :LOL::LOL:

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