Theft of RVs

[Kathleen Saunders-Vlasek]

Dear fellow RVrs,

    My husband and I sold our home in the Texas Hill Country last August, and we became fulltimers.  We had a wonderful adventure making a big loop from Texas to Southern California, up through the center of California to Eugene, Oregon for the Holidays. Then we traveled down the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to San Diego, and back across to Texas.  It was filled with glorious beauty and new friendships.

     We came to Houston to spend the summer with our kids here. On May 20th, we placed our travel trailer in storage to stay at the home of our children.  Three days later, we discovered our trailer had been stolen!  It was full of everything we needed for this past year, as well as our business records, receipts, tax returns, etc. The thieves also stole our identity, and went on crazy shopping sprees with our cards.  It's been a nightmare we can't wake up from!!  Now we are dealing with insurance, trying to print receipts & inventory. We have spent countless hours changing bank accounts, credit cards, auto bill pays, Social Securty, multiple Fraud forms, freezing credit rating accounts, and many, many passwords.

      It turns out, when the police arrived, that his particular storage place has a terrible reputation for vandalism and theft of units stored there.  We feel it was an inside job, but the police are so overwhelmed with more serious crimes, that a detective has not even been assigned to our case to date. We didn't bother to check reviews, as this place came highly recommended by the related storage company that has our boxed things in storage. We were too trusting!!  A very sad comment on the state of our world today,

    SO PLEASE BEWARE!!

Check reviews, get several bids on a variety of locations. Visit sites in person. Ask questions. Listen to your gut impressions.

Check out the security details.  Cameras, lighting, office onsite, gates, and locks.

Never give out your door code!!  AND INSTALL A HIDDEN LOCATION DEVICE IN YOUR RV.    DOING THESE THINGS WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF GRIEF, TIME, AND EXPENSE.

We will recover, get another travel trailer, and get back to adventuring eventually.  We are safe & healthy. So is our Border Collie, Tandy. Trying to look forward, and not back.

  Kathleen Saunders-Vlasek

[2gypsies]

So sorry you had that horrible experience.  You certainly have a good outlook for the future.  Sure hope you receive help and closure fast.

[sandsys]

Some friends put an RV in storage during a cruise only to find it gone when they returned. I feel for all of you have had such an experience. It wouldn't have occurred to me to bring critical papers with us while staying with family.

Linda

[2gypsies]

13 minutes ago, sandsys said:

It wouldn't have occurred to me to bring critical papers with us while staying with family.

To me, it appears that they're full-timers and full-timers tend to carry everything with them.  They put the RV in storage in order to spend the summer with family so everything was left in storage.

We would have taken critical papers out of the RV before storage.

[Kirk W]

 Kathleen, thank you for sharing your experience as it may help someone else avoid that problem. Do keep us posted as we do care! 

[sandsys]

4 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

To me, it appears that they're full-timers and full-timers tend to carry everything with them.  They put the RV in storage in order to spend the summer with family so everything was left in storage.

We would have taken critical papers out of the RV before storage.

Yes, we carried everything with us when we were full time. We also spent a few nights in motels while full time. It did not occur to me to take our box of important papers into the motel. It never occurred to me that someone could have stolen our RV from the motel parking lot while we were there.

Linda

[LindaH]

We had a slide-in truck camper stolen from storage many years ago.  We, too, felt like it was an inside job because we got too many inconsistent stories that didn't make sense.  Unfortunately, there was no way to prove it.  We were lucky that we didn't have much in the camper -- just a few things that were kept in the camper between trips like plates and silverware, none very expensive.

[packnrat]

i find it interesting how a storage lot has all these cameras, other security.  and sees nothing during a theft. heck were i work the only place not seen by many cams (they are set up to overlap views) is in the loo. (but the hallway to it has a cam looking at said door) and that is only cause a law prevents it. and this theft is behind the security controlled fence. and some how none of the cams saw anything.

[BobDees]

Our RV has been vandalized at PPL in Houston where it was waiting for repair.  Thieves stole Catalytic Converters from 15 E 450's in the lot in one night.  We also had a Travel Trailer vandalized at a storage unit in Baytown with 1K + of fear taken. We are going full-time in August and I am concerned about theft.  Do any of you have any great ideas for security cameras etc for Motor Homes, especially while in storage?

 

[RV_]

One simple thing you can do. If you aren't already aware all of the storage unit locks on RVs with basement access etc use the same key. Yours will fit the RV next to you. Change your storage/basement locks.

If your RV does not have a deadbolt on the front door you might consider one: RV deadbolt

Hitch locks are available for 5th wheel hitches and bumper pull hitches. For motorhomes there are these:  Trailer Clamp Boot Tire Claw - Premium Quality Heavy Duty Stabilizer Anti- Theft -Protective for Parking Car, Trailer, Truck and SUV

These stabilizing wheel chocks work for all dual axle RVs and use any good security padlock Wheel chocks stabilize and easily locked

I also had to replace my door and instead of leaving the original RV door glass in it I had a local glass shop cut a piece of embedded wire security glass for it and I installed it myself. A good DIY could do lots of variants on this.

All locks etc can be defeated given time. So the idea is to make it take too long thus the above.

To be effective you need a good alarm that goes off if the RV is tampered with and these can be wired/motion detection/infrared/etc. And those are up to you.