We’ve all seen the signs in caravan parks, usually located at the ablution blocks – ‘Thieves don’t take holidays’. How true that is and it’s especially noticeable at peak holiday times like during the Christmas/New Year and summer school holiday time.

It’s a sad fact but those times seem to be rife with property being stolen from caravan park sites, and sadly it happens everywhere. A..holes don’t seem to have any morals when it comes to lurking around caravan parks, usually during the night, and helping themselves to anything that’s not locked up and tucked away.

Unfortunately the things we love about caravan parks, such as having easy access to a beach or park etc…also puts them in prime position for thieves to just wander in and have easy access to our stuff. We’ve heard of this happening sadly at a few different parks over the last couple of months and it just reinforces the need to lock up your property or make sure it’s securely packed away in your car, caravan or annexe.  

It still may not completely stop the problem if someone is desperate enough to steal something, but we’ve noticed that generally thieves are lazy and will only take what’s noticeable and easy to pick up and carry away.

The targeted items stolen that we heard of over the past couple of months have been kids scooters, bikes, and eskies, as well as fishing gear and barbecues. All of these items can also be sold off pretty quickly on local buy, sell and swap sites so it pays to keep an eye on them if you have had something stolen.

If you have been unfortunate to have had this happen to you, make sure you report any thefts or characters hanging around, to the park management, and local police in case there has been a spate of robberies. Sometimes you can be lucky enough to find property that has been discarded or dropped by the perpetrators in their hurry to leave but that would be rare. It can be useful to use your phone camera to take pictures of anything you find suspicious though.

On the flipside of that, are the caravan parks which are enclosed with high fences and gates which aren’t that attractive either and sometimes that isn’t even enough to stop the worst people from venturing in anyway, so personally I’d rather go with the lock up and pack away idea. Well that and travelling with a dog is sometimes a deterrent too.

Even though the point of caravanning is to relax and chill out you can’t let your guard down when it comes to security. Have you ever had items stolen during your travels?

Keep safe and vigilant when travelling.

Cheers

Glenys