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Anyone been burgled whilst camping? I assume we're an honest lot who look after one another, but a busy site must make easy pickings for professional gangs.

Obviously you don't keep valuables in the tent, but if you're taking camcorders, satnav, nintendos, MP3 players etc etc you either have to carry them around with you or lock them in the car. If I were a petty thief, a GB car would be a pretty safe bet for easy pickings too.

Wouldn't mind one of those big tents that only Dutch people seem to have though

Johnny Hamster

many commercial sites will have a safety deposit box system, but you are quite right, we have to trust each other, otherwise how could you ever leave your precious kit, worth far more than a camcorder or mp3 on a site and go off for the day?

Those big Dutch tents aren't padlocked down to the camping field.........

I'm not so sure: gloveboxes are very rarely as strong as we'd hope they were, and actually are often flimsy. They are also the first port of call for a thief becuase so many folk stash valuables in there thinking they'll be safe. Better I think to hide things, beneath the boot floor etc - depends on the car. I now leave my glovebox OPEN if I think there's a high break-in risk, to show that there's nothing in there.

Also, regarding leaving spare keys in the car; I can see the logic but, wouldn't most insurers recomend against this? What if they were used to drive the car off, (even if it is highly unlikely when abroad)?

Most big continental sites have a safe facility for hire, so maybe make use of those if you're concerned. Personally I've got by, touch wood, with stashing and just being sensible.

The only incident I've had on a site was years ago in Delamere Forest, and was really more a case of vandalism than theft, though they did take most of our food which we'd kept in a utility tent.

TT

Val, when you say "the obligatory 10%" what do you mean? I wasn't aware of a conventional tarriff of any kind.

This might explain why a French bloke lost his rag with me once. My Dad had left his jacket, containing his wallet, in the toilet block at a site in Frejus. A short time later a girl delivered the coat, containg the wallet but minus all cash, to me at my tent (having the same name as dad, site reception had obviuosly sent her to me by mistake). I suspected that she, or a male counterpart, had helped themselves to the cash. With that in mind, and given that the jacket wasn't even mine, I didn't give her a reward, but made my graditude clear. Anyway  before I could leave the pitch to go find Dad, the girl's father came round screaming and shouting because I hadn't given a cash reward.

TT

I don't know whether it's law, but Monsieur Roche explained that he was 'obliged' to give us 10% of the cash contained within the wallet, as a reward.  I thought this was far too much - in England I'd perhaps expect no more than grateful thanks, or perhaps a fiver!!   We did refuse to take it, but then he sent it around to our campsite with a friend!!!  This friend also said that it was 'recompenser' and 'obligatoire'!!   I think it is a bit more formalised than in England - and worth remembering if you ever lose anything which is then returned to you. 

Thanks, that's good info.

Cheers

TT.

Emhh I was cycle touring and camping in n Italy the night of the heysal stadium disaster,had peeps surrounding my tent shouting red devils and kicking it,didn,t no what was going on until about a week latter.

When camping at longbeech campsite in the New forest (there use to a lightweight section at the far end) a woman I had spoken to earlier that evening started wandering around the camping area with just a pair of knickers on a knife in her hand chanting I see snow,very strange some people!

We've also had noises outside our tent - and they do sound loud and scary.  My partner tried to convince me it's only cats, or rats - and I suppose most times it is.  One time, in Burgundy, in a Canvas Tent, we heard scrabbling outside, then noises from inside the tent.  When we put the light on there was a 'lump' under the groundsheet, which turned out to be a mole!  Another time, same site, we heard a 'knawing' sound in the night and found it was a mouse, which had completely knawed off the spout of my son's baby cup.  Believe me those noises sound much louder in a tent than they do in a house, and much more scary in complete darkness such as you find on most french campsites!!!

We're now in a caravan, which is not half as scary!!!! (Squirrels on the roof, or dropping pine cones on us being the worst!!!).