Spike in caravan and camper theft

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happy john

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Speaking with a client today involved in investigation we were having a chat about caravans and he filled me in on a few points I would like to share. Australia more so QLD and NSW in in the midst of a new form of criminal activity involving the theft and "Re Birthing" of vans and campers some upwards of 100k.

The thefts are normally occurring from vans parked in front yards backed in and facing the road. The towball lock is now next to useless. The crims are now using modified towbars and the vans safety chains to literally back up and drag the van away often at very high speed.

The act involves removing it from the spot regardless of the hitch lock and dragging it as far away to a quiet spot to remove the lock with a cordless angle grinder. Even larger vans up to 3 tonne are being targeted particularly with internal showers and toilets, some of these have turned up on remote properties for accommodation for temporary workers.

The advice at this stage is to use a wheel clamp of good quality the cheaper variety the lock is twisted off with a stilson wrench with an extension bar silently. If you have an existing hitch lock replace the tiny padlock with a much larger one utilising ball bearings to lock the shackle. The reason is they use a slide hammer muffled by a pillow to rip the little lock supplied apart.

At this stage what is being advised is don't rely upon the hitch lock despite the little padlock being un accessible to boltcutters, invest in a "quality" wheel clamp and if possible 12mm square link manganese alloy hardened chain through the wheel and around the springs locked with a good quality padlock with a protected shackle, this takes a lot of time to cut and is very noisy.

The only other thing is some of the camper trailers stolen with a treg hitch had a bike u lock through where the pin goes the mongrels spread it apart with a scissor jack, he also suggested turning the van around if possible so the front is not facing the road.

Hope this helps folk here it is spoken about often on the caravan forum I did post there a while ago with a limited knowledge when this first came to light, I will let you all know more, I wont see him for another 4 weeks it looks like the laws for vin plates will be changed to a more secure method to deter this.

John

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Sounds like my security cameras are a worthwhile investment! I just checked, our van is still there.

However, I might just invest in wheel clamps as well.
 
The coppers caught a thieving piece of shit about 3 weeks ago in sunbury Victoria. He had 3 stolen caravans in his yard. They said he was from Queensland. Was useing a white hilux with stolen plates
 
Keep them hidden if you can too. I've always kept mine out of sight from the road.

I have a treg hitch on my camper and I use one of those lock bolt thingos you use to lock your tow hitch in the hayman Reese style tow bars and put it down the hole of the treg hitch. It's locked by a barrel and ball bearings.
 
Unfortunately our van has to live out the front of our place, i have a wheel lock on one side, a chain around the other wheel, i have padlocked the chains to the draw bar and i recently fitted a Mc hitch 3500kg off road hitch, they will need the Mchitch receiver if they want to hook it up, probably still wont stop the mongrels.:rambo::rambo::rambo:
 
Thanks for the heads up John.
Iv already had my engel taken this year so I will install a few more measures....
 
Thanks for the heads up John.
Iv already had my engel taken this year so I will install a few more measures....

Where was your fridge taken from? i have my waeco in the side tool box on the 40 on a slide that i made and a couple of camps back my dog started growling during the night, got out of the van to find a couple of young blokes undoing the tie down buckles, looks like its time to lock up while camping as well.
 
Grubs broke into my canopy in my drive way....police said there had been a run on fridges.. Had some grubs try to steal kids surfboards at double island point while camping. You have to lock everything these days....
Good to have the dog with you. There always the best.....
 
Where was your fridge taken from? i have my waeco in the side tool box on the 40 on a slide that i made and a couple of camps back my dog started growling during the night, got out of the van to find a couple of young blokes undoing the tie down buckles, looks like its time to lock up while camping as well.

Was that in a van park or in the bush
 
Was that in a van park or in the bush

It was at Paradise Valley D22dave, It's basically a farm come camping ground, lucky for them i sleep in my birthday suit so couldn't give chase, I'm pretty sure i recognized them at their camp the next day but they came out with the "it wasn't us, don't know what you're talking about" routine, i chain the fridge to the tool box now along with the solar panel.
 
We were robbed at Harvey Bay. The grey nomads next to us warned us not to leave anything out. I had the engal and expensive chairs secured with a 6mtr cable to the van. the first night at 1am a load crash I burst out and 3 blokes were tugging on it all not realising it was chained.

On the second night they stole a 6 pack from the engal and a bottle of wine from the nomads. The old fella took all day to fill a empty bottle with piss and screwed the lid on tight leaving it on his outside table. The next morning it was gone, we found it thrown on the beach with a mouthful of piss taken out.
Guess we had the last laugh at the thieving mongrels.
 
Be careful if you have a locking hard tonneau. It is possible to quietly "work" the lock tongue on one side so that the tonneau can be lifted on that side. This then allows the middle of the tonneau to be lifted high enough for the s...heads to open the tailgate (leaving the hard tonneau still locked on the other side). How do I know? Guess! $400 worth of driver drill gear.
 
Oh, I guess the fact that our CT is nowhere near $100K in value and it is a major effort to back it out into the drive makes it a bit safer. Plus it is hidden by the old LWB van atm.

I can not lock through the wheel rims, but I've recently worked out some of the scrap floating around will make for a nice lock down system for the tregg hitch. so that should slow them down a bit.

Has anyone invested in one of these trailer trackers that uses the mobile network to send an alert when they are moved?
 
Terry I have seen that used by some on the c/van forum but never caught any would be thief. I did see ages ago some guy has a movement activated sensor that locks the vans brakes via a large relay. I say that's getting a tad silly.

I do wonder if they drag a 2.5t van attached to a towbar with chains only it would move all over the place. No brake control?, or solid connection to the tug?, the comment Dave mentioned earlier is a worry Qld vans ending up down in Vic. The culprits are apparently in either Patrol or Cruiser utes in some cases also at the Gold Coast a Mercedes van??.
 
Terry I have seen that used by some on the c/van forum but never caught any would be thief. I did see ages ago some guy has a movement activated sensor that locks the vans brakes via a large relay. I say that's getting a tad silly.

I do wonder if they drag a 2.5t van attached to a towbar with chains only it would move all over the place. No brake control?, or solid connection to the tug?, the comment Dave mentioned earlier is a worry Qld vans ending up down in Vic. The culprits are apparently in either Patrol or Cruiser utes in some cases also at the Gold Coast a Mercedes van??.

It was vans stolen from around victoria, the low life was from Queensland, so who knows were they would of ended up, must be a big market for them
 
Any one with any experience with wheel clamps and which is the best to buy? I would assume for a tandem two would be necessary?
 
I just got a "clamp-it" wheel clamp. $150 from whitworths marine. They are also on ebay.
Looks strong and is also a visual deterrent. It is also insurance approved. So check with your insurer and see which brands are approved for use by them to alleviate arguments later....
 
I'm thinking of adding a few things to my van now that I've had some time to mull this over. Here's the list:

1) Tie the safety chains up and around the handbrake lever along with a bolt-cutter-unfriendly chain and padlock. Make it nice and hard to release the brake.

2) One wheel clamp on each side, fitted after the bolt-cutter-unfriendly chain and padlock that links the two wheels on each side.

3) A new circuit inside the van. Solar panel charges the breakaway battery which is turned on when the vehicle is moved (unless you know how to turn this off, and a guaranteed means of making sure that if you HAVE turned it off, it can't decide to activate while you're doing 110km/h). A simple latching circuit on some tilt switches should work well as a sensor.

4) A whole new plug. This one has an earth that is an earth. This one has a power feed that has 26,000V in it. How's your car now, thief? I'll just rewire my car so that the new power feed doesn't interact with it. Whack a circuit inside the van with an old TV anode/cathode circuit, activated by them tilt switches again. You'll get started, then watch the ECU in your car fry itself. Can't say you didn't deserve that, scumbag.

5) Insurance. I'm sure when they realise that all 4 wheels are locked and not going to let loose any time soon AND their own car is stuffed now, they're going to take revenge on the van.
 

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