Burglary

[cyclist922]

Yesterday morning we were supposed to set out on our first trip in our brand new Discovery.

We when we arrived at the storage lot, we found that a team of thieves had broken into our rig and stole all the electronics, plus a bunch of stuff that makes no sense (who takes a 5 year old rice cooker?). They hit 5 other RVs on the lot at the same time.

We are building our list and checking it twice. There's a good bit of damage where they pried their way in, ripped out the tv's, and destroyed the hinge on the compartment under the bed. But overall I guess we were lucky--no overt signs of vandalism or attempts to force their way into the basement storage.

If you've been through this before I'd love to hear your advice/lessons learned regarding insurance, storage lot liability, etc.

Thanks,
--Rod

[cruzbill]

Grr, Storage lot has no liability, and they are proud of it. Kinda like insurance....
Did you and others file a police report? Use the storage lot's security cameras and or gate code to pin down the time it all happened. Document each loss, with receipts (right!) for your claim. We've had two losses in storage; first, another RV'r sideswiped our front cap, damaging mirror and paint;(>$5k) second, some kid with a slingshot busted out a slider window in one slide out-$2,800 ins. claim. How's that going to affect our rates?

Storage lot is manned (a family lives upstairs above the office), has gate control access, cameras everywhere, IR beam perimeter security. They have not lifted one finger to help us or the police solve either issue. You pay your money, and........they take it. Like I said before; Grrr

Hope you can get back on the road cycling soon.....

[algolfer]

Years ago when we parked our fifth wheel in a storage lot, a number of RV's were burglarized, including ours. To gain access to our 5th wheel, they broke the window on the door, reached in and opened the door. They did not take anything from our rig. In fact, they left stuff in our rig taken from other rigs!!

[Dupdyke]

I have seen simply safe alarm systems that have cell unit built in and motion door and even temp sensors in a foretravel. The alarm goes off and you get the call, they have it set to not call police just them they call police where ever they are parked. He says it is a great way to know when his wife gets home as she never turns off the alarm and he gets the calls.

[Rossi6998]

First... Let me say, "That Sucks!". I had my motorhome burglarized a few years back. They broke into all of the bins and even stole the onboard generator. They tried to break into the motorhome, but were not successful. I had to use my motorhome insurance (Progressive) and homeowners insurance (Farmers) to cover the damage and personal loss.

Although I was pleased with the outcome of both insurance companies, be prepared and be patient. Start gathering your receipts and pictures of your motorhome and it contents prior to and after the burglary. Fortunately, a lot of the major items for the motorhome we bought on Amazon. They have a great order history system and we were able to get copies of most of our receipts. What we didn't have receipts for, we had pictures to show the items that were stolen. If you are realistic, they will usually only require receipts for the big ticket items.

In my case the insurance companies worked off a standardized value list for each item. I provided them a list of stolen items. They usually provided me 50 percent of the estimated cost, than once I re-purchsed the item, I would provide them a receipt and they would reimburse me up to a reasonable value. I say reasonable value because the insurance company has a team of buyers who go searching for the same product to make sure what you paid is reasonable. If you greatly overpay for an item, they will only reimburse up to the reasonable cost.

Good luck!

[Isaac-1]

Sorry about your troubles, you never know what motivates people, we had a break in at a warehouse where I worked a number of years ago. Whoever did it broke down a couple of doors, and probably left after they set off the office burglar alarm. The only thing we could find that was missing was the seat back cushion off the forklift. (it was there the day before)

[Arch Hoagland]

Had the same thing happen at a storage lot. Lot said too bad.

Didn't file a insurance claim as the only thing that got broke was the glass on the entry door and that was less than the deductible.

Didn't steal any of the stuff inside other than my well worn slippers. What the heck is up with that?

Guy next to me had all his new TV's and sound system stolen. He had an aftermarket $1,000 alarm system...I discovered the break-in a couple days after it occurred based on some research we did. I had the police notify him. So much for alarm systems.

I now store next to my house with full hookups. Much better for sure. But we still don't leave any valuables in the coach.

[rewillia]

Sorry for your losses.

Every day is for the "Thief", one day is for the "Victim!

In other words, sooner or later they will get caught and serve the consequences of their wrong doings one way or another.

[DryCreek]

One note of caution - and it may be overcautious at best, but throw out any personal grooming or hygiene items left in the coach. That is from a story related to me by someone who was traveling in Jamaica and had their room broken into. They couldn't understand why the most valuable item in the room - their Nikon DSLR camera was left. It wasn't until they were reviewing their hundreds of pictures after they got home and really couldn't identify what they were looking at in a couple of shots. Someone later deciphered those strange images and pointed out that it looked like toothbrush handles protruding from someones anus. Ewwww.

[fishinful]

Originally Posted by cruzbill

Grr, Storage lot has no liability, and they are proud of it. Kinda like insurance....
Did you and others file a police report? Use the storage lot's security cameras and or gate code to pin down the time it all happened. Document each loss, with receipts (right!) for your claim. We've had two losses in storage; first, another RV'r sideswiped our front cap, damaging mirror and paint;(>$5k) second, some kid with a slingshot busted out a slider window in one slide out-$2,800 ins. claim. How's that going to affect our rates?

Storage lot is manned (a family lives upstairs above the office), has gate control access, cameras everywhere, IR beam perimeter security. They have not lifted one finger to help us or the police solve either issue. You pay your money, and........they take it. Like I said before; Grrr

Hope you can get back on the road cycling soon.....

I disagree. This is a temant, landlord relationship and as such, reasonable liability would be met IF steps were taken to prevent theft. Having cameras isn't enough, they must be operating and in good condition. If there are areas where thieves could get in, holes in coverage areas or actual physical breaches in fencing, then absolutely their is liability on in the part of the owner of the RV storage facility. Don't think for one minute they don't carry insurance.

Anyone who is out thousands should absolutely consult an attorney for local laws. Typically, they can assist, but cannot be present, in small claims court.

It sounds fishy that the storage owner wasn't letting you in on what surveillance they made available to the police, if any.

Even having an attorney send a letter to the owner asking who is their insurance carrier might loosen them up for a settlement. Your own insurance should somewhat be an advocate for you.

My guess is that the lot owners insurance requires cameras and such as part of carrying insurance, but in actuality, none of these were in in working order at the time of theft, and the cops weren't interested in investigating for whatever reason, sticking YOU the victim with repair and recover

[cruzbill]

Fishinful, See para 15: Release of Landlords Liability for Property Damage

Standard rental agreement terms

http://selfstoragemichigan.org/docs/...ent_sample.pdf

[Lt Dan]

Ouch! The same thing happened to some friends of ours with their brand new Allegro Open Road resulting in $15,000 in damages to the doors. That's exactly why I don't lock mine in storage. I would rather have several hundred dollars worth of stuff stolen than have the damage done getting in. After twenty five years in law enforcement, I know if burglars want in badly enough they will get in one way or another. I have even seen cases of them breaking out the skylight and dropping in from there.

[TexasTom]

For what it is worth...good friends had their coach hit by thieves who did quite a bit of damage as they stole what they thought was worthwhile. After a lot of time & headache getting everything rebuilt & fixed they learned they were rewarding the thieves by returning to the same storage lot. They knew they would be able to get away with it again and did even worse damage the first night it was back. So you may want to examine the response by the storage folks to prevent another occurrence.

[cyclist922]

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

We're already looking for a better storage location. I have mixed feelings about this one. This is a relatively new lot with what I thought was good security. They had lots of cameras but it turns out, they did not have a view of our site.

No one lives on site, so for most of the night it's wide open. The landlord knew there was a break-in and had called the police. But the video footage is grainy. I'm mostly angry because they did not call each owner and ask them to check their RV. As a result we found out 5 days after the fact.

I've not decided yet if I'm going to claim insurance. My RV deductible is $1k, it's looking like that's about equal to what was stolen. Still there's some light damage and I'm going to have to get estimates for it. Plus I don't know how much of this will come under my homeowner's insurance.

In the end it's just stuff. We still have a great rig, our motorcycle and our health. But we will need to take time off work to set things straight. Those are hours we could be on the road, and that's the most frustrating thing of all!