Unwelcome intruders in the night

[Roadgypsy]

Originally Posted by twogypsies

I'm so glad I'm not that paranoid! If so, I'd just stay home in my bunker. That's no way to live.

Twogypsies,


I am so glad to hear you've never had a bad experience like the ones in this thread. I hope your future is equally blessed.
Sixty years ago, my family and I had two break ins...in our S&B home. What we went through showed me as a kid what the real world can be. This was in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, L.A. County, where I grew up.

Since, my husband and I have driven off car thieves at home in Phoenix, AZ, endured gang spats in Northern CA. on our street, rescued our kids at school from gang activities (they were new to the neighborhood-one was punched and suffered a concussion while standing in line for the cafeteria; the other because of his clothes), I feel qualified to speak on this subject of how low people can be whether you have a home on a foundation or wheels. Oh, and my career field was telecommunications/law enforcement dispatcher-no illusions here.
Today, now, more than ever, being vigilant, recognizing dangers, and protecting yourself, your loved ones, and your hard earned property when people up to no good or are suspicious appear means seeing another beautiful day tomorrow. What time I have left on this earth I guard carefully.

There' nothing wrong with not wanting to be tomorrow's news and/or in the obits at the hands of someone else.
I will continue to hope you continue to have a blissful and unhampered life.

[franklin99]

Never happened to us in over 45 years of camping however you never know what drunks can do they don't know what camper they belong too or where they are.

[24thrd]

It happened to us. Early morning large ponding on side of RV. Turned on the security light. Checked out all windows. They appeared to have fled. Next morning found out there had been some issues at CG including someone breaking into the after hours deposit check in box.

[Florida Rang]

What does a 75 lb German Shepard eat at 3am in the morning ? Answer = somebody banging on my Motorhome door hollering for me to let them in .

[BlueMerle]

It was July, 2020. Covid was in full force. My husband and I decided to pull our Coachman 2 1/2 hours from our home in Lenexa, Ks to Abilene, Ks for a 3 day weekend getaway. We arrived mid Friday afternoon to a very nice, well kept campground in Abilene. Although there were plenty of campers there we were happy we didn’t have campers on either side of us. We got everything set up and off we went sight seeing and exploring. Friday night was peaceful and quite. Saturday went bye pretty quickly. We were exhausted by the time 9pm came around so we headed to bed. Just as we were dozing off to sleep we heard another camper pulling into the empty site next to us. Fast forward to 2am...we are awoken by our miniature schnauzer barking and in full protection mode. We finally got him settled down and discovered why he was barking. Someone was trying to open the trailer door! I asked through the locked door, with my husband next to me [Mod Edit] “What do you want?” A crying girlishly voice replied “I want in.” “Let me in.” There was no way we were going to open that door! I simply said “You have the wrong trailer.” My husband was looking out the window on the left side of the trailer, I was looking out the right side. While it was very dark I caught a glimpse of a small blonde haired girl go into the trailer that pulled in next to us. The next morning as we were telling the father about the incident the little blond haired girl (about 5years old) and her mother appeared from inside the trailer. The father shared the news with the mother. Then he asked the little girl if she remembered trying to get into our trailer. She said she did. Then the mother and the father kinda laughed and said something like she must have been sleepwalking again!

[Lt Dan]

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[Mr. Jeff]

Yes, but not at a campground but in our driveway! I was headed to bed about 1:30 am (quiet work time!) when my wife noticed out our window a light flashing in our motorhome and the door open. I had been in it earlier in the evening and thought maybe I just left the door open but the stairwell light flashing stumped me. So I headed to the Bus to check and grabbed a large pipe wrench from the porch bench on my out instead of my [Mod Edit]. Got to the doorway to find a guy lying on the floor messing with the step entry light switch! He jumped up and headed to the back room of the Bus. He then realized he couldn't get out so he came running back to the front all while I now have the pipe wrench raised and ready to strike an yelling at him to get to the floor. My wife called 911 while I kept him at bay in the Bus. He did follow commands to get on the floor. Two minutes later four officers stormed my MH and dragged they guy out and arrested him. I'm afraid the results would have been [Mod Edit] different with my other protection. But the Lord was watching over both he and I that night. BTW, he was high on Meth and BUTT naked!

[Rev. Roy]

We've never had anyone pounding on the door in the 50 years we've been camping, however we did have a determined raccoon once. Since we wouldn't let him in, he decided to dance on the roof instead!. LOL. We have had thieves try to steal stuff but we travel with dogs and I have bright motion detector lights, cameras, and alarms. A friend has a sign I love. It says, "Warning! retired Marine sharpshooter."

[Jay D.]

we were camping at a remote camping area next to a small river there were 2 other campers besides us. we turned in early about 9:30 or so and about 11:00 i here loud vehicles coming into the area, shure enough 3 big 4x4s with blasting stereos. they started driving into the water and all over and had started a fire in a fire pit. so i get up and put my close on and out the door i go. i grab a 6 pack from the cooler and wander over, pass out the beers and keep one for myself. i start bsing them about there trucks and stereo equipment and had a good conversion. i finshed my beer and said i'm hitting the sheets. i just got inside and a knock on the door, i open and one of the fellows said they were sorry for causing a disturbance and were going somewhere else so they wouldn't bother us. nice kids, red necks we call em, just haveing a little fun. much better than robing a gas station or car jacking someone. defused the situation i like it.
Jay D.

[bSirius]

[QUOTE=Mukiwa;5761025]Hello fellow RVers. I wanted to share a couple of experiences we've recently had where we had people coming up to our RV in the early hours of the morning.

We stayed at Quail Ridge RV park in Clipper Mills a couple of years ago. They had a potluck cook out and requested people bring a bottle, so we did. The bottle was never opened but it was taken, a magnum of Vodka. I had gotten up to get some napkins and came back my plate of food was taken. I didn't eat. We went home.

The next day somebody stood outside the manager's office screaming for a couple of hours. The manager was there, never responded, and didn't call the law.

After dark that evening it became obvious who had stolen the Vodka...the assistant manager and her boyfriend. He started beating the crap out of her, had a knife and punched a bunch of holes in her trunk and smashed out her windshield. This is right next to the manager's office. We found this out after we walked up to the scene. We responded when we heard fists contacting a face. A bunch of RV'ers were sitting there watching. The perp had the handyman....a guy in his 70s on the ground, wrestling the poor old dude with a knife to his belly. The manager had pulled up a chair and was watching along with everyone else. The perp was threatening to kill everyone there. My wife, fairly proficient in martial arts, grabbed him by the T-shirt and flipped him off the old dude and on to his back. She had fighting sticks so we restrained him to the ground with a stick over his neck....didn't hurt him but did restrain him. We urged the manager to call the police. Over an hour later the law showed up. During that time the perp threatened to kill everyone in the park and that when he got out he was going to come back and burn the place to the ground. When the officer showed up, he knew the perp's name and took him away. He took absolutely no info from anyone regarding a police report. Turned out he had done this before and the manager let him come back in. The owner showed up and the manager and handyman had taken credit for disarming the guy. They came over to apologize to us, and everyone else, and said thank god the handyman had handled it. We told them the truth. The guy would probably be dead if we hadn't showed up. Quail Ridge looks like a nice little slice of heaven in Clipper Mills. One just never knows when the nut case will come back. Plus, if you like quiet....there's 18 dogs in the first 8 spaces....all full timers. Don't go there if you can avoid it. We've had other issues in Northern Cali but nothing tops this one. Stay safe and always practice situational awareness.

[Johnynorthla]

The only label I like to give bad people is BAD PEOPLE!

Never judge a book by its cover. I was staying at a 2 month stent at a S Fl campground. There was a gentleman living out of his van. I observed him while walking my dog daily. He was in his late 50’ early 60’s, long beard, long hair, always had long khakis,( fishing type clothing) and a cowboy hat. He was always polite. I found out the office asked him to leave because other campers were afraid of him. I stuck up a few conversations with him. Really nice guy, just down on his luck. His van was not running. He was very clean, I never observed him intox or under the influence of any substance. We became friendly with each other. I managed to convince the park to extend his eviction and found a local mechanic to help him out. Just because people look or talk different doesn’t necessarily mean their bad.


Believe me, I know bad!

[JVH]

About a year ago we were heading down to Tulsa. Stopped in a rest stop near Joplin to fix dinner. Had a knock on the door. Woman said she lost her purse and needed some gas money to get home. I said I would call the Highway Patrol and they would be able to help her, and pulled out my phone. She started cussing me out and flipping me off as she walked away.
End or Story, right?

On the way back, by coincidence, we ended up stopping at the rest stop on the other side of the highway for the same reason.
Another knock on the door. Guess who.
Same woman, same story. I guess she didn't remember me from 3 days earlier at the other rest stop. Told her if I didn't give her money 3 days ago at the other rest stop why would I now? She started cussing and screaming at me.
The trucker in the tractor right next to me, started laughing at her, gave me a thumbs up and honked his air horn at her, which startled her as she ran away.
Turns out she had hit him up first.

[hikerjohn66]

Originally Posted by Mukiwa

Hello fellow RVers. I wanted to share a couple of experiences we've recently had where we had people coming up to our RV in the early hours of the morning.

First instance, camping in a nice RV park on the Texas gulf in January, my wife and I woke up to someone banging on the RV door at 3am. Thinking it might be an emergency I asked out the window what the problem was and a female asked loudly if she could borrow an iPhone charger. Appeared to be under the influence. Anyhow, I sent her on her way, without the Apple juicer.

Then this morning at 5am at an RV park on north Florida, I had a guy try to open the door of the RV, banging really loudly, and shouting 'Let me in!'. I saw him through the window and he appeared to be very drunk, slurring and swaying. I shouted out the window that I would call the cops and he staggered off into the night. We are armed so I wasn't particularly concerned about him actually getting in the RV, but still a jolt to the system so early in the morning!

Anyone else experience this kind of thing? Is it common? Is it time to put an extra deadbolt on the RV door?

Wow, that's surprising. Never had any problems in a campground. Campers are usually the safest people to be around. But they with COVID and people having lost jobs I guess it could be unpredictable for the next few years.

[red300zx]

I was at the Indianapolis 500 over the weekend. Some guy came by with a dollar bill in his hand and dress a bit shabby. He said he was with security and looking for a crack head. I told him when he finds the crack head to tell him [Mod Edit] solves a lot of crack head problems.
Never saw security again, shocking!