What do you leave outside at your campsite?

[TonyMac]

Originally Posted by fcbbob15

Chairs, table, grill, rug and locked bikes. So far so good.

What he said up there

[GypsyR]

Everything. But it's nothing special. I read here about people having multi thousand dollar carbon fiber bicycles stolen. Me? Somebody steal mine and I'm basically back on Craigslist looking for another $50 ride.
I've been warned at a campground that there could be thefts. They would also quickly add not by other campers but by local residents from the neighboring area.

[Ldubs]

We leave out the big rug, folding chairs and side tables. The RoadTrip grill is cable locked to the picnic table. The generator sits on a rack above the propane tanks. It also has a cable lock. I run cable locks around our surge protector and through the propane tank handles too.

If I ever lose the keys, we are in trouble.

BTW, If you haven't already, I think it worthwhile to check out Python cable locks. I probably learned about them here or another forum. I like them a lot because you can cinch them up so there is no loose cable.

[Bigd9]

After reading these posts, maybe I should starting locking the front door when we leave to go exploring for the day.

[BPTS]

I keep an extremely clean camp, maybe a folding chair left out.
If you dont leave things laying around there is no reason for somebody to steal it now is there?
Or-
IF YOU DONT LEAVE "FOOD" OUT THE "ANIMALS" WONT COME LOOKING FOR DINNER.....

[carybosse]

I leave out cheap camp chairs, rug, maybe the canopy, a bin I put the cans and bottles to recycle. Most expensive thing is usually an ice chest that we transport the groceries to campsite with. Maybe a tote that held some of our dry goods. The anchors and cables by securing our dogs outside.

Never anything significant stolen.

[DirtRider]

The rzr is always sitting there, often with a key in it. Sometimes the motorcycles, but I usually don't leave the key in those. The very nice open-deck trailer that hauls that stuff, sometimes it's locked to the hitch. Portable panel, chairs, sometimes the grill.

I swear this isn't ever as messy as it sounds--we try to keep a very neat campsite. The massive storage bay on my little class C is always full of expensive stuff--cordless tools, jumper pack, hand tools, helmets, etc. The door to the RV gets locked maybe half the time.

Maybe I'm a fool, but I've never had any trouble. Strangely, the thing that makes me most nervous is my tie-down stuff. I'd be hosed if someone stole my equipment that secures all the toys to the trailer.

[MSHappyCampers]

I wouldn't leave a portable generator out! Bolt cutters are too plentiful out there!

[atreis]

I do nothing different now from what my parents did 50 years ago, or what I did 30 years ago. We lock up bikes, and don't worry about other things. (It's also not unusual for us to forget to lock up the bikes. ) I've never had anything taken except food, and that wasn't by humans.

Originally Posted by Marine359

30 years ago, it just wasn’t heard of, but today?

It wasn't heard of 30 years ago because the Internet wasn't available to most, so the very few, rare, cases that did happen were just not heard about, unlike today, where the rare and unusual gets amplified. It reminds me of an incident when I was young. I was in my very early 20s and going to NYC. My grandparents were very concerned about me going there, because ... No, not that I might wander into a bad part of town, or get mugged, or something like that ... but the satanic cults, because that was what they had heard about on TV. It's the same thing with campsite security and soooo many other things today. The rare an unusual gets attention and amplified to where it seems as if it must be common, but it's not any more common than people being abducted by satanic cults in NYC was in the early 90s. (At least, that's my experience in the midwest, South, Canada, and east coast camping. We haven't gone further west than South Dakota.)

[Drewloker]

I lock up the “Watch Dog”.

And the receiver hitch.

The WD because it is a bright light drawing attention to itself and would be an easy target.

The hitch, despite the fact that somebody would have a heck of a time running anywhere with it, but in the event that a thief did strike, and take my hitch, I would be in a real pickle.

[Alpine36]

We rarely leave anything of significant value outside. If they want some 20yo mediocre Coleman camp chairs full of campfire burn holes or a matching Weber Q, well they probably need them worse than us.
We do lock our bicycles up with a chain to the trailer hitch. If someone tries to take them the chain rattles the hitch, directly under our bed.
That's when we let the dog out unleashed. Rott mixes like their bicycles lol...

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by Bigd9

After reading these posts, maybe I should starting locking the front door when we leave to go exploring for the day.

Same here! In 16 years of full-timing we've had nothing stolen. We're boondockers and always left our BBQ, extra propane tank, chairs outside when gone... and many times didn't lock up. I guess we have more trust in people than others but when boondocking there aren't many people around.

[amosnandy]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Once we set up camp, like many people, we’ve got thousands of dollars of gear outside. Portable panel, griddle, spare propane tank, generator, etc, etc, etc. on our last trip to a NP, other rvers told me not to leave stuff out if we went on an excursion. We do cable lock the generator to the bumper, and put away the portable panel, but wondering if we’re setting ourselves up for a rip-off. 30 years ago, it just wasn’t heard of, but today?

What are your thoughts, and what do you leave out.
Have you been ripped off?

I leave everything out, keys in the car, doors unlocked, and my two 120# pit bulls just love to lay on the rug on the patio.

[johnhicks]

We leave stuff out, put the portable gen in a bay rather than leave it sit right out, but don't lock the bays. It would cost me far more to replace a bay door than anything in the bay. At Wallyworld we of course lock things up to deter an opportunist thief. In 11 years fulltime nothing's gone missing that I didn't lose.

A tidbit. At a campground in Louisiana coolers started going missing. Not styro, but Yeti and such. This went on for a couple of months, and security cams showed no one coming in from the road. Turned out the thieves were _rowing a boat to shore_ in the night, grabbing the coolers and rowing away.

I can't imagine the stupidity of messing with a Louisiana man's beer cooler.