They shall not pass ... or shall they?
The problem of security at some campsites and caravan parks at certain times of the year is an ongoing one.
It seems that boom gates, security patrols and barbed wire fences are all well and good … but there is only so much that can be done to protect possessions from a determined – or an opportunistic – thief. And, after all, camping isn’t by its very nature supposed to be a relaxed and relaxing pursuit.
For some, however, the age of innocence is over. The Jeremy family were camping at The Oaks on Inskip Peninsula over the summer school holidays when they leant the hard way the high price of being too trusting. While they were out and about, thieves roamed their campsite and stole items including a $1200 Evakcool Fridgemate fridge/freezer full of food, two fishing rods; two camping chairs, and a stack of quality beach towels.
Police received similar complaints from two other sets of campers at Inskip.
“It’s such a beautiful location, but our happiness soon soured,” Anne Jeremy said. “The theft has completely devastated us … we feel so violated.”
Rainbow Beach Police Senior Constable Al Gerrard advised campers to always secure their belongings at night and when not at the campsite. He said generators and other large items such as eskies were a big target and owners needed to chain them up or move them into an enclosure.
“Fishing rods and chairs should be taken inside,” he added. “Campers should not stop being vigilant about personal security.”
Have you ever had items stolen from your campsite? Do you leave belongings such as campchairs out overnight? Comment below.
We have purchased a set of 4 keyed alike bike lock sets and our table,chairs and waeco fridge are chained back to the leaf spring suspension the cable used is high tensile steel and is hard to cut.
so far so good
We do something very similar to the previous comment ie lock everything together with a steel cable. However I also want to stress that not all robberies in van parks are from outsiders. We were robbed in Broken Hill & we know that the culprits were 2 men who parked next to us on an old Millard with a hand painted lime green stripe around the van. They watched us come & go & waited for the chance to grab our stuff from inside the van. They got my handbag with over $500 in cash, bank cards, license etc. also 2 cameras. They were gone by the time we realised what had happened. No doubt, soon after the stripe was painted over to blue ! We do not leave our van door unlocked even to go to the toilet.
Mon
Hi Monica
We have a common relative via the Macaskie’s via my uncle Gordon please DM me
Angela
My name is anne jeremy, as referred in the story above. I came across this story nearly some 12 months since we lost our gear. Although this story implies that we weren’t at our campsite, the fact is we were. It was in the wee hours, and I was semi-awake. At the time of our trip, it was incredibly windy at our campsite, my husband having to numerous times tighten ropes; put in my poles, just to keep our site secure. These cretons stole from us as we were sleeping – moving around our gear, only metres from us. They even stole my little girls swim gear, besides towels; fishing gear; my shorts; besides a full fridge of food for our family. The only way we could have properly in truth have secured our gear was to probably literally have pulled down our campsite all together – but this would have stopped us from camping clearly. We live often in a society that when something like this happens, authorities and others will too quickly suggest that the victim/s should have done this; or that, ignoring the fact that an individual/s waited until we were asleep, took advantage of the horrendous wind, and committed a criminal offence as knowingly stealing from an innocent family, inclusive of children. I am still shocked from this experience; still feel violated in a way, wondering what would of happened had my children; myself/husband have got up say to even go to the toilet, and disturbed them. What if in their panic they had killed one of my family – is this somehow our fault as well, because we camped there? Inskip is a beautiful place, but had we known as we do now, that this is a popular place for theft as well, at least we could have been even more prepared; maybe made different choices. I understand the Rainbow Beach community don’t like the amount of crimes being committed on Inskp to be too publicised, but something needs to happen; and before someone is killed. I
Thanks so much for this advice – we will steer well clear of Inskip! Its such a shame there are so many low-lifes around these days.
I was really glad to read these comments because one of our planned trips included a week or so at Inskip.
Had heard of a few problems there years ago but had thought the problems had been cleared up. As nice as it is at Inskip, do not think it is worth the trouble of staying there now. Probaby being overcautious, however, how foolish one would feel if we now stayed there and find ourselves also the victims of these idiots. Then it would be our fault for even going there so will now find a more friendly family place to holiday.