Sadly, it seems the frequency of incidences of theft from caravan parks and camping grounds is on the rise … but not all grey nomads are taking it lying down.
John H has been on the road full time for the past 10 years and says he has been the victim of wannabe thieves on a couple of occasions.
“I brought a nice piece of rolled pork to cook and left in Engel,” he said. “And by the next morning it had been stolen!”
He also recalls a time when thieves tried to steal his cooker and started to undo the gas fitting on the back before realising it was chained up and giving up.
“It wasn’t until next night when I lit the cooker and flames shot up 30 centimetres from back of cooker that I realised what had happened,” he said. “Luckily there was no damage done … but it could have been quite serious.”
John, who is currently staying at Foreshore Caravan Park at Nambucca Heads in New South Wales now routinely chains up his belongings left in the annexe … and last week bought a motion sensor alarm system.
“I installed it and that same night it went off at 1.30am …. bloody hell was it loud, I reckon the thieves would be still running!” he said. “And I am still trying to get the wife to let go of the smoke detector on the ceiling above the bed.”
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the alarm went off again this morning at 4am.
“This time I had re-adjusted the sensors and think it may have been set off by a little old lady in her eighties on the way to an early toilet break,” said John. “I hope she made it!”
* Have you tried a motion alarm system to boost your campsite security? Email us here to share your experiences.
