Minor theft and Inconvenience

[Martsing]

My wife and I were having a great weekend at Castaways RV Resort in OC Maryland and as I was getting ready to leave I noticed that one of the pins for my sway bar arms on Equilizer WDH was missing. Now, my habit is to place these pins back into the bars after I take them off. Immediately. I have now purchased a set of spare parts from AMAZON but has anyone ever had anyone just take things from your camp site? I would like to think people at a campground would be honest and not do that kind of thing but I guess that is just naïve.

Lesson learned for me.

Marty

[RSchleder]

We have been camping since 1970 and the only thing we've ever had stolen was a small white cooler. I was parked overnight in a motel parking lot as we had just picked up our motorcycle tent camper at the factory and didn't have it outfitted yet. I guess someone needed the cooler worse than I did.
Never had anything taken or disturbed at a campground in all these years!

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Martsing

My wife and I were having a great weekend at Castaways RV Resort in OC Maryland and as I was getting ready to leave I noticed that one of the pins for my sway bar arms on Equilizer WDH was missing. Now, my habit is to place these pins back into the bars after I take them off. Immediately. I have now purchased a set of spare parts from AMAZON but has anyone ever had anyone just take things from your camp site? I would like to think people at a campground would be honest and not do that kind of thing but I guess that is just naïve.

Lesson learned for me.

Marty

I would suspect it was misplaced rather than stolen.

[Wiscampsin]

Never had anyone take anything in all the years we've been camping. I believe most campers are honest and will even watch out for other campers' items. Unfortunately there is always 'that element' in our society that will try to ruin your day by taking something that isn't theirs. A friend of ours made a small sign and laminated it to put on his site. It reads "Smile, you're on trail cam". He thinks it might make 'that element' think twice. He's never had anything taken either.

[Martsing]

Originally Posted by OldCoot

I would suspect it was misplaced rather than stolen.

Knowing me that would be good suspicion especially as I get older. I could have simply taken it off and NOT put it right into the sway bar. I could have set it on my truck bumper like I did with that nice leatherman tool I used to have and those needle nosed pliars that suffered the same fate.

Either way, I am suspicious in both directions, theft and stupidity

Marty

[timfromma]

Originally Posted by Martsing

Knowing me that would be good suspicion especially as I get older. I could have simply taken it off and NOT put it right into the sway bar. I could have set it on my truck bumper like I did with that nice leatherman tool I used to have and those needle nosed pliars that suffered the same fate.

Either way, I am suspicious in both directions, theft and stupidity

Marty

I keep spare pins for both the sway bar and WDH tucked away inside the trailer. I'm not worried about theft but rather me losing one.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by Martsing

Knowing me that would be good suspicion especially as I get older. I could have simply taken it off and NOT put it right into the sway bar. I could have set it on my truck bumper like I did with that nice leatherman tool I used to have and those needle nosed pliars that suffered the same fate.

Either way, I am suspicious in both directions, theft and stupidity

Marty

I feel your pain/loss,we have had "Thieves" take stuff from us at C/G hundreds of miles from Home,and when we return Home the "Thieves" have put the Stuff they took right where it is Stored! Youroo!!

[dalford]

I've always found that when I lose something and start looking for it I always find it in the last place I look! I'm not sure how I would know if it was my memory I was I looking for..

[2016251RKS]

I've stocked spare pins, etc with the thought that one is none and two is one. Duplicated all the equilizer hitch pins and bits...tongue lock pin, etc, etc. plus some spare zip-ties, just in case.

[atcbrownie]

Dalford I hope it is in the last place you look. If you find it and continue looking for it that is when there is an issue

[gectisme]

Originally Posted by atcbrownie

Dalford I hope it is in the last place you look. If you find it and continue looking for it that is when there is an issue

That made me laugh!

[DaGrinch]

Originally Posted by timfromma

I keep spare pins for both the sway bar and WDH tucked away inside the trailer. I'm not worried about theft but rather me losing one.

X2!

And to further make sure things don't disappear, I mounted some squared U brackets in the ceiling storage pass-through and slid the bars on the brackets; either at home or camping. Left the pins on them also. Even in my advanced years (according to DW), I double check things then let her check.

[nc-canuck]

I had the exact same problem... Pins stolen until the neighbor came by and asked if I was missing a pin. He found it on the street. Other pin was still on the bumper. After that I bought spares to compensate for my short term memory loss and full time distractions - would have been hard to get home without one.


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[Martsing]

Seems like the general consensus is that I left it on the bumper and that I should keep spares for any contingency.

Sounds like a plan!!

Marty

[geazer01]

Had two batteries stolen and wiring destroyed while parked in a consignment lot on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Seaplane Base. Navy will not reimburse.

[WayneLee]

I have a similar story, but it didn't happen in a CG.

My DW and I stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant to enjoy a great lunch. When we came out, I did my usual walk-around the RV and dinghy making sure everything was ready to go. I do a walk around before we start moving and another walk around when we stop.

I found that someone had removed a pin in my tow bar, one of the type where it's a bent steel rod with a hole at the end that you put a snap fastener through so the rod cannot vibrate out. Yep, they took both parts. Luckily, I carry spare parts and we were back on the road in a few minutes.

It was there when we stopped. I cannot understand why someone would remove a pin like that unless they wanted to see us have a bad experience driving down the road.

[satdog01]

The best way to find things you have lost, buy the replacement part. Probably the lost part will show up later. Golden years seemed to be filled with things forgotten!!!

[PenJoe]

Yup, one boat oar. We looked for someone rowing in a circle, but they must have figured out they needed two.

[schrederman]

Perhaps the recent burglary of my trailer and 10 others in the same storage facility has me a bit jaded... or perhaps it has just erased my naivety. In the same lot last year, I refilled both of my LP bottles. When I was out camping I noticed that one of the bottles was different. I pulled the cover and discovered that someone had swapped an older, empty bottle with one of my full ones. I needed it so I refilled it. A couple of weeks later, the older, now partially full bottle was swapped back with my newer, but now empty bottle. I complained to the management of the facility and the owner said they had discovered the problem and that trailer was gone. In a facility in Amarillo that had a live-on-site guard, my LP bottles were mysteriously much lighter on 2 occasions... with no trips after filling...

It is truly unfortunate that there are thieves among us... but there are. If you have the habit of putting the pins in a certain spot then I would assume that you did that. But then again, maybe I truly am a bit jaded by my past experiences. Things that I will absolutely need to be able to leave are secured. I don't leave any of my hitch stuff out, and my spare is locked.

[reddiver]

Ya, I'm at the place in life when I am standing at the bottom of a stairs wondering if I came down to get something or I'm on the way up to get something.