Break into Motorholmes on Aires

[Barcobird]

Is it not possible to put alarm contacts on windows and doors with zones on the alarm panel. Then when you turn in for the night, switch which ever zone on that you won't be entering.

[Tracker]

On the assumption that at least some of the vans broken into had cab door deadlocks it begs the question whether the dealocks were set or not and if they were set how were they so easily overcome by the thieves?

 

In which case there would seem little point in having cab door deadlocks that lull owners into a false sense of security and maybe the Sevel van designers and converters need to think again about vehicle security.

[Nobby]

Nobby - 2015-08-09 3:52 PM

 

Aboput five years ago, while travelling north through France, I stayed overnight at the well known stopover at Marboue on the N10 and enjoyed a peaceful evening and night. However, on awaking, I found that somebody had cut the (UK) offside quarterlight out of my Ducato cab and carefully (thank goodness) laid the glass intact on some nearby grass. Nothing was stolen as I have deadlocks on the front doors and leave nothing handy in this part of the vehicle which was a known weak point on a vehicle of that genre. The same thief had also attempted to cut bicycles from the rear of my neighbour.

This was clearly a rare incident at this location and I was favoured with a visit from the local Mayor who was beside himself with concern.

 

Nobby

 

Apologies for resurrecting this thread from August 2015, specifically my quote from the first page regarding being broken in to on the village aire at Marboue which may not be such a "rare incident" after all.

 

I noticed on reading the MHFun forums that there appears to have been a very similar incident a couple of nights ago at the very same aire http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/robbery-at-marboue-aire.130073/#post-1849486 and post this purely for a heads-up for readers of this forum who may use this aire. I am not a subscriber to MHFun, so have no right to reply on there. Perhaps a reader with authority to reply on MHFun might oblige and advise them of my earlier similar incident.

 

It is suggested in the latest thread (perhaps partly tongue in cheek) that the victims of the latest incident must have been 'gassed or drunk as a skunk' to sleep through such an incursion. I can assure readers that such conditions were not and are not a necessary pre-requisite.

 

Nobby

[pepe63xnotuse]

Ooh! It looks like Pelmetman's Missus may have the day to herself(again!) (lol)

 

.. now that he may be busy(busier?) multi-tasking posting on his EU threads, along with this resurrected thread, with it's reference to his second favourite topic, "gassing" ...

 

 

[Guest pelmetman]

pepe63 - 2016-05-03 9:03 AM

 

Ooh! It looks like Pelmetman's Missus may have the day to herself(again!) (lol)

 

.. now that he may be busy(busier?) multi-tasking posting on his EU threads, along with this resurrected thread, with it's reference to his second favourite topic, "gassing" ...

 

 

It's just as well I've retired.............

 

 

I'll have more time to post :D ..........

 

 

 

 

[witzend]

There's always doubts when Gassing is mentioned but recently I saw 2 men who where anti fouling a boat in a hell of a state because of the fumes and they where in a large shed with the doors open. They would have been easy to rob at the time took the paramedics an hour to bring them around after their Gassing incident

[ron.]

A personal account for the unbelievers - which has been posted before.

 

Middle of the night break-ins whilst sleeping have been going on for years and it has happened to us. It was years ago and we were wet behind the ears as far as motorhoming was concerned and had no alarm, used the wrong stopping place, and had shut the cab area off from the rest of the van with a curtain.

 

We were heading south in France on the A9 (a notorious road for break-ins, then and now) and after a long drive we pulled into an autoroute service station for the night, I know, I know. The service station had a very smart dedicated overnight area, overlooked by the lorry parking area, was floodlit, and there was four caravan units already in attendance and staying the night. This will do fine I thought.

 

In the early hours I woke up and detected a movement through the crack in the cab curtain. Vandals don't like noise and I had a gas marine foghorn at hand (about the only thing we did right) and thrusting this through the gap in the curtain I let the intruder have a blast right in the ear. To cut a long story short he fell backwards out of the cab passenger door, got to his feet, ran to a waiting car and the pair of them drove off with me still sounding off with the horn. Now those horns make one hell of a din, especially in the dead off night, and yet not one other person woke up. I checked the other cars out but none had been broken into and went back to bed. When I related the incident in the morning the others could hardly believe it, being light sleepers one and all!! However, I had a broken passenger door lock to prove the point.

 

The morale of the story is;

 

Get an alarm with a perimeter setting.

Don't overnight at service stations.

Don't isolate the cab from the habitation area overnight.

And if you are in France and come across a person who's deaf in one ear and has a weak heart - look out.

 

Ron

 

PS. A couple of years later we pulled into the same service station (only for fuel - wer'e no fools?) to see that the entrance to the dedicated area had been sealed off by lorry loads of rubble. On enquiring about this we were fold that they had so many break-ins that they were forced to close it down. Who said it doesn't happen?