Trap door to basement.

[paulrem]

We have had an attempted break-in. They opened both basement side doors - not sure if they saw the trap door or not, but did not use it. Nothing in the basement. Went to the roof and tried to get in through the vent over the bed, only damage was the rubber roof was torn - a big tear. Did not get into our 5er, but did get into my brothers trailer and got all of his fishing gear. Another trailer setting next to his was broken into and it was lived in for a few nights as there was a fire bult on the floor. The owner had lots of missing items. Insurance took care of everything on my 5er. Police came and told us that it would not matter what we do that if a theif wanted to get in he or she could with little effort. We do take a few steps to slow someone down but nothing will prevent them from getting in if they wanted to. I now do not use that storage area as they did not carry any type of insruance to help with fixing things. I was told that storage ares do not carry any type of insurance. Have not checked with other storage places to see if this is true or not. I now store it at a friends in the country next to his big shop and his "big" dog. It works.
Oh by the way, I, too have used the trap door when wife left with her keys and mine are in the 5er. Don't ask, that is another story.

[dsprik]

quote:Originally posted by paulrem

We have had an attempted break-in. They opened both basement side doors - not sure if they saw the trap door or not, but did not use it. Nothing in the basement. Went to the roof and tried to get in through the vent over the bed, only damage was the rubber roof was torn - a big tear. Did not get into our 5er, but did get into my brothers trailer and got all of his fishing gear. Another trailer setting next to his was broken into and it was lived in for a few nights as there was a fire bult on the floor. The owner had lots of missing items. Insurance took care of everything on my 5er. Police came and told us that it would not matter what we do that if a theif wanted to get in he or she could with little effort. We do take a few steps to slow someone down but nothing will prevent them from getting in if they wanted to. I now do not use that storage area as they did not carry any type of insruance to help with fixing things. I was told that storage ares do not carry any type of insurance. Have not checked with other storage places to see if this is true or not. I now store it at a friends in the country next to his big shop and his "big" dog. It works.
Oh by the way, I, too have used the trap door when wife left with her keys and mine are in the 5er. Don't ask, that is another story.

Paul are you saying that both of these incidents happened while the units were in storage, or while they were unattended for an extended period of time? Do you think these were "opportunists" or "professionals"?

[paulrem]

We are not sure what they were. The police said that it would be very hard to find the people resopnsible. They did take fingerprints from the trailer that they stayed in but we never heard anything from the police. By the way the breakins were all at the same time and at the same location. The owner of the trailer that had the fire built in it was going hunting and that is when he discovered the break ins. We had just checked our rig about 4 or 5 days before that and it was okay then. Good insurance sure does help.

[sreigle]

I have to admit I used the laundry chute door for entry on the day we took delivery. We got home, 75 miles from our dealer, and found I'd managed to lose the ring of keys.

[paulrem]

Steve, am laughing with you, I won't say any more, except that I had several sets of extra keys made for the door and hidden where I could get to them. Our dealer had a couple of the basement door keys that he gave me and the the door key I had to have made.
See it could happen to anyone of us.

[smc]

I did lock myself out of the trailer and was glad we had the trap door, though it is not that easy to crawl through. We have never had anything stolen, and the only things that we have heard of going missing are chairs etc. left outside. One person did have his trailer stolen from a storage yard here in Yuma, but he now has a brand new Monty! People in campgrounds and parks seem to be fairly honest, compared to being in some residential areas. Maybe thieves figure campgrounds are not good pickings?!

[sreigle]

quote:Originally posted by OntMont

When we leave our trailer in storage, I hang a small wire loop over each locker door latch, and then cinch them together using one of those ratchet type cargo straps. This secures the two doors together regardless of having a key. (It also stops me from getting in when I forget the keys - but I'll only do that once, and I've done it already).

John, do you do this on the inside of the basement storage area or on the outside?

thanks.

[OntMont]

quote:
John, do you do this on the inside of the basement storage area or on the outside?

I put the loops on from the outside, close the doors, then reach from inside to attach the strap hooks and cinch them up. (I threaded the strap under all the stuff in the locker first). It was kind of a make-shift effort using what I had on hand at the time, probably could be refined with some thought.

[old turbo]

If I had concerns about my trailer being broken into I would get a security system installed. Lots of new systems out that dont cost much . Some need shore power,some work off the batt.You can get some noise makers that work off a nine volt batt. I always keep a pin lock on my mountaineer.You can get phony cameras to mount and the signs that read , under 24 hour security or whatever.You just have to hope the bad guy can read.I would think that some campgrounds that offer storage, or if you have your tt in a storage lot would take some kind of security measurers.

[dsprik]

We need a good ole "force field". Anyone remember "Lost in Space"? Just have Will turn on the force field... Seemed like a simple concept at the time (I was about 12... about the time of my home eletro-magnet experiment ). It would make the basement trap door a non-issue. Man... if technology can develop little handheld devices with color screens that you can walk around and watch episodes of "Desperate Housewifes" on, surely a simple electrical barrier could be set up.

Maybe just the Robot would be enough... place him next to the Montana and when an intruder appears, just wait for the "DANGER! DANGER!". On second thought... that never worked on the show, because Dr. Smith never listened anyway...

[ols1932]

My wife stores all her extra food in the laundry basket. Dirty clothes are stored in the washer/dryer area (we have no washer/dryer) in a collapsible clothes hamper. If thieves didn't know about the trap door, I'm sure they do now. We don't worry about breaking in that way because of all the "stuff" in the storage area of the basement.

Before we went full time in November, 2000, the rig was broken into while in a "secure" storage area. I had only locked the handle lock and that is the easiest way for a thief to get in. All they have to do is pop the handle with any kind of lever (hammer, big screwdriver, etc.). They stole then entire entertainment center equipment. Fortunately we hadn't moved anything else into the rig. Insurance covered everything.