Burglarized in an RV Park

[Montana_6246]

I am posting this experience so that you may profit by it and hopefully the same thing never happens to you.

I was gone for the weekend and my Montana was in a very respectable Good Sam RV Park. When I returned last Sunday I discovered my Montana had been broken into and burglarized. They tried prying the door open and when that proved too much trouble they popped the cargo hatch next to the door and entered the Montana through the laundry hamper door in the floor of the bedroom. Problem was the bathroom door was open over the hatch so they kicked the hamper door off its hinges and then entered. Fortunately I did not keep anything of much value and the loss was confined to what they could carry out with them. I did not have anything in the safe and it was unlocked so they struck out there.

If you have ever been the victim of a crime you understand the feelings of violation, anger, etc., that go with it.

As I look back I realize that there are lessons to be learned and I should have been more careful and less trusting.

I was parked in a more remote area of the park next to a river. There were plenty of steet lights and the RV was flooded with light. The burglars came from the river side unseen and left the same way. That particular weekend there weren't as many fellow RV'ers around me. I had always heard from the magazines and forums that RV parks are about the safest place you can be.

Lessons learned:
Leave lights on and a TV or radio playing.
Notify others in the park that you are leaving and ask them to keep any eye on things.
Secluded spots are not always best.
Get rid of the laundry hamper door or seal it off permanently.
Cargo hatches are easily pryed open with a screw driver even if
locked. I found the screw driver they used.
Many of you may know this but I did not. Your cargo hatch key fits every other RV regardless of brand. Changing the locks will not help because the door can still be pryed open easily.

The owners of the RV park have owned it for eleven years and tell me that this is the first burglary they have had. There's always a first time. I can see now that mine was an easy target waiting to be hit. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues after roll call "Let's be careful out there."