Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Theft and tent camping

+1
−0

I used to go tent-trailer camping as a kid ('60s and '70s, west coast US and Canada) and don't recall worrying about people going into our campground and stealing things. Now I'm thinking about getting back into camping (tent, not tent-trailer, and now in New England), and am worried that, if we pitch a tent, then go off to the beach or something, someone will steal our stuff.

Is that a reasonable concern? If so, is there something I can do to keep from getting ripped off?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/8706. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

2 answers

+1
−0

In most places I think the risk of theft while camping is generally low. People who choose to do camping for their holiday often don't give the impression of having lots of expensive gear. Even if some camping gear is quite expensive you either need specialist knowledge to know its value and/or its resale value is quite low. Added to the relatively low payoff there are often people around campsites even during the day (although this varies a lot by location) which would increase the risk of thieves getting caught. Therefore, campsites rarely attract dedicated thieves.

However, you are still leaving all you possessions in your tent easily accessible/unlocked so some precautions are advisable. Mainly, I would try and lock any valuables, particularly electronics, in your car or similar. At least hide then somewhere not obvious.

While things such as sleeping bags can have significant value I think the chance of anyone stealing them is very low. Personally, I would be more concerned about people breaking into my house while I was away.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/8714. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

+0
−0

I've probably been car camping at a public campground a few 100 nights in my life. Of all those, I can only remember having stuff stolen from the campsite once. For some of the early experiences I was too young to remember such things, but I didn't hear any stories of getting ripped off from my parents either.

The one time was when my son and I went to the White Mountains of NH for a few days. We stayed at the Russell Pond Campground in Thornton and Woodstock. It must have been around 2000 since my son was in grade school at the time. We left a Coleman stove and a pot on the table in our campsite and went hiking for the day. When we came back, the stove was gone. This stove was at least 45 years old, and not particularly valuable monetarily. Fortunately a neighbor let us cook our dinner on their stove.

It turns out this was just some urchins going around and causing trouble in the campground. Apparently the police got envolved due to other things these kids did, but didn't know about our stove until after they let them go.

So the answer is, don't leave obviously valuable things in plain sight, but things are generally safe. However, you can't count on your stuff being absolutely safe in any one instance.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »