Extra Internal Door Security Advice
Hi all,
I've asked Google and come up with a blank, so I'm hoping someone will have a suggestion.
we are traveling through France and although we plan to stay in campsites you never know if sometimes you have to change plans. So, we know of a number of friends who have had the horrible sleeping gass attacks and lost money etc, not to mention the probably unfounded worry something could happen to my young children.
Does anyone know of a decent additional Security fitting that we can fit to the inside of the door to make it harder for someone to gain access while we are inside? We have an alarm fitted to the door but I can't use it while we are inside too due to the internal sensor.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Comments
-
The problem with having an extra means of security on the inside is if there was a fire or something where you needed to get out quickly, it would impede your exit.
My advice would be not to park up other than on a recognised campsite. And seriously, don't worry about these things it will spoil your time away.
1 -
I agree with Ian that making it harder to get in might also make it harder to get out. One way round this would be to fit a small personal alarm on the inside of the door so as it's open it pulls the pin and makes a very large noise, something like this.
David
1 -
You should be able to disarm the internal PIR sensor in the van for night time use or where pets are in the van, if not get a new alarm... After what we have seen in the tower block in London last thing you want to do in the middle of the night is try and undo another lock.
The weakest point of your van is the flimsy plastic windows and roof lights which in summer you are likely to have open so how do you protect them?
0 -
Choufleurie, Ask yourself whether people camping in tents lock themselves in to survive gas attacks and robbers, yet live to tell the tale.
0 -
The others are exactly right, you must not impede you're exit in the event of an emergency you may have to vacate poste haste. Make sure you hide all you valuables, passports etc.. I often stay on motorway Aires etc when travelling alone in France and have never had a problem, perhaps I'm lucky although I like to think I apply some commonsense to the situation. I certainly don't frighten myself with maybe scare stories.
0 -
I have just spent over two months in France in the caravan alone and feel safer there than in the UK. I do have a personal rape alarm somewhere in the caravan that can be wedged in the door so goes off if opened but I have never used it. Just keep away from motorway service stations and France is almost certainly safer than the UK in most areas. I have a friend who was robbed at a border area despite being warned not to stay overnight at them! Gas attacks would appear to be fiction. Enjoy your holiday and don't worry.
0 -
The man we bought our motorhome from had this happen to his family while in France along with three other people so I don't think they are fiction. Apparently they opened the roof lights/sunroof and sprayed the gas in there. My husband wanted to go wild camping but for that reason it's a big NO!! for me. We have two lrg dogs so I hope they would hear anyone outside, but I agree Chaufleurie it can be worrying.
0 -
The advice offered by IanB Hawkes is sound and sensible.
For you to have known 'several friends' who have suffered gas attacks seems quite incredible. As others have suggested, the idea of 'gas attacks' is often thought to be an urban myth.
For tbe benefit of others, perhaps you could provide more details of where these attacks happened and some more information about the circumstances?
0 -
really not sure how someone can get on the roof of a motorhome and put gas into the roof vents. In our motorhome it moves when someone gets up in the night and wakes one of us up. With the high centre of gravity this would give the whole setup the movement would be amplified.
Could consider electrifying the roof??
2 -
Wonder where you go to buy anaesthetic and other controlled substances? I guess you would have to steal it probably from a hospital. I'm also guessing that the police would have some idea who would be involved. Then having got your bottles of gas/anaesthetic you need to transport it, whow just been pulled over by police for a driving offence at two in the morning, how do I explain the bottles. I am sure you get the idea, can't really believe it's as simple as getting the stuff, climbing on the roof and squirting it in in just the right quantity so as not to cause permanent damage.
0 -
The Royal College of Anaesthetists issued this further advice on 'gas attacks' in 2014 and it makes interesting reading.
I keep telling the story of our neighbours and friends, nice people, in good jobs, who were caravanners, on holiday in France just before we were due to go. They returned, tanned and happy, and said that they'd had a great time. So I was very surprised to read a letter from them in the Caravan Club magazine a few months later, stating of their terrible experiences with gas attack, and going into some details about it, about how much of their expensive possessions had been stolen, and how it had subsequently affected them. I wondered why they'd not mentioned this to us, when we'd chatted about their holiday, as it was one of the first allegations of such an attack that I'd read.
Because their letter just didn't ring true with what they'd told us I was not entirely surprised to see that a few months after the letter they were prosecuted for insurance fraud related to their claim. So the whole story was untrue - they hadn't been broken into, nothing had been stolen, they hadn't been gassed - but anyone reading their letter to the Caravan Club, or talking to them, would assume that it had actually happened.
These stories are considered to be an 'urban myth' by most people, in the same vein as those stories of people who have picked up a female hitch-hiker, then noticed 'her' hairy hands, and then the axe in her shopping bag and the blood on her dress ................. I must have heard that one from several different people!
Whilst it makes sense to take whatever security measures you feel are necessary, please don't let it ruin your holiday with worries.
0 -
Four separate families were gassed in this way? Pull my other leg.
0 -
My friends who were robbed on a border service area had a small but very aggressive dog with them which didn't even bark when the police came round - so I think he was probably given a doped titbit before the thieves struck but I don't buy the gas thing at all - there would be dead tourists around if that was true as gassing humans is a very fine art.
0 -
How about a pressure mat available from MAPLINS, then get advice from SARGENTS as to connect up to van alarm.
0 -
We regularly stop overnight in aires in our caravan and have only ever had one issue and that was in Spain.
I had seriously miscalculated the time it would take to get to Pamplona from Gibraltar and had to stay over at a service station about 80 mile from Pamplona.
there was a large area for lorries and I parked at the far side dropped the legs and left the car attached with the rear hatch open where my trained GSD sleeps on a wire lead.
about midnight the dog went absolutely ballistic and I opened the blind to see a little fat fella running hell for leather back towards the parked lorries of which there were about 10.
i took the dog on the lead and he tracked back to the lorries but due to lorry drivers penchant for urinating on and around their wagons he lost the track, however we made a lot of noise and no one dared come out.
i believe that the driver had just seen the rear hatch up on the car and thought his luck might be in. It wasn't.
i will still stop in aires with or without my dog. I suppose it all depends on how nervy you are.
0 -
I would have thought that the easiest way to protect smaller valuables like money, passports and jewellery is to fit a small safe, preferably under the bed you are sleeping on.
0 -
Hello Outdoor Lady,
I'm really sad that you are missing out on "wild camping" (illegal in many countries including England and France) but more particularly the experience of using Aires de Camping Car, (Stellplatze etc) in French (German etc) towns and villages. We've used them for many years. My advice would be use a gas detector if it makes you feel happier but don't let fear stop you enjoying staying in or at the edge of places you probably wouldn't experience any other way.
Though we're firmly of the urban myth / insurance scam / scaring the readers to sell more papers persuasion, we actually have a gas detector. We bought it very early on when these stories seemed vaguely plausible. We did use it quite a bit at first. It once actually "went off". However, this was when I went outside late one night to change over the gas cylinder and didn't do a very good job, letting a small amount of propane escape.
Get a gas detector and an alarm which allows internal movement then go for it.
Carl
0 -
Having just returned from another 8 week trip in France, I agree with others. The whole gas thing is a myth, I feel more safe there than I do at some places in the UK. Good campsites are the way to go if you feel nervous, do not let these scaremongers spoil a good holiday.
Europeans leave all sorts laying around their pitches, things like expensive ebikes, bbq, chairs etc. don't see them worrying about these things. Secure passports and bank cards everything else can be insured and replaced.
0 -
To go back to the original post. Millenco make two sturdy exterior door security bolts. Provided you have an opening window in the door you can lock and unlock from the inside (don't trop the key!).
This has the added advantage of being very visible to a potential thief.
In a fire/gas emergency the only thing that is important is to GET EVERYONE OUT. Each caravanner should have a rehearsed plan. The door is not the only, and possibly not the best, exit. My kids had great fun when we practiced our plan rolling out the nearest window. For those with mobility issues, the damage you might do falling down to the ground would be less fatal than bumbling and fumbling with a door and dying inside.
1 -
I have two of these but larger models, one in the front gas locker (in case it is forced) and the other attached to the door. I am not a person who scares easily but the wife gets nervous so I go along with it.
The other thing I have is a 2kg CO2 fire extinguisher which can knock a man over with one swipe if the blast fails when detonated. Sensible thing to do if your nervous is stay on registered sites where they are populated. If wild camping off grid is your thing (and why not?) then try to stay where there will be one or two others, safety in numbers.
It would be folly to think that there is no risk because it is certainly out there but I think one would have to be incredibly unlucky for it to happen in a lifetime. Happy Camping
0 -
I was passing on information that was passed on to me, which in fact I believe as I can't see any reason why someone would make that up other than ValDa's post. I didn't expect a barrage of criticism/rudeness. And yes Eurotraveller I was told it was three other families, it apparently happened in a Aire and they gained access up the ladder on the back of the Motorhome. Can't wait to see the response about the ladder now.
0 -
But the medics have spelled it out. There is no known gas.
0 -
Outdoor Lady
At least the ladder makes sense in a way if something was to be introduced into a van, assuming of course that the vents were left open which is more than possible. You will have to forgive our scepticism as over the years many of us have seen such reports, usually second and third hand, but very little direct evidence to support such claims. By evidence I don't recall hearing of anyone being taken to hospital and having blood tests to prove the toxicology or the gas used. The logic of the situation is also a bit more than doubtful if you consider what ValD posted earlier in the thread. So much toxic gas would have to be introduced into the van that either it would have killed the occupants or the naked flame of the fridge (being run on gas in an Aire) would have caused an explosion. I don't doubt that people are robbed on a regular basis if they stop in places that put them at risk. Is the more likely explanation that these people have driven excessive distances and only stopped at an Aire because the were so tired they couldn't go on. Perhaps alcohol was also involved which conspire to put these people into very sleep that a nuclear explosion would be unlikely to wake them? Just my view.
David
1 -
DK
I hadn't done any research on this subject and being relatively new to owning a Motorhome I hadn't heard any reports on it either until now, in a way what you are saying puts my mind at rest and I can now sleep happily with the windows and vents wide open and perhaps the previous owner was a lying alcoholic
0 -
Outdoor Lady
I am not for one moment suggesting people lie but in searching for a logical solution to what has happened to them they reach a conclusion that satisfies their disbelief. I suspect, forum wise, the fact that they suggest gas has been used tends to remove the rightful sympathy we should really have for them? People should be able to go on holiday and be safe, that is not a lot to ask.
David
0 -
I do find the idea of gas very unlikely. Getting the level needed correct is at best going to be very difficult bearing in mind the internal area varies considerably and at some point far too much would be used and someone seriously injured or even killed. Given I have not heard of any reports of serious injury or death the idea looks dubious at the best. Thefts do occur though on unsecured areas, so a camp site has to be the best option.
0 -
If I was going to attack the occupants of a caravan with chemicals or drugs without them noticing I would put it into the water butt.
0
