Stolen caravan
We had our Bailey Orion 430/4 stolen off our drive on Sat 22nd October between 9.15 pm and 10.15pm it was secured with wheel clamp and alko hitch lock.
Has been reported to police and the cris register as stolen. It is shared all over social media, so be vigilant out there as they are being stolen again.
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This happened to us in August so our thoughts are with you. Our van is being advertised as ‘hot and ready to go’ on Facebook by Eddie O’Reilly at National Caravans who cannot be traced by the Police and they are still investigating. These people don’t care about the devastation they cause by doing this. Good luck and best wishes.
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Dreadful. I was looking online recently at how easy it is to remove what most of us take for granted as being 'secure' measures. It seems if somebody wants our pride and joy and are tooled up, they'll get it. I've come to the conclusion that winter wheels are probably the way to go, but even they're not perfect
Can I ask if it was stored at home or elswhere?
I hope you sort things out
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It is an emotional and testing time when this happens, there are those that will say 'oh well at least your insurance will cover it'..but it dosent make it any less stressful.
Our last caravan was subjected to an attempted theft in broad daylight off our drive with the daughter in the house! They had parked thier truck ready on the drive to tow it away.
The police recommended we stored it with the tow hitch facing away from the road as one more obstacle to it being simply towed away.
It was the bulldog wheel clamp that stopped it being stolen, this was bent and buckled and the tyre shreaded but dident come off. The alko hitch lock and the security post had been tampered with too..all this with the daughter shouting out the bedroom window that she was ringing the police...we were both at work.
The two scrotes were caught miles away in the stolen truck, known druggies to west midlands police working for travellers off which there are many in the midlands.
So we now have Internet linked CCTV, security lights everywhere, security post, two wheel clamps, hitch lock, caravan alarm and tracker, caravan hitch facing the house, PIR in the caravan connected to the house alarm and always a car parked at the rear of the caravan.
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How can the Police not trace this?
I know, our thoughts exactly. Apparently Merseyside police visited a temporary travellers site in Preston and recovered a cloned car but no caravans. I asked the investigating officer about the ongoing investigation but apart from telling me it had been reported to the Rural Crime Squad and the Vehicle Crime Squad he couldn’t tell me more. He said the likelihood is that even if they find Eddie O’Reilly (if that’s even his real name), he will only get done for possessing stolen goods. It’s obviously big business. We have replaced the van and equipment thanks to the Club Insurance but it’s a feeling that something precious has been taken and advertised in such a way that we are finding it hard to get over. It’s on Facebook (video taken in the dark) still with things inside we could identify, with his picture with thumbs up with the narrative 🔥 (hot) ready to go. The VIN on the window is forged and not relating to the van it’s on and CRIS are not interested. Sorry for going on but it is so maddening.
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Don't apologise, W1974 !! The clearer you can make the precautions you took and the minimalist efforts made by the Police etc can only start more people stamping on the Constabulary's door step & bringing them back into the real world !! Some time back the Manchester Police were given a right good telling off by the Inspectors of Constabulary with the effect that they were so hugely embarrassed they HAD to extract the Police Digit swiftly. The end result is that they were wakened from deep slumber to become a much improved Force !!
All other things apart, like many other folks I have to admit that I would not want to see the return of my motorhome / camper should it be stolen & re-located even if it was swiftly found !!
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I agree with ABM's last para. Way back in 1988 my caravan was stolen despite having wheel clamp fitted. It was found a few weeks later at a travellers site. It was not too badly damaged although strangely they had removed the carpet! I did not want to keep it after this, so cancelled the insurance claim, made good the damage and replaced carpet then sold it,
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Yes I agree, we wouldn’t want it back now I think it was just sheer frustration and at the time I just wanted our happy place back. If it is recovered now it is now the property of the insurance company. I wonder if they have taken it up with the police and asked the same questions. I have given them the link to the Facebook page etc.
It did effect the conditions of our insurance. They wouldn’t insure us for the storage site we were on (can’t blame them)the conditions were that we stored the van on a gold or platinum CASSOA site and if we had it home to pack or clean, it only stayed on the drive for 3 days as our home is round the corner from the storage. Nightmare, as trying to get gold CASSOA was nearly impossible. We did eventually get one 12 miles away but small pace to pay for peace of mind.
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Yes. Their service was good and they did pay out very quickly. The van next to ours was stolen too so I suppose it is reasonable for them to apply certain restrictions. They told us that if we put it back on the same storage site (The Windmill in Lydiate)and it was stolen again we would be uninsurable. I contacted the windmill owner to let him know and he said he would look into the CASSOA criteria with a view to joining. He has over 80 vans and I am sure they will have problems too. This could take years though. I have written to Merseyside Police to try to find out why more isn’t being done. Possibly checks on all traveller sites around the country and at the ports. Maybe they are. I don’t know. We have another van now and are replacing all the equipment over the winter. My husband says I should let it go now but it is like an itch you can’t scratch, Doing nothing doesn’t feel quite right.
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