# Broken into - in Sainsbury's car park, Halifax



## ChrisandJohn (Feb 3, 2008)

It doesn't just happen abroad!!

We took the van out for a run today and went into Sainsbury's car park in Halifax. We were in the store for about 40 mins and when we returned I couldn't get my key in the passenger side cab door. John was able to open the driver's door.

Inside, I was initially a bit surprised that, as I thought, some things had fallen out of the lockers. Then I was aware that the lockers wouldn't have just stayed in the up position if they'd accidently come open. Someone must have broken in.

With a quick look nothing appeared to have been missing. We rang the police and it was arranged that we'd go home and they'd visit us there.

Just after we arrived home John took a call from the dealers who sold us the Hymer 7 weeks ago. Apparently someone in a street near the carpark had found the briefcase type bag, containing all the manuals and paperwork, that the dealer had given us. They'd rung the dealer, who had then rung us. 

Police have just been and they'll put in a request for the Scene of Crime lot to check out the van but they're not hopeful. They'll usually only do this if there's evidence of blood, or anything they can get DNA from.

Tomorrow we'll pick up the bag from the workplace of the kind man who found it. We're just hoping it has everything in it that should be there.

Not a good experience but it looks like we've got off fairly lightly. If we'd been on a trip there would have been cameras, Macbooks, etc. in the van. There will be the expense of getting the lock sorted though.





Chris


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

What a nasty experience Chris. Even if there is nothing missing it still leaves you feeling uneasy I think.

It would be nice to think that who-ever broke in is caught but ...well, I guess you're not holding your breath !

G


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## DTPCHEMICALS (Jul 24, 2006)

Nasty experiance for you. it hapens everywhere.
The have nots think it is fine to steal from the hard working haves.

Sharia law is required.
Chop the b4s4rds hands off.

It happened to me a couple of years ago, left scudo parked outside a shop.
A brick was thrown through the window. Blood all over the seat and dashboard.
Police were not interested.
I did find out who did the deed and when I sell my property next to the shop that I was in well I`ll leave it to your imagination.  


Dave p


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## rangitira (Feb 17, 2011)

Don't hold your breath if you think the "Police SERVICE" will help you and solve your problem! They are only interested in "diversefication" unless of course you are someone that can make a lot of noise! Some plastic filled celeb maybe!


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

I think we will all agree that this is our worst nightmare. Really sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Quick thinking from the guy who found the briefcase though! I bet the criminals thought it was a laptop.

Hope they catch them and put them away but I doubt it.

Dont let it get to you though. Its probably unlikely to happen again.


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## ChrisandJohn (Feb 3, 2008)

Thanks for the moral support. We're fairly philosophical about it. Police were here in reasonable time and dealt with us sympathetically, but we don't have great expectations of a result. One of the police officers showed a great deal of interest, in the sense that he seemed really keen on the idea of having a motorhome.

We will get over it.


Chris


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## Daedalas (Nov 12, 2009)

Good Evening Chris & John

Gutted I think is the best expression of what I feel for you - empty inside when you realise what has happened!

To be done by such a scroat or scroats in a supermarket carpark and daylight really does that not reflect at all well on society in general for surely some one must have seen suspicious activity going on around your van!

It must be doubly gutting to happen in a new van to boot. But I'm sure you will surmount it all and come to put it down to experience - bad experience.

Our best to you both

Gan canny


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## bigfoot (May 16, 2005)

Hangings to good for them!! Any chance of CCTV?


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Sharia*



DTPCHEMICALS said:


> Nasty experiance for you. it hapens everywhere.
> The have nots think it is fine to steal from the hard working haves.
> 
> Sharia law is required.
> ...


Sorry For Chris's break-in, sincerely, I am Dave. But don't bring Sharia law into it.

TM


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## pippin (Nov 15, 2007)

How about Isle of Man law then?


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

You have my utmost sympathy for your experience, dont be too harsh on the police. There is precious little evidence available in these circumstances. Fingerprints will only count if found on the inside, and there are not very many internal surfaces you can get prints off. Prints on the outside count for nothing as they could have been left by someone just looking in through the window!! Thats the view of the Crown Prosecution Service who are responsible for all prosecutions these days.  

Your comments about what could have been stolen had you been on holiday just goes to show how important it is to fit a safe of some description !! They dont stop scum breaking in but they do keep you property reasonably secure. For an outlay of about 30 quid you could save yourself so much grief. Just imagine the cost, both in time and money, in replacing your passports, ferry tickets, driving licences, cash, cheque books, credit cards, sat nav, mobile phone...... the list just goes on and on.

I have never understood why the manufacturers dont fit safes as standard, thirty odd quid on the cost of a new van, not a lot is it :roll: :roll:


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## greenasthegrass (Oct 27, 2007)

Aw so sorry Chris even scrotes shop at Sainsbugs these days. What is IOM law Pippin?


Greenie


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

bigfoot said:


> Any chance of CCTV?


Good point. Surely Sainsburys had some cameras in the car park ?

G


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## HeatherChloe (Oct 18, 2009)

How did they break in? breaking a window? or did they force a lock somehow? 

Did you have an alarm?


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## ChrisandJohn (Feb 3, 2008)

I'm almost feeling sorry for the scroats as it seems they didn't manage to find anything of interest to them. They'd taken a small cardboard box out of a locker and emptied some of its contents onto the bench. It contained Scrabble letters, Backgammon, a pack of cards, cribbage score board etc. Then they'd found a toiletries bag in which we keep our own first aid stuff, they might have managed to find a few paracetamol in there, but the plasters and hand gel etc. are still intact. On the dinette seat they left a travel ipod dock/speaker, which they'd unzipped, but they either didn't find the ipod in the inner compartment or they decided it was too ancient for them. John's binoculars in leather case were still there. Don't suppose they had much use for a Remoska, even if they'd known what it was.

In spite of occasional evidence to the contrary I'm an eternal optimist when it comes to humanity / society. If I wasn't I could never have done my job. Anyway, somebody found the bag and bothered, pretty rapidly, to take steps to get it back to us.

Police will check about CCTV but when I drew a map of where we were in the carpark (the outer perimeter) they thought it unlikely that that area was covered.


Chris


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## aikidomo (Jan 8, 2008)

I.O.M. LAW..................Flogging.!


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## ChrisandJohn (Feb 3, 2008)

Mrplodd said:


> You have my utmost sympathy for your experience, dont be too harsh on the police. There is precious little evidence available in these circumstances. Fingerprints will only count if found on the inside, and there are not very many internal surfaces you can get prints off. Prints on the outside count for nothing as they could have been left by someone just looking in through the window!! Thats the view of the Crown Prosecution Service who are responsible for all prosecutions these days.
> 
> Your comments about what could have been stolen had you been on holiday just goes to show how important it is to fit a safe of some description !! They dont stop scum breaking in but they do keep you property reasonably secure. For an outlay of about 30 quid you could save yourself so much grief. Just imagine the cost, both in time and money, in replacing your passports, ferry tickets, driving licences, cash, cheque books, credit cards, sat nav, mobile phone...... the list just goes on and on.
> 
> I have never understood why the manufacturers dont fit safes as standard, thirty odd quid on the cost of a new van, not a lot is it :roll: :roll:


_I'm_ not harsh on the police. Son is a plod in Dorset and our text conversation while we were driving home more or less made the same points as you about evidence.

We will obviously have to give some thought to securing things inside the van. Thanks for the information about that.

Chris


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## ChrisandJohn (Feb 3, 2008)

HeatherChloe said:


> How did they break in? breaking a window? or did they force a lock somehow?
> 
> Did you have an alarm?


They must have forced a lock, which I think is why my key didn't work when I tried to get in the cab.

We have got an alarm but we're now thinking we were using it incorrectly. This is something we can perhaps check when we get our bag of manuals back. The quality of the lock and the appropriateness of the alarm are things we're going to need to consider.

Chris


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## dhutchy (Feb 7, 2010)

Sorry to here about this Chris you seem to be dealing with it well.When i had my work van stolen with all my tools in it a few years ago the cheeky sods dumped my van in Armley jail car park Leeds a few days later under a cctv camera the police were not interested they said the insurance will cover it.I had lost tools that took years to build up so when i pointed this out they told me where i could probably buy them back but not to go thinking about causing trouble(pikeys boot sale) i lost the plot and they said if i carried on with the abuse they would arrest me :? Better to deal with it your way ,i was wound up for yonks all the best Dave


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## SpeedyDux (Jul 13, 2007)

Sorry to hear about that break-in. So annoying. Best if one of you stays inside the MH while the other does the shopping.

Supermarket security is basically all about stopping low-lifes nicking stuff within the store. Keeping customers and their vehicles safe in the car park areas outside the store is a much lower priority. Once you have parted with cash at the checkout it seems nobody really cares if you get robbed outside. 


SD


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## locovan (Oct 17, 2007)

Sorry to hear this Chris it is really annoying and the thought of someone breaking in and touching your things is horrible.
Hope everything is there when you get you pack back but so good of the finder going to so much trouble to trace you.


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## HeatherChloe (Oct 18, 2009)

dhutchy said:


> When i had my work van stolen with all my tools in it a few years ago the cheeky sods dumped my van in Armley jail car park Leeds a few days later under a cctv camera the police were not interested they said the insurance will cover it.I had lost tools that took years to build up


This is why I wanted a tracker which would send me a text the moment my van moved when it shouldn't have. So that there is no time for them to go anywhere or take things.

As you say, insurance simply cannot replace the time and effort you go to in building up the contents of your van and making it just how you want it.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

SpeedyDux said:


> Sorry to hear about that break-in. So annoying. Best if one of you stays inside the MH while the other does the shopping.
> 
> Supermarket security is basically all about stopping low-lifes nicking stuff within the store. Keeping customers and their vehicles safe in the car park areas outside the store is a much lower priority. Once you have parted with cash at the checkout it seems nobody really cares if you get robbed outside.
> 
> SD


I really don't worry about security much, perhaps naively however this is the one place I do always feel some concern and often do as you suggest (although perhaps mainly as I don't like shopping).

We are often forced to park in the furtherst reaches of the supermarket car park which perhaps not only makes us more vunerable but also makes us a big fat obvious target for thieves. There is more chance of valuable stuff in a van than in a car so if I was a tea leaf thats what I would go for.

On an Aire or a campsite its likely that your fellow campers will look out for you and will be aware who the van belongs to. On a supermarket car park nobody will care or know.

Im no expert but I bet its where most motorhome crimes occur, either there or in a similar situation on a remote service station car park.


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## dikyenfo (Feb 16, 2008)

Chris, pure basics nowadays staples bolted into cab doors with chain accross and leave a transmitter radio set to vox. inside you take the other with you and a handle locked down with the extra lever lock on hab. door.
If your alarm does not sound off in MH add another to make enough noise to transmit to you on the radio .
The hab door lock will need a new barrel if you cannot force the key in to get the pins working again.
This can involve drilling the old one out if stuck as the key is needed to remove the tang lock from the lock body.
Also you need a set of circlip pliers to separate the parts.
This happened to me in France so know all about how it feels but as many will tell you its not worth taking precautions as it never happens!!. Yeah right I know what I prefer to do.


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## Jezport (Jun 19, 2008)

dhutchy said:


> Sorry to here about this Chris you seem to be dealing with it well.When i had my work van stolen with all my tools in it a few years ago the cheeky sods dumped my van in Armley jail car park Leeds a few days later under a cctv camera the police were not interested they said the insurance will cover it.I had lost tools that took years to build up so when i pointed this out they told me where i could probably buy them back but not to go thinking about causing trouble(pikeys boot sale) i lost the plot and they said if i carried on with the abuse they would arrest me :? Better to deal with it your way ,i was wound up for yonks all the best Dave


Some years back my shop was robbed. I managed to trace some of the stuff at a local car boot sale. It had my price tickets still on. Even then the police were useless and did nothing. Even when I gave them evidence they didnt even recover a single item or prosecute.


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## EEVpilot (Aug 15, 2010)

Anyone recommend a good safe to put in the van?


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## mygalnme (Jul 12, 2009)

Sorry to hear your news Chris, know how you feel. After it happened to us I was just grateful we were not harmed and items can be replaced, but it does make you angry and upset to think of them rifling through your things. They got into ours by forcing a bedroom window, and we were told by an ex-policeman no matter how you alarm or lock things up they will get in or trash it if they feel inclined to. We just felt we were in the wrong place at the wrong time and no way will it stop us enjoying future trips.
Hope you feel the same someone said to us " Don,t let the B....ds grind you down  
Margaret & Tony


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Surely the problem with a safe is that, unless you're going to go in for a big and so impractically heavy one, you can only put a limited number of very small items into it. In the case of the safes we have seen this realistically means only documents or copies. 

We always carry our passports with us when we leave the van ( a legal requirement in most European countries) and tickets, insurance documents, spare cash etc etc are in a place where even we struggle to get to them and even a thief with the persistance to look for them would not find the documents of much use.

Most of the stealable items we carry with us - binoculars, cameras, etc are not particularly fanciable and could be replaced without too much heartbreak. I try to stick to the rule that we never take anything with us that we'd be too upset to lose.

What we don't want to happen is broken locks and trashed interior and that comes down to good external security and a good alarm- though, having watched a whole road full of people ignore house and car alarms I do wonder if they are the deterrent they are supposed to be. A safe is not a deterrent; it only stops the theft of items that are probably not of any value anyway ( I exclude those ladies who take their jewellery with them...) 

An hour with the Maplins catalogue and a bit of imagination provides all sorts of devices that look as if they mean business and who is to say they don't ? 

G


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Some years ago while waiting to board a ferry at Le-Havre, the camper next to ours had severe jemmy marks on his driver door.
I asked the owner about the incident and he said they never managed to get into his van, just door damage. But the very upmarket motorhome next to him (Hymer he thought), the thieves managed to get in and AXED the built in safe from the dash complete with instruments and controls. 

Since then any van we had with a safe we only kept insurance docs, other papers and an old wallet with the key in the lock.

Ray.


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## busterbears (Sep 4, 2010)

Not goods news at all Chrisandjohn - I hope you're not too unnerved by this incident and hopefully the scuzzbags will be found eventually. I agree that if they want in they'll find a way regardless of what obsticles you put in front of them.


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## DJMotorhomer (Apr 15, 2010)

Chop the bar stewards hands off :x


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## mygalnme (Jul 12, 2009)

Our thoughts exactly.... :lol:


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## BrianJP (Sep 17, 2010)

EEVpilot said:


> Anyone recommend a good safe to put in the van?


Lots of similar ones around unless you go for something much heavier and fireproof,but I just put in one of these Yale safes bolted through the floor with 10mm coachbolts. Lets see someone get that out easily.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140499068718


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Surely in most motorhomes it must be a fairly quick job to prize open a window to get in. Im no expert in breaking and entering but Im pretty sure with some hefty crowbars etc I could rip our back windows off no bother. So securing up the doors and having fancy alarms isn't going to be much of a deterrent. An alarm goes off in a big car park for a minute or so, who is going to be bothered? It will only take them a minute to open all the lockers and take what they want.

The only thing I would be fussed about is the damage to the van and my laptop getting nicked. Its almost arguable that by making it difficult for these people they may well cause more damage. 

I imagine the laptop probably isn't insured on the van or house insurance, I don't know. I cant imagine anything else of great value they would take in our van unless they dismantled the Camos system!


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## mygalnme (Jul 12, 2009)

Hi Barry yes our laptop was insured on home policy and most of the other items, the van insurance was useless and even though the home one was a bigger excess we got more.
Margaret


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## tfbundy (Nov 7, 2010)

@brianJP
Having a safe like that is a good idea, but trust me, it would take an experienced thief seconds to open. Dont put anything too valuable in it. However, experienced thieves are not very common, thick violent thugs are much more common, so your safe will offer a fair degree of protection IF bolted down very securely.


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## pneumatician (May 1, 2005)

Pretty sure flogging is now longer law in the I-O-M, sadly.

Regarding the Police.  
My Mother In Law (disabled) was being burgled, apparently frequently. We only discovered this when instead of just taking a few quid they took all of her money and other valuables.
The Police discovered the dividing loft wall to next door dismantled, candles and footprints.
As there was three teenage boys and the father living next door they could not prove who was the culprit, no action could be taken.
The local authority then suggested it was our responsibility to rebuild the wall. At considerable cost we moved mother out with these three yobs taking the pee every time we visited.
Good job we couldn't get our hands on them.

Is it possible that Sainsbury's and Waitrose are better hunting grounds for the low life than Asda and Aldi etc.

Steve


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

Chris, I'm very sorry indeed to hear about what's happened to you. They're scummies and need locking up.  One of your responders has made some comments which I can't ignore, so excuse me for doing so on your thread. I won't post again on it.



rangitira said:


> Don't hold your breath if you think the "Police SERVICE" will help you and solve your problem! They are only interested in "diversefication" unless of course you are someone that can make a lot of noise! Some plastic filled celeb maybe!


Speak for yourself, sunshine - or maybe you are; maybe that's how you would deal with it and can't see beyond your own short sight. You don't speak though for the vast majority of extremely hard-working officers - some of whom are children of forum members including my daughter who you've insulted - who do the job because they do actually give a $hit.

And if you think that was a personal attack, try reflecting on your own words. I consider them a personal attack on me and the men and women who I served with for many years, some of whom - including me - were injured doing the job you say we're not interested in doing. I also have the dubious privilege of knowing many families of colleagues who were killed in the line of duty. I doubt though that you could care less about that either.

Well done on what from my perspective is the most ignorant, uninformed and venomous comment I've read for a very long time. Don't be so quick to criticise until you've walked in another man's shoes.

And Mods, if you find this unacceptable, I'll entirely respect your decision, but certainly make no apologies for putting it on.

Dougie.


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## spatz1 (May 19, 2011)

asprn said:


> Don't be so quick to criticise until you've walked in another man's shoes.
> 
> Dougie.


wise words ,,, you should heed them :lol:


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## yorksbill (Mar 9, 2008)

Tfbundy says that an experienced thief would have had a "safe like that open in seconds". If only I had been able to get hold of such a thief when I accidentally pressed a wrong button on my safe before closing it and found I couldn't open it again. And of course I had forgotten to bring the emergency keys with us and it was the start of a long holiday in france and the passports and money and pet passport were all in the safe.

Try going to a French Tourist office to ask if there were any local safecrackers they knew (and explaining why (when you are not very good speaking French). When we finally found someone, after their 2 hour lunch, it took them over an hour to remove the safe from the van and then another 45 minutes cutting into the safe.

If only i had found an experienced thief they could have done it in seconds/minutes and charged me much less that it cost me with the guys I used.


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## Zozzer (Aug 13, 2006)

Grizzly said:


> bigfoot said:
> 
> 
> > Any chance of CCTV?
> ...


You find that the majority of supermarket carparks are not owned by the supermarket. They are owned by the property developer that built the supermarket. Any supermarket CCTV will usually be aimed at the entrances and perimeter of the supermarket building and not the car park.


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