WTW Member's Truck & Camper Stolen

[Lighthawk]

Still holding out hope for Hadley to come back. Camper can be restored. Photo gear can be replaced. Keep the faith.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Quick Update.
The camper was found (dumped off the truck) at 3:30AM Tuesday morning by a logger going to work. It was located two hours south of here in Capitol State Forest.
The thieves were at the scene in my truck, and took off when the logger approached in his vehicle. A chase ensued, but my truck got away. I guess the upgrades I did to make the truck suitable for forest road driving worked against me in this instance.

The logger stayed with the camper and my gear until an LEO came to the scene. A huge thank you goes to this guy, he went above and beyond to watch over my stuff while it was in the woods.
I was able to retrieve 2/3 of my camping/living gear, and about half of my photography equipment. It is all dirty and waterlogged, but there is hope as it dries out.
The camper was put on a flatbed tow-truck and is now at the inpound lot waiting to be gone over by law enforcement. It will take some work to get it usable again, as it was pushed off the Tacoma and then dragged onto the tow-truck. At this point I am not sure if it will be salvageable.
Again, a huge thank you goes to the logging guy and the DNR Police chief, without them I would have recovered very little, if anything.

 

[SunMan]

This whole story bums me out. Glad you at least got your camper and most of your gear back. Hoping insurance covers your appropriately, fortunately your build and everything that went into it is well documented so proving value should be a little easier.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Nathaniel, I hope that the gear can be cleaned up and is usable. I am so sorry that you're going through this! Hopefully, you had insurance that will cover the financial loss.

I can't say what I really want to, but there are a few people who just shouldn't be in the gene pool. For instance, the dolts that stole your rig.

 

[craig333]

Glad you got some of it back. Really nice of that logger to stick around, he was probably on the clock. Still holding out hope for your truck.

 

[BillM]

Well after reading this I just installed an old brake/steering wheel lock I had laying around. It would not stop a determined thief but at least would slow him down. It's sad that we have to be worried about losing things we work so hard for to petty criminals. I sure hope the truck turns up unharmed and the camper is salvageable.

 

[longhorn1]

We will all be thinking of you and hope the camper can be fixed, the recovered photography equipment saved, and the truck shows up undamaged. Keep a positive outlook. jd

Sent from my SM-G900V using Wander The West mobile app

 

[Stalking Light]

When I bought my Tacoma the nearest match they had to what I wanted had some extra stuff on it which I had them take off. One of those things was an alarm system; no I'm thinking about having one re-installed.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

When I bought my Tacoma the nearest match they had to what I wanted had some extra stuff on it which I had them take off. One of those things was an alarm system; no I'm thinking about having one re-installed.

I wonder if a 'kill' switch wouldn't be a good investment.

 

[Ramblinman]

Coincidently I am having one installed tomorrow - I will also start using a steering wheel locking device. Heck what about a good old fashioned alarm.

 

[craig333]

I disconnected my alarm because I was concerned it could conceivably leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Kill switch is a good idea. I could wire one into the fuel pump pretty easily.

 

[kmcintyre]

Sorry to hear about this and hopefully your insurance will make it right.

I wonder if someone (I guess I just did) invent a turnbuckle that has a lock on it so that it can't be removed w/o a key? It'd be difficult to get into that area to cut them off (and time consuming). Most of the security products really are just to slow thiefs down and this would do that too.

 

[Stalking Light]

I often carry a lot of photo gear in my truck, which a kill switch wouldn't save but not a bad idea anyway.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

I often carry a lot of photo gear in my truck, which a kill switch wouldn't save but not a bad idea anyway.

Charlie, I've thought about changing the deadlock out for one (if it exists) that requires a key on both sides. That way, a person couldn't breakout a rear window and unlock the door. They might pry the door apart, but not many will do that much to get in.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Charlie, I've thought about changing the deadlock out for one (if it exists) that requires a key on both sides. That way, a person couldn't breakout a rear window and unlock the door. They might pry the door apart, but not many will do that much to get in.

Steve,I have a "double key" deadbolt on our house. Since others seem to use a "house" style deadbolt on their campers, check out Home Depot/Lowes for the 2 key bolt. I think you can just get the deadbolt and not have to buy the whole door set.
Frank

 

[ntsqd]

I use a double key dead bolt to lock the latch linkage on our driveway gate. We ordered it keyed to the house key.

A battery kill switch in any late model, EFI'd truck (gas or diesel) is going to cause computer memory resets. A simple work around is to jumper across the kill switch with an inline fuse holder & a 2.5A fuse. Power to the computer stays uninterrupted preserving any learned values, but any attempt to turn on much of anything else on will pop the fuse and everything will go dead.

I prefer to put kill switches in the ground cable rather than the plus cable, but either works.

 

[Kolockum]

I disconnected my alarm because I was concerned it could conceivably leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Kill switch is a good idea. I could wire one into the fuel pump pretty easily.

I have 2 kill switches wired in. One to the brake pedal sensor which prevents my truck from being taken out of park and the other is wired into my ignition to prevent the starter from working.

 

[snuffy]

If a dirtbag wants to steal something bad enough, they will get it. that said most newer trucks have what you can call a smart key, making it hard for most to drive off. if that fails i call on my two good buds... smith&wesson

 

[camelracer]

I took my camper deadbolt apart and removed the clip that holds the inner knob on. With the clip removed the knob just slides on and off the shaft. The knob can now be removed and kept in a safe spot when I'm away from the camper in a questionable area.

 

[Freebird]

^^^^^^^^ Photos??