What would you do?

Things have really slowed down here ('tis the season), so I thought I'd post a story and get your thoughts on this.

First I will say right away that we were mostly responsible for what happened and learned our lesson.

We were camping on BLM land in a large area that can accommodate lots of RVs as well as large groups of people. This is free camping with no camp host and the only amenities are a couple of vault toilets. We parked near a stream where people heading to the river might walk through. We have two dogs that have a tendency to bark only if you walk near the coach.

My kids used their BB guns to shoot at some cans, then we ate lunch and left for a couple of hours to go fishing. The guns were left outside the motorhome, next to the lawn chairs under the awning (our mistake).

When we returned, we found the guns moved and it looked like our dogs must have barked at some kids walking by, the kids had used one of the guns to shoot at our doge in the front windshield and broke the glass.

Now, there were several groups of campers with various amounts of kids. I chose NOT to go around, accusing each kid(s) of doing this and causing a scene and possibly angering a parent who might have been drinking most of the day. We chalked it up to a lesson learned.

What would you have done? No right or wrong answeres, just opinions.

Chris G.

 

With no evidence to show who the culprit was, I think the only thing you could do is report it to your insurance company and let them handle the glass replacement. The likelihood that a kid will come forward and admit to it is slim, and going around asking them could just cause more problems.

 

You were lucky the guns were still there I agree with what the others have said. Best thing is to let this be a lesson and just contact the insurance company and get the glass repaired. We never leave anything outside when we leave our coach other than the chairs, table and mats. The grill for sure goes inside the coach and anything else that might be temptation for a thief. Kids will be kids of course but unless you actually saw one or more of them do it or someone else saw them, then let it go and chalk it off.....................

Regards, BankShot................(aka Terry)

 

I agree with the others Chris. I'm sure it would have given you some closure if you could have discovered who the culprits were. On a good note though, It could have been a lot worse. Had they chose to shoot glass other than the windshield, it probably would have shattered probably injuring the dogs and leaving you with a lot of broken glass to clean up. The Windshield, being laminated, became damaged but still, it was intact.

It is sad to hear that one cannot leave anything unattended when leaving your camp for a while. I remember back in the day when we tent camped. Valuables were out of sight in your tent and everything else outside was very safe. There was an unwritten rule that you looked out for your neighbors goods and no one really had to worry about theft.

Two years ago we lost a cooler that was not new and held only two or three cans of beer. It was tucked under the Coach and was stolen in the dark of night. I reported it to the operator as the place was pretty much full of permanents just so that he knew there was a thief about. I'm fairly certain the thief was parked just across the street as he watched me pull a couple of beer out. I now have a new cooler that I still tuck under the Coach that has been in a number of parks since and has not been molested. I still think most campers are honest but there is always that 1%.

Darrell