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A friend of mine has had their white van campervan stolen overnight from in front of their house (in Bristol).
It's a mix of home done and professionally converted, they are of course absolutely gutted. Lots of time and money has gone into it over the last year.
I don't too much about the security they had.
But.
Does anyone know what the scrotes will do with it? The police are as expected not optimistic.
But to sell a car you need the v5c? I suspect I'm naive. Is it worth keeping an eye on Gumtree
Has anyone here stolen a car had this happen to them?
I thought they get given the ID of a written off one, then sold.
Stripped for parts or put in a container and shipped abroad
Sadly, most get stripped for untraceable parts and are never seen again. They are often moved to a quiet location/watched from afar for the first few days to see if there’s a tracker fitted, so might be worth getting alerts on interest/local groups to see if it’s been parked on a street somewhere.
They may cook meth in it.
I saw it on a documentary on tv
Where in Bristol and what sort of van?
Go camping?
It'll either be exported or stripped for parts.
They are often moved to a quiet location/watched from afar for the first few days to see if there’s a tracker fitted, so might be worth getting alerts on interest/local groups to see if it’s been parked on a street somewhere.
There's 3 places in Bristol that I know vehicles are suspiciously left for a few days before disappearing:
Motorhomes and vans are regularly lifted from them, either as stolen or untaxed. Definitely a few more sites round the city where similar happens.
Oh that's interesting about the tracker. And useful about the streets thank you. It's a Mercedes sprinter taken from other side of the downs from Redlands
<p style="text-align: left;">We have had a t5 camper stolen in 2017, then a Citroen relay self converted stolen last year. Neither of them were ever heard of again, I've always wondered what happened to them. It felt like they were both targeted as camper vans, so stripping for parts feels less likely, the vehicle parts are worth more than the conversion parts, so why not just take a plain van? Shipping abroad I guess is possible, but then it's a right hand drive, which is not ideal in most richer Western countries.</p>
They do definitely get parked up to see if there is a tracker fitted, our Citroen was meant to have a factory fitted one, but the company said they don't support it as it's too old, it wasn't even a four year old van. A while after ours went a very similar one turned up on our road over night, then later I saw the owner who luckily had fitted a tracker, and managed to get to it before it got moved on again, had to get it recovered due to the damage, but at least they got it back.
We've given up on vans now, got an old caravan, suits us well at the moment
My sisters got nicked at ikea in Croydon. Wouldn’t have been so bad had she not just left the shop with a sofa to drive back to Worthing. Not quite so easy to take it on the train .
Because of housing costs, especially in cities like Bristol, there are increasing numbers of people parking vans on streets all over the city and living in them, a plain white Sprinter with a few strategically placed stickers and decals, with the plates disguised with dirt probably won’t attract much attention, and will likely get moved onto another quiet street or lane where it’s unlikely to be spotted by anyone trying to track it down, which is probably what’s happening to other stolen vans - why export them when there’s an almost limitless demand for them in and around major urban areas.
This happened with a telehandler from one of our work depots. It was nicked, driven a few miles and left in a quiet corner of a field for a few days. Luckily the tracker was initiated ( as somebody, not me, hadn’t gone through the registration process when it was bought) and the machine was found and recovered. Now 24 hr tracked!
I just bought a tracker off Amazon with a monthly subs of approx £6 and it texts my mobile if someone even makes a vibration unlocking the door. It’ll send an alarm if the engine is started, the vehicle moves, or there is vibration or if it’s disconnected from a battery. That and some old fashioned external security like steering wheel lock and clamp etc means hopefully someone moves onto the next one.