What to do when your caravan is stolen

Caravan theft is a low act. After all, a caravan is a major investment for many people. It's a reward for their toil and a source of great pride and joy, not to mention holiday memories.

But sometimes someone else wants it more than you do, and aren’t prepared to pay for the privilege. With millions of dollars worth of caravans and RVs reported stolen throughout Australia each year and good second-hand RVs fetching decent money, like it or not your van has an invisible target painted on its side.

Fortunately, unlike for boats a caravan's vehicle identification number is added to a searchable national database that helps police to trace stolen caravans.

The 17-digit VIN stamped on each trailer plate is recorded on the National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System (NEVDIS), while caravan manufacturers also keep a record,that connects the chassis number to the caravan's VIN.

Often the chassis number is also marked in a secret location (perhaps on top of a chassis rail) where, if needed for a police investigation, it can be recorded.

Deterring theft is easy; there’s plenty of information out there on what to do to try and prevent your van from being stolen. However, there's very little information telling you what to do once you realise your RV has gone missing.

It’s important to act quickly and decisively, as the thieves will be looking to get your van out of sight as quickly as possible. At most, you’ll have a few hours. Don’t bother jumping in your car to search the immediate neighbourhood; your van is unlikely to be anywhere nearby.

Very few cases of van theft are the opportunistic ones, such as when your van is just sitting in the driveway ready to tow away. Leaving your van attached to the car can be risky; all the thieves need to do is unhitch it, push it back, and attach it to their vehicle.

Note that most insurance policies will demand that you take “necessary steps” to prevent your van from being stolen, so submitting a claim where the thieves just backed up to the trailer, hitched up and drove off may prove a difficult case to argue.

So let’s just say the worst has happened. Here’s what you can do.

It’s fair to say that reporting a stolen caravan to police won’t count too highly when it comes to allocating the resources needed to track it down, but it’s still a very important first step in the process of recovering your van.

For starters, your insurance company will want to know if you have reported the theft.

Theft, including the theft of a caravan, is considered a non-urgent crime, so don’t expect police to turn up at your house with lights blazing and sirens howling, the forensics squad following hot on their heels.

It’s also advisable to contact your local transport authority, alerting them to the fact your van has been stolen and providing them with the details. You may have to back your call up with a follow-up visit to a service centre with physical proof of your identity and a copy of the police report.

As soon as you put down the phone to the police, post something on social media.

Use a photo of your caravan with any posts so people have an idea of what they’re looking for. Cross-post across any groups you think will be able to help with the search, such as local community pages, camping groups, caravan clubs and so on.

If anyone posts a comment, follow it up straight away and ask for the time they think they saw your van, a description of the vehicle towing it and its occupants, the road it was on, which lane it was in (this will help if it’s the last confirmed sighting and you suspect the thief made a right or left turn), and the direction in which it was heading.

People like a good evolving drama, so update the groups regularly with your progress to encourage others to keep up the hunt and report sightings.

Caravan owners always have a healthy dose of other-caravan envy, and will make mental notes of vans they see being towed on the road. The good ones will recognise the make and model almost instantly.

You may have been pottering around in the back yard when your caravan was stolen, but the neighbours might have been peering through the front room’s curtains wondering what the strange vehicle was hooking up to your van.

The information they provide could be valuable in determining the identity of the vehicle used to steal the van, and the direction your caravan is heading.

Neighbours could also have home security systems with street-facing cameras that have recorded all or part of the event. The clues they provide can go a long way to helping other people jog their memory of what they might have seen.

There’s no guarantee that fitting a GPS tracker to the caravan will allow you to pinpoint its location.

This is because if the boost is a professional job rather than an opportunistic drive-by, the thieves will have done their homework and pulled over as soon as practically possible to search for a tracking device.

With more insurance companies refusing cover unless a tracking device is fitted, the bad guys are becoming more switched on to them.

This is why stolen caravans will sometimes have electrical damage as the thieves trace the wiring to search for a hidden tracker the fastest way possible – ripping it out.

One way around this is to fit two tracking devices  – once one is found, you can build a false sense of confidence in the thief’s mind that the job is done.

Another way is to use a self-powered tracking device that you can hide away in a spot that any potential thief is unlikely to uncover. The issue here is that these devices have a limited life span before needing a recharge, so unless you’re on top of power management it could let you down at the worst possible time.

Your caravan is likely to be somewhere around where it was last sighted. That location may take several days to filter through to you as people catch up with the thread, but it’s a fair bet that your van is somewhere around that last location.

It’s time to draft up a grid and do a street-by-street search. Trawl neighbourhood streets looking for vans parked behind gateways, or even covered vans sitting in driveways.

If you think you see your caravan, don’t take the law into your own hands. Phone police and report that you suspect you’ve located your stolen property, and leave it to them to act on your information.

Once again, don’t expect police to come rushing to your aid to kick in doors and whack on the handcuffs. They’ll politely roll up, knock on the door and ask a few questions once they have time.

The only downside to this is that your caravan may be on the move again in the time between when you believe you’ve found it, and the time that the police turn up for their social call.

RV insurance policies will often cover the loss of accessories and other gear. That said, it pays to read your policy carefully for any loopholes.

Check, too, whether your policy includes replacing hoses, jacks, BBQ, and other incidentals.

It pays to ask plenty of questions from your insurer before you sign the dotted line.

This is where you could be out of luck. If the identity of your caravan or camper has been changed (a process called 'rebirthing'), police might struggle confirming the true identity of the van and its ownership history.

In all likelihood, even if the stolen van is recovered, police will be very limited in terms of their ability to confirm that you once owned it, let alone bust the people who stole it for the crime.

Owners who know every scratch and ding on the caravan stand a much better chance of assisting in the recovery, especially if they can back up the claims with photos and receipts for accessories. Some vans also have small secret identification marks, located on a number of components, to help with identification.

Otherwise, the only way you're likely to get it back is to buy it!

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