Over the last few years, there has been at least one incident in town per year. Three years ago, my FIL's batteries were stolen along with many other people. Two years ago, I found evidence of somebody sleeping in my camper while it was in storage over the winter. Last year, my FIL was targeted again. Somebody took a pry bar to his side entry door. The last one, almost everybody's was broken into, but they were primarily taking propane tanks according to the local PD. Mind you, this is a small farm town with about 4000 residents. There isn't a huge crime rate, but kids and junkies are often the culprits and it only takes 1 or 2 to become this kind of pest.
The storage facility in town has police driving through regularly at night and they have cameras. Everywhere else in my area either wants to charge $750-1000 for winter storage or would involve driving for an hour with an extra driver to pick me up, which still doesn't guarantee that nobody will tamper with it.
While flipping through the RV parts catalog from my local dealer, I found exactly what I was looking for; something like a security bar to dissuade crooks from even trying to pry open the door (which I know wouldn't handle the force since its a thin aluminum frame). They have an entry handle like many camper have, except this one has a lock on it, so you can't turn it unless you have the key. I'll add a picture below. It's $100.
Could this seem like an effective deterrent or do you think they would still try to break the bar and open the door? The local PD says if I don't want anything damaged from B&E, that I should leave it unlocked. But then if anything is missing, insurance wouldn't cover it. I would rather make it a waste of time to try to enter.
My other plan is to arrange with the manager of the storage facility that my FIL and I will only renew storage if we are reserved adjacent spaces where we can park so close together that nobody can even fit between them to get into the door.
The storage facility in town has police driving through regularly at night and they have cameras. Everywhere else in my area either wants to charge $750-1000 for winter storage or would involve driving for an hour with an extra driver to pick me up, which still doesn't guarantee that nobody will tamper with it.
While flipping through the RV parts catalog from my local dealer, I found exactly what I was looking for; something like a security bar to dissuade crooks from even trying to pry open the door (which I know wouldn't handle the force since its a thin aluminum frame). They have an entry handle like many camper have, except this one has a lock on it, so you can't turn it unless you have the key. I'll add a picture below. It's $100.
Could this seem like an effective deterrent or do you think they would still try to break the bar and open the door? The local PD says if I don't want anything damaged from B&E, that I should leave it unlocked. But then if anything is missing, insurance wouldn't cover it. I would rather make it a waste of time to try to enter.
My other plan is to arrange with the manager of the storage facility that my FIL and I will only renew storage if we are reserved adjacent spaces where we can park so close together that nobody can even fit between them to get into the door.