Noob question

[Ricochet83]

So for starters i live southwest o Houston TX and work in downtown Houston so here i know you can not leave anything unlocked or not strapped down and locked if you have stuff in your truck bed or trailer. I also understand anything can happen and is possible however i am just curious as this fall will be my first trip to Colorado to chase elk. So i plan on doing basically truck camping with a wall tent by the truck as dispersed camping or boondocking off of the road i in the unit i will be hunting. It is not a trail but what would appear to be like a farm to market road. My question is has anyone had any experience or heard of any stories from people where they had stuff stolen or messed with or even destroyed while in the field all day chasing elk? like i said i know anything is possible but just curious of the likelihood of this happening is.

 

[bsnedeker]

It happens, but it's pretty rare. Just like anything, your odds go up the closer you are to any population centers. The more traffic a road sees, the higher the odds someone will take an interest in your stuff.

 

[Azone]

I’ve never had a problem but we usually setup camp or stash the truck as outta the way as possible. I’ve been to Colorado before and have not had an issue. Common sense will go along ways in preventing some set of sticky fingers from walking off with your belongings. Just don’t piss off the locals and there shouldn’t be no shenanigans. Criminals will always steal stuff, even after they smile and wave at you. Setup a trail camera on your camp to help ease your mind or aid the law.

 

[Amos Moses]

Don’t keep any valuables in the tent. Had a buddy put a “lock” on the zipper of a wall tent. Thieves cut a hole and stole a bunch of camera equipment.

 

[Thomguy]

9/10 times the people comming across your stuff will leave it be. That being said, there's always that one guy. So if you notice a fair amount of people in the area with you, it might be good to take extra precautions to lock things up.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Things happen and some people need to be shot. However the ground is too hard to bury them in the fall.

In 60 years of camping in the west, I have been spared. One of the reasons was I avoided nice places. Five gallons of water bought me a week in camp. I often camped at the end of a logging road to avoid through traffic. That way at night my rig was a block to my tent. It gave me prep time to surprises.

If something doesn't feel right - take the hint and move. It only occurred once in my career but when a group moved in next to me I thought about it, loaded up my camp and moved over the ridge and set up camp again.

The only place I can remember being broke into was at a motel in Nevada and someone broke a window in our gov vehicle. I rarely ever pitched a camp on the side of the road and never camped in a state or gov camp ground and I was driving a state rig at least part of the time.

 

[CG86]

Never happened to me or anyone I know of. But use common sense, lock your valuable stuff in your truck and out of view. Don't make it easy for the casual thief walking by to just pick up stuff and go. You "should" be fine if you just do that.

 

[406life]

I carry a personal insurance policy for this type of thing. I travel a lot and you just never know. My topper locks with my truck and I have a vault that locks as well for the really important stuff. Anecdotally, I see theft on the rise and a little precaution helps for peace of mind if not deterrent.

 

[Big_O_86]

I've not had issues with theft, but unless you want to pack your whole truck and camp what is your plan B. try and keep your rig and camp near other hunters. there are usually people that hang out at camp all day, other hunter will most definitely leave your stuff alone. You can always go and introduce yourself to your camp mates so they know who you are and who is not supposed to be by your truck.

 

[Jauwater]

Several years ago I took a few days to plumb a friend's house up in the mountains which was a few hours from me. I knew I had plans to go for a scouting hike when I got it all finished up, so I loaded up my tools in my personal vehicle rather then hauling my work truck around them backcountry roads. I drove around 11 miles on a single gravel road that dead end way back in the woods. Not a single house on the road, nor did I see a vehicle parked anywhere. I had only planned to be gone for approximately 3 hours at the most. All my tools were locked inside my vehicle, but I didn't cover them up with anything.

Well, when I got back to the vehicle I had a window busted, and around $2000 in Milwaukee battery tools jacked. They also split my ignition in half, busted up the wireless control module, and a bunch of wires cut, I assume they were trying to kill the alarm. I couldn't find any tire tracks where someone came in behind me, and the ground would have shown tire tracks it was soft enough. I did find some foot tracks. There's noway whoever did it could have just walked out with it all. Even a quad would have a hard time in that terrain, and I would have seen some kind of sign of it because the brush was just to thick to bring in a quad and not leave some type of sign on such steep terrian. I knew whoever did it had to be close. And the whole time I felt like someone was watching me. I spent a couple hours looking around, trying to follow any sign I could find, but I never found anything. Hiked all the way back to the main road, and kept going till I got reception again. Called the cops, made a police report. Called a tow truck, but the tow truck couldn't get to the vehicle. Now I'm no mechanic, and where the car was there was no reception so I couldn't use Google or YouTube to figure it all out. The next day I went back, and just about everything else was stolen. I put the ignition back together with zip ties. Used electrical tape to mend the wires, and used the electrical tape to put the wireless control module back together. But the WCM still wouldn't recognize my key, and the car wouldn't start. And supposedly the dealer says I couldn't just buy a new WCM, and install it because it has to be programmed to my vehicle, which they said would need to be onsite for that to happen. Researched for hours, and hours about how the WCM works. Made another 3 hour trip to my vehicle, and took apart the WCM, and retaped it back, and magically the car started, and I got the hell out of there. Easily the worst experience I've ever had from leaving a parked vehicle unattended on a desolate road. I still travel to the mountains often for work, and have tools in my vehicle, but I make a point to cover it all up if I decide to hit the woods before heading home. Not sure it would of mattered that time, but atkeast I feel like im.being somewhat proactive about it.

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