Thieving bastards

[chuckley]

i slept with fone/cam n small cash thurs-sat coz i totally 4got to go to lockup at end of nite. but kept it in my drawstring bag and had the bag on me under my jumper!

luckily i had no1 attempt my tent the whole fest. nor heard of anything from others. i was camped near e-fests and other 'big groups' in Pennards.

[Nyika]

Had my cloth glastonbury bag with my hand sanitizer and toilet roll stolen out my porch!

[halfpint]

I used the lock ups this year - fantastic service. Also deposited beer at one because couldn't carry it anymore and it then served as an off licence for me - and the beer was cool. Definitly recommend using them.

[verrymerry]

I think Pennards was done, I found an iPod on around 4am Saturday morning (Rosa or Rosara - if you're reading this it's with lost property!)

I spoke to a couple of people near the tents where I'd found it and they'd handed in a wallet with Rosa's name on it and said there was ID with other names too.

The same night my OH heard someone opening our tent so shouted at them, they said "I'm looking for John" and disappeared. Our tent was pretty unique looking - it had a massive space blanket over it - I doubt this was a "mistake"! :angry:

We were about 20 meters from the watch tower (G1 in Pennards) and I saw a few people today handing in bags & wallets, also the lock up crew have said loads of wallets were handed to them, so anyone missing stuff should contact Lost Property

[CCCheese]

I think Pennards was done,

[CCCheese]

A fried of mine camped on Top Webbs Ash. Had £150 taken from his wallet in the night, from inside his sleeping bag while he slept.

This theft, along with the VAST majority of others, was not reported (although I tried to convince him to). Reported figures are down every year, yet to those onsite it feels like this problem is getting worse, not better. I would be pretty sure that a poll of efestivals readers would reveal more thefts than reported.

[budvar]

Hope people don't get too scared reading this thread. I've camped at Top Webbs Ash for the last six festivls and never had a thing taken. I did notice this year that a watchtower had popped up along the main path and this basically looked down on my tent (could here the radio during quieter moments) - made me feel safer so a nice move.

[CCCheese]

Hope people don't get too scared reading this thread. I've camped at Top Webbs Ash for the last six festivls and never had a thing taken. I did notice this year that a watchtower had popped up along the main path and this basically looked down on my tent (could here the radio during quieter moments) - made me feel safer so a nice move.

[YetAnotherOldHippy]

Two things to add:

1: LOCK UPS If you can waste hours getting your phone charged you can spend 2 minutes putting your valuables safe. If not, no offence but there is a FREE service available.

2: Seemed to be a large number of alleged tent-robbers getting caught in Lower Mead on Thursday morning, judging by the amount of cable-tied thumbs when I went for an early morning slash (Don't piss in the hedges, etc.)

P.S. No tent-robber or hedge/ditch pisser is going to ruin my holiday. Peace Out XXX

[CCCheese]

I used the lock ups this year - fantastic service. Also deposited beer at one because couldn't carry it anymore and it then served as an off licence for me - and the beer was cool. Definitly recommend using them.

[IanM]

Sorry to hear about anyone who had money or anything else stolen, people who do this our complete scum!

We were pitched up on the hill just to the Left of the Pyramid Stage and just by looking around I felt fairly confident that our stuff would be safe and luckily my judgement was spot on.

When we slept I kept my Bank Card and money underneath my mattress. There was no way they were getting it.

[eoJ]

I left my wallet in my trousers at the bottom of my air mattress in my extremely small, 1 man pop up tent, with my head by the door of the tent. If they can get it after that, without waking me up, they're welcome to it!

[DTichborne]

I've been going every year since 1994. 1994-2000... something nicked every year. 2002 onwards, nothing nicked. Just lucky I guess, although it's funny how thefts happened to me every year pre-superfence and not since. But all it has ever been is things like airbeds and sleeping bags. I've seen three tips mentioned on here that above all stand out as the ones that work for me, in terms of not losing anything of value...

1) Make tent a mess

2) Phone, keys and wallet in the bottom of your sleeping bag before get in it (categorically NOT under pillow)

3) Spend the extra few quid on a tent with a porch area. Won't make much difference when you're not there, but should prevent the majority of night time "cut and run" incidents

I confess I've never used the lockups, but then I've never left anything of value in the tent when I'm not there (unless you count sleeping bags etc.) - that said, there have been reports of pickpocketing being on the increase at events these days so I took extra precautions on that front too...

[chuckley]

I can see why the pyramid to the exit places are hit the most... its the most open and busy camping/chilling area and its close to exit with less than 5 mins running away time. No Brainer to a thief!

I did feel ALOT safer this year in Pennards though, even tho nothing had changed on last year... well that I could see anyway!

but the bit i was camped wasnt an easy walkway for a thief. tents were squashed together and late comers from big groups squashed in. so if anyone around me was robbed, the thief would have a hard time leaving that area. even I couldnt manouvre a clear exit on a daily basis!

[chuckley]

triple post

Edited June 28, 2010 by chuckley

[20/20]

We stayed in the field behind the Park Stage (not sure what it is called). We did not hear of any problems, perhaps it helps that it was a dead end field with no way out.

Bringing a little balance to the discussion, neither me nor any of our friends have ever had problems at Glastonbury over many visits. My number 1 security tip is get to know as many of your neighbours as you can to create a community feel.

[DannyJay]

fortunately, this year we only had our camping chair stolen. Cheeky plonkers took mine and replaced it with their broken one. Funnily, one of the people I was camped with was taking stuff back to the car about 7am Sunday morning and found our chair about 40/50 metres away (we knew it was ours cause it was foreign! So we now have it back

[Deepwater]

We stayed in Top Webbs Ash (I think), and like others, I slept with my money far end of tent as I have done in the past, right next to me, hidden under clothing, but for the first time (been going most years since 2000), was robbed. It was a real downer, and yes I could have used the lockups, but though my stuff was safe hidden at the far end of the tent, away from the door. Spent the rest of the festivals sleeping with money belt and with two big storage boxes blocking the door and the zips fastened together.

Does anyone know how you stand with the law if you were to cause injury to an intruder i.e if I was to put nails through the base board of my trolley and use it as a door mat or something?... just a thought!

[voisey]

We were camped in Park Home and our tents were fine but a group next to us had their tentsransacked but nothing taken, despite there being cameras and phones in there.

I heard on the Sunday that they had a caught a vietnamese woman stealing, she had £4000 in cash and a similar amount in drugs on here when she was caught raiding a tent somewhere up in Big Ground I think. Not sure how much truth there is in this, but I could believe it from all the stories of thefts.

[abu hamster]

My tent is made of aluminium and has a lock no reports of thefts from the caravans

[goldfishboy]

i camped in dairy ground and was visited twice on thurs night. first time they took about £50, second time they left with nothing (but my jeans were in the porch). i slept through both. annoying but i refused to let it spoil an amazing weekend.

[nightcrawler13]

someone stole my toothbrush from outside my tent....

who steals a toothbrush?!!?!?

even worse though, my girlfriend broke her foot 2 weeks ago whilst bin painting on site, someone stole her crutch during Stevie Wonder!!

who on earth steals a crutch from a cripple

[cdm22]

Nothing stolen this year but did leave valuables in the lockups this time and was also in a group of 16 which would have deterred them as always people about. Didn't hear of any thefts around us either (this was on Woodsies btw)

[Lucanesque]

Does anyone know how you stand with the law if you were to cause injury to an intruder i.e if I was to put nails through the base board of my trolley and use it as a door mat or something?... just a thought!

[Funkyfairy!]

No issues for me, I lost my phone and rang it using a friends phone and someone had handed it into the lock ups and i also left my camera at the BBC intro tent and came back 30 mins later to find it was still there