Thieving bastards

[lovebee]

I was camped in Dairy. My boyfriend and I both woke up at about 5-ish Friday morning absolutely freezing, then realised the reason it was so cold was because the tent door was wide open, then realised my bag was missing, then realised there was a big knife cut in the tent wall next to where the bag had been.

I was gutted because not only was my money, credit card, camera and driver's licence in there but also sunglasses, suncream, hand sanitiser, loo roll -- I was going to be very vulnerable without all my stuff.

Luckily I decided to get up and look around the field in case the non-valuable stuff had been dumped somewhere. Found the whole bag dumped two tents over with everything still in it -- including all my money. I think either the thieves must have gotten disturbed and run off, or they just didn't see my money because i had it in a pencil case which was not obviously a wallet.

Really quite disturbing though because we weren't particularly wasted at all, and our tent has a porch so they had to get through TWO zips to peer in and figure out where the bag was. I can imagine smaller tents are quite attractive to a thief because they're more likely to have possessions pushed up right against the walls where they can easily be sliced open and accessed. Bastards! Obviously after that we used the wonderful lock-ups.

[Charlotte391]

We had an incident on the Friday/Saturday night i think, where we came back and one of the tents in our group had been left open and ransacked. Oddly nothing at all was taken even though there was a phone and an ipod touch in there.

Someone in my group did have their blackberry stolen though, but this was in block9 on the sunday night. It was taken out of his pocket after he'd rang us to find out where we were when he'd been separated from us...definitely felt bad for him on the monday morning when we found out what had happened.

[lynneyt]

Didn't hear of any problems in South Park.

My cardi got stolen in the Pussy Parlure on Saturday night - sat it on the table while I took off mu jumper and when I turned back it was gone

[Dirty_Dave]

I highly recommend people buying one of those money belts... Got one from superdrug for £3.99, and never took it off for the whole festival - there was NO WAY people were gonna manage to get in there without me noticing. Plus, all I took was cash, my bank card, and my front door key, nothing else valuable, which helped...

[bradyy88]

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

[Ponyegg]

We were camped up in Hitchin Hill. We'd got back about 3am or so and turned in after the obligatory beer and smoke. Now our camp was the one with the flagpole with the flashing fairy lights and (sometimes) glowing balloon on top, so people were using it as a landmark on their way home. About 4am we were woken by some shouting behind us. Previously we'd met a lovely group of locals who we'd chatted to a few times, anyway these two blokes are arguing and both fall onto our tent when I hear the distinct sound of fist-upon-head. I jump up as best possible, dress and go out and see what's going. By this time the blokes had gone but what had happened was that a young lady had come back to her tent to find someone in it asleep. She was shocked by this and proceeded to wake him and ask him to leave to no avail. She got some help from Stewards (who it would appear had helped him to find 'his' tent in the first place) and another man. They woke the guy up, pointed out his error and packed him on his way and apparently that was that. BUT, he gets about 3 tents away and suddenly flips, comes running back and attacks the Steward, lamps him one (the one I heard in the tent) and before the others can restrain him does a runner. He was eventually caught/wrestled to the ground and nicked I believe. Police came round about 20mins later to take statements. Only bit of hassle I saw of or heard of all weekend other than the usual domestics between bf/gf which on the whole were more entertaining than some of the bands :-)

And with regards the money belt, definitely, who cares what you look like, nobody else does. :-)

Just found out that some people from work who were camped in Row Mead all had their tents explored but as they didn't have anything of immediate value were left alone.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Ponyegg

[ICESTONE]

No reports of anything going missing near us next to the John Peel tent, although the fact there were always people around all day probably had something to do with it. Lot's of wandering porch watchers though, reported a couple to security who followed and eventually nabbed them as it was clear what they were up to.

Best defence is to make friends and have lots of neighbours who stay up till 4 in the morning having a good time,we watched their stuff while having a rest in the heat of the day and they did the same for us at night. Also having 2 lads behind you lighting their fire with a match and a deodrant can is a pretty good deterrent. A FLAME THROWER!!!

[ilovelanegan]

Our friend had his sleeping bag pinched from our Pennards camp on Wed night, he was gutted, it's his first time here! Alas, he hadn't unrolled it before we went out (even tho I told him to) so it was a gift for some b&stard to just pick up.

Then we had an intruder on Thursday night in our tent, we'd gone to bed a bit early and everyone else was still out. Was just drifting off when I saw a torch in our porch and shouted out 'Can I help you!?'. Got a 'sorry, wrong tent' back. Cheeky buggar. He wouldn't have got our valuables though, they were zipped in with us in our inner bedroom, away from the door.

What happened to the decoy tents of last year, were they still around?

[Badlands]

The big tent in our group got slashed on both sides. Nothing to steal though, more of a pain in the arse than anything else. Gaffer tape jobby done on both sides,

Still don't understand why people do not use the lockups nary a queue for them all weekend

[hedgepeg]

Someone stole my tent marking flagpole from the dairy ground but were kind enough to ditch the flag on the ground a few feet away, which was nice

Edited July 2, 2010 by hedgepeg

[jimbo68]

We were camped in Pennards in a group of about ten tents and my friend who was camped in the middle got his whole tent and all the contents of the tent stolen on the Thursday night! This is not an exaggeration...someone must have literally unpegged his tent and walked off with it. We came back to the tents around 3am to a big space in the middle of all our tents, we thought someone must be playing a joke but we searched in the vicinty and could not find the tent. We reported it and the stewards/police couldn't believe someone would steal a whole tent plus everything in it......fair play to my mate though he got on with it and didnt let it get him down, we found space for him in our tents and he slowly replaced his clothes he had lost, just thought it was such a strange thing to happen.....the tent never did turn up!

[beadfc]

I was camped about 100m from gate A where there was quite a lot of space. There were 20 of us in a big group all camped together and no one had any issues.

Reading some of these posts, I find it amazing that people go to Glastonbury and steal stuff. I find it really annoying. Hope everyone affected had a good festival anyway.

[rabid]

Still don't understand why people do not use the lockups nary a queue for them all weekend

[whatmidlifecrisis?]

Sorry to hear all the tales of thieving scum and if you were a victim I hope you didn't let it spoil the festival - as thankfully we all know the nice person to scum ratio is very high.

CCChese - nice input. Reading this thread you could believe it was very wide spread which it obviously wasn't and it is nice to put it in to perspective. There also seems to be more stories of people being caught this year than before.

We (around 8 tents) camped in Michael's Mead and luckily heard no stories all weekend and no-one in a our group was affected. We even left chairs, brollies and solar lights out and nothing was taken.

We do use the lock-ups religiously and the new one near Lulu's was a godsend this year. If anyone reading this worked in there (it was like a sauna most of the time but you were always smiling) I salute you. I cannot praise this service highly enough and I used them as a cashpoint all week - only sleeping with a few quid in my shorts that I wore.

Due to our regular camp-fire we also had several visits form the fire-police this year which was new. Just checking that things were not out of control and they were very pleasant - even when I asked if they could get me a gallon of four-star to get us going. Again this high-vis presence must have had a positive effect on incidents of theft (although were they just there due to the hot dry conditions?)

CCChese may be able to comment more but reading these tales it seems that although the thieves may or may not be organised the actual theft is opportunist - they don;t stake out your tent watching for patterns of behavior, they just sweep through sites ducking in to tents when they can. It must be easier to have a go at a tent without a porch but as written above this does not stop them. The string trap may work but I would worry about getting out in a hurry when nature calls at 4am! It is also clear that they mostly only have interest in cash - perhaps the best deterrent is to leave a £10 offering on show somewhere easy to find . Like I say - I will always use the lock-ups and sleep soundly.

No doubt one year it will happen to us - but hopefully I would have followed my own advice and not lose to much. Regardless of whether you lose stuff or not I can understand the uneasiness afterwards especially if you are a lone or small group of women - not being sexist just a concerned dad.

Use the lock-ups, as others have said - get to know your neighbors and if the worst does happen do your best to report it. And above all - don;t let the scum ruin your festival. Thankfully Glastonbury is still much safer than many town centres on a Saturday night.

BTW - To the poster that is worried about looking silly in a money belt - when you are stood next to a banana and a monkey and are dressed in a tutu it is hard to look sillier.

[Josie's Cat]

It is a great shame to hear of thieveing scum, but props to everyone who managed to carry on and enjoy the festival even after being robbed, fair play!

I took a money belt from poundland, stuck my cash inside a plastic wallet cos I was constatnly tipping water over myself, never worried about looking silly, even after I put it on under a shhort dress and then had to yank up the dress to get to my cash! I did have bikini bottoms on though.

Also used the lock ups for keys/cards and cash thought they were amazing.

[Ponyegg]

A thought crossed our minds for securing the tent of a night time. Basically pick up a couple of rape alarms for a few pound (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PERSONAL-ATTACK-ALARM-RAPE-ALARM-/310230648619?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Safety_Alarms&hash=item483b30072b#ht_500wt_1154) then tie them into the zip on the tent and another object so that if the tent is opened it pulls the pin and the alarm is sounded. Just make sure you remember it's there before opening the tent up in the morning. Personally I'd like to team it up with some small explosive bird scarers but knowing my luck I'd probably get done under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for building such a contraption :-)

Edited July 2, 2010 by Ponyegg

[norainplease]

I have to agree that the new lock up beside Lulu cafe was a god send, saved us having to trail to the pyramid stage one like last year! The guys there were awesome! A lady a few tents down from us got robbed on the Wednesday night and had all her money stolen which was a bit shit but she was quite upbeat after having a wee cry and a cuppa and said she wasn't going to let it ruin her festival! Good on her

I found £20 outside one of the food stalls in the other stage field on the Sunday and handed it into the guy on the stall who looked at me as if I had two heads!! To which I said, "Dude it's sunday that could be some poor buggers last £20" and he replied - "Good point, I didn't think of it like that!" and pegged it to the side of the tent incase someone came back for it!

I doubt anyone did but if it had been my last £20, I would have been mighty happy to get it back! Karma works both ways so hopefully that'll do mine some good!

And as for the dirty theiving scumbags that ruined people's festivals.....karma's a bitch and I hope their next poo is a hedgehog!!

[clockworkpurple]

A thought crossed our minds for securing the tent of a night time. Basically pick up a couple of rape alarms for a few pound (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PERSONAL-ATTACK-ALARM-RAPE-ALARM-/310230648619?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Safety_Alarms&hash=item483b30072b#ht_500wt_1154) then ties them into the zip on the tent and another object so that if the tent is opened it pulls the pin and the alarm is sounded. Just make sure you remember it's there before opening the tent up in the morning.

[CCCheese]

That's a great idea!

Also, question for CCCheese: can you report crimes after the event on your website? i've done that before with Avon and Somerset (outside of the fest), and it might encourage people to report.

[llcoolphil]

Anyone else have their money stolen? My wife and I had our wallets taken out of our tents from literally under out faces in our tents while we slept. Luckily I had hidden some money elsewhere just in case but my poor wife lost everything and it was her first ever night there. I hope the f**kers got found and slapped about a bit before being thrown off!

Thank God a very kind lady in Welfare lent us some money and restored our faith in humanity.

Edited July 2, 2010 by llcoolphil

[saratink]

People in the tent behind me got their wallet and shorts stolen wednesday night, then saturday night, their tent got slashed!

someone who was camped near my dad had 'wrong tent'

someone near had security and police there with tent being searched..

opposite other stage x

[surfgurl]

Whenever I left my tent I arranged the zips in a fashion so that I could see whether they had been tampered with. They weren't touched all weekend. All my valuables and any stuff I didn't need were put in the lockups. I also left my tent in a total mess, chucked the contents of my wash bag about, left any bags so they could be seen as obviously empty and casually laid out my dirty socks on my sleeping bag.

At night I put empty crisp packets etc right by the zip so they would make a noise. One night I got a little worried and loosley tied together the zip ends. Not enough to stop someone getting in, but enough to put them off and make a noise with my rubbish trap.

[stripeass85]

Didn't hear of any problems in South Park.

My cardi got stolen in the Pussy Parlure on Saturday night - sat it on the table while I took off mu jumper and when I turned back it was gone

[Deepsky]

Was camped in park home and heard alot of people walking by moaning about being robbed and word was spread around that there were raids thursday night in that area.

Tbh its f**king shit people have to be such utter c**ts at a festival like this but at the same time it's everyones responsibility to look after their own shit.

its just silly really that people leave so much money in thier tents, especially with the copius number of lockups around the site. Hardly takes any extra effort and you're bound to walk past one on your way to and from your tent anyway.

it's practically an invitation.

[alemart]

Really sorry to hear the horrific stories on here of people being robbed this year. Personally, I found the security much better this year with the security towers in each field. I also saw the thieving bastards pinned face down on the ground outside the John Peel tent early Thursday morning. Its just a shame they weren't left there for the day in the searing heat so people could go and spit on them when they wished.