Is Your Motorhome at Risk of Being Stolen?

Gabi: If you own a motorhome or campervan, you already know the freedom that it can bring. However, with that freedom comes risk, especially when it comes to thefts. Unfortunately, motorhome and campervan thefts are a growing problem. That’s why today we’re going to break it all down for you, providing expert tips, insider knowledge from the insurance industry, and practical steps you can take to protect your vehicle and your belongings from theft. My name is Gabi and I’m joined by Comfort’s own Director of Operations and in-house insurance expert, Ben Cue.

Ben: Hi Gabi.

Gabi: Hello.

Gabi: So, are we currently seeing any trends in motorhome thefts in the UK?

Ben: Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a couple of trends. It really did spike about 18 months after the pandemic sort of normalized and we got back to some normality. It seemed to settle but at the beginning of this year, we’re starting to see the spike again. We’ve seen 2 particular periods of spikes in thefts of vehicles, which have been quite concentrated.

It does seem to be within the winter periods of time that the vehicles have been more likely to be stolen than in the summer months. That’s possibly something to do with the vehicles being left in storage and left unattended for long periods of time, but also it’s a sort of age segment as well.

We are noticing vehicles of less than £50,000 in value are being targeted more, because I think that’s possibly as an industry thing that we all don’t ask for trackers for vehicles under £50,000. So it’s an easy target of an age group, to be able to know that they’re unlikely to have trackers fitted.

Gabi: And are there any specific areas that are being targeted mostly?

Ben: Again, throughout the UK we’re nationwide scheme, we have seen certain areas that have been targeted. Once that’s sort of been identified or theft organizations have been stamped out, that then tends to move the pocket around, but there does seem to be centralized hubs of areas of concern.

Gabi: How common are motorhome thefts? Have we seen a sort of increase or a decrease in motorhome thefts in recent years?

Ben: As I said, there’s been some trends but overall there’s definitely an upward trend. Because of the popularity of motorhome and campervan, that does unfortunately, with the popularity, does come the demand, which then in turn increases the likelihood of theft.

Gabi: So how are thieves targeting campervans? Are there any sort of trends in how thieves are targeting them? Any new devices?

Ben: Trends of theft are definitely on the increase, it’s not just specifically to motorhome. We’ve seen that within the car industry that, that is becoming more of a problem. As regards to motorhomes, there are always trends. Thieves are getting more sophisticated in their approach, and this is why customers and our recommendation is to always stay one step ahead.

More security means they’ll move on to somebody else. There’s the visual deterrence of things like steering wheel locks and OBD locks and pedal locks, and then there’s the security of physical devices in the sense of trackers. They are definitely outweighing any category 1 alarms and are the devices of the future. Especially with trackers that have immobilisation without either a passkey or a card present at the same time, which is an extra layer of protection over manufacturers’ immobilisers.

In addition to that, there’s also the consideration that keyless entry is becoming very apparent in cars. More and more motorhomes are now also including that type of technology. So, Faraday pouches/boxes are making sure the keys are secure. So that they can’t use signal jammers and so forth to get access to the vehicles, is becoming even more apparent and required as well.

Gabi: Are there any common habits that motorhome owners have that make them more vulnerable to thefts?

Ben: I wouldn’t say there’s habits per se, but I would probably say that thieves have identified trends and vulnerabilities from customers. We for the first time ever, we’ve had some claims come in where people have been broken into on campsites. That was almost unheard of because of the community that we share, and everyone is there to support one another, but to have had some claims of thefts from campsites is somewhat of a concern. Admittedly, that’s more in Europe.

I’d also say some forms of wild camping can leave people more vulnerable, in aires in France and various other remote locations. Service stops again, are areas that thieves can target, especially if you’re closer to ports.

Gabi: Are there any specific areas that are being targeted more, other than you know, those European campsites?

Ben: In addition to the situation of obviously leaving vehicles in vulnerable places, like aires and wild camping, you also have to consider that there are scam artists out there at the moment. Where that, especially in Europe, where gangs are trying to fool people to pull over from false accidents or alerting that there may be damage to the outside of the vehicle. Once you pull over to the side of the road, using distracting tactics to then drive away in the vehicle. If you’re not sure of where you are or if you’re in an isolated situation, don’t pull over, notify the police, and get to a situation where it’s more populated, and there’s a support network around you, so that you’re not being left isolated.

I would definitely say that storage is probably the least likely for vehicles to be stolen from. If you’re using a good quality storage site, especially the ones that are supported by CaSSOA that carry their various accreditations. Us ourselves at Comfort, we don’t really accept outside of CaSSOA and we don’t insure vehicles being parked on the public highway.

We do see that vehicles stolen from the public highway, seems to be the most common place where thefts can occur, from tracking various different mediums and access to data that we have, driveways from home address. It seems to be vehicles where they can be left for long periods of time and not being used as well.

Gabi: So, what is the best storage method that motorhome owners can use to prevent theft?

Ben: I sort of just alluded to it a moment ago, and that that is going to be the CaSSOA. If you look at their gold and platinum sites, they definitely go through a rigorous vetting process to keep the vehicle most secure, but I would probably couple it with security as well. Again, as we’ve sort of touched on physical and electronic devices that secure as a combination of the 2.

Because this is mostly people’s second most valuable asset that we’re insuring outside of their home, and you’re also protecting against lost holidays. The vehicle itself will be insured by an insurer, but it’s the inconvenience, especially if the vehicle’s stolen on the leadup to a holiday. That could result in lost holidays and family time, which is just as important as the value of the vehicle.

Gabi: And if my motorhome was stolen, what are the most crucial steps that I should follow following that theft?

Ben: It really depends on what’s on the vehicle. But I would say, if you have a tracker, the first port call is the tracking company, because they can liaise with the police, and hopefully start to track and try and get the vehicle back. I would then say, the second port of call is the police. Yourself to notify the loss to the police, and then to your insurance company. The quicker you can make your insurance company aware of that situation, the quicker they can become involved.

You can take some proactive reaction to the theft as well, because motorhome and campervans is such a close community, there are Facebook pages where people can list their vehicle, and ask the community to keep an eye to see if they spotted it. Because it’s not uncommon for thieves, even without trackers, to park the vehicle up for a period of time, to see if it does have a tracker and the vehicle’s going to be recovered.

We do see a number of vehicles where they’ve been left and are being monitored, and are recovered within that golden window of time. But the longer the vehicle is without being recovered, the less likely it is to ever be found again.

That being said, we did get one that was recovered that had been stolen 3 years ago and was found to be driving around in Ireland. And that was brought back and recovered. So, that is the few and far between that happens. Once it’s gone outside of a period of time, then unfortunately, the vehicles don’t ever seem to be seen again. So, by using the community, using Facebook and potential tracker recoveries, all really help. And the quicker you can make someone aware of that, the more chance of recovery.

Gabi: We’ve seen some reports on AirTags being used on vehicles to steal motorhomes, so what are your thoughts on that?

Ben: So, there’s 2 ways that the AirTags can be used. We see a lot of people that are saying that they’ve left AirTags in the vehicles as a means of trying to recover the vehicle if the vehicle was to be stolen, rather than having to pay a subscription to a tracker. And then we’ve also seen reports of thieves using AirTags, discreetly being placed onto vehicles to track the vehicle, and then strike at a more convenient time when it’s isolated and not being used.

I would say that in both cases, it is very concerning that that can happen, but in the same it’s quite easy to detect. So, where people are depending on AirTags and similar devices in the vehicle, to be a means of recovering the vehicle, it’s not a golden bullet. I sense that within settings of an iPhone, you can detect new AirTag devices and can pinpoint them quite quickly. So that’s something you can’t depend on as a customer for recovery of the vehicle, that’s going to work. That’s probably early days worked very well, but thieves have become aware of that and have put protocols in, to defend against that potential on the vehicle when they’ve stolen it.

But the other way, I think people just need to be vigilant and do it the other way around. And occasionally maybe switch on detection for AirTags to see if their vehicle has been targeted in any way. It’s very difficult, as we said earlier, thieves are becoming more sophisticated. And as people look at new ways to protect their assets, they become wise to it and redevelop their whole strategy of how they’re going to steal a vehicle.

Gabi: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We are hoping to have some more guests on this Comfort web series that we can bring on to give you more insights on the motorhome industry. And yeah, just for some final thoughts, I just wanted to ask you if there’s anything that you wanted to add to this.

Ben: Gabi, thanks for inviting me along to obviously share some of our experiences. The whole point that our family started the motorhome scheme is from personal experience. We’ve owned a motorhome for over 30 years, and my mum and dad started the scheme off the basis of people not having the right level of cover. So, what they have achieved, what they outset, there are now some very good policies in the marketplace that suit various different needs for all the different customers out there.

So, I know that my Mum and Dad are very proud, to say that they have revolutionised the motorhome industry from what it was 30 years ago. And hopefully these little segments that we’re doing, will bring some insight to existing motorhome owners and new, as they come to enjoy the same passion that we’ve had the pleasure of enjoying for many years.