Club Arnage

Spent Sunday night sat in the bar opposite the railway station chatting with Hugh Chamberlain (like you do!). He said that one of the teams, can't remember which one, suffered a pikey raid a couple of hours after the race and lost some pretty expensive portable gear. How the hell did they get behind the pit garages???

One of my friends had his tent robbed on Friday night, not much taken but as he was asleep in at the time felt a bit uncomfortable in it for the rest of the weekend.

The rest of the group were well and truly robbed by the aco for beer and other norishment in the track.

Time for a rethink for next year.

I had my wallet lifted during the driver parade in town Friday. Theiving pikey scum bags. Hope karma kicks in when the drugs the money pays for takes them out of the food chain....

Nordic - Wow - Which site was that?

I have a colleague to had some of her stuff including her driving licence stolen whilst asleet in a tent at a UK festival. She didn't think too much about it until the credit card and store card bills started arriving.  Sometimes they are after the material to do identity fraud which is more costly than loss of other stuff.

Aricus

A couple of years ago, one of our martial arts trained friends caught a pick pocket in McDonalds at the end of the night. He broke the pick pocket's fingers.

I wish he'd broken much more.

Aricus

There seemed to be fewer pikeys buzzing around BN on Saunday afternoon.

One of them got very upset when I refused to let him take my broken camping table  ;D

Ditto for a couple of tents near us on the Saturday night - one had a Stanley knife slit through the outer and inner of the tent at around 0430, they reached in and grabbed his rucksack (handily reachable) and scarpered with cash, wallet, phone, and camera.  In all likelihood, they had probably already wandered around to see what was where, and worked out where to go for what during daylight hours.  The other was a straightforward unzipping of the tent entrance and nicking what was handy in the entrance.  Although not completely secure against determined theft, it reinforces the need to lock anything of real value in your car, with the car keys in your pocket in the day or in the sleeping bag with you at night.  Keeping the inside of the tent a mess also helps....

According to mates who were there, they thought that Bleu Sud benefitted from the new security fence around it as they saw much less pikey action than in previous years.  Unless they do the same with a fence, Bleu Nord suffers from being relatively easy to get on and off, from the side road into Arnage and Parking Bleu/Blanc.

MG Mark 

They were on Houx Annexe, which is open to the public without any fencing around it. Was considering the Houx for next year as it is fenced and you need a ticket to gain access, but my brother who was on that site said there were also thefts from near him.

Theft can happen anywhere and we have had it in the 80's was well as last year and this, so its not new, care is taken to leave nothing in the tents and they only got an empty rucksack that was found discarded a a few meters away.

But this was the first time it has happened while the tent was occupied and is more worrying as what would have happened had the victim woken up?

This topic seems to come up almost every year.  Just curious, is this a isolated Le Mans problem, or do you guys run into this at other Euro venues?  I've always heard horror stories about Italian venues (and Dottore's episode at Imola confirm's it).  Lilliane Sar told me she had stay up all night and guard their trailer at Monza to keep it from being robbed.
When I first went to Le Mans in the mid-ninties I was a bit surprised at the amount of precaution shown by my companions, but soon came to realize it was well founded.  We had a bunch of pikey's try to empty the contents of out Toyota Previa in the parking lot of a McDonalds in Rouen.
To be honest we just don't have this sort of stuff go at North American circuits, in forty-three years of going to races (Sportscar's, Indycar, NASCAR, you name it) I've never been nicked, or heard of anyone having anything lifted.  And we've left all sorts of stuff laying around, grills, stereo's, coolers, generator's, etc.
Fax

I think wherever you get a large gathering this sort of thing will happen and i do believe that no one is targeted but is more a victim of being unlucky. With my self at least i had the sense to keep my cards and a significant amount of money locked away and hidden in the van back at the camp site so all the thieving pikey git's could lift was my cash. Wrong place at the wrong time, nothing i can do about it. I always thought of my self as a little street aware and normaly walk around with my hands in my pockets, however a moments distraction is all that it takes. Or at least i think that is what happenned to me.   

Any time you get a large group of people the thieves come for easy pickings. They love the crowds. I work in London near some tourist attractions and you get to spot most of the dodgies hanging around watching the crowds, not carrying anything.

I have wondered about putting a movement alarm in my tent - I use one of these in my garden shed and it's very loud, although I guess it depends whether there's a party on next door, and whether you have it off because you are sleeping in the tent.

It also wouldn't work if the wind was blowing the tent either.

I think I could secure it to an inside pole.

The alternative is a site where the security is better. AirTrack always attracts me in this regard. I think they even have British security although I would miss the sweet French girls  ;)

(Also, it looks like getting out of AirTrack looks the worst at the end of the race).

Aricus

A hungry rottweiler might be good   ;D

An AK47 might be better!

Steve, your on to something there.  Maybe the reason stuff tends not to get stolen at US races is because half the folks there are armed to the teeth.  Conceal & carry is a big deterrent to any miscreants.  Get caught stealing something at Sebring, and there's a good chance you'll find yourself being fed to the gators at the nearest swamp.
Fax

Don't want to spoil your image of the good old US of A but my camera was nicked at the Indy 500 last year. Nowhere is free of scrotes in my experience.

Ouch! That sucks...
Don't get me wrong, we've got more than our share of thieving bastards over, just usually don't see them show up at races.
Huh, I've spent many years at IMS and never gotten ripped off (well, at the concession stands I have).
Like Bonio said, alot of it is wrong place, wrong time.
Fax

Fax
The Blue Nord Peoples Militia seems to have a nice ring about it. Heavily armed tent and campsite guards. I recall some years ago a pikey's car being smashed up on the campsite but it doesn't seem to deter them. There were no problems on Tetre Rouge as far as I am aware with fences all around and very visible security.

As mentioned in previous year's, it is not just French pikey's that are thieves as there have been reports of Brits doing it. Whether this is just a spur of the moment or opportunist thing I do not know.

>Martini...LB

Some theft is certainly planned, but I suspect most is opportunist. I'm genuinely sorry to those who suffered thefts in LM.

I read on PH that someone had their wallet lifted, probably by an other Brit, at the driver's parade. Not sure if that's the same person that's posted here?
I also read that a group of Brits had stolen one of Aston Martin Racing's golf buggies, driven it to BN and then crashed it, whilst pissed, into someone's new XF - then buggered off! So, it's not the French pikeys that are always the problem.

I'm pleased we've not had anything nicked in the years we've been going, but I always lock my backpack in my car and keep my wallet in my tent, well away from the tent opening.

I broke into pats tents monday morning for a bundle.Reliving 1999.

Surprisingly, there were no Pikey's on Beausejour either Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.  ;D

I was thinking that the ACO might have been holding them back until the main stayers had all left.

Yeah, right. American gun laws are well known for protecting the innocent and reducing crime...

I hope the pick pocket was holding his dick at the time. ;D

I heard, from a reliable source, that the problems last year, was that the gang of thieving pikeys were actually Securitie, who could spend all week working out what was worth nicking.

They never got my Monster Munch! Thanks Steve, you made my Le Mans complete, sorry I left the flag at home. PM me your address and I'll mail it over. :)

You've got mail Andy

The thieves must have gained access from the pit lane if they indeed came from outside the pits and paddock.
Security was very tight between the support paddock and the paddock proper after the race. There is no way anyone could get into the paddock without a pass let alone a group of "pikeys".
If no one witnessed the theft, how does anyone know "pikeys" were responsible?

Is the P word what they refer to on PH as 3.14's or something, coming from civilised Guernsey ( ;D ) I really am not sure what this is all about. I do know what a Pikey is... oops. Is that not PC?

>Martini...LB

I remember that, not sure if the youngsters in the handcuffs actually owned the car, the crowd assumed so. Who knows !!!

You're right, it isn't PC to call them Pi**ys. I remember not so many years ago when that awful un PC comic called the Viz printed this

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D well done Stu.

Bearing in mind that in previous years the security on the gate at BN buggered off at noon Sunday, it was great to see them still there at 7 on Monday morning. Also saw a car with security patrolling  BN on Sunday evening.
Perhaps the ACO does listen, if so, give them credit.

Yes. 3.14 (Pi) k's

Tenuous, but it seems to be this years catch phrase!

It's typed that way on PH as 'pikey' is treated as a swear word on their forum filters!

... and my, do they have plenty of them.

Actually I saw one of the Securite walking around on Monday morning which would be a first although we did have a few Pikeys trying their luck on Sunday night with stuff lying around. And on a slightly different note, the showers wee still hot on Monday morning.  :) :)

Just got my stolen wallet sent back to me by the French 5-0. Minus the money but everything else there. Very suprised with this and my faith in the system has gone up some what...

Wow - with credit cards?

Aricus

No, but with Driving liscense and a few ID Doc's. Credit Cards were safely locked up. Was more worried about ID fraud. Got to thank Loftys daughter too for penning a good letter to the French fuzz.

Wow x2