pikeys strike again

[Lord Steve]

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???

[Nordic]

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.

[Bonio]

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....

[aricus654]

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.

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

[aricus654]

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....

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

[landman]

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 

[mgmark]

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

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 

[Nordic]

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.

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

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?

[Boorish Grobian]

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

[Bonio]

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.   

[aricus654]

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

[Stu]

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

A hungry rottweiler might be good   

[Lord Steve]

An AK47 might be better!

[Boorish Grobian]

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

[spoonies]

This topic seems to come up almost every year.  Just curious, is this a isolated Le Mans problem?
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

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.