Truck stolen while at Pelican Roost

Just wanted to pass along that we had apparently fallen into a false sense of security since we primarily stay on bases around the country. We'll we fell fell victim early on a Saturday morning as I was woken by the start of an engine just outside my window. I got up quick enough to see the truck being put into drive and start to roll away.

The truck was recovered quickly without any damage but there were two things I wanted to pass on:
1. The number provided for police dispatch by the campground in our welcome aboard package was wrong. I ended up having to call 911 and the off-base dispatcher patched me through to the appropriate folks on-base. This turned out to be no big deal since they didn't try and get off base but if they were, those were precious minutes lost. CHECK YOUR NUMBERS!!!
2. As I said in the beginning, we generally feel real safe on-base and like a lot of folks had begun to leave cars and bikes unlocked. While filling out the paperwork with the police that night even they were shocked something actually happened on their little sleepy base. LOCK UP YOUR VEHICLES!!

They figured this person was just checking for unlocked vehicles and grabbing change/valuables and probably would have gone undetected had it not been for the stolen vehicle.

Just passing the info along.

We always feel very secure in a military campground but we are in the habit of locking everything so no matter where we are we lock everything, but thanks for the heads up. We have found at many campgrounds military and otherwise phone numbers can be wrong as they change and it seems not everyone is informed of the change and documents we receive are not updated. Glad to hear all turned out okay but curious who the culprit was, someone staying in the campground or someone authorized to come on base and they wandered into the campground looking for trouble? Hopefully not someone not authorized to be on the base, now that would really be something happening on that sleepy little base we love so much and frequent often.

That same thing occurred at Tyndall AFB rv park which is off base. Someone was checking cars for things to grab. There really is no excuse for bad phone numbers at these rv parks. Someone is getting paid to take care of a simple item. There is criminal activity that we never hear about on bases sometimes, as evidenced in textbooks on such issues. We should have a good time and relax but lock things up and ask if the emergency info is up to date. Thanks for sharing, too, it is so easy to become complacent as we enjoy rv'ing.

Wowzers.. We stay at Pelican's Roost frequently.. Sometimes see people cut through the Campground but not often.

How bad was the steering column damaged when they "popped" the lock.. Did they make any noise breaking into the doors and removing the steering wheel lock?

Someone must have targeted your truck to have searched it out and then had all of the tools required to open the doors and remove the steering lock and start it with them.. Was there another "getaway" car involved?

The beach is an easy way to walk onto the base without being challenged. This should not be news to anyone. I rarly lock up my car or cargo doors on bases. I will have to start doing that now. It keeps the honest person honest.

Beach my look like easy access, but several years ago DW and I were at Hanna Park (just south of Pelican Roost and started walking north towards the base. We were not within a quater mile before a security vehicle showed up on the base side. It just sat there until we turned around and left.