Tuesday 16 July 2013

The Smurf Mobile has been violated

Tuesday 11th June 2013

Today our van got broken into :(

We have been staying for a few weeks in Gava, just outside of Barcelona. Some nights we stay on a nearby campsite, some nights we park on various roads nearby which are in residential areas by the beach. There is a motorway which runs parallel to the beach and some roads coming straight up from the beach have now been blocked off as this motorway passes through so there are a few dead end roads just used for parking and this is where we have been staying. There have been a few other campers around too. We usually park on the dead end roads at night, and if we go to the beach, move a few hundred meters so the van is closer to us on the beach and we can see it. We also move the van onto the main road running through the area when we go into Barcelona so that it is not on it's own where no one can see it when we are away.

Hooowever, today we decided to leave the van parked in the shade and we couldn't see the van from where we were sitting on the beach. Equally as annoying is that today is the last day we would have been parking in that area. Tomorrow our friend Rich is flying into Barcelona airport as we are all going to Sonar Festival, so we would have been staying in the campsite for the rest of the week and then leaving to drive a few hundred miles to Figueres to visit the Dali museum. So frustrating!

We have so far felt quite safe in Gava, it's a nice, quiet area mainly with residential houses and apartments, an expensive restaurant nearby and a children's play school. We did have one incident maybe a week ago which made us a bit wary but not enough so to make us leave or consider the security of our van. We were parked in one of the dead end roads in the afternoon and I think we had come back from the beach to sit in the shade. Adam and I were sitting on the wall next to our van just reading and trying to cool down when a battered white car comes down the road and does a three point turn. We didn't really look up as a lot of cars have been using the road to turn around in. There are two Asian guys probably in their late 30's in the car and they stop by us and roll down the window and start asking repeatedly questions in English like why are we parked here, how long are we going to be there. A bit confused and not really able to answer those questions Adam enquirers why they want to know. The driver gets out a tacky, computer printed, laminated card that has Police written on it and they advise us they are the police and need to see our passports. Hmmm unlikely. Adam asks to see their ID again they promptly drive off.

Of course we have no idea if it was these same guys that came back when we were at the beach and broke in but I've had my suspicions. We returned from the beach to find the whole 4 foot window removed and thrown in a bush by the side of the road. Luckily it hadn't smashed and the seal was still there with it. At first Adam didn't think they had actually got in because the sink unit inside only leaves a small gap but when we got inside it was quite obvious they had been successful. All the good stuff was gone, amounting to quite a bit of money and the things they didn't have an interest in were strewn around.

We called the police and reported the crime but were told we would have to go to the local station to report it there as well. We drove there with the window out in case they wanted to have a look. I know the chances of finding our stuff or even who did it are practically nil but the police couldn't have been more unhelpful or unsympathetic. We waited ages to fill in a form, they gave us a copy and Adam asked what would happen next. The officer advised they would call us if they find anything, but when Adam pointed out that they didn't even know what was taken as there is nowhere on the form to put this the officer didn't understand any more English. We drove back to the campsite to put the window back in ourselves.

Pretty upsetting but at the end of the day it is just things and they didn't get our passports or any money and we weren't hurt and we didn't have to pay for any repairs to the van. It just sucks that our stuff isn't going towards feeding some hungry babies, it's going on crack. 

2 comments:

  1. Really sad to hear that Kerry. As you say, it's only stuff and you will be more vigilant from now on. Don't let it get you down. :-)

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    1. Thank you, it was a bit of a downer but we won't dwell on it!

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