It fell off a truck..no kiddin'...

[Just Plain Jeff]

This from the Orlando Sentinel just this week...

Authorities suspect organized ring is behind series of RV burglaries
Helen Eckinger | Sentinel Staff Writer
On Sunday, Steve Rowin got the phone call that a business person dreads: Flagship RV, the motor-home dealership he manages in Clermont, had been burglarized.

But when Rowin arrived at the dealership, most of its 250-odd recreational vehicles were untouched. The thieves had targeted 11 top-of-the-line motor homes, taking plasma-screen TVs, DVR players and GPS systems. They even used one of Flagship's golf carts to carry the electronics to the hole they cut in the dealership's chain-link fence.

Now, investigators say that the break-in at Flagship is linked to similar incidents reported by at least 30 RV and motor-home dealerships in four states, costing dealers at least $1 million in stolen items and property damage.

"They knew what they wanted," Rowin said as he stepped over glass shards from a smashed window and climbed the stairs of a Tourmaster, a top-of-the-line RV that retails for nearly $300,000.

Inside, wires hung out of custom wood paneling, where the thieves ripped flat-screen TVs from the wall. They also pried off the dashboard to retrieve the RV's GPS system.

"All this stuff is cheaper," Rowin said, pointing to a line of untouched motor homes, "but they didn't try to get into it."

Gary Flagg, the dealership's owner, told Lake County deputy sheriffs that he'd heard of similar thefts from his friends who own other dealerships. Detective Eugene Hall sent out a memo, first to law-enforcement agencies in Florida, then throughout the Southeast, asking about crimes at RV dealerships in their jurisdictions.

As of Thursday, Hall had received reports of at least 30 break-ins at RV dealerships in Kissimmee, Winter Garden, Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie, as well as in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana.

"They all have . . . the same points of entry into the dealership, the same points of entry into the motor homes," he said.

In almost every incident, Hall said, the thieves cut through the dealer's fence and targeted its high-end RVs. They stole expensive portable electronics, ignoring bulky items such as washing machines and leather furniture.

All of the dealerships were on major roadways, and most were large, making them more likely to carry high-end vehicles.

"They're not hitting small mom-and-pop dealerships," Hall said.

He and the law-enforcement agencies he has been in contact with suspect the same group is behind the robberies.

"There are just too many coincidences for it to be sporadic," Hall said.

In some cases, such as one in Port St. Lucie, the thieves appeared to be filling an order. There, they only took 17-inch flat-screen TVs, bypassing larger, more expensive models. Hall said he finds it puzzling that none of the stolen property has surfaced.

"Given the quantity of stuff that's being stolen, it's surprising that it hasn't shown up, which leads me to believe again that it's organized," he said.

Hall has traced the robberies as far back as August, when he says they were taking place in Louisiana. They moved through Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia before arriving in Florida. But Lake and other agencies have made little progress toward discovering who is responsible.

Evidence has trickled into Hall's office. In August, Louisiana authorities arrested four adults and three juveniles in the burglary of a dealership. Last fall, Georgia police stopped a couple for a traffic violation and found maps with RV dealerships marked and a stack of dealerships' business cards in their back seat.

Hall said a green van caught on a surveillance camera during the robbery of a dealership in Ringgold,Ga., was seen by a witness near Independence RV in Winter Garden when it was burglarized Jan. 6.

"What I'm trying to do as the hub of this thing is to get all of the agencies to share their evidence," Hall said. "Fingerprints, footprints, video surveillance -- anything we can get."

[phorner]

One of the owners here at Outdoor Resorts had this very same incident happen to his 2004 Beaver back in New Jersey this past summer.

The damage to the interior of the coach was so bad, and the replacement electronic equipment installed so crappy, that he drove directly from NJ to Lazy Days and traded it in.

Oh, and just to complete the story, he's not real happy with his NEW Beaver and he's talking about getting rid of that....

[garyde]

I'll bet most of this stuff ends up in a shipping crate heading to South America or someplace in the Carribean