A politically incorrect query.

Anyone know anything about Hartlebury? That is where I am staying.

Next to my car is a campervan.

This morning when I took the dog out for a wee, a man was outside it holding a toddler and said, in a very thick Irish burr

"Nice Car"

Thank You

"Did you know the window as a bit open?"

Yes, usually he (pointing unecessarily to the dog) is in it so I never have to worry about it being stolen.

"Aye, nice dog, can we come over and say hello?"

Best not, he does not like strangers much.

Woman comes out to join him, another bod comes out of travelodgs and goes to car all the while eyeing up my dog.

I think quickly.

Silently put Arrow in a down and asking him to watch the guy whilst I pretend I need something out of the car.

Rummage rummage.

Meanwhile looking in the mirror I can see dog has lock on.

By this time I hope bods (who may be entirely innocent) have got the message.

I close and lock car.

Silently release dog and go into hotel.

I realise the Travelodge is next to a Caravan sales site............

Watch this space, I may be on Shanks Pony when I come out.........

Haaaaaa are you not used to mingling with masses?

I was hoping the guy was goin to try steal the car. Bummer!

SB allegedly (quoting the Caravan Club forum here) thefts of caravans are on the increase, there is even a little video of some thieves nicking a caravan in broad daylight, wheel locks, tow locks, etc. just cut through like butter with a battery operated angle grinder, and guess where the majority of them go..............................yes Ireland, this has also (allegedly) been backed up by Police statistics. Caravans don't have VIN numbers, or registration documents, so once on the ferry they are clear and virtually untraceable.

I think your car is safe, but some of those caravans across the road might not be

Well the car cut out on me twice this morning, I thought my three days were stymied, but so far so good........ just been serviced too.

Maybe I am just paranoid.

Takes another tablet.

I'd be paranoid too! We recently had a visit from some "questionable" travelling folk. They went around tampering with the locks on front doors..returning 48 hours later to remove the whole door from its hinges and hada poke around in the houses.

Shame is, we have a permenant camp site here and the travellers there are lovely. They got the blame for a lot of the trouble caused by the visitors!

Perhaps they tried to nick it and it wouldn't start!

Seriously, I was thinking more along the lines of they might have been after pinching your dog if they could make friends with it?

Whatever makes you think that after a service your car will run better I've never known a service from the authorised dealers improve things, most recent example was July when I put the van into Mercedes dealer for routine oil change, next day smoke and flames comming out of the bonnet, idiot mechanic had forgotten to put the 'jump start' terminal back securely and it dropped onto the exhaust melted plastic and God knows what else damaged, dashboard display going mad with flasing red lights

One of my pet moans is how car mechanics can never put the correct amount of oil in, it's one of those things where under filling it is wrong and over filling is also wrong, both can cause problems but I don't think there's a mechanic in the country who knows this