Hey, welcome back Grand Adventurers! I'm your host Marc Guido. Now, today we're
going to talk a bit more about camping security and your personal safety while
camping, because our perspective might have just changed just a tiny bit after
an incident while we were down in Texas last fall hit just a little bit too
close to home. So stay tuned!
So last year in our Episode 105, we shared our perspective on camping
security in what turned out to be a very popular and somewhat controversial
episode of Grand Adventure. Now I say "controversial" because the
comments to that episode were rather polarized, either really supporting our
position, or really disagreeing with it. And that's terrific!
We're thrilled that that episode fostered such a spirited and thoughtful
debate about camping security. Now to sum it up, our position at the time was that
we really had very little concern for our personal safety while out
boondocking in the in the wild. We couldn't imagine somebody wandering
around the wilderness trying to find somebody to do harm to, and we really had
very little concern about our personal belongings, either, feeling that they were
much more at risk in a populated area like a campground. We showed that we used
cable locks to secure a few key expensive and easily portable items while
we're away from camp, like our generator and our solar panels. We also showed you
how we replaced our universally-keyed basement door locks with combination cam
locks, but other than that we take few precautions with our belongings, either.
However, while we were camped down on Padre Island in South Texas last October,
there was an incident that caused us to step back for a moment and reexamine our
position. It was no small irony, we had no idea that as we were first
introducing you to a security camera that we planned on using on our RV and
that we installed for while we were traveling through Texas, there would be
an incident that would take place just a mile or two down the beach behind us
just two days later. Now after we had moved on the other parts of Texas, word
got to us that there was a full time RV couple missing who along with their
trailer from a boondocking spot on Padre Island: James and Michelle Butler. We also
found out when looking back through our video
footage from when we stayed at a campground on Padre Island prior to
moving to boondocking on the beach, that the Butlers had been camped immediately
adjacent to our spot in the campground. Thus we were already in touch with the
Kleberg County Sheriff's Department when the bodies of the Butlers were
unearthed from a shallow grave in the sand dunes behind where they were camped.
The very next day, authorities released a photo of a suspect driving the Butlers'
travel trailer and truck across the U.S. border into Mexico, a man who we
instantly recognized as a guy from Utah who had been camping just a couple
hundred yards down from us on the beach. The reason we recognized him as we had
actually stopped to talk to the guy! Authorities identified the suspect as
Adam Curtis Williams, an ex-con who had just gotten out of serving a sentence in
Utah State Prison, and who was on the run from a couple of no-bail warrants in his
home state. Only 24 hours later, Williams was arrested along with his companion,
Amanda Noverr, in Mexico and extradited back to the U.S. to face charges. At the
moment the two face multiple charges including felony theft, and tampering
with evidence, related to the burial of the Butlers' bodies on the beach. And
they're facing trial on those charges coming up this May. Murder charges have
yet to be filed in the case. Now, we don't need to tell you that this incident hit
a little too close to home, realizing that it could have just as easily been
us. So that caused us to sit back and think about our position about camping
security. However, when you think about it rationally rather than emotionally, a few
things immediately come to mind. For one thing, this was an aberration. This was an
outlier. This was an extremely rare and random event. It could have just as
easily happened in a home, in a motel, in a vacation cabin ... I mean, our odds of
getting hit by lightning, or even getting mowed down by a semi on the freeway as
we're traveling from camp to camp are far greater. That said, there are
reasonable precautions that we can take to improve our odds even further. When
we're setting up camp we take a good look around to make sure that we're
aware of any vulnerabilities. We're also much more
conscious about using security cameras. Now, one theme that was
prevalent throughout the comments in our Episode 105 was about arming oneself to
protect themselves. Now we do our best here at Grand Adventure to avoid any
topic that can be construed as political in any way, and beyond that we really
don't think that a public forum, or a public venue like a YouTube channel, is
really the place for us to discuss whether or not we choose to arm
ourselves. Now, that being said we believe that a person's decision whether or not
to arm themselves is a matter of personal choice, and we fully support any
person's right to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Now naysayers who
argued that a camera is not going to prevent any kind of security incident
overlook the fact that motion detection in a security camera eliminates the
culprit's element of surprise. It also provides notification and video evidence
of anything that may be taking place around the RV when the campers are away
exploring the area. Now as far as we're concerned, key features necessary in a
security camera to be used in an RV environment are waterproofness,
self-contained battery power, wireless network connectivity to provide
notifications, and motion detection. Iur camera from Hiseeu that we've been
using, and first introduced to you in episode 123 linked right up here on the
screen, checks all of those boxes. So does this new camera that we just received
today from Litmor. Litmor supplied this camera for our review.
We've received no financial compensation whatsoever, and made no promises to
Litmor. There are some features on this Litmor camera that we really like. One is
the sphere-shaped mount that allows you to rotate and tilt the camera in just about
any direction.
You can use screws that attach this lightweight mount, or for non-invasive
mounting you can use the all-weather 3M adhesive tape that's supplied with the
unit. Either way, you simply pop the camera out of its mount for traveling. We
also like the built-in motion activated LED that illuminates the night scene for
a colored night view, and also serves as a floodlight. There's also a siren you
can activate in case of an emergency. Now, both cameras run on rechargeable
batteries that'll last for weeks, or even months at a time between charges,
depending on the number of times that motion events are triggered.
Now both record events to a microSD card in the camera and send clips via cell
phone notifications to your smartphone.
Both cameras have two-way audio that allows communication through the camera.
But nothing is perfect. We wish that Litmor added a power switch, as the
only way to fully turn it off is to remove the batteries. We also wish that
they had programmed the unit's color LED to indicate state of charge, but
these are minor quibbles. The camera works well. Because we have the Hiseeu
camera already mounted above our trailer's exterior door, we're going to
mount the Litmor inside the RV to monitor activity within the RV while
we're away from camp out exploring. Now, we can heartily recommend either of
these battery-powered cameras for your RV use, and we're going to link to each
of them in the Grand Adventure Shop on Amazon, which is both down below in the
video description, and on your screen right now.
Also, Litmor has agreed to give away one of their battery cams to one of our
lucky viewers! You'll find another one of our contests down below in the video
description, where you can click on the link and enter for your own chance to
win. Here's wishing all of our Grand Adventurers good luck! So in sum, in
our opinion, your personal safety while boondocking or camping in an RV is not
cause for concern, but there are some simple steps that you can take to
improve your own peace of mind. We hope that the information we've presented in
this video has been helpful to you. If you like this video, please ... it's very
important, give us a big "thumbs up" down below! Also down below, you'll find the
comments section where we always love to hear from you after each and every Grand
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remember, life is nothing but a Grand Adventure! We'll see you then.