Just wondered what other people had heard about the robbery in RIP Camping (only heard of 1, but could have been more) .
 
I was woken up early hours of Thursday morning by security chasing someone down the end of the main large field in RIP, apparently he went over the fence and down the road (towards where the 2008 arena was).
The next day the stewards said that someone had a bag taken from their tent, the bag was later found but without the money.
 
Then in the early hours of Friday morning, apparently security were chasing 2 black guys around RIP and 1 of then had been arrested (but according to 1 of the stewards it was a white guy arrested!??).
 
Just wondered if anyone had more info on this.
 
They really need to add/improve security fencing around the RIP site for next year. After the first robbery, more stewards seemed to patrol the area that night, but ideally I think a big fence needs to be put in place in the more vunerable areas of the campsite where people could get in fairly easily...
You can even usually walk past the main entrance in RIP along the barn as long as you don't walk where the steward is on the barrier.
 
Please improve security for 2012, we pay enough for the privilege of a more secure camp!

Two of the Camp Bumhole group had cash stolen from their tents whilst they were sleeping on Wednesday night - sometime between around 1 and 4am - definitely need better security next year.

 

The Ugly - the lack of security for RIP. We pay the most for the festival so I don't expect to get the least service/security. We saw people with wristbands which weren't RIP walking in and out quite happily on the Wednesday, there were quite a few thefts on the Wednesday night and just the lack of control in general. I never once saw a police officer in RIP. Now I know the expectation is that we shouldn't need it but it is still a deterant and makes you feel safer. I believe the Police Officers didn't even know where/what RIP was!
 

 
^^^ That's exactly what I put in another thread

I was in RIP again this year and saw 2 entrances that people could get in over with no security there. 1 of these was the gate closer to the arena which kip n kit seemed to be near and the other is the exit lane from Park Farm. It was a bit of a joke tbh that someone could have quite easily just hopped the gate nicked stuff from kip n kit campers and then hopped back over it without even been seen by security.
 
I did however notice for the first time a couple of police roaming in RIP which I hadn't seen before, however after hearing about the thefts I guess this could be why they were there. 

My money was stolen from the tent when I was asleep. They took my bag which was furthest from the door of my tent next to my pillow.
 
They had to get through the first compartment and then all the way to that end of the tent to get my bag. I have no idea how i was not woken up :( They seem to have then taken my bag outside gone through it took the money from my purse and left everything else on the floor.
 
When we went to report it to the police in the village, they asked me to show them where RIP was on their map. RIP was not on their map. Their map ended at Disabled and VIP and I had to explain Park Farm was part of Download and not a private camp site. He said he would speak to his sergeant. The police patrols then followed the rest of the time.

I still can't believe i didn't wake up when they came into my tent!

i did see police in RIP, but only this was only because of the robberies.
Festival Director John was also down by our tent having a look at the lane that runs out of RIP down the hill (toward 08 arena).
 
All they said was that security would patrol that area/corner more often. but anyone could still get in when they were wandering elsewhere.
 
We need proper fencing!

they really need to sort out the security for next year.
 
Not sure about having a proper fence as that is down to park farm to decide rather than download festival.

Yes I know it was after the robberies. As said above ... according to the officer I reported my money being stolen to (on the thursday morning) the police had never been to RIP before and didn't know where it was.

vampiro

they really need to sort out the security for next year.

Not sure about having a proper fence as that is down to park farm to decide rather than download festival.

i just mean a temporary fence brought in for the festival. they do it for the main arena/ campsites

Deleted due to hitting post a bit too early on!

Actual post is a bit further down!

Very true, would work well. Bit of a shame that after all these years everyone is now concerned about the security. Hopefully that will sort it.

Definately need some kind of temporary fencing.
Our tent was backed on to where they got through and since the incident happenend we kept getting woke up through the night by the stewards/security walking round our tent and over the fenced area.
I know they stepped it up for our security and they were all lovely people but it freaked me out even more every 20 mins or so hearing voices outside our camp! Until the radio went off we didnt know if it was more people trying to get in or not.

Well I'm not going to beat around the bush on this one.  With the level of security that was provided to the RIP campers at least initially on wednesday this year no one should have felt safe on that site at anytime on that day or night.  

I went on and off the site many times quite easily around the front gate without any wristband check and wouldn't be surprised if this was how some of the thieves initially got
onto the site once they realised how simple it was and what rich pickings there was available.

It was only after I pointed out to live nation staff at the reception tent how easy someone could just stroll behind their reception tent and past the toilet blocks onto the camping area was a staffed barrier put into place.  I spoke to a chap called Steve I think that was involved in customer relationships and security or something of the sorts and had a very civil conversation about my concerns about access to the site and was reassurred that remedies were going to be immediately put in place.  These would involve more security staff and more frequent patrols.

That still didn't cover the car exit track which was fully open for anyone to access at 
anytime day or night.  When I pointed this out to the head of security on thursday night the response I got was 'We only have a certain amount of money available you know'.  So there you go, your inflated ticket price does not factor in the cost of securing the three main publicy accessible routes on and off the site, nevermind the more traditional routes a thief might use like running through fields and scaling small fences in the dark of night.

Upon reporting our break-in to the police they seemed unaware of the park farm site and the site wasn't even on the maps when they asked us to point out whereabouts we were camping, this tbh felt like a bit of a kick in the nuts while we were down. We met some police officers the following night on the RIP site who assured us that 6 officers had since been assigned to Park Farm on patrols alongside plain clothes officers.  I made an off the cuff comment about what I felt about the security situation on Wednesday night was like and I think I'll keep their response to it between me and them.

It seems that since Park Farm has never experienced this type of issue before that focus has not been put onto proactively preventing these events from occurring, instead favouring a 'accident waiting to happen' reactive solution.

That's my thoughts anyway.

2 of my friends who were camping right by us had one of their iphones stolen and the other £100 from her purse. Both were right at the back of the bedroom so the theiving bastards must have also stretched right over while they were sleeping and took the money and phone.
We noticed the side door of my tent had been unzipped by someone during the night but thankfully nothing was stolen from our tent.
There were at least 3 others in the same field as us (the one far back on the left where the edge runs along the main road). One man came and asked us if we'd seen his wife handbag dumped anywhere as inside it was all her cash, her phone car keys and engagment ring.
We were told by a steward the next day 3 people had been arrested, 2 black, 1 white. Not sure what happened though as there also further thefts from others on the Thursday night and the Sunday night so either they let them go and they tried again  or it was a different group of robbing bastards.
We were woken  up Sunday night to our neighbours in the tent next to us running across the field chasing after someone who they said had woken them up poking around their tent at 4am, sadly they didn't catch them.
We saw 2 police officers walking around the campsite Thursday morning but I guess that was because of the reported thefts.
The security and fencing is so poor in RIP i'm surprised it hasn't happened before. We walked around the entire site and saw at least 3 standard farmers gates that anyone could just jump over in a second. They really need to put up the large temp fencing that they have in standard so try and stop these bastards from robbing our things!
Theives must have been very confident to still keep trying despite the whole campsite being on alert and secruity patrols being increased, still didn't stop them.

Somebody mentioned in another thread there was a guy going around trying all the car doors which makes me glad of my obsessive running back and forward to make sure mine were locked (had my engagement ring in there) =/ Guess we've just been lucky so far. Just wondering if it'll be worse next year, sounds like they got away with a fair bit. Two tents right next to mine got hit on Wednesday night, made me completely paranoid for the rest of the festival >_<

RIP - Rock by day, robbed by night.

It was our third year in RIP too, I think being lulled into a false sense of security definitely contributed largely to how we got robbed.

Quite devastated to see all these other reports come in now.

I think both, us the customers, and Live Nation, have all been lulled into a false sense of security as a result of the near perfect record of crime in RIP not to mention the frequent discussions on a public forum regarding just how safe RIP was in numerous threads prior to the festival.
 
Only takes a guest to read that and they get £ signs in their eyes.
 
I'm not being holier than thou as I was very lax in my security but lucky enough to not be robbed. I just think we can't heap all the blame on the security staff, even with more staff, it only takes seconds to rob a tent and all a thief would need to do is wait until the patrol has passed.
 
We are lucky enough to be able to lock our valuables in a car (I didnt do that I slept with them in my sleeping bag!)
 
Next year I will be taking 2 motion sensor alarms to guard the tent I think

Think its also worth mentioning to those that don't know, a friend of mine was asleep when he heard the zips on his tent going. He awoke, got up and looked out of the tent. He saw a suspicious guy walking off and followed at a distance.
 
Cut a long story short this guy clocked he was being followed and sprinted off in what would seem a pre-determined escape route which was no where near any of the barriers so my bet is that was how he got access. The guy dropped his baseball cap in the process and this was handed to the police along with a description. Not sure if this helped the police but that is all I know.

We were quite dismayed when we arrived at RIP to find we were directed to the arse end of the campsite, just off the road at the top of the hill with only a cow gate between us and the rest of the world.  Our first thoughts were about the lack of security, hence any valuables were locked in our car from the first night.  Sure enough Wednesday night our tent and several of our nighbours had zips opened around 2 am, fortunately nothing taken.  I went down to security to report this and also to hand in a phone found on my journey down there in the bin in one of the loos.  Two guys came back up with me and wandered the far end of the site, but at that point any damage was already done.  Unfortunately, it did not deter the attempted break ins the following night either.  We were advised by one of our neighbours the following day that apparently the campsite was targeted 2 weeks ago at the folk festival that was held there.  If this is true then it is unforgivable that security was not tighter.