These 12 VANLIFE SECURITY TIPS Could Save YOU From Thieves

Hey guys, welcome back to another video. I am  Philly this is Keely and this is our van Martha!  If you guys been watching us for a while you  will know that two months ago we got broken into   and they stole pretty much everything of value  that was in this van. So today's video we're   finally doing our security upgrades. We've put  together a list of 12 different things that are   hopefully going to be useful to you because we  don't want anybody to experience what we did. So   obviously if we have missed anything let us know  down in the comments. If there's anything that you   think everybody should know about but obviously  don't tell any little secrets we got some awesome   little hacks from people that we haven't put  in the video because we don't want this to be   a 'how to break into van' video we want this to  be a 'how you can better protect yourself' video.   So let's get stuck in! So in no particular order,  we have this list of 12 and the first thing that   is on it is something that may not seem like a  normal security thing that comes to your mind.   And that is window blinds. On the day of  the robbery even though this is a blackout   window so people can't really see in, I left  the blinds down and there is a part of me   that thinks oh if he got up close and looked in  he'd be able to see there was no one in there   and know it's an easy target. So there is a bit of  guilt on that on me that I should have had them   up. We always have our curtains pulled whenever  we're leaving we put our little like window blinds   up on the front thing to one not let the head in  because it was sweltering in Spain, but two so that   people can't tell what type of stuff is in there . And the whole point is you don't want them to know   there's nobody in the van, so protect the  van, shut it all up. That's our first tip   Tip number two from us is a pretty obvious  one a steering lock. We have the cheapy crap   bar one which I know isn't great you can get  the disk lock one which we're gonna get that   covers your whole wheel. There are loads of  different locks you can get to make your van   more difficult to drive off. A wheel  clamp lock, where you put it on your wheel.   A clutch pedal lock so they lock those pedals  in so they can't drive away. We'll put links to   all these different types of ones down in  the description but ultimately they're all   a visual deterrent to show the thief that this  van is not going to be an easy one to drive off in. So number three on our list is a tracker, if  you didn't know we lived in London for a year   in the van and after having two work vans stolen  a tracker was probably one of the most important   things that we could do. They come in all different  forms from a gps tracker that you can put on your   pet, to subscription-based ones that come  with an app that can show you all different   alerts and notifications. So we'll put links to  all the different ones that you can get down below.   But we really recommend that you get one, or  two or three. Peace of mind is where it's at guys!   So our number four tip that we think  is just as important as a tracker,   if not maybe more is to get an extra external  locked fitted on your van. Obviously the locks   that come factory fitted people know how to break  into them, you can see we've had a crowbar trying in there before. Whenever we had a rental van in  London we came back and somebody stuck a crowbar   in the side and when we brought it back to place  the guy was like oh yeah they know exactly how to   get into these they know the weak points they know  people can drill into it or anything so ultimately   you need to get some extras. When we were living  in the van in London we only got hook locks   fitted to the back and side door because to be  honest they're pretty expensive, but in hindsight   we really should have fitted them to the front.  Because if we have installed this hook lock on the   front door they probably wouldn't have been able  to get in. Professional externally fitted locks are   number four tip on our list, but number five is a  more cheap creative way to double lock your doors.   So tip number five we think is genius was  recommended to us by a friend on Instagram   and we installed that a few weeks ago back in  ireland. So let's rewind in time to us installing   tip number five. So come over here and we'll  show you what we're thinking. Okay one's gonna   go in here we've already got one installed in here  and then we're gonna put a chain between the two   so when we leave the van the doors will be tied  together and nobody is gonna get in. I know you can   get smaller ones but this one's pretty ignorant,  so this one's not coming off. So I'm gonna put a   little bit of like grip filler adhesive on the  back of it and then i've got four screws to put   in and that's just gonna sit there like that.  It can be chained from that to the side door. Let me jump outside and we'll  see if this actually works. We know none of this stuff's actually  going to stop a robbery if they really   want to happen they'll get in ,but  everything that slows them down   is a bonus you know. We already have a hook  lock installed on the back door but we've   decided that we're going to install a little  bit of extra security on the inside. These two   d-rings on the inside of the doors and then we'll  padlock through them so that whenever we leave... uh yeah so this doesn't really work, we need a  padlock. We need a padlock. This is    the concept . Yeah you know and so it's something  that you can't get access to unless you're already   inside the van so hopefully that's just an extra  double-edge security on our back doors. Let's   let's go it see. It might be a little bit  overkill. It's worth it if it stops someone!   Okay I'm shutting the doors. This one first? Yeah, I mean you've lived in the van for  two years . Uh I don't usually shut the doors, you do. uh-oh What did you do? The d-ring hits here. Epic fail! Why did we not think of that? Um okay so  that's that's a fail. Why did we not think of that?   Because we were always pushing  them from the inside. Yeah so so this door is a hook lock anyway! We'll talk to you guys, when we figure it out. pending... lol For number six come up here, I'll show you this! So we installed this cctv camera that live streams  right to our phones, so we can monitor what's going   on in the van at all times. There's a motion  detector on it that will alert us if there's   anything happening in the van when we're not here.  It's also got a speaker on it that lets us shout   at people and an alarm that we can set off. And if  you're a bit creeped out that there's a camera in   your van you can just turn around and there you go,  it's gone. If you don't have permanent internet in   your van you can get ones that record locally onto  an sd card this one does that and also connects to   the internet, but we recommend that you do get like  a little dongle or a router that you can keep in   your van that can connect to because it gives you  massive peace of mind. Number seven is something   that we installed a couple of weeks ago in Ireland,  but before we get there let's have a coffee break! Get your feet off the table! Sorry so tip number  seven is about how you protect your valuables and   I know a lot of people have said to us just take  everything with you all the time which was what we   did in London, it was totally practical for us then. but the reality is now that we're traveling there   are times that we're climbing so we can't take it  up on a wall with us there are times where we're   like swimming or surfing so you can't just leave  all your valuables in a bag on the beach so now   we had to find a way that they could be protected  while in the van which is why we have installed   a safe so let's rewind and have a laugh at me  injuring myself while we try and install our nice   new shift so we have indeed got a safe and even  though we're not sponsored by any of these items   we're obviously going to share the links for them  down below because we do recommend you upgrade   your security and if you want to give a little bit  less of your money to amazon and some of it to us   you can buy through the affiliate links we'll put  some down there but i'm excited to get this bb   installed yeah so you may be like uh this is quite  a small look and see if guys but for us the truth   is the main thing we really want to keep safe is  our camera and passports and anything kind of like   that and but you can get bigger ones that would  fit laptops and stuff so we'll put links to all   the different types of sizes you want and for us  the main thing was that it would have cool little   paddy thing two different ways to get in in case  we forget the code or in case we lose the key yeah   and also the ability to screw it into the van body  so this one has ones on the bottom and ones on the   side so that way it's like fully secured to your  van we'll let you see inside we'll blur this out check it out guys this is actually really heavy i have to  say it feels quite like good quality it's cool   isn't it yeah okay so we've got a gopro for  scale it is currently recording so we can   put this on screen and you can see what it's like  inside inception ah i shot my finger in the door look oh freaking egg i want to swear so bad let me see let me see anyway guys i just wanted to show  you the scale here's some backstage   the wreck of the gopro just  smashing it around there shield your eyes well you can't say that  there's a hero in it all right   oh guys i'm not oh hello there's a gopro one  here free gopro yes i'm out see ya okay i'm a bit   afraid of the safe nights my fingers pretty mushy  so let's get this bad boy installed gently does it the real reason we needed to make coffee was  because we are yet to install our tip number   eight and i'm concerned it may end up getting  a little bit stressful annoying us probably go   horribly wrong but that is anti-smash film we had  looked into getting it professionally fitted and   you can do that it's like 300 pinto for your  front two windows it's meant to be bomb proof   and if you have the money it's probably the best  way to go but we decided to buy the cheap install   yourself stuff so we're gonna try and install that  now and this is one of the things that i've been   most excited to get installed because that's how  they got into our van they just smashed the window   it's one of the most common ways to get robbed  smash and grabs so for us this is a no brainer i   don't know why we hadn't installed it before i'll  put the link to the one that we bought down in   the description but there are loads of different  ones i'll also put a link to the company that do   it professionally please please please install it  because it's so so common i may not say that after   we try and install it i may say it's a nightmare  but in theory it should be good two hours later   this anti-smash film we bought in a big giant  roll and i thought this is far far too much i'm   gonna be honest make sure you buy triple  what you think you need because we are on   our third iteration of this shape also if  you have a loving marriage um say goodbye   to that yeah it gets quite stressful i'm not  gonna lie trying to tempt you out the window   it has not been a fun experience so definitely get  extra have a rough template with one then cut it   to the right size be prepared that it's going to  get all stuck and creased and just be a disaster   and then use that one that gets all creased and  killed to be the template for the future ones   hopefully we're going to try and stick this  on we had to get a little bit inventive with   our solutions we've got soapy water a spritzer  and we don't have all the fancy tools we don't   have a heat gun this might be a disaster guys  but we're going to give it a go with the sun   was like 30 degrees right now yeah it's pretty  warm so we've thoroughly cleaned our windows   now we're going to spritz up the windows  spritz up the adhesive film and see what   happens oh no wait am i doing it on the inside  yeah yeah okay wrong side that's a good start   it's like laurel and hardy do you anti-smart  windows come i honestly don't know how we built   our whole van oh for far right sick why'd the  fly get in on it why'd a fly get in on it get   off me yet i freaking see these french flies  they can go up off get off i need you to get   off your wrist in my adhesive use a knife stop  freaking out freaking night's gonna do nothing this sucks okay and spread the window again okay all right go wind the window down correct before  it sticks and doesn't yay fly yay there's a fly   dick it was good okay if i'm honest with you that was the  most hateful thing i've ever done it sucked   and we have done it and you know it looks fine a  couple of little bubbles not a big deal um and the   important thing is that it works but in retrospect  i actually think i would just pay someone else to   do it because that was hateful or don't do it  when it's absolutely blistering sun don't do it   when there's loads of flies that keep flying into  you make sure you've got the perfect template the   first time around make sure you have a lot of  patience yeah it was that's really not enjoyable   but it really is one of the most important things  we've been wanting to do because your windows   are your weakest point in your van so go do it  hopefully you've better patience on us or just pay   someone else to do it it actually looks alright  it does look alright that is all four windows done   i want to say it wasn't too bad but it was still  pretty horrendous anyway on to the next tip   so tip number nine is an alarm obviously  majority of vans come with factory fitted alarms   anyway but we know that professional thieves can  disarm them in seconds so you can get retrofitted   additional alarms now we're currently looking into  this we haven't installed an additional one yet   you can get magnetic ones motion ones we  don't really know what to go for so if you   guys have any tips please advise us down in  the comments that would be really really good   so that's something that we are yet to install  but plan to add the last thing that we're going to   install in this video is tip number 10 which we're  having a bit of a debate about which is stickers so i don't know if you can see this one but it  is a cctv sticker and when we were brainstorming   about this video this was one we were having a  debate about so stickers on your vans whether   it send cctv is in it whether it's no tools are  kept overnight two tools in this one yeah and   whatever it is i don't think stickers work but  a lot of people do think stickers work yeah it's   weird because in theory you are saying that it's  got cctv or you're saying that it doesn't have   anything of value in this van so move on to the  next one but then i think that makes the thief   think that there must be good stuff if that's got  cctv in it or anytime i've seen work vans with   the sign that says no tools on it i'm like yeah  right about there's loads of things in it yeah   so i don't know if they work but then philly's  good point was that maybe installing the sticker   means that they're not going to bother risking  breaking in and for there to be nothing there   or for there to be a camera that can incriminate  them but yeah let us know in the comments below   do you think stickers are a good thing or do  you think they're a bad thing or do you just   think that they don't have any effect yeah i'm  genuinely really interested in other people's   opinions because we just keep going back and forth  on this one but we've got the little cctv sticker   anyway if there's other ones that you think are  really good and have stories about let us know   so tip number eleven isn't something that you  install but it's where you choose to park your van   just have to be smart about where you park  yeah we thought we were being smart at the   place we were broken into it had signs in  there was cctv but obviously now we realized   there wasn't but for us we talked right away  in the corner thinking it was nice and private   but in retrospect we really should have  parked more out in the open and in that   way they wouldn't have been so inconspicuous when  they broke into us and that's just something that   we've took away from this as a learning curve  if we're gonna leave the van for the whole day   you want the van somewhere that people can see  what's happening to it and hopefully that means   they're less likely to break into you i'm going  to choose one of the other vans to break into   also there's a little bit of research that you  can do with this on park for a night or on google   maps as well if you're at a popular car park  there are reviews that can tell you if it's safe   or if it's not safe but everybody's mileage  is going to vary on this as well yeah we've   parked at places before that said they weren't  safe and then they actually were safe for us   so i think a lot of the time you got to go with  your gut and just make smart decisions smarter   than us it's not hard but also it's not your  fault if you do get broken into don't try and   take ownership over i feel like we did that a lot  and we blamed ourselves a lot for it ultimately   oh yeah there could there were there were a lot of  things that we could have done better but at the   same time this is something that shouldn't have  happened in the first place yeah yeah the only   person responsible for the robbery is the safe  yeah and if you are a type of person that does   this kind of stuff then you need to go pet you  [ __ ] philly has a lot of feelings about this   sorry but ultimately if a thief has enough  time and the proper tools they're going to get   into your van no matter what so our final tip is  about how to protect yourself if that does happen   insurance yes a mixture it's the right insurance  yes please learn from us when we called up our   insurance we assumed we were covered and then they  told us that we were only covered for 200 pounds   of contents and that they were going to charge  us 250 of access so that was a very shocking   conversation to have and we will take ownership  over that ourselves you should take ownership over   it as well if you have insurance make sure you  understand what is insured we have since heard   people who thought they had 2 000 point insurance  but actually when they called up to claim their   nice big laptop the insurance company was like  oh no each item is only worth 200 but you get   10 items so it's not really 2 000. so please go  away read your fine print if you're not covered   appropriately you can get backpackers insurance  that might cover your items you can get additional   travel insurance you can get what do you call that  stuff that people have gadgets gadget insurance   those young ones and their gadgets the last thing  you can get oh yeah is credit card insurance so   people said to us that you can get card insurance  and maybe you could see if you're covered that way   but be aware that card insurance only covers few  items that you bought with that actual card and   we hadn't done that so figure out what you're  insured for and one thing that we did learn   with insurance so this is another like bonus pro  tip is that you have to have your serial codes   evidence of purchase so please take the time  now after this video after you comment and say   thanks guys this was so so useful please go  take a photo of all the serial codes of your   items email them to yourselves if you bought  them online or you have paper receipts take   photos of those email it to yourself make sure  you have evidence because insurance companies   will do their best to get out of paying stuff but  ultimately they have a duty to you so if you can   provide all the appropriate stuff they should pay  if you've got proper insurance so learn from us   please be better protected it's not only for that  when you're filling out a police report the police   will ask for the serial number for those items  because if they get circulated around ebay or   cex or any other like second-hand stores they  have systems in place that monitor the serial   number of the gadgets that go into those shops so  if yours flags up in their system then you might   get it back yeah so go do it now go check your  insurance go install anti-smash film fitted cf   cctv mechanical farms just please protect yourself  don't go through what we went through it was so   so so heartbreaking so that wraps up all of our  tips if you think that we've missed any please   comment below and and let us know what you guys  think and if you find this useful at all please   share it around we want as many people as possible  to go and better protect themselves that would be   so so awesome so thank you guys so much for  watching hit that subscribe button if you   want to join us for traveling through france and  beyond but for now we'll see you next week bye

Channel: Philly & Keely

Views: 172,189

Keywords: van security, van life security, van life security system, van life theft, van life break in, van security ideas, van theft prevention, van theft, campervan security tips, campervan security systems, van conversion electronics, off grid camper, van life, van tour, selfbuild van, selfbuild camper, van security locks, security ideas, vanlife security tips, vanlife uk, uk van life, uk van life stealth, uk van life tour, van conversion, philly and keely, chapter by chapter

Id: 8EkAeqiHZ4U

Length: 21min 33sec (1293 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 19 2022