Nothing can ruin your day like a bad attitude – whether it’s yours or a stranger’s. You can prepare for a lot of circumstances when it comes to RV camping, but sometimes life throws a curveball.
We’re sharing the experiences of 7 different RVers who were harassed at their campsite. They all share (and sometimes capture the harassment) on YouTube.
How you handle yourself in a stressful situation can prevent an already stressful encounter from escalating into something more serious. Learning from these examples will surely be useful if you’re ever harassed.
Let’s dive in.
Harassed in RV Park
Attempted Vandalism
Harassed while off-grid camping
Dave and Roe of Fate Unbound spend a significant amount of time boondocking on BLM and public lands. In this encounter they were camping in a national forest when an individual confronted them because she was upset about them camping during fire season.
Dave and Roe did their due diligence by researching in advance and ultimately confirm with local authorities regarding their ability to stay in the location.
After further talks with the individual Dave and Roe discover her anger and frustrations are more as a result of people’s misuse of the forests.
Told To Leave
Sal and Sharon of the channel S & S and the RV Cats were boondocking in a beautiful spot in Flagstaff, Arizona when they were forced to leave in a hurry.
A local rancher was not happy about their choice in camping location and, after approaching them, threatened to involve law enforcement.
Sal and Sharon weren’t looking to escalate the situation and decided to move on to another location.
Walmart Overnight Parking Issues
The Jurgys, Bryce and Nellie, were staying overnight in a Walmart parking lot when they were awoken by a trailer crashing in the side of their rig.
The Jurgys had a great interaction with the law enforcement, but ultimately trying to save a few dollars cost them a lot more than they had anticipated. Luckily for them the damage was minimal and no one involved was hurt.
Pro Tip: Here are the don’ts when camping at Walmart.
RV Stealth Camper Issues
The Mobile Hobos, aka Kari and Joe, had just finished working out at fitness center near San Diego, California when they were confronted by law enforcement.
The officer reported being called to investigate a male and female altercation near a camper.
Throughout the video they share their frustrations of being confronted multiple times by law enforcement and others who may not understand their lifestyle in their vintage camper.
Here’s the definition to stealth camping.
Kicked Out for Receiving Package
Jason and Abby of RV Miles were kicked out of a Montrose, Colorado campground for receiving a package. Yes, you read that correctly – receiving a package got them kicked out.
When Jason and Abby checked in there were several pages of rules, one of which included a section for extended stay reservations.
One rule in this section stated campers could not receive packages at the campground. They did not read this section because it did not pertain to their travel circumstances.
Jason had placed an order to be delivered to the campground, but the front office declined it. The delivery driver saw the importance of the package and contacted Jason to arrange pickup off of the campground’s property, but when Jason returned he was instructed that he and his family needed to leave.
Law enforcement officers arrived to supervise Jason and his family as they packed. Luckily they were able to find another park in the area that accommodated them and informed them that they were not the first family to be kicked out of this specific location.
Learn from These Experiences
We hope you never encounter harassment during your travels, but if you do, you can be better prepared because of these 7 Youtube RVers. Always remember it is better to walk away or find another camping spot than to put you or your family in an unsafe situation.
Have you ever found yourself being harassed while RVing?
Discover the Best Free Camping Across the USA
To be honest with you, we hate paying for camping. There are so many free campsites in America (with complete privacy).
You should give it a try!
As a matter of fact, these free campsites are yours. Every time you pay federal taxes, you’re contributing to these lands.
Become a FREE CAMPING INSIDER and join the 100,000 campers that love to score the best site!
We’ll send you the 50 Best Free Campsites in the USA (one per state). Access the list by submitting your email below:
Thank you for all the wonderful and informative articles over the years. Good luck with your future endeavors and especially your new lifestyle raising a child. This will be your greatest adventure!
Would love to hear from the other side and get the entire story, not just half of it. It takes two to tango.
I agree with Neil. Take the first one. Many parks have specific rules regarding occupancy. You registered with two you can’t just add another without approval. If a 55 + parks no one under 55 can stay, period. Doesn’t matter if a child lost a job, or if there is a pandemic. Rules are there to make everyone’s stay enjoyable. Not getting the full story here. Just that they are upset they can’t do whatever they want.
The woman upset with campers and the rancher threatening to call law enforcement. I would stayed put and called law enforcement myself. When people cave in they just make it worse for the rest of us. That rancher getting his way just encourages him. He needs law enforcement to warn him that he could be the one getting arrested.
The Stealth camping harassment. Please remember that in most places so called Stealth camping is otherwise known as illegal camping. Saying people just don’t get their lifestyle is crap. I suppose if you’re lifestyle is to be e nudist they think they should be allowed to run around nude and if not “People just don’t get our lifestyle” covers it. All lifestyles must fit in with the laws. You think I like having to move on after camping 14 days? No, but the law is there so the spots can be available to others rather than becoming a squatter city.
I didn’t want strange RVs parked in front of my house, so I don’t park in front of others. Residential streets are not campgrounds.
Too many people today thinking they should be allowed to do whatever they want.
Some of these examples show that some people just don’t think that the rules apply to them. Laundry rooms/storage sheds are not places for people to live. Period. If the campground has rules about not receiving packages, then don’t have packages delivered there. There are many local businesses that can receive packages for you for a small fee. Flying a drone on the national lands (parks, forests, national monuments) is not legal unless you get a permit. If you don’t like something about the place your staying, get up and move! Rv’s have wheels for a reason. Stop your bellyaching, you are not special to anyone else!
Most people go camping/rving for the peace & quiet at least we do & some idiot flying a drone in/around the area would be annoying! People like him need to go someplace where there are no other people so the campers getting upset is understandable. As for the others, if you don’t want to pay for camping…do the research or here’s an idea…stay home
Most of these if not all are examples of people ignoring the rules, being rude or actually breaking the law. Just because you own an rv or trailer doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. In the drone video there are obviously others camping near him and he closes to fly his drone around them. Would you like being woken up from a nap by some guy with a drone? Probably not. The great thing about an an Rv is if you have a problem YOU CAN MOVE. these people seriously had an issue and stayed for months? That defeats the purpose of having a rv.
I lived for 6 years in a class C motor home. Stayed in RV parks, campgrounds and out in the wilds all over Arizona. Amazingly, NEVER bothered by anyone! But as we all should know there are a#$h%$#s everywhere, misunderstandings and miscommunications can occur on a regular basis in anybody’s life. Unfortunately, nothing new here.
Let’s face it this year was not the best for finding friendly and happy people. Whether you think it’s planned or accidental, a lot of folks are just in a really lousy mood right now. After 40 years of over the road trucking I’ve learned that it’s not that hard to find really good places to spend the night or even just a few hours of rest and relaxation. If you’re going to stop in a rest area try to find a way to stay away from where the big trucks are. It’s hard for them to find places to sleep and they have to stay on off the road for as much as 10 hours a day. Also be sure to check out the availability in all of the federally run parks. The Department of the Interior has a list of them located all over the United States and they’re very affordable and usually have some availability. If you’re a senior you can get discounts that really add up. Learn how to dry camp or boondock. It gives you a lot more choices.
Most of the rules that seem intrusive are a result of other people’s bad behavior. The no package policy is probably the result of squatters trying to set up legal residency so they can stop paying rent and force the owners into a lengthy eviction process. Knowing and following the rules is better than having camp sites getting trashed so I don’t have a lot of sympathy for most of these “victims”.
6 years of RVing on public lands and, luckily, no issue yet!
Which story?
I agree with Janella. If I were boondocking and a drone flew over me I would talk to the person first. If they ignored me, I’ d throw my whole RV at it! LOL!
From SC, my wife and I have been host from SC to Alaska for four months, then Southwest New Mexico, back to SC, still hosting in State Campground’s in Georgia, will never even talk to Any private campground owner ever again, people don’t read signs, and newbies are slob’s, they pull in ,door’s fly open and kid’s run wild, thinking, they are on vacation and won’t anything happen to them. If they start running their mouths, just call the law have them locked up and bar them from that park, Forever ! No Respect ! Hint, Only a Drunk likes a Drunk !
Many places, drones are illegal, usually because you’re disturbing endangered wildlife. I can promise you I will call law enforcement if I see people doing things like scaring breeding seals with their stupid drones. Most of these ppl sound like they deserved it for trying to live in their Rv for free, where they shouldn’t be.
This cracks me up. I live in western colorado and have never seen a more entitled group than RV campers. And this year has been the worst. Trash left all over campsites, open fires during fir bans. And spoiled ass office jockeys hauling their fifth wheels and motor coaches on forest service roads that we’re not built for them. I never understood white privilege until I saw all the “boondockers”destroying our public lands.
People who are not obeying the rules or who are trespassing deserve to be punished. Those who obey the law have every right to call the sheriff or the police and have rule breakers RUN OFF their property. Come on people. Have some respect for something.
I so agree. There is a whole new breed of campers. Disrespectful, thinking its all about them, nothing to do about your space. I sold my RV…, I am done. 10 years ago, everyone would get together, have a fire, invite you over. Now…., omg….,its like the big city attitudes came to the country. 😢
Actually you are wrong about the drones. You can indeed fly drones in National Forests. National parks and National Wilderness says clearly no drones. But the National Forest rules state you can indeed fly drones. You might want to read drone laws.
The guy throwing rocks at the drone could have been charged with endangering a lawful flight by the FAA which is now a felony.
That attitude is what will get you charged with a felony. It is illegal to damage a drone if the drone is legally being flown. You might want to look up drone laws. That are considered aircraft and throwing rocks or shooting them will get you a felony charge.
This is for RYAN and anyone else who thinks that people who have drones have more rights than the rest of us. NOPE!
(1) Even though one can fly a drone in a National Forest Area, using a drone to harass any wildlife anywhere is a felony according to Federal Law. So if the look and sound of a drone is frightening the bears, deer, elk, moose or any other animal, the one flying it could get into deep trouble with the law. Drones that frighten domesticated animals (farm animals, for example) can get the drone owner sued.
(2) It is illegal to fly drones over private property, including farms and homes, without written permission of the property owner. Property owners also own the airspace over their homes and farms (there is an easement for military and passenger aircraft, but not for drones). According to the law, people who own the property MUST be made aware of the intention to fly a drone over it and they do reserve their right to deny access for drones.
(3) It is illegal to fly drones in State and National Parks (and for very good reason). There have been incidents. . .
(4) It is illegal to fly drones at night without special lighting, and they cannot be flown in such a manner where they enter commercial airspace.
(5) When flying drones over people that one does not know it must be clearly understood that filming people without their permission can get you sued because laws other than the ones pertaining to drones specify that individual people OWN their image. Generally, one must have a written release to film people who are unknown to you. The law does prohibit flying drones over people if those folks are part of a large gathering or ALL of the people have not been formally notified that a drone will be flying over their heads, so that is a big problem. Also, no drone that weighs more that half a pound can fly over people, and such a drone cannot have propellers that can lacerate human skin. If your drone crashes into someone you can be sued and there are criminal penalties for that. Drone flyers who film people without their written permission, especially children, can be sued for doing that, and courts frown upon those who take videos of people and then post the images on the internet or in any form of social media for COMMERCIAL PURPOSES without paying the people who appear in the video (such as when one posts a video for the purpose of getting income from ads on YouTube). The only people that a drone operator can legally film are members of their own family or group who know that they are being filmed.
People don’t have a right to destroy drones, but they DO have the right to report any drone flying over their head without their permission (illegal), and they do have a right to sue anyone who posts their image online for any reason. It’s true that the drone man could have sent that guy to jail for hitting his drone with a rock, but that guy could have had drone man jailed for flying the drone over his head, so they would have been even.
From reading this it appears to me half of these were caused by people trying to get around the rules. No one cares if you personally don’t like the rules. Abide by them or leave. Take me, i personally don’t like all the rules HOAs have, so will never stay stay anywhere ruled by one.
I never have this issue because I’m a crotchety old hermit and I’m a pro at ignoring people. You can knock on my door forever, and I’ll just peek out the window to make sure the park isn’t on fire and go right back to whatever I was doing. You can even walk right up to me while I’m outside and say “hi there!” and I will literally turn away and go into my camper and close the door without acknowledging your presence. Call me? Ha! It’s on do not disturb, it won’t even ring. And, tye voicemail is full. You’re gonna have to call a tow truck or a cop in order to get my attention.
In my area if you allow someone to camp in your campground for more than 30 days OR you allow them to receive any mail or packages at the campground address they are then considered legal tenants. Then if they don’t wanna leave at the end of their reservation the campground has to spend several hundred dollars and several months in court to legally evict them.
Sounds like a lot of RVs breaking the rules then complaining about being caught.
@Esme Lee – I never have packages sent to the parks I’m staying at. Too much interaction with park staff. Much better to do Walmart/Home Depot curbside pickup. I don’t even use Amazon, you never know when the thing will arrive, you could be three states farther down the road by the time it shows up.
I have sent two photos and a description of a shade mesh tarp, either you did not receive the information or showing RVers how to protect and save on electric bills in these hot times maybe not important to your publication. Please advise Peter Colby [email protected].
Walmart Lehman Rd BC, 1030 pm after driving all day long and not finding an RV park. Told we couldn’t park in the lot because it was a rental property not owned by Walmart. Later told that was a crock.
For all the money we have spent shopping at Walmart this is just another disappoint from them.
You should change the title of this article to “seven ways to not be an entitled ahole, ruining it for the rest of us”
RVing is getting to be more of a headache than pleasure
Feels like some people in these comments aren’t reading/watching all the examples listed. Like the people who got hit by a trailer while they were sleeping in a Walmart lot that they were allowed to overnight in, or the couple who was legally and respectfully boondocking in an authorized National Forest area who contacted the authorities to keep from being harassed and the authorities confirmed that they were completely in the right and the woman harassing them was known for being obnoxious and crazy.
I’m a 61 year old widower who lost his wife to ovarian cancer five years ago, and now my girlfriend passed away from having a Cardiac Arrest which resulted in severe brain damage. So,….I’m looking to leave my apartment after being in it 28 years and live in a RV with my two cats and travel. I Need all the help I can get with free camping sites, and RV Parks.
Why was there an HOA at a campsite. That makes no sense.
Regarding the comments about the drone at Angel Peak. I live not a long way away. Obviously none of the commentators have been there. It is on BLM land about 30 miles from the nearest town with no one living within probably ten miles. There’s a very small tent campground there that’s rarely utilized. There’s nothing else except a small day use picnic area. I doubt anyone would even notice a drone out there. Some people just like to complain.
Being a life time tent to camper to trailer to rv full timer I saw this one coming during and after the pandemic. Glampers and resorters are a different animal. You can’t put them i to a rv when they expect resort level services. I even saw a guy charging people to park and set up and break camp. I am past my Travel years now (Thank God) and have the privilege of living.in a beauiful place. .
While camping in Wyoming on National Forrest land my wife and I were harassed by two groups of local people that didn’t like campers. The Sheriff’s Dept. was called and we decided to relocate and find a safer, quiter place.
Nine times out of ten it’s the locals that harass the RVer’s.They are jealous of the freedom you have that they don’t. They trash camp sites and then the RVer’s get blamed. A large majority of campers are retired in which they spent the majority of their lives paying TAXES and are just trying to enjoy life for the rest of the time that the good Lord will give them.
At least you could move on .we bought a house in Leesburg Fl . 2 of are neighbors tried to get are handicap van removed from our driveway. Our daughter doesn’t set up walk or crawl our neighbor across the street don’t worry by park in front of our house if she could have garden parties and have cars lined up and down the street and we were snowbirds so we sold our house. And move back to Illinois permanently. Some people don’t realize how short life is and they should try to enjoy their own life.
1
-5 OR 846=(SELECT 846 FROM PG_SLEEP(15))–
-1)) OR 86=(SELECT 86 FROM PG_SLEEP(15))–
Rh7IvBEh’ OR 519=(SELECT 519 FROM PG_SLEEP(15))–
26Mip7eK’) OR 46=(SELECT 46 FROM PG_SLEEP(15))–
1����%2527%2522
I found the more people you camp around the more issues
People should provide the name of the RV park and name of harassers. That way, people can avoid that park!⁰
Ya know society is becoming free range animals. We were considering doing this .Had friends who were doing it for 1)2 yrs and 2) other 3 yrs..they stopped ,sold their home.It was as they said getting scsry,intimidating, freaky,angry entitled people on and on.
Ya know society is becoming free range animals. We were considering doing this .Had friends who were doing it for 1,)2 yrs and for, 2) others 3 yrs..they stopped ,sold their home.It was as they said getting scary,intimidating, freaky,angry entitled people etc etc etc. JUST BE CAREFUL IT’S NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE
RV’S do respect neighborhoods. The local RV park or trailer park as I call it doesn’t have bike paths or walking paths as advertised. So they come to our quiet neighborhood which has maybe fifteen cars a day. They destroy our peaceful place. May all RV’S crash with no injuries.
I have notice the the Bastrop Texas Walmart hired full time private security officer in a marked car to be in their parking lot and no more overnight campers are seen there any more. They must have driven them all away!
Anyone who is camping should not be flying anything due to the noise. These people are idiots and should respect other’s. We were thinking about moving into an RV but there’s no place to park
To Fate Unbound,The crazy lady was technically right, about disperesed camping and rv living. I am on rv couple side with dispersed land camping, mind your business, don’t bother others, but your living in your rv fulltime and I had a similar issue, with a forest ranger, and was informed you cannot live on forest land even moving to different states or sections you are not to live on forest land. “Using national forest lands for residency for any amount of time is illegal”. I was not rude to him but informed him you allow people to run their business on forest land and waters. I know of a many outfitters who run their business on forest land and waters.
I moved and he did not say much more. I am not bothering anyone we mind our business. And you allow outfitters to run their businesses and say nothing to them.
Just tear the forest down and build homes then she does not have to deal with people enjoying their peace and quiet camping.
Not trashing the place.
Rules are the rules, I understand some rules other rules I do not understand. Going camping every weekend in your rv is not exactly on the up and up. So when judging others keep in mind you may be judged.
Where are people suppose to live ? You can’t even go to a camping spot!