Weird - Outside Radio Turned On

[JudyJB]

When I bought my motorhome new, I got a good deal on it because it had been shown at a couple of RV shows. It had plastic on everything, and was in new condition, but they had put a lot of goodies on it that I did not care about and have almost never used. An example is the inside sound system that is attached to my TV and the DVD player. Another example is the outside radio and CD player. I have only used that once in 9 years because I think it is rude to play your music to your neighbors. It is on the passenger side and towards the back, and has a locking cover on it. It does have a 110 socket on it, and I use it when I want to plug in outside lights or use my air compressor.

OK, today, I was back in my bedroom going through some drawers and heard some talking coming from my dresser area. It was louder when I opened drawers. I thought maybe my bedroom TV was turned on somehow, but it was not. Then I realized that the only place it could be coming from was the outside radio, which is directly behind the dresser. Strange.

Anyway, i grabbed my keys and went outside. The compartment where the radio/CD player is located was not locked. I usually keep all my compartments locked unless I am using them or in my motorhome, but I suppose I could have forgotten to lock it the last time I used the 110 connection, which would have been a couple of months ago. I opened the compartment, and indeed, the radio was playing. It took me a while to figure out how to turn it off, but managed to do it.

I have been trying to figure out how this happened. First, if I had had power, I would have heard it last night, but I did not have power because of the storm. I had power the night before, but did NOT hear it. Even with my TV on, I think I would have heard it, especially at night and when I was getting clothing out of the drawers as I did today. Second, I have been in my motorhome since yesterday afternoon before the storm, other than maybe 5 minutes checking into this campground. Yesterday afternoon, I ran some errands. One was to JC Penney at a mall. I was gone about half an hour. Then, I went to a large Meijers, which is similar to a Walmart, except even a little bigger. I left my vehicle in the large parking lot for about an hour. I also parked in a small parking lot for a local bakery factory, but it was a small lot with only a couple of other cars, and I was gone only about 10 minutes.

I have never had anything stolen or bothered in a campground, and have always felt secure to leave my stuff around, even when I went somewhere for a bike ride or an errand with my motorhome. I did have my grandkids with me a couple of weeks ago, but they are good kids and not likely to bother anything, plus I would have heard it before now if one of them tried out my radio. They spent the two days running trash to the dumpster and doing things like setting the outside picnic table, cleaning up, etc.

The only thing I can think of is that someone in either the mall parking lot or the big Meijers grocery store parking lot did some exploring and turned it on since it was not locked. I guess I need to be more careful about keeping things locked up in parking lots, especially in places like Meijers or Walmart when I am parked at the far end of the lot. The good thing is that nothing was damaged, and I have not found anything missing from storage bins, but then again, I make sure all bins are locked before I go anywhere.

Anyway, just wanted to let the rest of you know about keeping stuff locked up. How sad.

[Cudedog]

Judy, do you suppose that way-back-when you first bought your motorhome maybe the outside radio had a remote of some kind? Sometimes they do.

If it does (or did), it could be that someone nearby to you has a remote on the same frequency, and when they turned their whatever-it-is on, they turned yours on, too.

On the other hand, I used to have a tv set that would "turn itself on" so often that I grew weary turning it off again, so just left it unplugged until I wanted to watch something.

I'm glad nothing out of your bins seemed to be missing.

Anne

[Bethers]

Another thought... I wonder if the loss of power did something and when you hooked up again it turned on? I've heard of strange things like that happening.

[JudyJB]

Those are possibilities, but I know I never got a remote. Also, have had power outages before and it did not turn on the radio, but I guess there is always a first time.

[MandysMom]

Thnk, pretty much ruling out other ideas, someone, probably a juvenile, opened it and messed with it. I have heard many times, those compartment doors have locks, whose keys are universal, so if you haven't changed the locks to more secure ones without common key, then it's also entirely possible someone was testing keys, and found theirs worked!
Velda

[WickedLady]

Goblins.