Never Surrender!

ON THE Monday after the Billing and Kelmarsh shows my inbox contained several emails from people who had been victims of theft at the shows. The police force had a stand at Billing, yet still the thieving bastards struck. And Tom and his incredible team from Live Promotions went beyond the call of duty to prevent similar incidents at Kelmarsh. They even had a special secure parking area for Defenders.

Despite all of this, our friends from Duckworth Land Rover were relieved of £7000-worth of bits from their trade stand on the Saturday night. There goes their profit for the weekend. Will we see them at future shows? They would be poorer events without them.

Happily, not all the attempts at theft at Kelmarsh were successful. See our happy ending winning letter on page 18.

Several people have said on social media that they will never attend a Land Rover show again because of crime, while others say that crime is the reason that they don’t go to shows at all. How sad is that? It’s a fact that you are more likely to be relieved of Land Rover bits or your Defender at a show in the UK than at a similar event in Zimbabwe or Syria. Does that mean we live in a Third World Land Rover country? I bet Theresa May’s Range Rover has never had bits nicked off it.

Criminals who make a living from nicking Defenders and Land Rover bits obviously think it would be stupid not to target Land Rover shows, so they are coming for us.

The big question is, what are we going to do about it?

Let’s get together and arrange a guard duty roster for future big shows, with groups of volunteers regularly patrolling the trade stands and campsite.

Personally, I will never not attend a show because of crime – because then the criminals will have won.