VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - A local man's plans to visit his grandchild in May took a turn last weekend when his beloved camper was stolen.
Chuck Dey, a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer and former Virginia Beach Police Officer says he got the camper six years ago as a means to enjoy his retirement in the warm months.
He parked the camper outside the Virginia Beach Family Moose Lodge on Shipps Corner Road each winter and never had a problem.
Then, last Sunday, he came to check on it and saw it was gone.
"I went in to check with [the administrator] to see if he had had it moved and he said, 'no, it was here when I left'," said Dey. "We went and checked the camera inside the lodge and were able to ascertain it had left the lodge about 11:53, Saturday night."
Dey says his camper was parked behind others in the parking lot, so surveillance couldn't capture who took his 28-foot camper, but he says it would've been someone with a truck big enough to pull it.
Dey took to Facebook with pictures to get the word out in a post that's been shared hundreds of times, but right now, he's also working with insurance to get it replaced.
He says a generator and thousands of dollars worth of other belongings were inside because Dey and his wife were getting ready to visit their granddaughter in Texas.
"It takes a big set of 'gonads', so-to-speak, to pull something like that off a private lot like this," said Dey. "If somehow it gets back on this lot, undamaged, with everything still intact just like it was, just park it here and take off and I'm not gonna look for you again."
Dey filed a police report on Sunday.
Anyone with information on where Dey's trailer might be should call the Virginia Beach Police Department.
