I lost a camping gaz cooker in Yugoslavia but the passenger door wouldn’t lock and it was in the footwell anyway. I was in the restaurant.
I have lost more fuel and had more curtains slashed in the UK than anywhere though.
I was never even robbed parked at the baghouses either, not from the lorry anyway. 
Having heard of lots of scams the theives were using around Valencia I thought I’d never get taken for a fool!! But there’s no fool like an experienced fool!!
I was parked outside the BP in La Pobla de Valbona at about 10am, I’d just had the truck & trailer washed & my onions were going to be ready to load at 2pm. I was sitting reading a book when a bloke with a clip board came over asking (in Spanish) if I was loading Onions & where I was loading? he said was from tha onion growers association and mentioned a couple of the local ‘pack houses’ so I told him where I was due to load. He said OK (and repeated every word I’d just said in that very Spanish way!!) and asked could he have a look in the back of my trailer, I said OK so he wandered off with his clip board.
I finished the page I was reading and wondered what was keeping him, he hadn’t asked me to go with him but my inquisitivenes (the rock on which I perrished!!!) got the better of me so I walked round the back where he had his clip board open drawing a floorplan of the trailer. He asked me if I would me loading 33 pallets and right away I sensed something was not right (nobody loads onions on euro pallets) so I asked him where he was from and he repeated what he said first (the ACGE or whatever it was??) and said he would go back to his office and come back with someone who spoke English.
I shut the doors and went back to my book, a few minutes later the receipt from the truck wash fluttered across the dashboard of the truck so I grabbed my wallet to put it away and wondered “WHERE HAVE I PUT MY MONEY”!!! All together I’d lost about £700!! I was an owner driver and has been mentioned on other threads diesel could be bought cheaper for cash at a good few places (like Sunbila & a few of the stations over Teruel) so cash was king, especially for the theif who’d left my camera (on the bunk) and phone on the dash. (nothing identifiable eh??)
Luckily I had my ‘emergency fine stash’ in £’s so I had to pay my way back in English but it was an expensive lesson, a couple of trips later I was talking to an Irish driver who’s mate had been robbed the week before about 100 yards from where I had been parked. He had been backing his wagon onto the bay at Garibaldi Fruits and had walked around the rear to open his doors, (45 seconds??) got back to his cab and his wallet was empty!!
Other than that I’ve had my trailer box opened & cooker nicked outside a factory in Huelva and once dropped my trailer next to a pack house in Granada and had all my straps nicked from the trailer box, all in all not bad for over 20 years.
Be carefull guys, it’s dangerous out there!!
Ross.
I was loading at Merche Improver on camino de maquinas sin numero(Without a street number),some plonker from next door,tried my cab door,lucky the DAF had the key locks cemented up with rubber so you cant get a tool in the lock.I was in Pobla de Villabona at the onion warehouse.Key fob locks the doors,so one is shafted if the batteries die on the key fob.He was just trying his luck.In Portugal,young kids try to open the cab door,in full view of you when you pull up to park.Ive fired off a few blanks from a sporting pistol,once some geezer was in the cab while i was correcting the straps on a tilt on Barcelona on the toll road,he came from nowwhere,legs hanging out the door,blasted blanks at him,he ran off down the embankment to the surprise of office workers looking out nearby windows.Blank guns are legal to buy in French huntinf and sports shops.In Porto,forever the doors were being tried to open all night. 
Touch wood I’ve never had problems abroad. As malc mentioned, I’ve had more tilts slashed and diesel nicked in the uk!
A good friend of mine was recently gassed and robbed near Valencia and he’s not the type to fantasise.
My opinion is yes it does happen but nowhere near as much as the stories go.
Driver number one gets genuinely turned over
driver number two hears about it and decides it’s a good way to relieve the boss of the beer tokens.
If it’s going to happen then so be it, I’m certainly not going to let it overly worry me and the day I strap the doors shut is the day I pack it in.
It is a fact that truck cabs get broken into- I have known people who have lost everything, right down to their bag of dirty washing.
Yes, there are drivers who fabricate stories to explain away mis-spent running money, I have said so many times on here myself, but as well as my own nightmare experience of having my cab broken into in Kiev followed by a week of Ukrainian bureaucracy, I have known it happen to three or four drivers who I have known for years and whose word I would not begin to doubt and who were as massively inconvenienced by it as I was.
It happens here too- a Greek truck driver stabbed two men, killing one, just a few months ago when they broke into his cab at 4.30 a.m. in Coventry.
It’s just not something to get overly worried about, it’s no different to being in a brick-built structure, you might get robbed. Statistically unlikely but quite possible.
Given Sod’s Law, I would caution anyone against complacency simply because it has not yet happened to them!
Forget the bag house,beer dens and slot machines, i was robbed on the motorway south of breda in 98. had loaded in groningen in holland on way back to calais. i parked up at about 9.30pm in august, wanted to catch the 0700 ferry in the morning(before you start will explain later). II went to bed , woke up in the morning as if i had been on the weed the night before crawled out of the cab. i went to look at the time, and had no watch. i clamberd out of the cab in a daze in my boxers, had some fresh air and i went back in cab. when i went in i noticed every thing had gone, and when i mean everything, i mean everything, fridge, food,workboots,radio,cb,goldchain of my neck,one box of golden virginia,fuel card,wallet with little of my own money,watch,gas cooker and many more. when i got my head together i walked over to some dutch couple parked in their car, who were in their severnties. when i got near their car they drove off(possibly by the sight of me in my boxers) found someone in a car and asked where the nearest policestation was, drove truck down to police station in brechollt. walked in my boxers into the police station and was asked by the women pc what had hapend, i explained to her that i had been robbed,she then explained to me that i must of been gassed.She let me use the phone to contact my boss and other drivers,i drove to calais to meet two other drivers to obtain a loan of £10 and some clothes(trouses were 6 inches to small).all the losses i incerde were my own.when i worked for the irish firm u did not have time to do the baghouse,beer den,slot machines.groningen to holyhed was not done legaly.
i have been lucky and never had the cab broken into, and as far as i know i have only ever had diesel nicked or curtains cut in the uk. although one of ours had his cab broken into at la jonquera the other month, he was only gone a couple of minutes, nicked his phones and fuel card so they were in and out really quick, and a guy who i used to work with was broken into in spain while he was asleep, and he is not a bull ■■■■ artist or ■■■■■■■■■ like others have said, it does happen but i dont think its very common
I’ve never had the cab broken in to,but had curtains slashed on a weekly basis when I used to drive UK.Even when parked up empty with the doors open they’ve been slashed.
Had curtains slashed in France and Belgium too,the last time was just three weeks ago near Reims.
As for the so called myth of being gassed,it does happen,I was gassed at Heston Services a few years ago and relieved of six pallets of Bosch power tools,and I’m not particularly a heavy sleeper so would have felt someone helping themselves.
I woke up the next morning feeling really rough,dry throat and mouth,and a headache that felt like someone had pushed a screwdriver into my skull,which lasted for two day’s.
After that incident I bought a narcotic gas alarm,which I now plug in every night,and if I’m still not happy,then I put a small strap across the doors.
Been robbed twice. Once near goole some bugger smashed my window and dived in to take my tele of the dashboard. And the other was in Truckworld nice and cosy when all of a sudden passenger door opens and some bod climbs in with a big knife in hand and buggers off with my new tele. Both happend about 4 months appart in the mid 90’s. The only thing that has happend since then is curtain slashing and never taking anything.
because it hasn’t happened to you personally, does not mean that it has not happened.
some people seem very sceptical,not all drivers robbed have been to the baghouse. 
turnip:
I was just looking at the monthly question and it struck me how many people feel insecure in their cabs at night . Personally in 22 yrs travelling around europe including various outlandish places i have never had a break in to the cab and have never felt seriously threatened.
Whilst i am certain that their have been a few isolated cases over the years i believe most of the stories are complete b######s , usually made up by a driver who has done his money in a bar/bag house/fruit machine and has dreamed up some spurious story to cover his losses. In fact when i think about it the only people that have ever robbed me have been wearing a uniform .
So my question is this , am i just lucky or are there a lot of b##########g drivers out there making a lot of youngsters (and a few who should know better) very nervous of a world that simply doesn’t exist .
Turnip only this week i was broken into while me and the wife was sleeping near Recklinhausen in Germany the scum forced the lock with a screw driver luckly the wife woke and scared him off with him saying sorry. He was lucky i stayed asleep lol but im going out today to buy a baseball bat and ball of course to practise my baseball swing if you know what i mean. This is the first time in 17yrs ive had this happen and ive parked in some dodgy places
kerwyn:
im going out today to buy a baseball bat and ball of course
For those who don’t know, if you carry a baseball bat and no ball you are carrying a weapon, carry a ball and it’s a sporting item!!
Ross. 
bigr250:
kerwyn:
im going out today to buy a baseball bat and ball of courseFor those who don’t know, if you carry a baseball bat and no ball you are carrying a weapon, carry a ball and it’s a sporting item!!
Ross.
guess i must be old school then ross mate lol
bigr250:
kerwyn:
im going out today to buy a baseball bat and ball of courseFor those who don’t know, if you carry a baseball bat and no ball you are carrying a weapon, carry a ball and it’s a sporting item!!
Ross.
Do you think I would get away with a gun and target? 
I have a 5 battery maglight in my cab, that would take it’s toll if I hit someone with it