Bloody vandal kids

[d000hg]

Gettin old...who are Justin & Colin?

I know who Justin Lee Collins is...

[conned tractor]

Buy a 12 year old 4x4 and don't give a toss about getting it dented


HTH

That is more or less what I do, although not 4x4's. However, The missus needs a bloody wing mirror on the car, however much she doesn't use them.

[Paddy]

I don't. But it has happened repeatadly for around a month now. Also I think the ratio of disgruntled old ladies: mischievous kids and miffed enviro-nutjobs:mischievous kids is weighted on the side of the kids.

12v Car CCTV and recorder is about £50

[conned tractor]

Had similar living in a roughish street. Mirror pushed back every now and then, once they managed to pull off a door-handle. Nothing serious like broken windows, just annoying... worst was probably when our house lock had gum/wax put in it so it wouldn't unlock - if we hadn't had a back door that might have been tricky!

No idea what the solution is, other than don't live an area where you stand out. Pretty sure it was only us southerners who got it, the local people seemed to all get along great.

Thats the sort of mindless vandalism I'm talking about. Its just a pain the arse having to sort it out. The cost isn't huge but for the money it costs to repair I could have had a pub meal out with the family or something. And i have much better things to do with my time than sort out some idiots two minutes os fun - although I really don't understand how it is fun.

[AtW]

How do you know it was done by kids?

There was a dropped tazer gun under the car?

[threaded]

Once upon a time I had to get a crime number from the plod for some vandalism to one of my cars.

The nice police officer remarked in a rhetorical way asking why would I have a nice car like that when I lived in a place such as Doncaster.

I took his good advice to heart and moved to Denmark. Not had a car vandalised since.

And for those not classically trained, this is where the Vandals came from...

[minestrone]

Gettin old...who are Justin & Colin?

The very camp chaps that are on 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here'.

[RichardCranium]

although I really don't understand how it is fun.

It's because there's bugger all else to do.

The Scouts and Boys Brigade and the like are always slagged off by the media so they are made to seem unattractive. Add to that the 'paedo' branding their volunteers get and hence there is a shortage of volunteers. I suspect the independent and council-run youth clubs have gone the same way.

I never could afford to go to the Sports Centre on my pocket money. I visitted my local one a couple of weeks ago to see what I could do for free now that I am on Jobseeker's Allowance. The answer: nothing - not even a discount. So that hasn't changed. (I have always believed those on benefits should get free access to the football pitches, 5-a-side pitches, swimming pools and other cheap-to-provide facilities, even if only during quiet parts of the day.)

Councils have been cutting back and selling off parks and playgrounds for years.

Waste ground and building sites used to be good for mucking about on but they are now fenced off.

A gang of us used to go round an old man's house and drink his coffee of an evening. That would now be considered very unacceptable behaviour on his part. (He was a pillar of local society, BTW. Now he would be branded a dodgy perv.)

Since children are now not allowed out to play, there are no other children to play with.

Since the police now either sit on their arses filling in forms or in the back of vans hiding behind speed cameras, there is nobody walking the streets keeping an eye on things and stopping things happening by just being there. Which is a shame since that is what the police force was invented for.

By over-reacting to the Soham murders and knee-jerk Health & Safety and failing to see the benefit in social investment (yes, I'm talking to you DodgyAgent), we have brought this increase in mindless vandalism upon ourselves.

[basshead]

Used to happen to my GTi from permie days gone by, when we lived in a 1 bed flat in a sh*thole part of North Tyneside. They would angle nails under the tyres too so I would get a flat as soon as I set off.

It doesn't happen any more as we live in the country, have a private drive and no riff-raff for at least 5 miles

HTH

[conned tractor]

Councils have been cutting back and selling off parks and playgrounds for years.

Waste ground and building sites used to be good for mucking about on but they are now fenced off.

A gang of us used to go round an old man's house and drink his coffee of an evening. That would now be considered very unacceptable behaviour on his part. (He was a pillar of local society, BTW. Now he would be branded a dodgy perv.)

Since children are now not allowed out to play, there are no other children to play with.

Since the police now either sit on their arses filling in forms or in the back of vans hiding behind speed cameras, there is nobody walking the streets keeping an eye on things and stopping things happening by just being there. Which is a shame since that is what the police force was invented for.

By over-reacting to the Soham murders and knee-jerk Health & Safety and failing to see the benefit in social investment (yes, I'm talking to you DodgyAgent), we have brought this increase in mindless vandalism upon ourselves.

Although I am much younger than you , I too did some of these thing, the local wasteland was a great hangout. I went round some old blokes house too who lived in a local lock house on the canal, I expect he was happy for the company - and he never did fiddle with any of us. A load of used to go round there and he would supply refreshment and let us play with some interesting things, such as his collection of walking sticks which actually concealed mini-swords in them.

I don't fully blame the people for the insecurity in society but more the media/state for the encouragement in that direction. But thats a conversation for after 6 pints when putting the world to rights.

Nice post though RC - did you get that PM by the way.