Reply to: Bloody Junkies (and Bloody Neighbours)

[Paddy]

And just think, if the one eyed snot goblin hadn't stopped the scheme dead in its tracks in 1997, you'd now be able to use a 1985 car on the zero rate.

... if that was the case I would go for a Merc 190D

[Churchill]

Modern brakes and engines; I would not want to go back to the days of when engines only last 60k mls and using 60s or 70s car brakes when going down Swiss mountains.

Agreed.

[Paddy]

I'd like to get a bodyshell and build a car with modern brakes/engine/suspension etc...

Modern brakes and engines; I would not want to go back to the days of when engines only last 60k mls and using 60s or 70s car brakes when going down Swiss mountains.

[Churchill]

On a positive note, a guy that i used to work with up in glasgow many moons ago, had his Escort RS2000 Mexico stolen. He got it back 8 years later fully restored to concours condition!

I'd like to get a bodyshell and build a car with modern brakes/engine/suspension etc...

[Clippy]

I still chuckle at the story of the bloke frying a car thief by plugging his car into the mains. While I don't condone such behaviour, I think using a Tesla coil would make a far more menacing deterrent.

He, he - I remember volkswagen owners wiring up their VW badges this way in the 80's when there was the craze to wear them thanks to the Beastie Boys.

[Paddy]

I remembered earlier to take the rubbish out (the binmen come tomorrow) and checked on the car while I was out the back - I hadn't used it since Saturday.

Some worthless scumbag has smashed the rear quarterlight, wound down the window, opened the lock (isn't central locking a blessing?), got in through the driver's door and been through the glove compartment, apparently in the belief that I'm not only such an incompetent navigator as to need a satnav but also such an imbecile as to leave it in there

FFS, didn't it occur to them that a twenty-one year old Ford Orion isn't the most likely car to contain anything valuable? A satnav would probably be worth more (in monetary terms) than the car

What really annoys me is that the only way the worthless scumbag could have got to the car would be because one of the neighbours left the huge wrought-iron gate unlocked. FFS people, there's a reason there's a big notice there warning you to always shut the gate: as it says in black and white, if you don't, you'll probably get burgled and/or have your car robbed

I can only hope that whoever keeps leaving the gate unlocked is the one to get burgled the next time they do it

When I was in NL they did an experiment whereby they gave hard drugs out on prescription. Almost overnight these sort of crimes stopped.

[Jeebo72]

On a positive note, a guy that i used to work with up in glasgow many moons ago, had his Escort RS2000 Mexico stolen. He got it back 8 years later fully restored to concours condition!

[Bagpuss]

What surprises me is they had to smash a window to get in.

[hyperD]

I still chuckle at the story of the bloke frying a car thief by plugging his car into the mains. While I don't condone such behaviour, I think using a Tesla coil would make a far more menacing deterrent.

[VectraMan]

Back when I lived in Stroud I had a crappy Astra that was always getting broken into. I had the lock replaced once, then didn't bother after that. But despite leaving it unlocked with an obviously already screwdriver'd lock, people would still come along and have another go at it. One time I parked in Gloucester, not only unlocked but with the now extremely damaged lock half hanging out the door, and somebody smashed the window.

At that point I didn't really care if they opened the door and went through the car (they wouldn't find anything, I always removed the stereo).

[Churchill]

I had a car broken into at the NCP round the corner from George Square in Glasgow.

Got to the car park ready to go home and was asked for my registration number by the attendant what my registration number was. I told him and he said "I've got some bad news for you, your car has been broken into!".

"Oh" says I, "Where the f**k were you when this happened?"

"There's no need to take that attitude!" says he - the car was 20 yards away from the kiosk!

A quick call to Autoglass for a temporary repair and then the attendant had the gall to charge me £12 to get my car out!

[MarillionFan]

When I was living in Bath I was at work when I received a call from the police to say my car had been stolen, trashed and then dumped.

So I got back from work and went to where I had parked the car. As I walked to where I had left my car I was surprised to see it was still there.

Someone had kniced the registration plates(that was it) and there on the front was a police sticker. I opened the car, looked around it and everything was still in it's place.

OK it was full of rubbish, food wrappers, paper, empty envelopes but thats how i'd left it and the bloody police thought some one had trashed it!!!

[hyperD]

There's nothing more heartbreaking and at the same time annoying to find out your car has been broken into or stolen.

I remember being at an old girlfriends place in Bournemouth (she used to live near a scummy estate) and one evening hearing the sound of a nice, throaty car roar off in the distance.

The next morning I found out that "nice, throaty car" had been my XR3i with the sports exhaust and modded engine.

Phoned the police and simply drove her car to the local estate where I found the XR3i sitting in the middle of the estate - it had been stripped. Annoyingly, I had a load of spare parts in the car: brakes, disks, clutch etc - all gone, including the windows and most of the upholstry.

I got in the car and it started fine, so I drove it out of the estate and then proceded to drive up the M3 back home. It was bloody freezing as I had no windows whatsoever and couldn't drive very fast as I felt like a WW1 biplane aviator.

Within 20 mins of driving I was suddenly pulled over by the police who demanded to know "why the f**k was I driving a car like this (assuming it was the state of it, rather than the actual model)" and all I could say was "well, er, it's, er, stolen officer". They switched to sarcy/aggressive mode and one and one of the guys went back to the police car, I assume to enter the details, as I was asked to exit the car. Next minute, he shouted, and both the coppers had jumped into the police car and shot off leaving me on the hard shoulder.

I stood there for 5 mins before getting back into the car and driving home.

Took alot of time and money to get all the parts to fix the car. Would have been cheaper to scrap the thing and do it through the insurance, but hey, I was younger and far more stupid than I am now.

[MarillionFan]

I remembered earlier to take the rubbish out (the binmen come tomorrow) and checked on the car while I was out the back - I hadn't used it since Saturday.

Some worthless scumbag has smashed the rear quarterlight, wound down the window, opened the lock (isn't central locking a blessing?), got in through the driver's door and been through the glove compartment, apparently in the belief that I'm not only such an incompetent navigator as to need a satnav but also such an imbecile as to leave it in there

FFS, didn't it occur to them that a twenty-one year old Ford Orion isn't the most likely car to contain anything valuable? A satnav would probably be worth more (in monetary terms) than the car

What really annoys me is that the only way the worthless scumbag could have got to the car would be because one of the neighbours left the huge wrought-iron gate unlocked. FFS people, there's a reason there's a big notice there warning you to always shut the gate: as it says in black and white, if you don't, you'll probably get burgled and/or have your car robbed

I can only hope that whoever keeps leaving the gate unlocked is the one to get burgled the next time they do it

Maybe it was one of your neighbours wot done it!

[threaded]

One place I used to live in the UK they put these big iron gates up at the ends of the alley.

Rather annoying, because the gate posts were so close together not many could use their garages any more, so had to park in the street, the dustbin men could not get their wagon up, so wouldn't collect the rubbish, and to cap it all the only people with a key were some local busy body who lived a few streets away, and was always out, and the prostitutes they were trying to stop.

So you had to ask a prostitute if they wouldn't mind opening the gates so you could use your own garage. All the while keeping an eye out for the unmarked police-car waiting to pounce.

Hey, but that's one of the lovely things about the UK I no longer miss.