Boat broken into and 3 others also in the same Creek

Thieves will choose the easiest target unless it’s a prize gem worth hassle. In the charming streets of East London where others think your pride and joy is theirs we are advised to spend 10% of the vehicles worth on security and also to keep it covered up.
In the case of replacement scooter it has an 18mm chain, 18mm shackle U lock, bolt thing, disc lock and tracker now plus cover!

that lot was more like 40% of the replacements worth!

Edit: Links
Sold Secure Approved and Police Approved Ground Anchors, Security Chains & more

Smart GPS Vehicle Tracking Systems from Rewire Security

DATATOOL - Motorcycle Alarms, Tracking, Immobilisers, Accessories
 
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I’ve not been in the UK for some time but was always amazed at the poor quality of cctv. I worked at LGW a good few years back and the quality of the images there was excellent. I obviously won’t go into detail but I dont see why this isn’t in the streets.

PW
 
PilotWolf said:
I’ve not been in the UK for some time but was always amazed at the poor quality of cctv. I worked at LGW a good few years back and the quality of the images there was excellent. I obviously won’t go into detail but I dont see why this isn’t in the streets.

PW
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Totally agree. Several years back I commuted from Kelvedon to London, and was relieved to see CCTV installed in the station contract. About 3 months later my car had the window smashed and an empty satnav case nicked. I reported to the British Transport police as required, and was flabbergasted to discover that the installed CCTV "was not of evidential quality". So why bother to install????
 
I would not bother hoping for police involvement. A couple of years ago a couple of our club members saw some yobs breaking into a boat on a mooring. off Stone SC. They launched a RIB & apprehended them in the dinghy they were using. They recovered the stolen gear & photo'd the 3 culprits. They phoned the police to say they had the boat in the river, could they come & get them. Police said "no" so they had to let them go. They photo'd the car they were using. The avon dinghy they were using was placed behind the club shed. Our harbour master asked the police what to do with it & if they would take it for the lost & found. It still lays rotting in the same place. Police said "do what we like with it."
Lots of suggestions of what our members should have done , but any attempt to punish the culprits might have ended up in prosecution of our club members. Personally I think that they should have been towed to the other side of the Blackwater & given a 25 mile walk back via Maldon. But it is easy after the event.
But the whole incident shows how fruitless it is relying on the police
 
We had our van stolen 2 months ago . We have not had a boat broken into but have had house broken into for, years after it affected our sleep patterns . I do hope your thriving gits are caught.
On the replacement van I have made a few changes , the seat now slides forward to the column and a padlock goes undr the seat to lock it there very difficult to access to cut or break the padlock crooklock on wheel , seat back has a hardened steel chain locked through the steel frame of the seat back the chain drops through the wheel, the seat back is folded to the wheel, and the chain locks to the steering column . Im adding a heavy locked plate over the ingnition steering lock.
Just for good measure I'm in the process of building a long steel bolt linked to a raspberry pie and relay with a 30 second delay linked to the ignition . The 10mm bolt screws up through the drivers seat 2/3 of the way back from the front of the seat it will take 4seconds to come up 2 inches through the seat bottom I can change both the speed and the distance turned by the bolt . The thing is do I sharpen the bolt or not? 2 prongs ? A small remote will be needed to turn the pie off .
 
Daydream believer said:
I would not bother hoping for police involvement. A couple of years ago a couple of our club members saw some yobs breaking into a boat on a mooring. off Stone SC. They launched a RIB & apprehended them in the dinghy they were using. They recovered the stolen gear & photo'd the 3 culprits. They phoned the police to say they had the boat in the river, could they come & get them. Police said "no" so they had to let them go. They photo'd the car they were using. The avon dinghy they were using was placed behind the club shed. Our harbour master asked the police what to do with it & if they would take it for the lost & found. It still lays rotting in the same place. Police said "do what we like with it."
Lots of suggestions of what our members should have done , but any attempt to punish the culprits might have ended up in prosecution of our club members. Personally I think that they should have been towed to the other side of the Blackwater & given a 25 mile walk back via Maldon. But it is easy after the event.
But the whole incident shows how fruitless it is relying on the police
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2 month s ago it took 4 and a 1/2 days to get a crime number for the insurance from SYPOLICE they refused the CCTV of the event and said post the CCTV footage to the insurance as proof of theft.
During the conversations in the phone with the police I was told by communications and designated officer were working from home during covid and no further investigation would take place . Since the theft there have been at least a dozen more transits stolen within 2 or 3 miles of us 2 modified to campers in just one night 2 days ago. The police have given up completely.
 
Fergie

I was tempted to write to explain the problem with resources in the Police. My motivation was because I am certain individual police officers would leap at the first opportunity to act but for the utterly impossible task of doing everything and the way demands are prioritised. Just think that police would be deployed (and the Coastguard, and the RNLI) if an idiot got stranded in their car when getting flooded trying to drive through the high water at the Strood at Mersea (the causeway) rather than following up a report of crime about property.

Just one example of resource priortisation: I have had three telephone calls from the police. On each occasion, inter alia, I was very specificly asked if it was a 'house boat'. I told the truth it isn't. In the last conversation I did say that I knew a little about that sort of business. The words weren't actually said but the message was clear. If it had been a house boat, I would have had forensic attention (i.e. a Scene of Crime Officer or whatever they are called now). It isn't so I was not a priority (I emphasise the words were not said) and of course I had insurance so I wasn't going to lose much.

But I decided not to write about the problem because this is a forum about 'boating' and it might be boring.
 
Daydream believer said:
Lots of suggestions of what our members should have done , but any attempt to punish the culprits might have ended up in prosecution of our club members.
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That's so typical of cops in my experience. It's so much easier to go for the victims who are standing in front of them, or who they know where they live/business is, while they know the garbage will just disappear.

I'm convinced it's written into their manual.

I have a few regrets in life and one of them is not dealing with such a situation myself but instead "doing the right thing" and trusting in and depending on them. It's certainly gotten far, far worse as to what [few] crimes they will actually investigate that I have to wonder what they do.

The more cynical policy was reducing crime figures ... by shutting down all the local police stations, making it impossible to actually report a crime.

Now you know Daydream, I very much hope you guys get a second chance.
 
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Was it really a 500hp outboard? I only ask as accuracy is important in these things and 500hp outboards are mostly development stage engines or one-off, highly tuned race engines. Not normally something to be found in a muddy Essex creek.
 
fergie_mac66 said:
We had our van stolen 2 months ago . We have not had a boat broken into but have had house broken into for, years after it affected our sleep patterns . I do hope your thriving gits are caught.
On the replacement van I have made a few changes , the seat now slides forward to the column and a padlock goes undr the seat to lock it there very difficult to access to cut or break the padlock crooklock on wheel , seat back has a hardened steel chain locked through the steel frame of the seat back the chain drops through the wheel, the seat back is folded to the wheel, and the chain locks to the steering column . Im adding a heavy locked plate over the ingnition steering lock.
Just for good measure I'm in the process of building a long steel bolt linked to a raspberry pie and relay with a 30 second delay linked to the ignition . The 10mm bolt screws up through the drivers seat 2/3 of the way back from the front of the seat it will take 4seconds to come up 2 inches through the seat bottom I can change both the speed and the distance turned by the bolt . The thing is do I sharpen the bolt or not? 2 prongs ? A small remote will be needed to turn the pie off .
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Yep well are you sure that you are not into some sado practices by any chance, as it all comes accross as most a painfull experience for you, oopps sorry, for them ?

But agree securing ones Cars, Vans and Boats one really needs to think of the non obvious ways like making it undriveable due to the seat anchors etc
 
Might offer a personal experience a few years ago when we had a couple decend upon our boating scene and set about aquiring boats by deception plus other ways; when the persons were confronted by a few of us, they phoned the 999 centre and reported that they were being threatened with violence by others; result was that the local Police appeared very quickly, with Blue Lights on and apprehended for questioning those who were trying to regain items from this couple; resulted in a quiet word with our lads and nothing done with the couple, who were left to continue along their merry ways;

So them (couple) were dealt with using other methods of persuasion which eventually worked.

But the Police took no actions whatever against the couple even though aquiring by deception was blatant obvious.

So seems that to get any Police action one has to press the right buttons both on telephone calls and any On Line reporting otherwise I assume that the events did not happen at all = not a satisfactory sittuation to me.

Guess that not before long we will see the emergence of Private Security Companies both on land and on water in order to disuade criminal activity ?
 
PilotWolf said:
I’ve not been in the UK for some time but was always amazed at the poor quality of cctv. I worked at LGW a good few years back and the quality of the images there was excellent. I obviously won’t go into detail but I dont see why this isn’t in the streets.

PW
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Yew quite agree with comment about the apparent poor quality of Recorded CCTV syastems; I put it down to lack of technical appreciation by both installers and customers; guessing that these days installations are by Electricians, Sparks, Builders etc etc as the CCTV system are sometimes advertised as easy peasy to install, which they might well be, but not well understood the photgraphy technical side, in fact quite well misunderstood;

For instance, ever watched a CCTV in a shop or office etc where the Camera faces directly at the entry door, from inside the building; the worst possible place to install a camera; caus an auto camera will stop down to adjust to the bright lighting from outside the Shop /Offices so making anybody entering the building just a dark blury image = totally usleless for identification purposes.

To get a good image, thats well lit and sharp one needs sufficiant lighting on the subject lack of lighting ON the subject will just obtain a dark blury image, which is what one usually sees on posted - have you seen this man posters ?

Anybody who is profficient at Photography will know how to place a camera effectively; but your Electrician or Builder may not be a photographer at all ?
 
I'm late to this thread, but just wanted to add my horror at hearing the news. Rotten thing to happen, and even more to think that they might be boaters themselves who could do this to another boater. What rubbish they are.
 
Capt Popeye said:
Yew quite agree with comment about the apparent poor quality of Recorded CCTV syastems; I put it down to lack of technical appreciation by both installers and customers; guessing that these days installations are by Electricians, Sparks, Builders etc etc as the CCTV system are sometimes advertised as easy peasy to install, which they might well be, but not well understood the photgraphy technical side, in fact quite well misunderstood;

For instance, ever watched a CCTV in a shop or office etc where the Camera faces directly at the entry door, from inside the building; the worst possible place to install a camera; caus an auto camera will stop down to adjust to the bright lighting from outside the Shop /Offices so making anybody entering the building just a dark blury image = totally usleless for identification purposes.

To get a good image, thats well lit and sharp one needs sufficiant lighting on the subject lack of lighting ON the subject will just obtain a dark blury image, which is what one usually sees on posted - have you seen this man posters ?

Anybody who is profficient at Photography will know how to place a camera effectively; but your Electrician or Builder may not be a photographer at all ?
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I know nothing about installations or photography that was the ex’s area of expertise.

I just know that when I worked there even all those years ago the quality was excellent and the images sharp - we rarely brought a newspaper.

That’s why never understood that the police/council cameras had such poor quality.

As an aside I brought a UK girlfriend here years ago and she was ‘aww they have height charts at the door’ whilst in McDonalds or similar. No dear they’re not for the kids use!

W.
 
PilotWolf said:
I know nothing about installations or photography that was the ex’s area of expertise.

I just know that when I worked there even all those years ago the quality was excellent and the images sharp - we rarely brought a newspaper.

That’s why never understood that the police/council cameras had such poor quality.

As an aside I brought a UK girlfriend here years ago and she was ‘aww they have height charts at the door’ whilst in McDonalds or similar. No dear they’re not for the kids use!

W.
Click to expand...
 
Daydream believer said:
I would not bother hoping for police involvement. A couple of years ago a couple of our club members saw some yobs breaking into a boat on a mooring. off Stone SC. They launched a RIB & apprehended them in the dinghy they were using. They recovered the stolen gear & photo'd the 3 culprits. They phoned the police to say they had the boat in the river, could they come & get them. Police said "no" so they had to let them go. They photo'd the car they were using. The avon dinghy they were using was placed behind the club shed. Our harbour master asked the police what to do with it & if they would take it for the lost & found. It still lays rotting in the same place. Police said "do what we like with it."
Lots of suggestions of what our members should have done , but any attempt to punish the culprits might have ended up in prosecution of our club members. Personally I think that they should have been towed to the other side of the Blackwater & given a 25 mile walk back via Maldon. But it is easy after the event.
But the whole incident shows how fruitless it is relying on the police
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You should have told the police that they had a little bit of pot with them , or a small pen knife , that would have brought them running ?
 
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