Boat burglars teddington/Hampton wick

Actionmat

Actionmat

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I went to check on my boat (last checkd 24hrs ago) and some b@stard has smashed the cabin door in and turned everything upside down and inside out. I had my dog with me and it was dark with glass all over the place, so I've phoned the police and will leave it until daylight before taking pictures. What a start to the new year, I think I'd rather have my house burgled, my boat means far more to me.

I'm at Broom Park. I could be the only one but I'd advise anyone in the area to check their boat.
 
I reckon the river. There's a walkway along the side, but it was the opposite side of the tarpaulin(on the river side)that was lifted off.
 
Sorry to hear that news. Can appreciate exactly how you feel at moment and if its any consolation at all, many of us have experienced the anger and disbelief that goes with this.
My boat was initially broken into and then unfortunately raided again a few weeks later, this time they set it adrift as well.
The boat ended up stranded on the shore line just below Rochester Bridge.
It was spotted and made fast by our local harbourmaster patrol boat.
Recovering it around midnight on a cold winter evening was not fun, only real damage, was they had smashed patio door glass with hammer to gain access.the inside of boat was ransacked.
Had replaced the glass by end of following day and tidied up the mess by weekend.
Got on with my boating .
Easy to take it as personal but your boat was in the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong people about.
Never did discover who did it and it is easy to blame "the usual" suspects but,whoever it was must have had a boat which rules out a lot of folks.
Tidy the old girl up and take the opportunity to clear out some of that stuff that gets tucked into nooks and crannies.
Get on with your boating and screw the buggas :)
 
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Thanks for the kind words, theses scumbags couldn't possibly effect my enjoyment of the thames it will just make me more vigilant.

The Police came to the boat at 11am to take a statement. While there we saw that about a third of the boats have been broken into! I have contacted the owner of the moorings as the owners need to be alerted. The Police can't act until they hear from the individual owners.
I'd just got back home where Forensics called to ask if I could come back and let a fingerprint officer on, so I rushed back to the boat and found that the river had flooded the moorings and boats that hadn't been damaged by burglars were now being damaged by river management. All within 40mins, which makes a daily visit seem a bit pointless. I would have liked a text alert from the EA.
 
For a bundle of years now I have never locked my boat, I kid you not, something like 40 years. Twice has my boat been entered and the most I have lost is a bottle of Booze a little untidiness and deliberately left out coins have gone. A pal of mine always had a full bottle of Scotch on offer except it contained urine.
The main damage is their breaking in not what is taken.
 
Mat

I have explained on your other thread how it works. River management is not to blame.

It really is down to boat owners to make sure their boat is secure , you can subscribe to the warning / alert service and if you did , you would have had a text or email or even a fax. High tides this week are well publicised as are the high river flows.

It just isn't realistic to expect the agency to track everyone down.
 
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teddington_lock said:
Mat

I have explained on your other thread how it works. River management is not to blame.

It really is down to boat owners to make sure their boat is secure , you can subscribe to the warning / alert service and if you did , you would have had a text or email or even a fax. High tides this week are well publicised as are the high river flows.

It just isn't realistic to expect the agency to track everyone down.
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It is the owners responsibility to look after his vessel. when we had the East Coast surge 4 weeks ago, i drove 140 miles round trip to be with my boat. I took her out onto the Orwell rather than have damage through the piles being too short. the marina did extend them pqd that night
 
teddington_lock said:
Mat

I have explained on your other thread how it works. River management is not to blame.

It really is down to boat owners to make sure their boat is secure , you can subscribe to the warning / alert service and if you did , you would have had a text or email or even a fax. High tides this week are well publicised as are the high river flows.

It just isn't realistic to expect the agency to track everyone down.
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My apologies, my wife registered using her email address and pointed me to the warning sent this morning shortly after I posted, so well done EA and my mistake. I'm surprised there aren't more live webcams covering the Thames, I found two for Maidenhead and Henley; is anyone aware of any others closer to Kingston?
 
I've not used that one, but I have one of these
http://www.conrad-electronic.co.uk/...witch-And-Monitoring-Module-With-GPS-Function

You can set it up to monitor temperature, and battery voltage and text you if it goes outside your set parameters.
There is a GPS function that sends an alarm if your boat moves outside a set area.
I believe that you can add smoke and bugler alarm functions to it but I don't have those (a project for a later date), the systems sends an alarm if it sees a change of voltage in the circuit, so I guess you could wire it up to a standard alarm switch on the door (but don't take my word for that) You can download a manual from that site if you want to know more.

The only downside i have found so far is that my PAYG sim needs to be put in a phone periodically to make a call (on the lookout for a sim with no time limits on the credit)
 
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Sim expiry

I believe tesco mobile credit lasts one year (although their website says it never expires),

I used to use Tmobile, which had a 6 month expiry. But it only needed a chargeable event, so I could log in to the account on my computer and send a web text every 6 months. The 10p charge kept the credit alive.
 
Last summer we were moored opposite the weir at Teddington and awoke the following morning to find bottles of booze removed from the cockpit lockers and left on the cockpit deck close to the transom door. It transpires at least three boats were targetted but the two thieves were disturbed by one owner as they opened his patio door. Rumour has it the thieves came from the hulks at the Kingston end of the moorings. We were also unfortunate to moor in Kingston close to John Lewis's earlier in the week and woken up at 2.00am by three youths jumping around on the flybridge. In jim jams I confronted them with a " what the f...k do you think you are doing" as another group joined the three. I asked the cocky one holding his bottle of Sprite!! Do you enjoy swimming? to which he replied to the affirmative. At this point I felt a little outnumbered and suggested they move which thankfully they did. The next two hours were spent on watch expecting them to return. This year we will moor on the Hampton Wick side which is where we usually moor a rivers width away from the bars and clubs.
 
Rumour has it the thieves came from the hulks at the Kingston end of the moorings.
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Easy to blame the "usual suspects" perhaps just as likely to be local landbased pre teen scrotes living within walking distance of river.
Even delinquent morons tend not poo immediately on their doorstep ?
 
The break ins were river based. I saw another owner who was affected and like me his carpets were covered in mud, so was the side of his boat, but nothing on the bow which is the only way to gain access without a boat. My engine covers were off, which is an odd thing for teenagers to do and the obvious place to store a generator. One boat had his fire extinguishers stolen, I lost my lifejackets, tools and a sat nav. With river conditions as they are at the moment, they couldn't have come from far away.
 
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