ParaHandy
Active member
Just before the New Year, I collected No 2 offspring from London and supervised the chaining of his motor bike in his back garden. Two chains and a disc-brake lock seemed OTT but one can never be too security conscious these days ...
By Tuesday, it had gone ... no trace of it, not even a pile of iron filings ...
A stolen bike report was made to the Met who consulted their data and to our relief they knew of its whereabouts. They had been called to a "bike anti-social behaviour" incident not far away and although failing to apprehend anyone, they did note the registration number of the bikes which had been left behind ....
The PC advised that the bike had yet to be dusted (for fingerprints) and "would sir like to collect it or have it recovered" and "if not collected immediately, it might get stolen again". We opted for recovery, principally to permit the Met to do their forensic stuff, but omitted to ask and neither was it volunteered where it could be recovered from and, at what cost.
We assumed, logically, that the Met would wish the bike to be close at hand for the work they required to do but no. That afternoon the bike was recovered to South Mimms, some 30 miles away, not even in the Met Area, and it would cost £137 to release it ... "the insurance will pay, sir" ...
The bike was viewed at South Mimms this morning. It was a wreck, a total write-off, and would cost a further £35 to scrap it and that was duly done. However, I asked who would be liable for the subsequent rental charge (£12 per day) until the Met (or Herts police) came round to fingerprint it. "Depends how busy they are (so we'll get rid of it anyway)"
So, the Met transported a pile of junk some 30 miles out of London ostensibly to enable fingerprinting which they had no intention of doing. But, the crime statistics notched up in their favour .... bike stolen, bike found and all trace removed from London except, that is, the third party damage done to the local park and the f*cking oik, who stole it, is still free.
There is no moral to this story other than that all three locks had round-key U-bolt type locks and there is a site, apparently, on the internet which tells you how to easily open them and therefore one should eschew attaching anything valuable to them. Hindsight is wonderful ...
Completely by coincidence, on New Year's eve, we reported to the police an incident involving an oik causing trouble. In a short while, a veritable posse of police + dogs + helicopter descended in search of this oik whom "we want to bang up". It transpired that the oik's family were known troublemakers who had been evicted from their previous home in London and re-housed up here.
So there you go .... how the government are keeping London's streets (presumably including where T Bliar lives as he thinks things are getting better) free of crime ...
Happy New Year to youse a' !!
Ps, you have to laugh ..... I went to buy new locks for my own bike today and there were two identical Thatcham approved locks but in different packaging because one had had been packed 6 months earlier than the other. The earlier offered this advice: "a bike is stolen every 14 minutes" whilst the other advised "a bike is stolen every 12 minutes".
By Tuesday, it had gone ... no trace of it, not even a pile of iron filings ...
A stolen bike report was made to the Met who consulted their data and to our relief they knew of its whereabouts. They had been called to a "bike anti-social behaviour" incident not far away and although failing to apprehend anyone, they did note the registration number of the bikes which had been left behind ....
The PC advised that the bike had yet to be dusted (for fingerprints) and "would sir like to collect it or have it recovered" and "if not collected immediately, it might get stolen again". We opted for recovery, principally to permit the Met to do their forensic stuff, but omitted to ask and neither was it volunteered where it could be recovered from and, at what cost.
We assumed, logically, that the Met would wish the bike to be close at hand for the work they required to do but no. That afternoon the bike was recovered to South Mimms, some 30 miles away, not even in the Met Area, and it would cost £137 to release it ... "the insurance will pay, sir" ...
The bike was viewed at South Mimms this morning. It was a wreck, a total write-off, and would cost a further £35 to scrap it and that was duly done. However, I asked who would be liable for the subsequent rental charge (£12 per day) until the Met (or Herts police) came round to fingerprint it. "Depends how busy they are (so we'll get rid of it anyway)"
So, the Met transported a pile of junk some 30 miles out of London ostensibly to enable fingerprinting which they had no intention of doing. But, the crime statistics notched up in their favour .... bike stolen, bike found and all trace removed from London except, that is, the third party damage done to the local park and the f*cking oik, who stole it, is still free.
There is no moral to this story other than that all three locks had round-key U-bolt type locks and there is a site, apparently, on the internet which tells you how to easily open them and therefore one should eschew attaching anything valuable to them. Hindsight is wonderful ...
Completely by coincidence, on New Year's eve, we reported to the police an incident involving an oik causing trouble. In a short while, a veritable posse of police + dogs + helicopter descended in search of this oik whom "we want to bang up". It transpired that the oik's family were known troublemakers who had been evicted from their previous home in London and re-housed up here.
So there you go .... how the government are keeping London's streets (presumably including where T Bliar lives as he thinks things are getting better) free of crime ...
Happy New Year to youse a' !!
Ps, you have to laugh ..... I went to buy new locks for my own bike today and there were two identical Thatcham approved locks but in different packaging because one had had been packed 6 months earlier than the other. The earlier offered this advice: "a bike is stolen every 14 minutes" whilst the other advised "a bike is stolen every 12 minutes".
