More thieving

oGaryo said:
someone you'd nicked in your past profession you mentioned, now on the outside, bored and messing with your mind for a giggle or perceived payback for your part in getting them locked up
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Might be but.... I once walked into a slightly hostile DHSS hotel in Central London and from the bar at the side of reception, a voice shouted out 'Hey, it's Mr G......" Couldn't see anyone I recognise so ignored it. The voice called out 'He doesn't recognise me" Still couldn't see anyone I knew 'He doesn't remember he nicked me" (Mutterings in the background from other punters) 'He doesn't remember I got be best result ever from the Judge' (muffled cheers from punters) 'He still doesn't remember me, what kind of a cop is he?' And so on for a little while until I realised it was a guy I had nicked some 10 years earlier for stealing about £50k in a Lump Fraud for which he got - wait for it - 4 months imprisonment. Judge said 'Everyone likes to avoid paying tax'; Prosecution said 'M'Lud, he wasn't avoiding paying his tax, he was deducting income tax from his sub-contract labour and keeping it for himself'. Judge obviously thought that was a technicality (we never got the £50k back - beer, women and a Merc). This guy was pleased to see me. Most never harboured a grudge.
 
Sounds like the events of the Blackwater last year as previously mentioned. Some of the reported losses there were really strange also like food, bedding, clothing and drink. Some suggestions that it was someone living rough and making do as they went. Perhaps they have moved from Blackwater to Mersea.

Not sure where your mooring is, but if well out of the way then not many 'eyes' to witness their darstedly deed.

Every sympathy and if I should ever find out who does such things then I may have to use all 'reasonable force' to restrain them, pending the arrival of the BIB. One things for sure they would not be in a position to steal again.
 
UncleAlbert said:
Sounds like the events of the Blackwater last year as previously mentioned. Some of the reported losses there were really strange also like food, bedding, clothing and drink. Some suggestions that it was someone living rough and making do as they went. Perhaps they have moved from Blackwater to Mersea.

Not sure where your mooring is, but if well out of the way then not many 'eyes' to witness their darstedly deed.

Every sympathy and if I should ever find out who does such things then I may have to use all 'reasonable force' to restrain them, pending the arrival of the BIB. One things for sure they would not be in a position to steal again.
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Fine sentiments, but not sure that it's such a good idea.
I caught a couple of youths breaking into moored boats at dawn two years ago. The police were called and an area car eventually turned up.
In the meantime I realised that I was alone with two hostile lads in a remote area, so I took a photo and they made off.
People at the time told me that there was nothing much else I could have realistically done. I suppose I could have got into trouble for photographing minors.
Some people seem to think that unattended boats are fair game or even common property, so it's not really a crime.
Still waiting for a follow up call from the Police or Crime Stoppers.
 
DanTribe said:
Fine sentiments, but not sure that it's such a good idea.

In the meantime I realised that I was alone with two hostile lads in a remote area, so I took a photo and they made off.
.
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I understand what you are saying but I felt better for indicating what I would like to do to someone. In the event of a situation who knows what might occur depending upon the assessment of the situation and the amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Anything from running away to ....................???????????
 
UncleAlbert said:
I understand what you are saying but I felt better for indicating what I would like to do to someone. In the event of a situation who knows what might occur depending upon the assessment of the situation and the amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Anything from running away to ....................???????????
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That's exactly what happened, I saw the lads using a stolen dinghy and breaking into moored boats, the adrenaline kicked in and I rowed after and caught them.
Then reality dawned, what am I going to do now? Not many options really.
 
DanTribe said:
That's exactly what happened, I saw the lads using a stolen dinghy and breaking into moored boats, the adrenaline kicked in and I rowed after and caught them.
Then reality dawned, what am I going to do now? Not many options really.
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Difficult situation. The reality is that nowadays you need to think about your situation. It wasn't always thus. There was a remarkable case - which you won't believe - of youths running amok in Burnt Oak Broadway, Edgware in the 1970's and one PC arrested the group - 80 odd yobs, all by himself. Quite how he did it, no one really knows and he himself didn't. He just shouted up then to line up against the wall and they did and remained there even when a few reinforcements turned up and two vans started conveying them to the nick. They all went to Court (which shows how old the tale is) ~Would not happen today; in fact H & S legislation would require the Duty Officer to hold back officers until there were sufficient to deal with the situation.

Enough of the past. Dan did right and I don't know of any law which prevents a photo being taken. Yes sure people will whine but it wouldn't be wrong in my view. Thumping them is counter effective, satisfying though it may be. I did a large Child Abuse investigation in the 1980's and we nicked 20 paedophiles. The first and most prolific was a horrid guy. Just horrid. Believe me if you all met him, you would be repulsed. And he had a mate who was worse. He actually knew it would help him if he could get police officers to assault him. If you looked at his record he had done this in the past and you could see where - I won't say deals had been done - but concessions had probably been made to stop a complaint. When we had him in the nick, I got the team together for 5 minutes (we had caught him in the act!) and told the team that much though we wanted to give him a thump, we were going to turn our anger into making sure he had no escape from a perfectly put together case. It worked. The team were brilliant and we went on to nick the other 19 of whom 18 were convicted. The trial against the first one took 3 months at the Old Bailey, he was convicted of every count on the indictment (31 if my memory is right) and he got 18 years. So it worked. Had one of the chaps given him a dig, it would have been raised at the trial and would have mudded the waters given the jury the opportunity to think that we had not acted professionally and who knows.

My experience is that any PC will do his or her utmost to catch a crook in the act (post event investigation is a different kettle of fish which is poorly understood today and poorly resourced) and you will get a good response if you can get good clear information to them as quickly as possible.

I shall now be proved wrong of course by experiences of forum members - but I hope not.....

As regards the living rough comment - food untouched and the complete undisturbed nature of the boat tells against this. Why not take the sheet, pillows and duvet, the wine and a few cans? No, logic tells me someone wanted a bunk cushion.
 
Although it's possible that some homeless person may be responsible, maybe occupying an abandoned war pill box somewhere in the area, I'd be more inclined to consider another boat being kitted out or replacing old kit. The lack of any essentials being taken would steer me away from the homeless line, they need food, drink and clothing more than a bed.
Agree with TG about how to respond to witnessed incidents too, when I was in the police I did some pretty stupid things which I maybe should have thought through first. Like chasing a gang of men through a market town in the early hours after an alarm was triggered at a jewelers. Caught one and handcuffed him to a lamp post before going after the others. They must have thought I had loads of backup because they ran until they found a car to hide in. They all got caught but if they had turned against me I wouldn't have had a chance.
Apparently the whole force was in stitches of laughter when I put out that one of them was now getting cosy with a lamp post, just these days I probably wouldn't have got away with it
Watch from a safe distance and call for help, rather than pile in and risk being attacked. Keep your presence quiet so they don't know you're there, and with luck plod might be able to catch them in the act.

Thought about making a funny comment about the mattress but the thought of someone building a boat from scratch, and having to start somewhere ......
 
Sixpence said:
Although it's possible that some homeless person may be responsible, maybe occupying an abandoned war pill box somewhere in the area, I'd be more inclined to consider another boat being kitted out or replacing old kit. The lack of any essentials being taken would steer me away from the homeless line, they need food, drink and clothing more than a bed.
Agree with TG about how to respond to witnessed incidents too, when I was in the police I did some pretty stupid things which I maybe should have thought through first. Like chasing a gang of men through a market town in the early hours after an alarm was triggered at a jewelers. Caught one and handcuffed him to a lamp post before going after the others. They must have thought I had loads of backup because they ran until they found a car to hide in. They all got caught but if they had turned against me I wouldn't have had a chance.
Apparently the whole force was in stitches of laughter when I put out that one of them was now getting cosy with a lamp post, just these days I probably wouldn't have got away with it
Watch from a safe distance and call for help, rather than pile in and risk being attacked. Keep your presence quiet so they don't know you're there, and with luck plod might be able to catch them in the act.

Thought about making a funny comment about the mattress but the thought of someone building a boat from scratch, and having to start somewhere ......
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many new production boats have the kitchen & bathrooms & lounge designed first,then a hull is place around them
 
sailorman said:
many new production boats have the kitchen & bathrooms & lounge designed first,then a hull is place around them
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Never knew that, but then I don't think I'll ever be in line to go that route. Something to do with never liking the thought of buying a new motor or boat when HMG take so much of the purchase price in tax, which devalues the thing straight away. But then I'm tight like that
 
tillergirl said:
You got it Jerry.

The starboard bunk mattress has been taken!



It's going to be a real b*gg*r to match the existing fabric; in fact impossible. The company that supplied them does not exist anymore.

The whole thing is bizarre. They have gone down two lines of moorings of 90 boats and picked me. 'They' boltcropped the hasp and released the padlock putting it carefully on the coachroof under the sprayhood alongside the hatch. Then they have removed the two hatchboards and entered, finding the small torch in clips just to the right of the hatch. Nothing is disturbed down below, just the mattress missing. 2 pairs of bins left, radio, GPS, Navtex even a copy of CTTE(!) left untouched. Bottles of wine untouched. Then they have returned into the cockpit and obviously lifted each of the four cockpit locker lids; in one the tool kit is open; maybe a pair of pliers missing (not sure), in another the bosun's box is open but nothing obviously missing (perhaps looking for a key before they banjoed (technical term) the padlock hasp) and in the third removed the ensign and staff which was lying on top of two mooring warps which they took (one completely unused!). They replaced the hatchboards correctly (can be a fiddle if they got them the wrong way round but they didn't), pulled the hatch over and placed the ensign and staff neatly on top.

So why would you pick TG to steal a bunk mattress?
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You mentioned the Marconi theft - you realise that the thief broke into a cruising 36ft cat and stole the seat cushions... leaving everything else tidy.

Do we have a fetish thief on the East Coast?
 
Sorry to hear of the break in, would feel pretty upset if it was me. It does seem very strange, the replacing of the washboards etc, no booze or food taken. The similarities with the Marconi incident seem strong, in which case it won't have been a targeted job, just a random act by a troubled person who's ended up causing you immense trouble.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
Sorry to hear of the break in, would feel pretty upset if it was me. It does seem very strange, the replacing of the washboards etc, no booze or food taken. The similarities with the Marconi incident seem strong, in which case it won't have been a targeted job, just a random act by a troubled person who's ended up causing you immense trouble.
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Here is the image of the Marconi thief


Unfortunately there is not enough meat in the size of the image to get anything better. When I say 'targeted', I don't necessary mean that it was personal against me; rather that the boat met whatever criteria the thief had and he specifically wanted a bunk cushion. Not sure bunk cushion count as a fetish! If they do, life is definitely getting more boring than when I was young......

Frankly I refuse to get upset. TG is undamaged and I can replace the bunk cushion. I went to enough scenes of crime where people had grounds for distress to realise that in the scheme of things this is not the end of the world. I would have been upset if TG was damaged and that does call into question to point of locking up a boat. I guess it deters someone who is not prepared to force entry but if someone is determined to get in and prepared to rip something apart, I would rather they didn't cause damage. After all the repair would be more costly and difficult than replacing what had been stolen.

Slightly amusing moment yesterday after GK1 and I picked up the mooring after a pleasant sail. It started to spit with rain so we retreated below for a cup of tea and I said to GK 'sit down'. 'On what Grand Dad? he said!'
 
I suppose there was a lot of debate at the time about the possible boat in that image, but my immediate thought on looking at it today is that it's a dark-coloured Anderson with an o/b on the back.
Plenty of those around, aren't there...
 
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