Oh! NO!

[byron]

Oh! No! not Narrow boats again. The other day we went down towards Cleve and my wife noticed a friend's riverside plot's hut door was open.
Naturally we called in. The place had been broken into. We phoned him and he came and checked. The place had been ransacked and everything of value taken. He contacted other owners who came and checked their plots and found they too had been raided. Boats broken into and stuff gone from there too.
Now! Guess where suspicion lies.... Yes! On a Narrowboat that was seen mooring there one evening. Unfortunately no one took the boat's name.
The stuff stolen is too weighty to have been taken by any other way than by water. Those who know those moorings will know that taking anything to and from those plots is a major task involving negotiating a tight path and a steep almost vertical bank.
Once again the river Pikeys strike and the reflection falls on the respectable Narrowboaters who would be just as horrified as people with real boats.

 

[Brayman]

Hopefully it was reported to both the police and he EA?
The EA are supposedly in discussion with the Police about re-introducing police river patrols if increased crime is seen to be in evidence.
(increased crime doesn't relate to increased licence fees by the way! - apparently that isn't a crime)

There must be something that can be done to clamp down on the pikey element. The EA inspectors seem loathe to approach them on a regular basis.

 

[byron]

[ QUOTE ]
Hopefully it was reported to both the police and he EA?
The EA are supposedly in discussion with the Police about re-introducing police river patrols if increased crime is seen to be in evidence.
(increased crime doesn't relate to increased licence fees by the way! - apparently that isn't a crime)

There must be something that can be done to clamp down on the pikey element. The EA inspectors seem loathe to approach them on a regular basis.

[/ QUOTE ]
It was reported to the Geheime Staatspolizei and they actually bothered to come and take prints but we are talking about a few grands worth of stuff. Whether he told the Envag, I don't know.
I will say this. I have reason to suspect that some of these narrowboats are not licenced and move at night thus avoiding lock keepers and patrols.

 

[DogsBody]

[ QUOTE ]

I will say this. I have reason to suspect that some of these narrowboats are not licenced and move at night thus avoiding lock keepers and patrols.

[/ QUOTE ]

One of the reasons I think the EA should go with my idea of issuing everyone with a swipe card with their licence.

If going through an unmanned lock, you'd swipe the card to get the electrics on, no card=no lock use. They'd then know how many used the locks out of hours and be checking for licences automatically.

Of course to work, they'd have to put out of hours electric and card readers at all locks (while stopping manual winding ability) and they couldn't afford to do that without a big increase in licence fees. Oh wait, we've just had that haven't we...

Darren.

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

There is suspicion that some river pikey types are responsible for the recent spate of thefts from MTYC which has now got as far as a tender with serious hardened motor bike securing chains being swiped.

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

I had my 17ft Old Town Open Canoe stolen from the roof of my canal boat, along with my closed cockpit kevlar canadian slalom boat. The open boat I could understand, but my slalom boat?