Somebody hates me or I am a very unlucky man

[MarcBC]

Some of you may remember my car was twice attacked with paint stripper in the last 6 months. As a result I now keep the car in a garage overnight, apart from last night. []

This was parked in the same road as for the paint stripper events:

Another trip to BodyTechnics and an emptying of the wallet. I am beginning to find this all rather tiresome.

 

[Andrew M Bonner]

[FONT=arial unicode ms"]Commiserations Marc,
[FONT=arial unicode ms"]
[FONT=arial unicode ms"]I follow your posts on this subject recently with more than a moderate amount of disappointment at those who have caused damage and sympathy over the resultant effects.
[FONT=arial unicode ms"]
[FONT=arial unicode ms"]Hope you get her back good as new soon.

 

[tscaptain]

Jeez Marc, you are an unlucky chap. Looks like a tow ball did that? You should be able to get a discount at the bodyshop as a regular customer..........

 

[Black80XSA]

Call ChipsAway , that may well pop back out when heated with the hot air gun.

 

[topgear253]

This happened to me when I had an Audi TT a few years back. What really gets me is that the people who do this generally think that you are a capatalist pig, it never occurs to them that you might be a nice chap who has worked bloody hard to get it. Maybe they should try doing the same.

 

[garyw]

Mark., I really can feel for you, it must seem never ending []

I hope at least you do get to enjoy the car every so often...
I'd agree with David to get chips away to look at it prior to the bodyshop..

garyw

 

[EHE]

Agree with Davids comments about Chipsaway, I have a similar ding in the plastic rear bumper of my company car.

Chipsaway quoted £85 +VAT to heat, pop out as much as poss, fill and respray. Going in 2morrow

 

[MarcBC]

I will look at chipsaway, however, there is a (brakefluid / paint stripper) mark on the rear bumper that was missed off in the last respray as well as a very minor ding on the corner by the righthand edge of the numberplate.

I intend to get all three done. Not knowing how much space there is inside of the bumper, I had a good feel around and it feels okay, but, I still want it looked at. There was a mild burning smell on my drive this morning. It was only for a few minutes and may not have been from my car but nevertheless perhaps worth a proper look.

 

[okellyt]

Marc

Sorry to see you are still having problems. I wonder how they would feel with the same done back to them with whatever it is they value highly.

Hope chips away can solve the problem - they sorted a nasty side dent out for me, given as a free present for parking in a car park. Did a great job.

 

[juliany27]

Marc

This is so sad and, perhaps, a reflection on the 'politics' of envy.

I am assuming that all of these incidents have been reported to the police and no one has been caught.

However, I would strongly advise you to have a long word with your local senior police officer and ask him to arrange for police officers and PCSOs to keep an eye open near your propoerty, or consider spending some money on installing a cctv camera to detect and prevent crime rather than to gain revenue.

 

[MarcBC]

Good thought Julian, I have not reported this latest incident but will do.

The only thing that came out of my reporting the last two was a call from the victim support unit to ask if I needed counceling! []

 

[garyw]

ORIGINAL: MarcBC
The only thing that came out of my reporting the last two was a call from the victim support unit to ask if I needed counceling! []

If it was my third incident, then I'd need it!! [:'(]
I'd also like some packs of the marked water (as thats quite useful [])

garyw

 

[Senna]

Mark,
Really sorry to hear about this. I feel for you.
Had a Cossie in the late eighties and it was vandalised twice where we lived at the old place.
Not sure what the answer is. These morons should be punished big time for what they do to people and their property.
Unfortunately the only time anyone ever gets sent down these days in this country is if an 80 year old owes council tax.

Hard up pensioners who've paid tax all their lives can get sent straight to jail but the jobless thug who just stole and smashed up his 17th joy ride having been chased by police helicopters, several police cars, and wasted the time of dozens of police officers at a cost of many thousands of pounds to the tax payer usually only gets points on a licence he doesn't have and gets away with at best a few hours of community service. The whole thing is a disgrace!

 

[Rodney Naghar]

ORIGINAL: juliany27

Marc

This is so sad and, perhaps, a reflection on the 'politics' of envy.

I am assuming that all of these incidents have been reported to the police and no one has been caught.

However, I would strongly advise you to have a long word with your local senior police officer and ask him to arrange for police officers and PCSOs to keep an eye open near your propoerty, or consider spending some money on installing a cctv camera to detect and prevent crime rather than to gain revenue.

Julian, you often advise people to report incidents to the police. Is that because you are pointing out that we are within our rights to do so, therefore we should as a matter of course, or because you actually think that would achieve anything? In my opinion, they couldn't care less and sitting and waiting in a police station just to be able to fill out forms is a complete waste of time.[&o]

 

[MarcBC]

I think Julian is right. Whilst I appreciate the police are wrongly deployed / under manned, if there is an area where repeated crime is happening (and this occasion may well just be bad luck) then a focus can be achieved.

Re form filling, I had to do none the last time, just a call during which "my particulars were taken down" [].

 

[jasonp]

so sorry to hear of your problems, i would go along with other replys you have had and have a cc camera installed, me thinks it happen to often to be bad luck, i hope karma kicks in and whatever these sad jealous scumbags value recieves the same treatment that you been given, best fot the future jason p

 

[juliany27]

ORIGINAL: Rodney Naghar
Julian, you often advise people to report incidents to the police. Is that because you are pointing out that we are within our rights to do so, therefore we should as a matter of course, or because you actually think that would achieve anything? In my opinion, they couldn't care less and sitting and waiting in a police station just to be able to fill out forms is a complete waste of time.[&o]

Rodney

One should always report crime to the police. One should not take the law into one's own hands. It is the job of the police job to detect and prevent crime and it just might be that they have a suspect or someone who has admitted [yes, it does happen] criminal damge to "a car" without being able to identify the particular car.

I also think that reporting a crime increases the likelihood of action - a sufficient number of reports of a particular crime has been known to result in positive action!

Form filling, for police officers and defence solicitors, I hasten to add, is the fault of the system, the Civil Servants with their desire for power and this Government's need to record and control everything - but that is an argument for another day [a General Election?].

Anyway, I hope that whoever damaged Marc's car is caught - and that the same happens to the b*st*rd who scratched along the side of my car in Norfolk [don't go near the car park where the windsurfers meet in Snettisham, folks].

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Marc I'm very sorry to hear of yet more vandalism to your car, good luck with catching them, and I hope Chipsaway get you a good result, I've known them to be very good.

Julian, I understand your view, it's just in my experience I've never had the slightest bit of interest from the police when I've reported a crime of any nature, be it burglary, car vandalism or anything else.

The last two examples I can remember...

A property of mine was burgled, they smashed through a window and stole all the kitchen appliances. The neighbour told me she thought it was likely to be her boyfriend whom I've met and is known to be a drug dealer. She was a solicitor (nice bf!) I told the police, they advised me to change the locks. When I twice asked them the relevance of changing the locks, they told me if I don't like their advice then I shouldn't bother asking. No investigations were made, no one turned up. I did get a nice incident number.

My previous car was parked on a road. I came back to see another car parked up against it in a tiny spot - clearly the person was in a rush to park, leaving scratches to my rear bumper. I took picutres showing his plate, the scratches,his car actually still in contact with mine, the road etc over 10 colour pictures. I left a note on his windscreen with my details. He didn't get in touch. I informed the police, I filled in some forms, and a few weeks later was told they didn't have enough evidence as there were no eye witnesses to the actual incident. I managed to get his address, sent him a stern letter, and he paid up in less than a week. It cost me less than £6 to do all of that. It probably cost the police more than 20 times that in processing the form and replying back to me.

I could go on.

I'm not saying don't contact the police, my question was really have I been unlucky with the police, or in your experience Julian do they actually bother to find these criminals (meaning actually investigating not just having someone come in and admit to it)?

Rant over, sorry Marc if I've hijacked this thread.