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Where am I living, Baghdad?!
Jan. 25th, 2006 08:32 amBad shit.
Last night I went out to the car - as per my last post - to pick up some milk and other stuff. When I reached my car I thought, odd, the window's down. Opened car, tried to wind window up. No dice. Had a look round car.
Somebody had broken into it.
There'd been about six home-copied CDs in the glove box - gone. The fascia for the (decidedly temperamental) stereo/CD player - gone. Half a pack of fags and three or four almost-dead lighters under the dash - gone.
And that was it. OK I thought, scrape the goddamn frost off the car. I need food and stuff and fuck the CDs.
Well, that was when I discovered that the door lock had been ripped out the passenger door, the winding mechanism for the window was totally banjoed and - presumably in an attempt to hotwire the car - the cover had been ripped off the ignition leaving all the wires hanging. That's that, undriveable. No connection between key and engine.
I sat there and swore for a few minutes.
Well, I managed to wedge the window up, went round and locked the car. Looked like one had dived in, forcing the window to unlock the door, then unlocked the passenger door from the inside (while idiot co-scuzz was discovering that the door lock didn't, actually, work from the outside, which is why I guess it got ripped out in frustration) and also unlocked rear drivers side door. They had a good rifle through the contents, found nothing of value but nicked it anyway, and then tried to hotwire the car. My guess is that had they succeeded my motor would now be a blackened shell on the side of the road somewhere - in all probability this road, because getting her to stay running in the cold is not always easy.
Anyway, I reckon they were disturbed, hence motor still sitting there.
So in I trailed, rang the police, rang the insurance company. So now I'm waiting for SOCO (Scene Of Crime Officer) to get in touch with me, and an insurance assessor.
First, I loathe dealing with the police. They are, in my opinion, little more than a bunch of uniformed thugs. And when it comes to 'petty' crime like this, they're just not interested. So that'll be fun.
As for the insurance guy, well, my car is sixteen years old. To fix it will need extensive repairs to the plastic under the dash, and lots of electrical work. Oh, and two new doors. I doubt very much if it'll be worth it - so that's another write-off then. The thing is, scruffy and dog-eared as that motor is it's cost us nothing to run for the last three years, sailed through its MOTs and had another good few years in it. And it pisses me off that some little shit trashed it because there was nothing in there worth stealing.
Die, fucker.
Oh, and whilst having my morning smoke I overheard a neighbour (not a particularly nice guy, but eh - everybody has to live somewhere) talking to another neighbour. Now, I saw a big van marked 'Fire Victim Support Unit' parked outside our place the other night, with uniformed chaps trotting to and from this neighbour's house. I assumed it had something to do with his car being torched back in October.
Apparently not - seems like someone shoved some accelerant and a match through his letterbox....
Must replace my smoke alarms. *Sigh*
Yup, the neighbours are a fightin' and a feudin' again, and god help those of us caught in the middle. Where am I living? Oxfordshire?
Or Baghdad?
Last night I went out to the car - as per my last post - to pick up some milk and other stuff. When I reached my car I thought, odd, the window's down. Opened car, tried to wind window up. No dice. Had a look round car.
Somebody had broken into it.
There'd been about six home-copied CDs in the glove box - gone. The fascia for the (decidedly temperamental) stereo/CD player - gone. Half a pack of fags and three or four almost-dead lighters under the dash - gone.
And that was it. OK I thought, scrape the goddamn frost off the car. I need food and stuff and fuck the CDs.
Well, that was when I discovered that the door lock had been ripped out the passenger door, the winding mechanism for the window was totally banjoed and - presumably in an attempt to hotwire the car - the cover had been ripped off the ignition leaving all the wires hanging. That's that, undriveable. No connection between key and engine.
I sat there and swore for a few minutes.
Well, I managed to wedge the window up, went round and locked the car. Looked like one had dived in, forcing the window to unlock the door, then unlocked the passenger door from the inside (while idiot co-scuzz was discovering that the door lock didn't, actually, work from the outside, which is why I guess it got ripped out in frustration) and also unlocked rear drivers side door. They had a good rifle through the contents, found nothing of value but nicked it anyway, and then tried to hotwire the car. My guess is that had they succeeded my motor would now be a blackened shell on the side of the road somewhere - in all probability this road, because getting her to stay running in the cold is not always easy.
Anyway, I reckon they were disturbed, hence motor still sitting there.
So in I trailed, rang the police, rang the insurance company. So now I'm waiting for SOCO (Scene Of Crime Officer) to get in touch with me, and an insurance assessor.
First, I loathe dealing with the police. They are, in my opinion, little more than a bunch of uniformed thugs. And when it comes to 'petty' crime like this, they're just not interested. So that'll be fun.
As for the insurance guy, well, my car is sixteen years old. To fix it will need extensive repairs to the plastic under the dash, and lots of electrical work. Oh, and two new doors. I doubt very much if it'll be worth it - so that's another write-off then. The thing is, scruffy and dog-eared as that motor is it's cost us nothing to run for the last three years, sailed through its MOTs and had another good few years in it. And it pisses me off that some little shit trashed it because there was nothing in there worth stealing.
Die, fucker.
Oh, and whilst having my morning smoke I overheard a neighbour (not a particularly nice guy, but eh - everybody has to live somewhere) talking to another neighbour. Now, I saw a big van marked 'Fire Victim Support Unit' parked outside our place the other night, with uniformed chaps trotting to and from this neighbour's house. I assumed it had something to do with his car being torched back in October.
Apparently not - seems like someone shoved some accelerant and a match through his letterbox....
Must replace my smoke alarms. *Sigh*
Yup, the neighbours are a fightin' and a feudin' again, and god help those of us caught in the middle. Where am I living? Oxfordshire?
Or Baghdad?
