Moved back to my parents for a week or two while I move house etc.  Somewhat predictably for the north east of england - some little runt just smashed through the bay window downstairs @ 5am, climbed in, knicked my car keys and drove off in my car before I could get down there.

Theyll have been after my dads golf GTi really (probably for the giant alloy wheels) and then ended up with my VW as a booby prize since the keys look the same.

More annoyingly my mobile was in there so there goes everyones numbers...

Frig.

I hate little sh*ts like that. Id love to catch one and beat them until they see stars but then Id end up in nick and theyd get off with nothing happening...

You should be able to get your numbers (recent calls anyway) from your phone bill. It wont be ideal but it gives you somewhere to start.

yeah it was a good thing I didnt catch him with hindsight.

The phone bill things actually a very good idea - I wouldnt have thought of getting numbers that way.  cheers

Someone told me to do that when I had my phone nicked, it is quite handy and a good way to use up that SMS allowance

A good reason not to leave valuables/keys on display on downstairs front rooms. The scrote would have scoped it out first and figured it was a lottery win.

Id be gutted if it was me, btw, sorry for your loss Steve.

Nimrod must be good advice because I said the exact same thing to steve on another forum, lol.

The lesson is never leave your keys anywhere, even in your house. Get yourself a key chain and fasten them to one of the belt loops on your trousers. OK its a little weight to carry, but it makes them far more difficult to steal.

I used to work with little B*stards like that (worked for NACRO) and you do tend to learn things you should never do.

Same with house keys.

And get your parents to fit a basic alarm system if they dont have one.

As they say you should not leave keys or anything on your windowsills and nothing on a table or chest that is near a letterbox

Quote from: SeriousThe lesson is never leave your keys anywhere, even in your house. Get yourself a key chain and fasten them to one of the belt loops on your trousers. OK its a little weight to carry, but it makes them far more difficult to steal.

Not just a little excessive, dont you think?

Its all locking the stable after the horse has bolted.

Depends, leaving your keys just lying there is an invitation for someone to nick them. I have seen peeps leave keys on tables which are very visible from a window.

At least getting it in now might mean he takes some notice. Hopefully he might get the car back in one piece and if he just continues leaving the keys lying around. Getting rid of that bad habit nailed is important.

Yeah be careful where you leave you keys.

Quote from: SeriousAt least getting it in now might mean he takes some notice. Hopefully he might get the car back in one piece and if he just continues leaving the keys lying around. Getting rid of that bad habit nailed is important.

In fairness though its not like they were on a window ledge...  the house and window he came through is 10-20 metres down our private gravel drive off a non thoroughfare road.  The photos were taken briefly after the event so its not exactly dark - he basically did this in broad daylight.

 

There are security lights (didnt trigger as it was daylight), the ground floor of the house is alarmed and we have a dog.  He had to go through a wooden window frame plus 2 panes of glass (part of a few hundred year old bay window) to reach them.  Then he had to go a metre or two into the house around an awkwardly placed dining table after waking up everyone in the house to get to them.

Dont get me wrong, I wish Id not left them in sight of the window but its kind of hard not to in detached houses with windows on all sides when someone is willing to come onto private property, etc.  Thats kind of how windows work.

He had to be on our land, inside the gates, pressed up against a window, willing to smash the glass set off the alarms and piss off the dog in a house full of people.  While I agree you shouldnt leave things on display theres a point at which you cant stop someone who is determined to take something.  Its not like this is a terraced street that everyone walks past and I left them lit up on a window ledge...



Hed sat and chisseled away the wood and putty from around the panes of glass even though my parents berdroom window was open 2 floors above and the shutters were closed on my bedroom window indicating I was in.  When hes tried to lift out the glass its cracked and everythings started going off and people waking up.  At that point he just smashed his way through the rest of the window, ran in and grabbed them.  He tried to use them on the GTi and then realised it was my car he had the keys for.  He then sped away at crazy speed with people chasing after him and shouting.  Note the rather sad looking dry patch on the drive where my car once lived lol.

The dog had gone mad 2 nights ago at around 3 am and the security lights had all sparked up around the back so theres a fairly high chance that the house was sized up 2 days ago.  On the drive is a high end fiesta (joy rider favourite in black, alloys etc), a big BMW, an old triumph classic sportscar, a new golf GTi (the police reckon he wanted this since its in black and has 19/20" alloys) and my VW Bora.  This guy seemed fairly committed to getting the keys.

What a wan*ker.

I have a big bat and a slicing device under my bed. If our alarm ever fires I am out of bed like a shot and on my way down armed to the teeth. One way or the other someone will get hurt, probably me when I trip over the top stair and fall to my doom.

At least they didnt do too much damage. Please tell me that your dog wasnt whimpering away in the corner ?!

at home I normally have a camera and can grab heavy things on the way but being in a strange house I couldnt take his picture or find anything to pick up fast.  The police did point out that he would have been in the car by that stage so would have probably just run me over or if I got there very fast he had been using either a knife or chisel to carve into the window frame - not getting to him in time might have been a good thing


Parents got back from Scotland late last night and somehow shut a combination of doors that stopped the dog from getting to the room he needed to be in.  As they got back late they didnt shut the curtains like they normally do and a few other random combinations that let this happen.  People keep saying it was just unlucky that the one night that they dont close the curtains, trap the dog out of that part of the house, etc is the night it happens.  I dont buy that personally - I just reckon that the fact the curtains were open made him choose that night.

It was definitely the car they wanted though as my wallet (with £100 in) was millimeters away from the keys and it was still there.  Just waiting for it to turn up abandoned or burnt out now.



Its the little annoying stuff like having to change the locks, and deal with planning councils.  The damage was minimal but the annoying part of living in a grade 1 and 2 listed house is every little thing is a p.i.t.a. to solve.  We cant for example just replace the window because the glass it uses is illegal to use now.  But we cant fit the legal stuff as it breaks the planning rules.  So we have to apply for planning permission to fix the window.  The car was stolen from someone elses address using the keys.  I had satnav and my mobile in the glovebox.  The car was bought for ~£7k a year ago since it was spotless and low mileage but the insurance company will probably pay around £3-4k for the average car price.  By the time youve paid £500 excess, the inevitable towing charge of a couple of hundred quid when it shows up abandoned in a car park, the time off work, transport arrangements and things it wont be enough to get another car.  Just dumb stuff like that really.

He is an irksome young chap...

Smile to yourself that the wa*ker tried the keys in the GTI and had to settle for your car!  

You live in a nice house, have a fleet of cars and will no doubt have nice posessions; unfortunately, makes you a target for all those cnuts who want to take for free.  Really hacks me off!!!

Sorry for your loss, although am sure you will get something nice back by way of insurance.

EDIT: Just a suggestion; would be tempted to put some kind of lockable/alarmable electric gate.  Would prevent cars being nicked and also stop vans parking in drive to loot your house; means theives have to carry the stuff further .. may be an idea.

hehe yeah, driving away in a 1.6 bora as a joy rider or a steal to order car thief  will have done his street cred no favours

planning permission forbids us to change the gate in any way.  Its mad really.  It will be closed in future at night - lesson learnt the hard way so take note peeps  - would hate this to happen to any of you lot.

Theres a homebrew CCTV being arranged as we speak and the sensors in that room have been moved to detect people on the other side of the window now  The alarms are wired into the police so they were here within a 6 minutes.  Theres just not much you can do tbh.  I kind of have little faith in many of the people of the north east so just expect this to happen now and again.  Its one of the reasons Im leaving and doubt parents will be far behind.  Up here you stand out and are a target.  In Yorkshire/Nottingham youre just the norm.  In the south youre poor.

Was just suprised how many risks this guy took to get the car.  If things had gone slightly differently for him then hed have been forked.  I often dont park my car on that drive so hed have found himself with keys to a car he couldnt find and two blokes coming after him