A Warning From A Resident

April

22

20 comments

Sent to us by email overnight:

I wonder if you could put a warning on the website. There was a white pick up doing the rounds here this afternoon offering gardening/tree cutting. Three men in it although only one got out, Irish accent. He was very very keen for me to leave the house and come down to the front gate to look at a tree he said was dangerous. I said I wasn’t interested in his services thank you, but he was getting extremely insistent, tried to?stick his foot in the door and even though I only had it half open was trying to peer round me all the time.?I’d shut the dog away and in the end I asked him if I let her out did he think he could make the truck before she got him, and that made him go. He didn’t fancy meeting my nice big German Shepherd. I did write down the reg no of the truck, and I’m 99% certain it’s the same number that has been mentioned on the RAG facebook page as being around just before there were burglaries. Don’t see any point in phoning the Police as they won’t do anything anyway, it isn’t a crime to door knock for business. But if you could warn people that they are around again it would be good

About the author, admin

  • There is a general cynicism about reporting things to the Police round here Jim. When my neighbour was burgled it took them over two hours to respond to her call, despite her being an OAP living on her own, and about 5 days to get round to asking the neighbours if they saw or heard anything. My neighbour over the road rang them 10 days ago when she saw two men busy wiping down a car inside and out just past her drive. They threw a dirty sweatshirt into the hedge. The lady she spoke to at the Police Station asked her to retrieve that and said someone would contact her to collect it – since then, nothing. She rang them today and they have no record even of her initial call. She said they talked to her as though she were a paranoid old biddy.

    If you aren’t setting off a speed camera it seems they have no interest. Reporting suspicious behaviour either doesn’t get to the right person or is just plain not recorded it seems. I’ve reported it to our Neighbourhood Watch person and made sure all the immediate neighbours know.

  • So, that is another ” overwhelming the infrastructure ” item – for the public debate agenda !!!!!!! – sounds like it barely exists already.
    CHRIS – what timescale for a decision on that proposal ? , I have ( via my current
    dialogue ) suggested to Cllr Hudson that his Planning & Transportation Dept might
    improve their public image if they did so .

    By the way I have had a general response from ECC Highways , so I now have a dialogue going with them too – re: Rawreth Lane / Hambro Corner & London Road.

  • Bruce, you must’nt do that, you could be violating someone’s human rights……what would all the lefties say….Certain minorities are above the law, you know that.

  • If admin are happy for it to be publicised then I’m more than happy to do so. Perhaps this can be confirmed please.

    Interestingly enough I found this morning that someone tried to break into one of my garden sheds overnight. Broken window, two broken padlocks, but the third padlock held and they didn’t succeed and didn’t get anything. I have reported to the Police now, who gave me a crime reference number and said someone will contact me in “due course” probably 5/10 days or thereabouts. In the meantime perhaps I could alert the neighbours.

  • Jim @ 4 – sorry, what decision are you talking about here?

    Christine @ 7. Sorry I would be very wary of publishing a registration number here for all sorts of legal issues. Not a question of anyones’s special human rights but basic stuff like libel and incitement. Otherwise the local papers would publish this kind of stuff every day.

    Oz @8 I didn’t watch it (I don’t watch many party political broadcasts) but funnily enough I think the UKIP are the party that would do most harm to the UK if they got close to power. To begin with it would probably bring about the end of the UK – with Scotland and Wales doing their own thing. As for England, if we end up out of the EU we’d lose a lot of jobs , and end up as a poorer country , largely under the economic sway of the likes of China. But nice to see you back on onlineFOCUS anyway!

  • I once considered putting photos or number plates of cars in which people were using mobile phones into the public domain. Mini roundabout by Hambro Parade 8.30ish when kids off to school. Warned not to by police officer. Rights work both ways. Do we have the right to protect ourselves and property?

  • Chris,
    Once Scotland and Wales realise that it’s the Southeast and the Midlands that power the UK they will soon come running back when they run out of money.

  • Bruce,
    Sadly not, EU Human Rights are there to protect criminals, wasters and general rubbish, not law abiding folks like yourself. Vote UKIP and regain our rights, trust me, this Euro nonsense is a real vote loser….

  • Always assuming of course that we will have them back Oz. We might find we’ve saved so much money without them we don’t want them any more.

    Chris, without going into the political beliefs of any particular party or individuals, I think just about everyone except the leaders of the three main parties accepts that the three main parties are completely out of touch with popular opinion on Europe whereas Mr Farrage is very in touch with it. You hear a lot of sweeping statements, but what we actually need is a proper grown up debate on Europe, Immigration, how much influence Europe actually does have on our laws, our parliament etc. Until we have that with both sides putting forward proper provable facts so people can look clearly at both sides of the argument and make an informed decision. That seems to be exactly what the ruling elite don’t want us to do, and it is allowing UKIP to take centre stage because it taps into fears, stories put forward by certain popular newspapers etc. I think it is a big mistake to deny us this debate, but it seems to be yet another example of “they know best” and we should shut up and do as we are told.

  • Christine, there is a lot of talking on the subject but you are right , not a proper debate. Though we aren’t going to get a debate in papers like the Express and Sun, who are only too keen to publish scare stories, for example the one about the EU could close thousands of MOT test centres, which the Sun eventually apologised for .
    If someone reads the Mail or Sun or Express, they should have a look occasionally at the europa blog at http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/ which checks a lot of claims in the papers.

    And for a reasonably balanced blog, try http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/fact-checking-clegg-v-farage-eu-debate.html

  • CHRIS @9 –
    I was referring to your ( seconded by JM) Council Chamber proposal for a public debate on the local Infrastruture ……will we get one?.

    As for the EU – the bigger the organisation the less efficient it can be , and the EU
    costs an absolute fortune , propped up by the ‘wealthier ‘ countries ( it keeps expanding and absorbing poorer countries ) the costs grow and grow.
    We were originally conned into it as a trade agreement ( Common Market ) then
    progressively bedded in while we were’nt looking – I have never seen figures that
    compare what we put in verses what we get out to substantiate the pro – claims.

    As Christine says both sides talk in generalities , where are the hard facts ? ,which
    must include the indirect costs of the load that free immigration brings with it ( NHS /
    Benefits / Crime etc ; ) .

    This country has a good track record of absorbing genuine war refugees over the last
    century but that was hundreds maybe thousands but the EU has created economic migration in terms of at least hundreds of thousands if not millions – we are being
    overwhelmed – FACT.

  • Re the attempted break in to my shed. It might interest you to know that I had a phone call from the Police, not a visit, not a visit to any of my neighbours to see if they saw/heard anything, a phone call. Essentially they will not be doing anything, nothing taken, small amount of damage only, will keep it on their records to see if anything similar comes up in the area. Can you imagine how bad it is going to be when we have all the new houses as well. We never see a policeman round here anyway, not unless it’s a car with sirens etc. on passing through. It really makes you feel quite nervous, knowing that there are no police around, if you do happen to ring in an emergency they won’t respond for some time and probably won’t carry out much of an investigation either. No wonder “Street Angel” type groups are springing up in various parts of the country.

  • Next door didn’t hear or see anything but has seen the same car and man hanging around a lot lately. She did tell the police apparently, but they basically said it wasn’t a crime to park and just watch the world go by, which is true. Everyone else has a restricted sight line to us, trees, hedges, set too far back etc. so didn’t see anything although several have seen the same pick up cruising around a lot lately. Alarm companies are doing good business round our way at the moment.

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