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        General >> Off Topic Subjects >> A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
        
(Message started by: Baz on Aug 1^st, 2006, 10:51pm)

Title: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Baz on Aug 1^st, 2006, 10:51pm

Apolgies, this goes on a bit!

Picture the scene.........Saturday morning; 11:25 am, my missus decides to go round to the shops with my little lad while I am left at home to carry on fitting a new double glazed bay window. Things are good and I am looking forward to jumping in the car in the early hours of Sunday to head down for the festivities on Scorpio Island as a suprise for ChrisB.

Suddenly the whole day and in fact the whole weekend comes crashing down when Karen comes rusing back into the house saying that someone has hit her nice new 55 plate Megane Cabriolet which was parked outside the house. I rush outside to be greeted by this..........
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a369/bazunitec2/DSCF9381Small.jpg

Sometime during the night some lowlife had hit her car and driven off without stopping. We live on the entrance to a cul-de-sac so only 1 way in and 1 way out. I also have cameras on my house but they were off because of the works I am doing so it seemed like it was another case of claiming on our insurance and us footing the bill.

Because it appeared that the paint on the Megane had white on it, I guessed it may have been a taxi that has been responsible and got Kaz to go round all the other houses in the Close to see if anyone had a cab in the early hours. Next doors did but after phoning numerous taxi firms, I got nowhere.

Just then I remembered that there was a guy up the road with a very basic camera on his house and got Kaz to go an ask him if it had a video attached. Sure enough it did but it was pretty poor quality and he only used one tape on LP over and over again so it was pretty bad! After a few hours, he came to our house to say that it wasn't a taxi but a silver small car that was responsible because you could hear the crash and then the car zooms past the camera and out of the close. After watching the film, I identified a silver 206 as the car. Off I went round the close and the first guy I asked said his daughters boyfriend had a silver 206 and that he would ask him. It was now about 1:30 in the afternoon. Anyway he came round to my house to say he had spoken to him and that he wasn't to blame and he wasn't there etc. I could only leave it at that but on Sunday I went back round to his house and asked my neighbour to get the lad to bring the 206 so I could have a look at it. He turned up at about 3pm and I looked at the car quite closely. There was a new wing on the drivers side; the side that would have hit Kaz's car but it was the wrong shade of silver and the paint was too old to be a new repair job. The lad said he had had it done ages ago so I could only leave it at that because I had no proof to the contrary.

This morning, I am still convinced that he is to blame but can't prove it so I decided to ring all the body shops in Warrington to see if anyone had been in with a silver 206 on Saturday or Monday with front drivers wing damage. After about 10 calls; BINGO! a garage in town told me a young lad with dark hair had been in on Saturday at about 10-10:30 am (before we had even discovered the damage) and asked if they could repair the damage to his front wing as it was his mums car and was panicking a fair bit. They said it would need a new wing and to go to the local panel shop to get one and they would spray it up for him.

Belive it or not, the local panel shop had a 206 wing in that had been sold before, sprayed silver and brought back with a mark on and they had put it back on the shelf just in case!! It was the wrong shade but the lad said it was fine and spoke to the guy at the body shop to tell him he didn't need the spray job doing. I toddled over to the panel shop and got a description of the lad as well as a copy of the credit card stub he paid for the wing with!!
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a369/bazunitec2/DSCF9390Small.jpg

Armed with all this new info, I went back to the Police who ..................didn't want to know!! as they needed to see the car hitting my car on video with the reg number showing! Anyway, I decided to call the young lads bluff and got my neighbour to tell him that I knew he was responsible, where he had been to get the thing repaired, where he bought the wing, the credit card number he paid with and said if he doesn't come round tonight we would take all the evidence to the police for them to deal with.

He has just left now!! He came round with my neighbour, admitted everything and apologised profusely and of course offered to pay. He is 17 and passed his test 4 months ago and was indeed driving his mums car! He was absolutely gobsmacked that I had sussed him especially with what I had found out in 2 days! He has offered to pay out of his own pocket because he is on his mums insurance and he has still got to go home and tell her what he has done. He thought he had got away with it and would have done if it wasn't for ~~those pesky kids~~ some grainy footage on a video tape and the determination that I wasn't going to spend £400.00 of my holiday money on something that wasn't my fault.

I never even hit him, however I did explain that my car is normally parked where Karens was and if he had hit the Scorpio, I would have absolutely leathered him!!!

A good result I think and if you are still reading this; I hope you think so too. Just like Columbo always went back for a few more questions, "there was something I didn't quite understand sir!!"

Baz

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by bizzay1 on Aug 1^st, 2006, 11:11pm

well done Baz, have you got a dirty mac ??

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Baz on Aug 1^st, 2006, 11:15pm

Funny you should ask!!

http://www.canalgimi.com/spip/IMG/jpg/columbo.jpg

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Highlander on Aug 1^st, 2006, 11:21pm

Nice one Baz, glad to see someone catch these people now and again!!

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by jonnycab on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 1:16am

Another nice one Baz...........A regular Sherlock Holmes 8)

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Simmo on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 6:22am

Baz, I've often said you should be Home Secretary.....now I know you should!!. Why did the Police need to see the incident?? a forensic paint match from the old wing coupled with the garage details would have been more than enough ..... no wonder people like this get away with things. Well done.

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Octavian_P on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 7:45am

Nice going Baz, i wish there was something to be done the same with my scorp, i allways find small dents and scratches on it...... @

But if it happens to catch someone .........well.....i don't want to be in his shoes >:(

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Baz on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 8:16am

Simmo....thank you for your kind words!! When I went to the police station yesterday afternoon, I saw a civilian from the help desk who I had been speaking to on the phone. He was an ex copper and an ex-private eye and he was saying that in his day on the force, they would have had the bloke down taking samples and photos and using the evidence I had got to nail the lad. Now however, it doesn't work like that and everything has to be done for them (his words not mine!!) He had taken advice from higher up who had told him the evidence was not good enough; witnesses, CCTV in the shop, credit card stub (god knows what else I needed!)

He also advised me not to tell the lad that I had proof of his credit card transaction because the shop wasn't really allowed to give me that because of the bloody data protection act and he could sue them!!!

I really do dispair of the Polices attitudes in this country. They just don't want to do anything to help the normal man in the street unless it means handing him a speeding ticket. They really need to be brought to book and get told to actually go and do some policing instead of driving round in ever increasingly expensive and garishly painted patrol cars and the real help to them would be to get rid of the human rights act so that I have my rights given back to me from the criminals who seem to have them all now

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Geoff_W on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 9:06am

Now Barry you know that if something is painted garishly enough even a real richardhead will behave when it looms into site on its once a year visit to your part of the world causing said richardhead to pause and weaken in their intent to be a bad boy......thus leading to the reducing crime statistics that the home office keep bragging about its called prevention......until it goes around the next corner ;)

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Daven on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 12:26pm

Good for you Baz!

It's like a two edged sword isn't it - the more hit and runs that go undetected the more the scumbags know they will get away with it. The more hit and runs the less the police want to know because it takes up to much time!

Where does it stop - the more burglaries the less the Police will investigate? Afterall the insurance will pay won't they :-/

Think we have proved that being lenient and stopping disipline doesn't work. Stop this social worker attitude and start teaching manners and morels is what I say!! >:(

Dave

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by wayne on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 1:35pm

Well done to you Baz. Of course if you HAD hit him, thered've been four cars and a SWAT team in attendance before he got up off the floor! It sounds very amicable for saying we are talking of a lying, devious, conniving b*****d.
May I ask... Have you got the 400 notes yet?????????

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Baz on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 5:15pm

Ah....slight update on that one. Wife took the car to the local Renault dealer today for a proper estimate and he says it needs a new rear panel, new alloy wheel etc. Total cost has now risen to over a grand plus VAT.....isn't it reassuring we now know who did it??

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by David_South_West on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 7:03pm

Well done Baz..just shows determiation pays off.......while i think of it about 27 years ago someone did the same to my MGB roadster..the car involved was red or brown and could have been an Austin,Rover or Morris......could you look into it when you have a minute and let me know the driver concerned....
thanks

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by bootiful-scorpios on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 8:56pm

welldone baz dont let the littlesod get away with it ;)

have you still got that mac ?

if so i have a case for u to solve on thurs of last week late in the evening we had some thing stolen of our car !!!! >:( well not one but 4 >:( and they were chrome >:(!!!!! yes we had our 4 chrome dust caps nicked !!! lol,(the cheap skate who ever took them)

i can give you a clue and the lads from the site on how to spot them , they wont the same, 2 of them was from a diffrent packet and had 2 little groves in them all the way round !!
no serious now why do peo find enjoyment at takeing or damaging peos stuff ?

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Spannerdemon on Aug 2^nd, 2006, 10:04pm

Brilliant bit of sleuthing Baz!! Well done. Nice to see him caught, even though the police were about as much use as usual. Too much paperwork probably!!

Very similar thing happened to my wife's Ford XR2i a few years ago. About £450.00 worth of damage. Some evil little scroat took half the front wing off it, along with the front O/S headlight, bumper and damage to the bonnet etc. Despite the incident being witnessed by three people who also got the registration, the police were only interested in seeing my wife's tax, MOT and Insurance. They never bothered to follow it up.

I was determined that he wasn't getting away with it. she worked hard for the car, and was really upset by it.

I searched and searched, and found the toerags car in a nearby side road about 3 weeks later, and in the wee small hours when the moon was dim.........

I had a battered old 12 seater Series 3 Land Rover at the time, and I seemed to have a sudden problem with the steering ;) as I went down that road at about 40mph.. The sticky-outy chunk of 4" X 4" angle iron that had mysteriously attached itself to my front bumper seemed to scrape and grind against something in the dark!!! Funny. it had unbolted itself and disappeared an hour later!!!

Couldn't resist a little drive past the next day.........OH. WHAT a mess!! Revenge is Soooooooooooo sweet!!! ;D

Anyway, I know nothing Guv! :o

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by wayne on Sep 15^th, 2006, 4:51pm

Baz... How did it pan out in the end??? Did you get things sorted yet????

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Danny_R on Sep 15^th, 2006, 6:04pm

Hey nice one Baz,

How ironic! about 3 years ago when I was living in the UK I witnessed a Sainsbury’s truck pulling the huge trailers make a tight turn and the back corner peeled the side of a Renault Megan convertible from the front door all the way to the back. I made a note of the reg number of the truck as I watched it speed away. Got straight on the phone to the cops and told them what I’d just witnessed. They couldn't give a flying F***. They told me if I wanted to I could drive 10 miles to the police headquarters and fill out a form!!!! They just didn't give a rats!!!

You report a car stolen over here and within 2 minutes they have half the force out in patrol cars, helicopters, road blocks the works. Then if they catch you they throw you in jail for 2 years.

Well done Baz

Danny_R

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Baz on Sep 17^th, 2006, 5:59pm

A good way to deal with things I think Danny..... (Hope all is well with you and Mrs R!!)

All sorted thanks Wayne. The car was repaired while we were on holiday and ready when we got back. The lad was 17 and only recently passed his test and was driving his mums car. His dad paid all the damage costs on his credit card!!

Baz

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by wayne on Sep 17^th, 2006, 6:18pm

I'm really pleased you got a result! I had reservations about the youth financing £400 repairs, let alone £1400! Typically Dad had to bail him out the mire!
At least you got it sorted... Well done to your sir!!

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Baz on Sep 17^th, 2006, 6:30pm

well it was either that or I would have smacked him senseless and his fat dad too!!

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by cossie_al on Sep 17^th, 2006, 7:20pm

on 09/17/06 at 18:30:38, Baz wrote:

well it was either that or I would have smacked him senseless and his fat dad too!!

Thats the spirit Baz ;D ;D ;D
You ever considered running for prime minister mate 8)

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Simmo on Sep 17^th, 2006, 8:16pm

He can't. He's earmarked for Home Secretary !!!. ;) :D

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by Baz on Sep 17^th, 2006, 10:50pm

I would love too Al. Trouble is that the concept of justice is now a strange thing to most of the people that "run" the country. The Police don't understand it, judges don't understand it and most of all the government doesn't understand it. I just wish I could get onto one of those blog sites which occasionally bring up "stars" such as the 70 odd year old who gets thousands of hits a day on his.

People need to be told that what is happening in this country is not right. It isn't right to let people get away with even the smallest crimes because they go on to do bigger ones because they never got brought to book early enough.

It is everywhere and the criminals are getting more daring. Just this morning, around 11.00 my business partner took his little girl to the municipal golf course in Warrington to get her out of the house because his wife works nights at the local hospital. He parked his car on the car park in the closest place to the club house and where everyone goes onto the course. Off he went for an hour and a half; he gets back to find some toerag has bust the passenger lock on his car and nicked his travelpilot sat nav unit which I fitted last year for him.

No one saw a thing!! Broad daylight.

The Police? well he got a crime number "so you can claim on your insurance"

Not a mention from the Police of "Tell you what sir, seeing as you pay our wages and our over inflated pensions, we will actually come and finger print the car and maybe catch the person who has done this!!" To much like hard work and we can't free anyone up from coffe duty at the local petrol station.

I really do dispair

Title: Re: A Tale of Lies, Intrigue and Justice.
Post by jonnycab on Sep 17^th, 2006, 11:11pm

Maybe it's about time we were allowed to fit South African anti-theft systems in our cars.

I assume everyone knows what I'm talking about, but for those who dont....

If anyone tries to break into a car that is fitted with this particular anti-theft device, then they receive first degree burns to the shins. Basically, if you touch the car, it shoots out flames from the underneath 8) 8) 8)