Author Topic: I can't wait to leave the UK (Read 1144 times)

eagl · « **on:** November 25, 2005, 07:45:52 PM »

My house was robbed a month ago, and tonight at 1am I looked outside and saw a small commercial van marked "transco" casing my front yard. They're parked right off the driveway shining a light on the cars in front of my house, on the door, and on the side gates.

I'm a damned prisoner in this house. I can't leave 'cause criminals are staking out my house at 1am on Friday night. My house was broken into on a Friday, and now Fri nite it's being staked out and inspected. The cops told me tonight that transco is a local gas company, but what the hell are they doing investigating my property at 1am? Brits don't work at 1am. You're lucky to find anyone at work by 9am and they all leave at 1600. 1am... I simply don't believe that it could be a legitimate visit, at 1am in freezing rain. Especially on a Friday after being robbed on a Friday a month ago.

The cops can't even do anything because tonight (or was it last night?) a new law allowing alcohol to be served past 10 or 11 pm was came into effect, and the cops are pretty busy dealing with the people taking advantage of the new law to act even more anti-social than usual.

I can't wait to leave. I'm going to have to make my work schedule completely erratic to combat these thugs, and it's going to kill my productivity having to come in to work at 4am and leave at noon, or go to work late and come home late plus work weekends to make up for lost work time.

At least in Texas I could shoot the bastards if they come in while I'm home... Here, if they get in the house I'm practically obligated to offer them some tea and help them with their loot because if they injure themselves carrying off my stuff, I could face liability because criminals are humans too. Well, in TX, criminals in my house are the walking dead and I can't wait to get back there.

Nashwan · « **Reply #1 on:** November 25, 2005, 08:19:44 PM »

Quote

The cops told me tonight that transco is a local gas company, but what the hell are they doing investigating my property at 1am? Brits don't work at 1am.

They do if they're investigating a gas leak.

http://www.transco.co.uk/default.htm?safety/index/emergency.asp

Perhaps you could call and see if they sent an engineer out?

eagl · « **Reply #2 on:** November 25, 2005, 08:48:25 PM »

Hopefully the police will check into the gas leak angle. Strange that their gas leak investigation consisted of parking in front of my house and shining a light around my cars and doors though...

Torque · « **Reply #3 on:** November 25, 2005, 10:13:20 PM »

sorry, i just can't take your post seriously with that avatar.

Maverick · « **Reply #4 on:** November 25, 2005, 10:23:47 PM »

Last time I was on a gas leak situation, the investigation wasn't conducted inside a vehicle and by shining lights. Very few motorvehicles can have a natural gas leak as well. It's nice to see the apologists are out in force however.

SOB · « **Reply #5 on:** November 25, 2005, 10:54:29 PM »

He makes a perfectly logical suggestion, and now he's an apologist?

FUNKED1 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 25, 2005, 11:20:21 PM »

Damn shame you are over there protecting those people and they won't let you carry. Get back to the land of the free ASAP.

Dago · « **Reply #7 on:** November 25, 2005, 11:28:18 PM »

Deleted.

5- Flamebaiting, trolling, or posting to incite or annoy is not allowed.

WilldCrd · « **Reply #8 on:** November 26, 2005, 02:47:50 AM »

Well you could always go out and ask them. I mean Nobody in briton has guns not even regular cops right? whats the worst that could happen?

Disclaimer: This post is a sad attempt at sarcasim. its not meant to be serious

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #9 on:** November 26, 2005, 02:50:38 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by WilldCrd
Well you could always go out and ask them. I mean Nobody in briton has guns not even regular cops right? whats the worst that could happen?

[/SIZE]

This is true, handguns were recently banned in the UK, so now no criminals have them because they all turned them in or cannot purchse them over the counter at local gunstores.

beet1e · « **Reply #10 on:** November 26, 2005, 04:56:06 AM »

Eagl - weren't you the guy who was whining about English houses not having handles on the doors? If your house is like that, anyone could just walk in.

Quote

Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
This is true, handguns were recently banned in the UK

incorrect

rogerdee · « **Reply #11 on:** November 26, 2005, 05:01:22 AM »

only ones who have guns are the scum with no morals,thats why they just shot a unarmed ploicewomen dead last week.

ok so u got robbed so do many others,not everyone in the uk are usless theifing scum,and yes people do work at 1 am some ar even working at 5 am notwaiting to get out of bed to work in a nice warm office every day at 9 am.

there is crap everywhere in this world,least i got a better chance of not getting a gun shoved in my face walking to the drug store in england.

if u hate it that much ill come help u pack

Sparks · « **Reply #12 on:** November 26, 2005, 05:31:58 AM »

Eagl - 99% chance it was Transco looking for pipe routings. If they had an emergency call out they may have been looking for a place to dig a hole and your car may have been in a place they needed access to. As far as looking on the house - sometimes the marker boards for mains etc are nailed to walls (see the little blue and yellow signs on small concrete posts). It is highly unlikely that guys casing the house would be that obvious - using torches etc. You obviously didn't see them casing your house the first time ......

As far as burglary then yes you need to be careful now. They will tend to target a neighbourhood - we had it twice in the last 5 years or so - and it goes like this.
1. Case houses and do them over first time.
2. Wait 4-6 weeks for insurance claim to be paid and new stuff in - do house over again for new stuff.

Warning signs - unmarked panel vans parked on or close to the street with people doing nothing but who turn away if you walk past so you can't see their faces. Kids wandering up and down the street supposedly "lost". Tell your neighbours you've been done over.

As far a leaving goes - well I'm with you there guy and I'm a Brit. And apprently I'm not alone ....... From the Telegraph a few weeks ago:-
" .... Last year saw the highest net migration to the the UK on record, with an inflow of 223,000, some 72,000 more than the previous year, largely as a result of the expansion of the EU. The number of British citizens leaving to live elsewhere increased to 208,000 - the highest annual outflow on record.[/i]"

As soon as I get an opportunity I'm off permanently.

Furball · « **Reply #13 on:** November 26, 2005, 07:15:28 AM »

well said eagl, im british and i can sympathise with what you are saying. never had our house robbed (touch wood) but i have had my car broken into. we have a stone drive so i am paranoid about hearing anyone walking over it at night time now, ready to jump out with a golf club.

shoulda simply asked them out of the window what they were doing, or taken the reg and phoned the company the next day. i am pretty sure there would be an innocent explanation, i dont think they would have used their work van unless it had been stolen

eagl · « **Reply #14 on:** November 26, 2005, 08:10:46 AM »

If I could have gone out armed, I would have gone up to the vehicle to see what they were doing. As it was, the potential risk of getting beaten by thugs at 1am in the rain (rain and 1am = no witnesses) was higher than my desire to investigate. Hence the call to the police instead.

The doors have had a little reinforcing since the last burglary and I haven't replaced anything that was stolen except for my wife's laptop, so if they return they're hopefully going to have a harder time getting in and once they enter, they'll see the empty spot where the plasma tv used to be and hopefully realize we didn't replace anything.