Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: eagl on November 25, 2005, 07:45:52 PM
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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.
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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?
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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...
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sorry, i just can't take your post seriously with that avatar.
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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.
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He makes a perfectly logical suggestion, and now he's an apologist?
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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.
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Deleted.
5- Flamebaiting, trolling, or posting to incite or annoy is not allowed.
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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
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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.
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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.
Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
This is true, handguns were recently banned in the UK
incorrect
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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
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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.
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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 ;)
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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.
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Originally posted by Sparks
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. [/B]
Out go the genuine British, in come the scum.
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Strange ... I had the feeling it was the british scum that were invading us ...
:p
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Originally posted by straffo
Strange ... I had the feeling it was the british scum that were invading us ...
:p
Better them than your neighbors to the east, eh.. ;)
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They come too !
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Hey Eagl,
Next time, call in a guided munitions airstrike, that will show 'em. :D
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Motion sensor flood lights?
Dobermans and rotweilers on the right length of leash, but you're leaving soon and neighbours might complain depending on how the houses are set.
Leave something that crunches loud when stepped on.
etc
Tricks of the trade when laws are twisted.
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eagl... when I was there I noticed that the people in general were very nice but.... timid. Hard to put your finger on it but they seemed resigned to all the posters around telling em to watch their "purse"..
To me.. the atmosphere of petty crime and thugs was kinda oppressive.
I can't imagine living in such a place where it is bad form to harm the criminal.
This from a country who used to have laws that made it a crime to not shoot a fleeing criminal.
lazs
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Originally posted by straffo
Strange ... I had the feeling it was the british scum that were invading us ...
:p
I would look south to find the majority of the scum invading you.
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See Rule #4
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dowding... the fact is... there aren't a lot of Americans chomping at the bit to immigrate to the UK.... the reverse is true tho... can't swing a cricket paddle without hitting some visa or expatriate brit here that either is now a citizen or working on being one.
my theory is that they are all leaving to get away from you... what do you think?
lazs
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Don't be a tard dowding. I live on a major road into Cambridge and although there are a few, apparently like you and your GF that don't hold to the normal work day, the VAST majority of people entering Cambridge on a normal work day don't get past my house until well after 0800 in the morning. When I leave work, if I want to avoid traffic all I have to do is wait until 1630, because rush hour starts to die down at 1630 and the roads are almost completely empty by 1700.
Maybe you're too immersed in your personal situation, but good god man wake up and look around you. Even the biggest shopping mall in Cambridge closes up early. What part of describing a consistent observation is "opinionated"?
It sounds like you're too stuck up to be able to deal with a simple truth, and as that has been the single worst problem I've had to deal with ever since arriving in the UK, that makes you the problem. Visitors to the UK can't help but hate the place when we meet people like you. And when something happens (robbery, whatever) and you STILL insist that a visitor like myself is somehow at fault and anyone actually complaining about their house getting robbed is just an arrogant American, it reinforces the observation that people like YOU are far more arrogant and intolerant than any American could ever be.
You're giving your country a bad reputation, and the only difference between the rep the US gets and the rep the UK gets is that Brits have earned that rep in the comfort of their own homes where they have no excuse to act poorly, yet they continue to do so anyhow.
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there is no way you can preface a statement with "don't be a tard dowding". that flies in the face of countless previous generations of tardlings in his gene pool for both sides no doubt. yes yes yes I know rule # whatever applies to me but not to the tardlet er... dowding.
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Eagl, there are 5 24 hour Tesco supermarkets within 5 miles of the centre of Cambridge.
Dowding, you do not understand the terrible time eagl has had since arriving in the UK. Just do a search on the board to see the very long list of terrible things he has sufffered from. Poor plumbing, hostile attitude from everyone he has met, the fact that the NHS will not employ foreign dcotors (his wife is one), etc.
In fact, if I lived in the same Britain he does, I would want to leave as well.
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Nashwan,
You're right. There are a whole bunch of American-Style super humongous chain stores opening up that completely break the mold. Tesco, ASDA, and some of the bigger home improvement hardware stores seem to be a pretty big change around here.
Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with having work hours from 0900-1600. It makes for more relaxing mornings, and anyone who wants to get more done in the morning by leaving early also gets the added benefit of being able to completely avoid rush hour by leaving before 0730.
I'm not sure the move towards the TESCO and other big stores is a good thing around here though. The whole attitude of the region has to change to accomodate those kinds of stores. One simple example is a tesco near me that is located on another major road into Cambridge. It's a nice store, but unfortunately that road is 3.5 lanes wide (2 lanes one way, 1 lane the other, plus a half-lane painted line that gives busses the right of way) and it's not big enough to handle the traffic load in and out of the Tesco. It's on the opposite side of the road from another new large store shopping area, and the congestion is interfering with orderly flow of traffic in and out of Cambridge. I heard on the radio that they were considering closing the store, not because of it's commercial viability, but because it is a disruptive influence on the area.
I do wish that the Grafton Center mall was open longer, but that's because on Friday evenings I used to like to head out to the mall for some pre-weekend shopping and a movie, because US malls usually stay open until 2000 or 2100 on Friday nights. But the Grafton closes within an hour of me getting home, so getting down there in time to do anything turns it into a big hassle and it makes it tough to find anything to do before late movies.
But back to the hours thing, and back to the original reason I brought it up, normal work hours seem to be 0900-1600 for most people around here, and that makes a 1am visit from a van outside my house a very unusual event. I see taxis outside at all hours and noticed an increase in very late taxis after the new alcohol service hours law came into effect this week, but they don't stop in front of my house and inspect the place with lights.
But noticing such things and being concerned with the welfare of my family and property apparently makes me a bloated self-important something or other in the minds of certain Brits. I'm disappointed by that since I've met a number of really nice Brits here, but not really suprised either.
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Originally posted by eagl
If I could have gone out armed
hmmm armed plus gasleak and we'd have a potential darwin award winner on our hands ;)
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Originally posted by eagl
Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with having work hours from 0900-1600. It makes for more relaxing mornings, and anyone who wants to get more done in the morning by leaving early also gets the added benefit of being able to completely avoid rush hour by leaving before 0730.
Why not 10-1800? Thats what I do :) .Makes the difference between a 45 min drive and out and a 15 min one.
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Originally posted by Vulcan
hmmm armed plus gasleak and we'd have a potential darwin award winner on our hands ;)
Hey, I'm all in favor of folks not having guns -- out here in the eastern med there's a "hunting culture" but nothing to shoot. It's hunting season now, and just from newspaper reports, 4 people a week are dying from gunshot wounds -- this in a country with a population of 700,000. Plenty of folks have guns, of course, and more interesting toys (60,000 Turkish regulars in the "Non-governmentally controlled parts" using the finest weapons America sold off during the Vietnam war guarantee a festive array of toys in the houses of most males), the grenade variety of which end up from time to time being chucked over the wire of the brit bases around here.
Still, a reasonable person doesn't point a gun unless he plans on using it. Suggesting he'd set off a fuel-air explosion means that he'd fire the gun at unarmed people trying to do their job.
(and sure, at that time of night, it's an emergency call if they're out. And if it is a gas leak, US SOPs involve police blocking the street and handling civilians. The fire department is also involved. Drunks can wait)
In any case, it is hard to believe someone would be so conspicuous in casing a joint.
and, yeah, criminality in Great Britain is reaching scary levels.
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Eh? When I worked in UK, I don't think I ever got home before 8 pm (that's IF I skipped the pub). 'cause, all those Cambridge culchies are all slackers, it's a known fact.
Saw (OX1)
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Originally posted by eagl
But noticing such things and being concerned with the welfare of my family and property apparently makes me a bloated self-important something or other in the minds of certain Brits. I'm disappointed by that since I've met a number of really nice Brits here, but not really suprised either.
It is hard to judge someone's personality by what they post on a bbs.
May i refer you to Red vs. Blue :D
Real Life Vs. The Internet (http://files.redvsblue.com/NYC2/RvB_NYC2.mov)
The political debate section is definitely relevant.
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My bet it was Dowding in the truck.... may i suggest an ice pick in hand when you approach the truck....?
It makes tires hiss, and big guys left screaming like lil girls....takes balls.
Let TESCO figure why their truck isn't at work in the morning, minus a few injured employees?
:aok
Just a suggestion Eagl.
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Anytime something strange was going on in front of my house, I always went to them and asked what they were doing there (if gas company, etc. during daylight hours). Did confront motorcycle noisemakers out in front of my house one time during Mardi Gras season at night.. Had my jacket draped over my arm but had no weapon except 20 years experience in Shotokan Karate. That was stupid I admit, but those guys (3), one of them tried to circle around me and I told him to get back where I could see him (they did because of the jacket.)
Then they left before I called the Police, and were really gone when the police did arrive. Never have had any trouble after that, at my house anyway.
But you gotta weigh each situation, always must respond to it - wisely.
Les
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Originally posted by eagl
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...
what about to take a phone and ask them if they had a car in front of your house and why, when you are so scared ?
No no no... i have no gun, ufo is after me ... and they are going to put anal sonda like they did to Carman into my butt.. booooooooooo
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Eagl,if you don't like my country pls leave now,and go back to where the sun always shines and theirs no crime.Straffo ppl in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.:aok
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P.S. I can't wait for you to leave.:p
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Originally posted by scott123
Straffo ppl in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.:aok
ya especially from inside of the glass house. that would allow all the harmful "greenhouse gasses" to escape.
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Eagl - regarding the "casing the house" theory and people not working at that time - Transco work 24 hours a day 365 days a year. They are responsible for the gas supply infrastructure and they will come and dig up your garden at 2 in the morning if they think there is a leak. Transco are also VERY sensitive about people impersonating their staff due to previous scams to gain entry to houses, so if you call them they will tell you if they had a team working in the area that night.
Your average house burglar will check your house over during the day while you are at work and when they can blend in with normal daily activities.
Now as far as work hours go, it is a gross exageration to say the British usual hours are 9 til 4. Normal office hours are 9 to 5:30 and MOST people end up working overtime. In all my working life in the UK I have never been able to stick to a 37 hour week, simply can't afford to.Certainly if you are trying to get in to Cambridge from Huntingdon you had better be on the A14 before 7:30 or forget getting in for 9:00. I even chose to work night shift at Marshalls because the traffic was easier going in at 8:00pm and coming out at 6:30 a.m......
You also have to remember Cambridge is not your average city. It is a university town and a research centre so there is a significant number of people who work unusually short hours and based around university term times.
You may be looking forward to going home and I can find you many reasons to want to get out of the UK but you're painting with a pretty broad brush there .....
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Yea, it`s really a shame that the folks in the UK have no rights to their last line of defense. That being gun ownership for home/self/family protection.
What I think is more of a shame is the majority are so oppressed by their own government that instead of standing together and demanding the gun ownership rights be returned they make excuses for the government and their own lack of intestinal fortitude to stand up to them. Sad stuff.
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leslie... you realize that you just became one of the 1.5-3 million Americans a year who stop a crime using a firearm?
Of course... you didn't really have a firearm but... they thought you did.. And why wouldn't they? In America that is a very real possibility when a homeowner confronts thugs.
In england... the thugs would know you werent armed and... you would either get to see how well you learned karate against 3 good opponents of indeterminate skill level or.... you woulda gotten beat to a pulp.
I liked the people in england...more in Scotland tho... they were very friendly but the place was oppressive. I felt that the people were adjusted to a lifestyle that I found oppressive.. I don't drink so I couldn't sit in pubs and get oblivious and the weather sucked.
Like I said... there aren't a lot of Americans pounding on the gates trying to move to limeyland.
lazs
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When you consider that fact that over 60% of British men regularly drink alcohol to excess, it probably is better they don't have guns. Liver failure is probably more of a threat to the average Brit than crime, but crime is more of a threat to the average American living in Britian.
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Let's not forget, you chaps are defending a country who discussed banning pointy ended kitchen knives.
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I think in the interest of safety, Britian should just pass a law that all citizens must leave all items of value, including all available cash boxed up and sitting outside their door at night so criminals can help themselves without risk of injury from tripping in the dark. :D