Thought I'd get you guys opinions, our elderly neighbour had his transit stolen last week, was only an '04 plate but it was immaculate, stolen in the middle of the night and Police came out within an hour of it being reported (neighbour saw it being driven away so called Police straight away at 1am).

Neighbour drove down a notoriously rough dead end road yesterday and saw his van parked up, with the original plates on it, locked up as though it had been parked up properly and not dumped. He called the Police who attended but asked him if he wanted it fingerprinting or did he 'just want to recover it yourself'

Is this normal? I'd of thought they would of insisted on fingerprinting it? Or am i missing something?

As my neigbour didnt have the van keys on him, he couldnt check inside it but the officer seemed to think it was stolen just for the tools on it (few hand tools and 3 or 4 power tools)

Its pretty normal. If it gets recovered to be fingerprinted, the owner pays for recovery. If it is fingerprinted, any marks on the outside have no evidential value and the surfaces on the inside may not be suitable for lifts commensurate with the level of crime committed. Hence, the owner is given the option of getting their ban back with no recover costs, or having it recovered and having a bill to pay.

At the root of this is costs. The police just don't have the money to pay to send off speculative fingerprint lifts for relatively low levels of crime, certainly ones with limited evidential value.

It may be a bit unfair to say they aren't interested, they are, but things that cost money are scrutinised the nth degree in efforts to save costs. First time FFRR owner

And yet if you make a slightly un-PC tweet or comment on social media they are down on you like a ton of bricks!!

@ AS:

That’s a useful take on it. It is depressing though, when low level criminals can do this sort of thing with relative impunity, knowing full well that the police are unlikely to go much further than giving the victim a crime number for an insurance claim.

Last edited by Red Merle on 29th Mar 2020 4:03pm. Edited 1 time in total

it is absolutely depressing, this isn't my area of the business but the lack of monetary resources affects virtually all areas, mine included. The cold hard facts are that the budgets were reduced massively over the last ten years, staff reductions have been swathing, there needs to be more money put in the system but people don't want to pay more in tax to pay for it. Stories of speeders being persecuted and online comments being investigated with Stasi like enthusiasm don't really reflect the true goings on but make great media stories that are lapped up.

I'd highly recommend reading Stories of the law and how its broken by the secret barrister, that covers the whole of the Criminal Justice system but adequately outlines that it is chronically underfunded throughout its entirety. First time FFRR owner

A very sad state of affairs & a sign of the times.

However, there is one "ray of sunshine" in this saga - the lowlifes that stole the van did not torch it. 2003 Range Rover Vogue TD6

Cheers all. Saw my neighbour today and he thinks hes getting the van back via the insurance company, just waiting to find out

Any recommendations on security for it in the future? Bearing in mind its only a 2003 Transit, better to go for visual aids (Disklock) or a better alarm (used to the Clifford concept 50's when I was growing up, I'm sure theres an equally good modern day one these days)

Any advice greatly received as he doesnt 'do' the internet, so relies on me for most things

For something of that vintage, the favourite used to be a switch for the fuel pump hidden somewhere inside the cabin area.

Simple but effective.

Exact same thing happened to us with one of the Hilix’ a couple of years back.

We had a drive round and found it parked up in a dodgy area. It’s a tactic, to see if they are tracked!

Police did attend when we found it, and did actually go as far as sending a SCO to Toyota to print it. No dice tho, nothing retrievable.

So to say they aren’t interested is not strictly true.. I got a few calls to see if I needed victim support, which left me feeling like I should probably accept as it sounded like the victim support officer needed something to do and I could be offending them by refusing......  There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

I recently retired after 30yrs

Id just like to add my two pence worth

The normal PC on the street, does care. they are human they too pay their bills, have things stolen by the toe rags of society.

But like others have said, cut backs. up till the day I retired all front line and not sat in a office. my day consisted of dealing with domestics and people with mental health problems.

we didn't have time to try to detect crime.

An example 7am start, report of someone on a bridge, threating to jump off. dispatched to prevent them jumping. Any length of time trying to talk them down, all the while road below closed incase they do decide to jump.

When you've managed to talk them down, straight to hospital to be physically checked out.

4hr wait to see a doctor, then once cleared of physical check, they are taken to the mental health unit and again another wait. eventually to be given the all clear.

Person returned to their home address and when satisfied that they are save to leave, return to the station to complete necessary paper work.

At no time have we stopped for a break

End of shift go home

Back to work the next day, same situation again, mostly the same person.

So its not the polices fault unfortunately with cut backs every emergency service is stretched to the limit.

That my rant over Three things in a blokes life his dog,his car and a Cornish pasty,nothing else matters.

2010 Range Rover Vogue SE Santorini Black, Arabica Aniline seats

Previous cars
1973 Mini 1000
1971 Hillman Avenger
1975 Chrysler Sunbeam
1981 Ford Cortina
1985 Volvo 340
1989 VW Golf
1989 Volvo 240
1991 Volvo 240
1991 Jaguar Soveriegn
1996 BMW 730
2003 Honda CRV
1999 Jaguar Soveriegn
2003 Range Rover HSE Epson Green with Sand trim.

I might get hammered for this!

Why is this happening.

Setting up hotlines for people to grass on their neighbours? We have a family behind us that live in London but have been in their 'weekend cottage' for the past 3 weeks. Do I grass them up as they are using resources for locals.

Charging people with criminal damage for chalking lines on the pavement outside their shop?

Filling a water course in the Peak District with black dye to stop people photographing it!