Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Beware of thieves on Allison Road
I was just cleaning the front garden when someone asked me, in an Eastern European accent, if I had any scrap metal. I didn't but because our front garden gate was stolen this weekend I was curious about this person so I followed him with my eyes and saw him go into the neighbour's (from two doors down) front garden and take something.
I then asked him why he went into people's gardens and he said because things in the front garden are always rubbish and he's allowed to take it. Our hand trolley was stolen in January, when we put it in the front garden, unaware of all those burglaries here, but it was certainly not rubbish. I tried to explain to him that what he's doing isn't ok, but he simply told me to f off.
I threathened to call the police so he went to put back what he'd taken, whilst calling someone.
I called the police meanwhile and saw the guy, and another who was on the opposite side of Allison Road, get into a white Eurocar van. They didn't drive past me but instead reversed onto Green Lanes to avoid me giving their licence plate number to the police.
So I think what happens every morning is that these two guys are looking for things in people's garden and a man in a white van drives them around the area.
The police contacted me twice, saying they're on the lookout, so hopefully something will come out of it.
Just beware people, look out for this white van and please report it to the police. This really pisses me off cause within 2,5 months of living on the ladder our front garden gate, hand trolley and vacuum cleaner, which my husband was busy repairing, were all stolen. He just left the vacuum cleaner outside to get something inside and it was stolen within a matter of minutes.
Gives me the creeps that I'm inside and there's someone on my property!
Tags for Forum Posts: copper theft
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Not that it's any comfort but there are reports of this happening in all areas of London and across the country. Desperate times, desperate measures.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Hi Hugh - I know you're not condoning anything, but "desperate times, desperate measures" does seem to imply that this is an understandable response to the economic situation, rather than unwarranted criminal activity.
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Yes quite; I'm describing rather than condoning. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Not sure its so much about desperate times. The value of metals is high at the moment plus the cash-free, no questions asked nature of the scrap metal business means that criminal elements are seeing it as an excellent way to make money off theft.
The kind of person you see with his tools in a trolley is likely to be someone whose only source of income (because he doesn't qualify for benefits for example) is the small amount of scrap he can salvage. He can get cash and doesn't need ID. Personally I have no objection to this. The man who does that around my streets always clears up after himself and is perfectly polite if you ask him not to 'salvage' from your garden.
Sadly for him and those like him, the widespread criminality now associated with scrap metal salvage is likely to bring a big crackdown from the authorities with cash payments and regulation of who may salvage. This may not hit the criminals as hard as we would like while driving the small time salvager out of 'business'. I'm not sure what the answer to this dilemma is. Catching and prosecuting a few of these criminals might be a start.
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Yes quite: I responded to a comment about someone who seemed to be "The kind of person you see with his tools in a trolley (who) is likely to be someone whose only source of income (because he doesn't qualify for benefits for example) is the small amount of scrap he can salvage."
So I thought 'desperate times, desperate measures' was appropriate. Perhaps I'm missing something somewhere on this??
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Well it's not just about your comments.
The problem lies with those who are doing it to live and eat being given a bad name because of the criminal behaviour of metal thieves who are helping themselves to anything metal from the front of people's homes whether its scrap or not and which, as OAE suggests, is not a new crime but at the moment, one that is very financially lucrative because of the high prices that metal and copper, in particular, is fetching.
I am appalled at the theft of bronze from war memorials, a crime which is terribly hurtful to those who maintain them and for relatives of the war dead, but I doubt that our little fellows trundling around with their shopping trolleys are responsible for such things.
The police do not need to do much to catch the big boys surely? Spend a day on the Ladder or around Stroud Green and they are driving around as bold as brass (if you'll forgive the pun around a serious subject)
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The damage to our heritage is awful, isn't. it. Did you see that Telegraph article I linked to?
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Metal theft in the country. It's happening everywhere.
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And worse that that metal thieves 'using Google Earth' to target heritage sites
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Henry VIII managed very well long before Google - though I suppose he was after the shiny stuff rather than monastic roof lead.
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Permalink Reply by L F T Snowflake on
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I have written about this before. There are in fact, several teams of 'bin raiders' including one family where the male actually burrows right down into the bin to try and get stuff. There are also ones with flat bed trucks and all manner of other vehicles. I suppose really all we can do is take down numbers and pass them on to the relevant authorities in the hope they will do something about it.
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Yes and do call 999 if a crime is in progress or appears to be in progress
Also ensure ALL events even if they appear trivial are reported to your Safer Neighbourhood Team
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