Scumbag Thieves

[balli hi]

My daughter went to a halloween party at the Liquid & Envy nightclub in Romford on saturday night with a group of friends , after an hour or so she noticed that her handbag was missing , she got up to go the loo and reached for her handbag but it was nowhere to be seen , she went to the bar and reception to see if it had been handed in but to no avail , to cut a long story short , scumbag thieves had stolen it , her bag contained an expensive mobile phone her bank card , a cannon camera , her cash , her passport ( she has to produce this to prove her age in order to gain entry to the club , she looks younger than she is and has been refused entry before ) , make-up , and my wifes annual travel / oyster card , and her front door keys .

My daughter and her friends made a frantic search of the club , but the bag had disappeared , one of her friends decided to call my daughters phone from her mobile , someone answered and said that they were in Ilford , they had found the phone and stated that they would be handing it in at Ilford Police station , when my daughters friend asked if they were also in possession of the handbag and the rest of its contents the female voice on the end of the line became quite abusive and ended the call .

My wife phoned Ilford police station on Sunday in the hope that the phone had been handed in but it had'nt , we phoned the nightclub and left messages on their answer phone , in the meantime my wife phoned the police to report the theft , the bank to get the card stopped , then Vodaphone to get the phone disabled , filed a report online regarding the passport stating it had been stolen , then filed a report online stating that her annual travel card had been stolen and applied for a replacement , i in the meantime made a dash to B&Q to get replacement locks for the front door , upon my return my wife tells me that the miscreants who had stolen my daughters bag had been on my daughters facebook account via her mobile and updated my daughter's status , basically cxxting off all her friends telling them all to go and get fuxxed and some rather unsavoury stuff about their mums , the status update had been carried out at 3.30am on sunday morning .

All in all a !Removed! nightmare of a Sunday , anyway about 1.30pm this afternoon i got a phone call from the nightclub stating that they were in possession of a handbag and asked me to describe it , i did and informed them of its contents , i was told that all there was in the bag was my daughter's bank card and her door keys , no surprises there then , they left the card because i suppose it would be useless without a pin number , i'm glad her door keys were still in the bag but i'll not be changing the locks back , the new ones will stay now , better safe than sorry .

All in all the thief or thieve's made off with my daughters cash , phone , camera , make-up , passport and my wifes annual travel card , what worrie's me the most is why they would want to keep her passport , although it dawned on me that passports fetch a tidy sum because they are sold on , i remember reading about it some time ago , i hope i'm wrong though .

[bothwell_buyer]

It's a big hassle for your family, yet the reward to the thieves is little.

We had a safe stolen from a yard we are closing down - stolen by 2 or 3 of the young guys we employ to help them find employment long term. Their placement was coming to an end and we found paperwork about a 0.18 ton transfer of scrap metal....in one of our vans at the yard.... then found the safe had gone. The safe has cost us £75 as we didn't own it....the landlord did. The numpties thought the safe would be worth scrapping due to the weight, but most people know the weight of these things is made up of concrete - not steel. So what they got was £26 from an obviously bent scrap metal merchant near Paisley. (Most straight scrappies don't accept locked safes)

Not a lot we can do as the polis are hardly likely to bust a gut over £75, nor will we claim the insurance as the excess is more. So what do we do?

Dock the drivers wages for the full amount and let him recover it from his pals! Thank goodness this week is his last pay cheque!

[bothwell_buyer]

Note to Raistlin - a bent scrap metal merchant is one who accepts any stolen metal....not just bent metal.

[GIDDLEPIN]

Anne had her handbag stolen once and it was a time when cheque books were more popular, there was a brand new cheque book in there which the kindly scrotes made use of,needless to say nothing was recovered and fortunately the insurance replaced everything, surprisingly enough the most expensive things in a woman's handbag can be their make-up.

[bothwell_buyer]

Anne had her handbag stolen once and it was a time when cheque books were more popular, there was a brand new cheque book in there which the kindly scrotes made use of,needless to say nothing was recovered and fortunately the insurance replaced everything, surprisingly enough the most expensive things in a woman's handbag can be their make-up.

Funny you should say that - the most expensive and valuable thing in my handbag is my diazepam. Nobodys interested in my lipstick. :shutit:

[Parts-King]

Don't get me started on the price of make up :!Removed!: I had an interesting afternoon at the local shopping mall looking at the vaious ranges of make up available with Mrs Kingo, i could be heard most of the day saying "HOW MUCH?"

We have had our compound broken into several times, some itinerants pay local yobs to break in the compound, and cut the catalytic convertors off cars using a pipe cutting tool. This ruins the exhausts too and you have to replace both, you can soon be up to TEN GRAND worth of repairs at 1K per car. It's done at night and CCTV rarely picks up the faces of these yobs, most of the time they are lying under a car doing their worst

Kingo

[Jan&tone]

We have had our compound broken into several times, some itinerants pay local yobs to break in the compound, and cut the catalytic convertors off cars using a pipe cutting tool. This ruins the exhausts too and you have to replace both, you can soon be up to TEN GRAND worth of repairs at 1K per car. It's done at night and CCTV rarely picks up the faces of these yobs, most of the time they are lying under a car doing their worst

Kingo

I suppose a couple of starving German Shepherds roaming the compound loose wouldn't get past the health and safety wallahs then??

[Parts-King]

We used to have a beast of a German Shepherd! Then Toyota started to deliver at night and that was when doggie was at his hungriest so he had to go

[bothwell_buyer]

Don't get me started on the price of make up :shutit: I had an interesting afternoon at the local shopping mall looking at the vaious ranges of make up available with Mrs Kingo, i could be heard most of the day saying "HOW MUCH?"

We have had our compound broken into several times, some itinerants pay local yobs to break in the compound, and cut the catalytic convertors off cars using a pipe cutting tool. This ruins the exhausts too and you have to replace both, you can soon be up to TEN GRAND worth of repairs at 1K per car. It's done at night and CCTV rarely picks up the faces of these yobs, most of the time they are lying under a car doing their worst

Kingo

what you need is an over-sized rat trap, with the car held up on struts which explode when a movement to the exhaust pipe is felt.... I believe theres some guy in Yemen who can do these :shutit: :shutit:

Thank goodness my RAVs don't have catalytic convertors fitted!

[balli hi]

Regards my daughters passport , the information contained below is what i was worried about , although the report relates to an american site the consequences are the same :

Your passport may be a vital part of doing business or a vital part of pursuing your dreams, but don't ever forget that it is also a vital part of your identity that can linked to your accounts and your credit. It's more difficult to travel using a stolen passport since September 11, 2001 but all passport thieves aren't interested in using your passport to be on the move. Identity thieves want to move your money instead.

Stolen Passports

Around 3,000 blank British passports were stolen from a hijacked security van. The Foreign officers insisted that a blank isn't usable for crossing borders but others warned that they have other criminal uses. Former Scotland Yard officer, Tom Craig, who now specializes in identity theft says that that really depends on the border. "If an expert knows what the new passports should look like and they have the technology, then they will find the mistakes," said Craig. "But how do you know if it's good or bad if you don't know those details?" So what might thieves do with stolen passports? "People will open up bank accounts, get work and pose as British citizens in outside countries. This is a serious, critical situation," says Craig. Black market prices for stolen passports have been reported to be as high as $3,400.00. If criminals are willing to pay that much for a stolen passport then we can be sure they plan to make a profit from it.

Did you know? The U.S. issues close 600,000 passports every three months.

If Your Passport is Lost or Stolen 101:

If your passport is lost or stolen you must you must contact the issuing authority immediately and it is also recommended that you file a police report as well. If your passport is stolen in another country you should also contact the U.S. embassy. Generally a passport can be replaced within a reasonable amount of time, usually 24 hours, if you can prove your citizenship and identity.

What you should have available, and this is key, stored separately from your passport-

* a copy of your driver's license

* a copy of your birth certificate

*passport fees as normal fees will apply

*phone numbers and address for the U.S. Department of State (202) 955-0430.

Consular Lost/Stolen Passport Section 1111 19th Street, NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036

Other requests that may be made to reissue a passport:

*an interview

*an interview with traveling companions

* a statement of how your passport was lost or stolen

* possibly interviews with friends and family from home

* a copy of a police report.

With the rising concerns of illegal immigration, terrorism and identity theft, reporting a lost or stolen passport is vital. Australia created the Australian Passport Act in 2005 to increase vigilance over protecting passports. It is an offense to not report a lost or stolen passport and additional fees may apply on top of application fees. Once reported stolen a passport will be cancelled and anyone using a cancelled passport will face up to 10 years of prison or a fine of $110,000 or both. If your passport is missing don't make the mistake of assuming that no one else can use it. Like your social security number, your passport can be used to steal your identity and your credit and you may have to figuratively go around the world and back to undo the damage an identity thief with a passport can do.

See also . Q : Why do people steal passports?

Answer :

False document vendors throughout the world have stores of lost and stolen passports available for sale to aliens who cannot otherwise get into the U.S. An alien who cannot lawfully enter the U.S. can visit a fraudulent document vendor and purchase a passport bearing a photo of a person who looks like the individual purchasing the passport.

It's especially easy for "look alike" women who can slightly change their appearance with make-up or a new hair color so that they can more closely resemble the photo in the passport. So, if someone steals your passport, and it falls into the wrong hands, someone who looks a little bit like you might try to use it to enter the U.S. or gain other benefits in your name.

YOU ARE IN A LOT OF DANGER OF IDENITY THEFT.

With a copy of your passport and ID, crooks can make another

copy which looks real enough to access most stuff. Also they can request real official copies of the documents by mail and, usually, get them.

With this info, they can start calling banks and stuff and eventually get into your bank account. They can also get jobs, credit cards, loans, etc in your name.

CAll YOUR LOCAL POLICE DEPT. Have them check it out.

Also call your local Attorney General's office and have them do the same.

[Parts-King]

Did anyone see that programme the other night on TV about the new UK passports? You are not supposed to be able to use them if you have been banned from the country but some Swedish woman was able to come and go at will, she had been convicted of various offences and was deported and banned from entering the UK for 3 years, but she was able to go through the machine readable passport gate without being challenged by anyone, how scary is that? she could have been anybody, totally untrackable!!!

Kingo

[Raistlin]

My daughter went to a halloween party at the Liquid & Envy nightclub in Romford on saturday night with a group of friends , after an hour or so she noticed that her handbag was missing , she got up to go the loo and reached for her handbag but it was nowhere to be seen , she went to the bar and reception to see if it had been handed in but to no avail , to cut a long story short , scumbag thieves had stolen it , her bag contained an expensive mobile phone her bank card , a cannon camera , her cash , her passport ( she has to produce this to prove her age in order to gain entry to the club , she looks younger than she is and has been refused entry before ) , make-up , and my wifes annual travel / oyster card , and her front door keys .

My daughter and her friends made a frantic search of the club , but the bag had disappeared , one of her friends decided to call my daughters phone from her mobile , someone answered and said that they were in Ilford , they had found the phone and stated that they would be handing it in at Ilford Police station , when my daughters friend asked if they were also in possession of the handbag and the rest of its contents the female voice on the end of the line became quite abusive and ended the call .

My wife phoned Ilford police station on Sunday in the hope that the phone had been handed in but it had'nt , we phoned the nightclub and left messages on their answer phone , in the meantime my wife phoned the police to report the theft , the bank to get the card stopped , then Vodaphone to get the phone disabled , filed a report online regarding the passport stating it had been stolen , then filed a report online stating that her annual travel card had been stolen and applied for a replacement , i in the meantime made a dash to B&Q to get replacement locks for the front door , upon my return my wife tells me that the miscreants who had stolen my daughters bag had been on my daughters facebook account via her mobile and updated my daughter's status , basically cxxting off all her friends telling them all to go and get fuxxed and some rather unsavoury stuff about their mums , the status update had been carried out at 3.30am on sunday morning .

All in all a bloody nightmare of a Sunday , anyway about 1.30pm this afternoon i got a phone call from the nightclub stating that they were in possession of a handbag and asked me to describe it , i did and informed them of its contents , i was told that all there was in the bag was my daughter's bank card and her door keys , no surprises there then , they left the card because i suppose it would be useless without a pin number , i'm glad her door keys were still in the bag but i'll not be changing the locks back , the new ones will stay now , better safe than sorry .

All in all the thief or thieve's made off with my daughters cash , phone , camera , make-up , passport and my wifes annual travel card , what worrie's me the most is why they would want to keep her passport , although it dawned on me that passports fetch a tidy sum because they are sold on , i remember reading about it some time ago , i hope i'm wrong though .

Hanging is too good for them...

[balli hi]

I pray that my daughters passport has not fallen into the wrong hands , she's just starting out in life , to have her identity stolen and all that entales at this stage would be devestating for her as well as my wife and i as parents , she started her first proper job last friday since finishing college and things were starting to look up for her , i always seem to think of the worst case scenarios when things go wrong .... and yes , you are right Raist , hanging is too good for those low lifes :censor:

[balli hi]

Don't get me started on the price of make up :!Removed!: I had an interesting afternoon at the local shopping mall looking at the vaious ranges of make up available with Mrs Kingo, i could be heard most of the day saying "HOW MUCH?"

We have had our compound broken into several times, some itinerants pay local yobs to break in the compound, and cut the catalytic convertors off cars using a pipe cutting tool. This ruins the exhausts too and you have to replace both, you can soon be up to TEN GRAND worth of repairs at 1K per car. It's done at night and CCTV rarely picks up the faces of these yobs, most of the time they are lying under a car doing their worst

Kingo

lol Kingo , i know what you mean about the price of make-up , my missus has a liking for Clinique products " How much "

Regards catalytic converters , we in the cab trade had been warned a couple of years ago that an Eastern European gang ( allegedly ) had targeted black cabs and were stealing the catalytic converters , black cabs had been targeted because the miscreants can crawl under them without the need to jack them up , we were also warned not to make things even easier for them by parking with two wheels up a kirb edge . There had been many reports of cabs having had their converters stolen in the essex area , and indeed a cabbie just up the road from me had fallen victim of this particular crime , i can't remember the exact figures but i think it was in the region of around £500 just to replace the catalytic converter on its own , i could be wrong but that figure springs to mind .

On the same subject here's an article gleaned from the Chester Chronicle

Police warning after thieves steal catalytic converters from eight cars at Chester Zoo

Apr 15 2010 by Ben Coulbeck, Chester Chronicle

CARS are being targeted by thieves as the latest crime trend sweeps across Cheshire.

Motorists in Chester, Ellesmere Port and the rural areas have recently returned to their vehicles to find their catalytic converters have been stolen.

Eight cars parked at Chester Zoo were targeted last Thursday, including those belonging to families and a group of French exchange students.

Mark Molloy, visiting the zoo from Manchester, said: “The catalytic converter had been stolen from the car which was damaged. This also happened to eight other vehicles on the car park. Some were without vehicle cover and would have had enormous garage bills.

“Myself and my family will not visit the zoo or the city for the foreseeable future.”

Catalytic converters are being targeted by criminals as the price of platinum, the metal used to create the carbon-emissions control system, has shot up.

Various scrap-metal merchants have reported prices of £125 per catalytic converter.

Zoo officials confirmed that last week’s thefts were unique and that security measures were being strengthened.

Spokeswoman Rachel Ashton said: “Unfortunately eight cars were involved in an isolated incident. Nothing happened prior to that at all. Police were visible over the weekend. We do have cameras covering areas of the car parks and there are signs instructing drivers to keep valuable hidden as we take security very seriously.”

Cheshire Constabulary spokeswoman Shelley Williams added: “There have been 13 occurrences so far involving the thefts of catalytic converters from vehicles spread to wider areas of Cheshire but we can assure the public that we are increasing our patrols and visible presence.”

[bothwell_buyer]

which just proves my argument that cat convertors should not be fitted to cars - they use precious metals and attract thieves. Same reason why I don't believe in wearing jewellery. B)

[Parts-King]

That was about the time we were hit, we were done a few times too!

One of the scroats was caught and blabbed to the bizzies (police) that some itinerrant paid him to do it, it cost us a fortune in excess alone

Kingo

[bothwell_buyer]

That was about the time we were hit, we were done a few times too!

One of the scroats was caught and blabbed to the bizzies (police) that some itinerrant paid him to do it, it cost us a fortune in excess alone

Kingo

jeeez

guess that hit the pie budget big time! 80% cuts???

The crims aren't that clever - the copper wiring loom sells at £5000+ a ton once the insulation is stripped off. And the price of aluminium scrap is getting so high that its now worth stealing peoples walking sticks and zimmers.