Xref: 127.0.0.1 uk.rec.gardening:165374

In article ,
says...
In article ,
says...
On Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:17:17 GMT, "Phil & Diane Martin"
wrote:

Does anyone have any idea how to stop vandals breaking into our shed at our
allotment.

Am getting very tired of mending the door


While I wouldn't recomend it, a friend of mine was having trouble with
scumbags breaking into his lockup, he sacrificed a few nights to
sitting in his lockup with his shot gun. When they finally showed up
he was sitting there with the gun pointing at them. He pointed out
that it was His lockup and that he would be quite upset if it was
broken into again. After that he could have left the door open with a
big stack of cash in full view without the least problem.
Persuade the toerags that they're not going to benifit from robbing
you and they may well not bother.


We used to next to a recreation park and had some bother with a crowd of
youths lobbing stones over the hedge toward the greenhouse. I came out
one evening, walked over to the group, whipped out a camera - flash - and
walked off again (I'm not into verbal exchanges). It certainly worked
that time, as we didn't have any problems after that.
Perhaps a flash going off if an intruder opened the door ?

Maybe not adviseable in all circumstances. There was an incident in
Surrey where a guy pulled an emergency stop to try to avoid running over
a couple of drunks. On of the drunks was nudged enough to fall over. The
tow then dragged the driver out of his car and proceeded to beat him up.
Hearing the disturbance, my neighbour and I looked out and intervened to
prevent any further damage ("Could you describe the person being
attacked sir?" "Yes, officer he's the one with blood pouring from his
face, a broken jaw and cheek that I can tell from my brief look").

A few weeks after that incident the same idiots actually stopped a car
to have a go at the driver and an argument ensued with the driver having
to do a similar backing off to try to avoid further assaults. My
neighbour and I heard again and I headed off with camera in hand this
time.

The sight of 4 drunk thugs whose main desire is to have a fight and to
destroy incriminating evidence approaching at full sprint is one that I
won't forget. Posting the camera through a neighbour's door and then
hiding behind a garage was scary. The police *don't* arrive quickly and
you *are* in danger. SWMBO was on the phone to the local police and they
came at their own sweet pace. They *did* find that two of the idiots
were breaching bail conditions and arrested them.

Overall I support the sterling work done by all departments of our
police force and wish they had the resources to do their job fully. The
one time I *really* needed them, they responded as fast as possible,
patching my phone through to the helicopter and probably saved my life
at risk to the lives of a couple of their own officers[1].

Warwick-- about to do the footnote from hell.

[1] I used to drive a rechipped, Honda VTI[2] that was such changed that
it did 220HP rather than 170 per spec of the car. Nice car that at low
revs drove like a shopping trolley and then turned into a manic street
racer when the foot went down (I've grown up since then).

One evening I was stuck behind a Toyota Celica that crawled along a road
and then went *very* slowly round a roundabout. I had a car that could
easily pull the stunt of going quickly around the outside of his car and
ended up ahead of him coming off the roundabout. I headed off towards
the next roundabout and noted he was now tailgating me and going as fast
as I was. As I slowed for the roundabout he rear ended me gently so I
changed my line and went left from the wrong lane to lose him. In the
next mile I was nudged 4 times at ever faster speeds. I got to a long
straight dual carriageway and floored it as fast as possible for a
couple of miles and as I backed off for the slip road was hit again a
bit harder.

I then dialled 999.

Thankfully my phone was charged up and I had a handsfree capability. The
Toyota was stolen and the person who stole it was known[3]

The heli was close enough to come and assess how I was handling my car
with a psychotic trying to run it off the road and decided that they
could manage minimal intervention by 'using' me.

They set me off on a 5 mile loop and got cars in closing roads to get
the innocents out of the way. On the fifth loop they told me to floor it
around a bend since there would be nothing coming and to try to get some
distance. I was expecting some brave soul with one of those stingers to
jump out to blow out his tyres.

A Volvo backed out and I just avoided it. It lit up all the flashing
lights and the maniac driving it apparently jumped out... as he hit the
switches. The Toyota, needless to say, didn't have a hope of missing it.
The driver was saved by all the airbags and managed to walk from the
remains. He didn't even need to be cut out from a car that hit a Volvo
at over 130mph. The idiocy, timing and bravery of those officers can
only be applauded

And out of interest there were no repairs required on my car. Even
though I'd been hit by another car at over 150mph the closing speeds had
been so close that there'd only been pushes and rubs leaving white marks
that rubbed off with some polish.


[2] Looks like a nice little Honda Civic until you notice the bits of
body kit and the lowered suspension. Suitably subtle power for my
tastes.

[3] They knew who had stolen the car and that he was considered
dangerous.