Blo**y Vandels

[cambourne7]

Now i am sure reading the title you think i am going to complain about some mindless damage to my allotment, well in fact not for a change :) Instead i am ranting about the money grubbing, shirt of the back stealing yobs who have nicked the copper cabling that connects our village to the phone system. So over 1000 homes inc retirement home, doctors have no phone or internet and its going to be almost 10 days to fix this!!

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=259127

>:(

[cambourne7]

[posie]

 :o :o  Good grief is nothing flaming sacred these days, hope they get it sorted soon Cam.  :-\

[manicscousers]

I'm speechless, how on earth did they get it ?

[Lauren S]

Shocking, may they rot in H*ll

[Lindsay]

Hard to believe, isn't it, that there are people like that out there. 
Let's hope they are caught, before any more damage is done.

Copper cabling has been stolen in France too, but here they have tended to "restrict" themselves to the copper cabling used for railway lines/signals, causing delays, but thankfully no accidents - yet.

[cambourne7]

we lost the connection 10.30pm and it was not reported to the police till 9.30am!!!

we just though it was our house but we will know next time.

They could have been there for another couple of hours on a busy road pulling this stuff and no one said boo !!   >:(

I am using a dial up at the moment and its pretty painful and i miss my 8mb connection. Oh well i am fairly scuppered in doing what i wanted to do and looks like i will have to take the laptop with me tomorrow to denmark rather than just email relevant (large) files on to my new address for me to get there.

Will talk to you all on friday when i am back in the country :)

[SMP1704]

'They' nicked over 400 metres of cabling from Gunnersbury station a few weeks back - caused utter chaos on the District and Silverlink lines.

People thought it was routine evening maintenance work!

[silly billy]

Last week it was reported on the news that dozens of brass plaques has been stolen from a grave yard including the graves of many children.

[Old bird]

It is not only the idiots that steal them - I am sure that the people that they sell them to - scrap metal merchants must have an idea where they come from.  There should be a criminal offence other than "receiving stolen goods" for them!


What a pain for you and your other neighbours. 

Old Bird

:-\

[ACE]

 OB you've just posted a reply that I was in the process of composing when the warning came up that another reply had just been received. The trouble with scrapyard owners, is that they all seem to be on the edge of the criminal fraternity. With scrap copper being nearly worth its weight in gold at the moment who is going to ask where it came from.

The toe rags that nicked the cable are the ones who will be imprisoned if caught, but the people that have artificially increased the price of copper are also to blame. Stockpiling and causing a market shortage so the fat cats can line up at the trough should be outlawed.

[twinkletoes]

There's a spate of this theft where I live at the moment.  Not as serious as some things mentioned above but all our taps at the lottie that were put in in the autumn were ripped up for the piping - took the new taps too!  Then the piping in our local village hall got nicked followed by lead flashing on the local primary school!  Can only see the new piping and taps going the same way because those in authority have ordered the same items as before.......... :-X
Twinkletoes

[carolinej]

Last week they stole our brand new boiler in the church. The police said they have already stolen loads. They watch new buildings/extensions. As soon as a flue goes out of the wall, they know the boiler is installed, and break in for it. One house had part of the roof removed to get at one, as the windows had been secured with shutters.

They then sell on the boiler to the scrap man, for a fraction of the cost of a new boiler.

cj :)

[Kea]

It seems to be a very popular activity in Cambridgeshire at the moment. My friend and her husband run their business from home from a quiet cambridgeshire village and are so worried about the phone lines going they've put in NTL as well just in case.

[Old bird]

Wow - It all seems horrible for you lot!

Where I live in Somerset - we are still behind the times with crime etc (hopefully I am not talking too soon!)  Theft from shops still gets reported in the local weekly newspaper!

Obviously stuff does get stolen - but because we are fairly remote'ish (it takes an hour to get to any motorway!) if something does happen like  major theft! or we did have an armed robbery - then the culprits get caught on one of the few roads out of here!  So we are very lucky!

It must be much worse to live with the FEAR of crime than sometimes the crime itself.  I seriously do sympathise - bet every time I hear of someone having trouble like on this thread - I am just so grateful that I ended up here (Minehead) and because crime is so low (comparatively!) people are happier and go around with a smile on their faces and say hello to strangers etc.  We may have low low wages - but that is of secondary importance for the quality of life that we have!

Old Bird

[cambourne7]

well the internet and phone is back a week earlier then BT planned :)

[Froglegs]

This was done on Saturday night at the end of my Crescent, lucky for me I'm on Virgin and not BT.

[cambourne7]

its horrible¬!

In our village we have now agreed that if the internet goes to check the phones and then get in the car and drive down and check on where they stole the copper from last time with baseball bats in the boot :)