Topic: Warning! Rant contained!

[posie]

Ok, so here goes....

We have rag n bone men who come round every few weeks or so.  Now I have no problem with this as such, if I have anything they can make use of then that's fine, providing they knock my door or give me a shout and check first.  And this is where the problem lies.  They don't.

Today I heard them shouting, the dog started barking because she loathes them, I knew there was nothing in the garden so I didn't bother going out.  Then I look out the kitchen window to find that they'd climbed over my garden wall and were merrily making their way down the dividing wall between me and my neighbour.  So I locked up the dog, went out and asked what they wanted and why they were in my garden, which I think is perfectly reasonable.  They then informed me they were going into next doors garden to retrieve a washing machine sitting out there.  My neighbour then came out and asked me what was going on, I told them, turns out he'd already said no, as he's planning on using it for spare parts.  So I basically told them he'd already said no, they didn't have my permission to enter my property so why had they done so?  Apparently because they shouted first that's ok, they can just come in when they feel like.

I'm ranting because it's not the first time this has happened, on two separate occasions I've had metal stuff taken from garden without my permission, the first time whilst I was at my grandfather's funeral and the second time a few months later, to add insult to injury they'd actually kicked in my rather stubborn garden gate to get to stuff and damaged it beyond repair.

Whether or not I have any use for the stuff that's being taken is not the point.  The point is, it's my house, my garden and unless I have given permission, then they have no right being there.  It's made me very unsettled (as it's just me and the boys living here) and is the main reason that I have a barking issue with Ruby now, she never barked at anyone until the first time stuff was taken, since then she's turned into uber guard dog.

Anyhow rant over.

[theothermarg]

I don,t blame you for ranting ! I thought rag and bone men were supposed to pay for what they have, when I was small they offered us kids goldfish hoping we would take something from indoors on the quiet
what they are doing is plain stealing and I would say tell the police but I doub
if they would do anything
marg

[Lacelotte]

If you have notinvited them onto your property they are trespassing. Should have let your dog out.

If they take things without your consent it's theft.

It would be interesting to know if this particular rag and bone man has a licence for carrying waste. Especially when all electrical items (domestic appliances included) have to be dismantled and recycled by a licenced company. 9 out of 9 times rag and bone men will take a fridge strip it for the metal that they can weigh in and then flytip the plastic casing etc which in turn costs you, the council tax payer, when your local authority have to spend thousands clearing it and landfilling it.

I have no time for cowboy scrap merchants.

Shane.
p.s. oh my Lord I'm turning into my dad!  ;D

[OllieC]

The police would probably interview you for an hour or two and then find something to charge you with... or, something else they've done for me in the past, pop round to their house & tell them you've been telling tales on them!

[bupster]

Not round here they wouldn't - my flatmate left a ground floor window open and I had a carton of fags nicked. I thought it was our own stupid fault but called the police anyway. They came round and spent an hour knocking on doors in the street to see if anyone had seen anything, and wrote to me when they finally nicked the guy who'd done it! Call them, you might get lucky  :)

[Kea]

Quite clearly trespass and theft. you can't help yourself to stuff on someone's property even if it's rubbish.

You should ask before taking stuff from even a skip on someone's property. If it's on the street it may be a different matter.

Put something metal out there and link it up to a car battery next time.......well perhaps not.

[Jeannine]

I find this astonishing and very scary, Certainly I would phone the police, it is clearly theft and trespassing. I think the police would take it seriously , apart from the obvious as above it would be a very clever way of casing a property especially if they frequently found someone not home to challenge them. I would insist they look into this and have it stopped, very discomforting.

You deserve to rant over thos one!!

XX Jeannine

[posie]

Oo Kea I'm liking your thinking rofl  ;D

I have phoned the police about this on a previous occasion, and quite honestly they were absolutely useless, got a nice big security light all ready to go up and my landlord is going to put extra security on for me, so that's a bonus. 

[Barnowl]

Curiously there weren't any criminal laws against trespassing in this country until 1994. 

The police can only act if either the trespasser refuses to leave when asked, or they are committing 'aggravated trespass' under the 1994 Act  which means something along the lines that they are trespassing with the intent of disrupting lawful activities.

On the other hand if you have reasonable grounds for believing someone has a knife on them the police might come round rather more quickly (catch my drift?)  :)

[Lacelotte]

. 9 out of 9 times

What an eeeeeeeeeeeediot I am lol. I've just noticed what I wrote.
I obviously meant 9 out of 10 times  :P

[Hyacinth]

I'm thinking completely illegal - http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php would be where I'd go for specialized advice on this & rant in the 'general' forum....

[Kea]

I've recently been burgled and in the process of being burgled again by the insurance company, it has coloured how I see things.