Someone tried to steal my car now I'm worried

yvonne13_2

Yesterday when I finished work I went straight to the supermarket and bought my monthly shopping, anyway when I got home I parked up my car outside my house and unpacked. I thought I had locked the car and thought no more of it.

It was around 00:30 hrs when my neighbour rang me saying a man was rolling my car away down the street and she had called the police. I jumped into my shoes and went out the back door as I didn't know how many people was taking my car and I didn't want to get hurt. As I looked there was only one lad so I jumped him from behind and slapped him around his head.

Anyway the police came round the corner and saw me slapping him round his head and told me to stop. Next minute the police started asking the man if he wanted to press charges against me for assault :eek:

I was so shocked, he was trying to steal my car and I was being treated like the criminal. If I would of took off my high heels and hit him with them I would have understood and maybe if he was a youngster he looked older than me and I only used my hand.

Anyway he said no and the police just advised me to put my steering lock on when I have finished using my car but I have not been able to sleep, can he change his mind and press charges at a later date?

Barny1979

Did they arrest the bloke? I think he could theoretically press charges at a later date, but if he's not pressed them at the time, I think that may weaken his chances, also there would be the reasons behind why you assaulted him, he was stealing your car!

j.e.j.

oh my god, that's bonkers!! Did the Police know he was trying to nick the car?

I have heard of similar things happening, like for example there was a guy who was trying to fend off a group of yobs who'd been making a nuisance of themselves and generally terrorising the neighborhood. He went out with a baseball bat in his hand. The Police saw him carrying the 'offensive weapon', and he was the one who got arrested!

It's incidents like this that makes the Daily Mail and the like have a field day :rotfl:

yvonne13_2

They never arrested him, they let him go and told me off saying I was using using a weapon.

I used the front and back of my hand, back and forth over and over and he never tried to hit me back, he must have been in shock.

3v3

yvonne13 wrote: »

.... there was only one lad so I jumped him from behind and slapped him around his head .... They never arrested him, they let him go and told me off saying I was using using a weapon.

I used the front and back of my hand, back and forth over and over and he never tried to hit me back, he must have been in shock.

So, you assaulted him: simple.

Did he threaten you? Was he aggressive towards you? Probably not seeing as you "jumped him from behind".

The law allows for "reasonable force" to protect yourself and your property. You attacked him from behind, struck him repeatedly around the head. Under the circumstances, they probably decided you were using unreasonable force; particularly as, when they came around the corner, you were still in the act and they had to tell you to stop!

Yes, he could change his mind; as for will he? Most likely not ... unless your hitting him causes an injury which means he ends up in hospital, then he might change his mind.

Plans_all_plans

3v3 wrote: »

So, you assaulted him: simple.

And most people would agree he deserved it I think.

Particularly as the police let him off! If she hadn't whacked him, there'd have been absolutely no consequences for him!

3v3

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

And most people would agree he deserved it I think.

Particularly as the police let him off! If she hadn't whacked him, there'd have been absolutely no consequences for him!

If she hadn't whacked him (a human), they may well have taken action against his alleged attempted theft of a vehicle. Or, is property of more value than a human?

She wasn't under any physical threat; she subjected him to an unproked physical attack. She doesn't have the right to take the law into her own hands and she doesn't have the right to decide what his "punishment" should be either. That's why we live in a democracy

Plans_all_plans

3v3 wrote: »

If she hadn't whacked him (a human), they may well have taken action against his alleged attempted theft of a vehicle. Or, is property of more value than a human?

She wasn't under any physical threat; she subjected him to an unproked physical attack. She doesn't have the right to take the law into her own hands and she doesn't have the right to decide what his "punishment" should be either. That's why we live in a democracy

There should be no ambiguity over whether or not they "would have taken action if she hadn't hit him." Also, he might think twice next time before going on the rob.

j.e.j.

3v3 I just find that logic completely warped.

OK put yourself in the thief's shoes: I've seen a car got into it, am about to drive off in it when this woman comes along and starts smacking me.

Hardly on a moral high ground is he??:rotfl:

I guess like with many things it's a case of 1)what the law says and 2) what's right in principle, and these two things don't necessarily coincide.

BitterAndTwisted

If the police weren't going to charge either party with committing an offence at the time then the only recourse the thieving scumbag will have is to bring charges against the OP in the civil court. I think the chances of him doing this are precisely zero.

Good on you OP for protecting what's yours.

TeaCake

He would have got more than a slap off me.