Elderly keying my new car 15 September 2015 at 4:24PM edited 18 September 2015 at 2:28PM in Motoring 305 replies 50.8K views

Stoke

Strider590 wrote: »

To be honest I think she's mad at cars parking in front of her property, thinks it's illegal, is frustrated the Police won't do anything and is taking the law into her own hands because she thinks she's too old for prosecution.

She's right, the police won't and don't do anything.

Unless you're doing 36 in a 30 zone of course.

AdrianC

Stoke wrote: »

So, I naturally went to the police. Astonishingly, they knew immediately who I was talking about, as if they'd heard this story twenty times before. They said "we'll go and have a chat with her". They phoned me a day later and told me they had visited her house, told her to stop vandalizing and she had replied (no word of a lie!) "I'll stop when people stop parking there" and the officer told me on the phone the solution is to stop parking there.

OK, so they take the opposite tack. They prosecute her for criminal damage. She refuses to pay the fines. What then? Put her in prison, and her husband in care? Who does that help...?

Minrich

Stoke wrote: »

The police are useless in these situations, so good luck. Unless there's free donuts or something they can skim off the top, there just isn't any interest from their perspective. To quote a real police officer - "F the public. If they don't like us, that's fine, we don't like them either".

I too, have experience in my car getting vandalized by an elderly lady. I work in a posh Chesire town (you know the one), where parking is extremely limited. I found a street about a mile away, with 2 or 3 other cars parked and started parking there myself. My car was keyed, had the aerial snapped off, and had the tyres let down. Not to mention a number of threatening letters and fake parking tickets stuck to the windscreen. At first, I thought it was just kids (well, until the letters started coming), but then I got chatting to the other people who parked there and they all insisted it was the old lady who lived about 4 doors down from where we were parking. She took a dislike to the fact we parked on her 'quaint' street and after being caught physically kicking someone’s exhaust, told them her husband has dementia, and "an ambulance can't get through"..... this was a very wide street btw. I refused to believe it, it was so farfetched, so I hung around the corner one morning and caught her myself trying to pull my window wiper off. I angrily ran over with my camera recording and asked her what the !!!! she was playing at. She didn't take too kindly to me, and got pretty obnoxious.

So, I naturally went to the police. Astonishingly, they knew immediately who I was talking about, as if they'd heard this story twenty times before. They said "we'll go and have a chat with her". They phoned me a day later and told me they had visited her house, told her to stop vandalizing and she had replied (no word of a lie!) "I'll stop when people stop parking there" and the officer told me on the phone the solution is to stop parking there.

!!!!ing brilliant. Police work at its finest.

Good luck though, I genuinely hope you have better luck than I do, because it's not nice to find your car vandalized and know nothing can be done.

As normal someone spouting on about something they know little about . So you don't get the answer you want and they are Useless ?

rover005

Well that's a bit... discouraging the least. I feel like I am going to end up the same.

Stoke

AdrianC wrote: »

OK, so they take the opposite tack. They prosecute her for criminal damage. She refuses to pay the fines. What then? Put her in prison, and her husband in care? Who does that help...?

Adrian, I'm not one for prosecuting everybody for everything, but their solution of "you park elsewhere" was not a solution. Have you ever heard of the film Hang 'Em High? Long story short, it's about an innocent man who's lynched without trial for cattle rustling. If we were to use the logic of the police when watching that film, you'd basically be thinking that cattle rustling is bad.

As far as I'm concerned, the police needed to deal with her as if she was a vandal, because she was. While she may care for her husband, she isn't doing much caring when she's out kicking peoples exhausts, is she? Those mitigating factors really don't point to her good character considering she's done it countless times in the past.

Minrich

Stoke wrote: »

She's right, the police won't and don't do anything.

Unless you're doing 36 in a 30 zone of course.

Dealing with speeding is about 0.1% of what the police do !

Stoke

Minrich wrote: »

As normal someone spouting on about something they know little about . So you don't get the answer you want and they are Useless ?

Did you literally not read what I wrote? The woman openly told them she would continue vandalizing peoples cars until people stopped parking there? Is that not a threat? Is that not an admission of guilt? Clearly my brain isn't large enough to understand the complexities of police work (beyond going and picking up a double sausage and egg mcmuffin in the morning).

Stoke

Minrich wrote: »

Dealing with speeding is about 0.1% of what the police do !

I know. The rest of the time is spent on large scale cover ups!

rover005

Right, just spoke to the local ICU and they said that the witness's name was not recorded at all. This basically means the reporting police officer didn't take the case seriously on the instance of reporting it.

So I now sent an email to the investigating officer and their supervisor explaining again the whole issue and threatening to complain. I have also mentioned the fact that the witness's details were not taken.

Goes to say how much the police is unwilling to prosecute the vandal lady.

pulliptears

DUTR wrote: »

Why would somebody video it on the phone yet not say anything at the time? Some people do not like others parking outside their house.

OP has stated the video is CCTV footage. They filmed the CCTV on a TV with a mobile phone to upload to Youtube.

Not liking someone parking outside your house is still no defence for criminal damage.