Neighbour damaged my gate....I have CCTV evidence!

gillybean129 · 12 March 2018 at 9:07PM

This morning we could not get out of the gate, it had been slammed and bent so is now stuck.
We have CCTV and can see a neighbour lower down (whom I once had a row with 15 years ago) had forcefully closed it resulting in the damage.
This is criminal damage, but it feels petty to go to the police and I don't want to cause ill feeling, also I know her partner is very anxious and this would cause him grief.
But I don't like confrontation, would you just let this go?
She had come from church, I had thought if speaking with the vicar as he'd know her, thoughts?

McKneff · 12 March 2018 at 9:19PM

Is this your garden gate, a communal gate. or what. Hardly criminal damage unless forcefully was unnecessary, maybe it was just a little stiff.
why would this have anything to do with a row you had 15 years ago,

as for speaking to the vicar. what has he got to do with it.

I think I would just move on to be honest.

Doozergirl · 12 March 2018 at 9:22PM

Why is it criminal damage? You think they deliberately broke your gate because you had an argument 15 years ago?

gillybean129 · 12 March 2018 at 9:24PM

It's broken, she did it, I can see the force it was pulled at.
I have no idea why she would do this, she is very weird.
It's my gate on the pavement....

Doozergirl · 12 March 2018 at 9:40PM

She's got competition.

gillybean129 · 12 March 2018 at 9:43PM

What do you mean?

sevenhills · 12 March 2018 at 9:47PM

gillybean129 wrote: »

It's broken, she did it, I can see the force it was pulled at.
I have no idea why she would do this, she is very weird.
It's my gate on the pavement....

Is she strong? If its bent, I assume its metal?

PasturesNew · 12 March 2018 at 9:48PM

This is nothing to do with the Church.....

The problem you will have is that you can't vouch for whether or not the gate was 100% fully functioning before she shut it. It could have been on its last legs and she was the unlucky person who shut it when it finally jammed for you.

You have a film of her shutting the gate in a forceful manner, but many people are ham-fisted... you don't have a video of her hanging off the gate and jumping up and down on it cackling at the moon .... just a heavy-fisted woman shutting a gate that probably needed some maintenance and chose that moment to break in a manner that then caused you trouble to use it.

In short .... this is something just "best left". Stuff happens. It sounds like it's possible that this stuff "just happened".

Next time, if you can get a video of her hanging off the gate and swinging on it and jumping on it, while cackling at the moon, you've a good starting point.

It may be that she was forcefully closing the gate because .... it was jamming for her and she couldn't close it any other way because it was on its last legs.

Doozergirl · 12 March 2018 at 9:52PM

I mean accusing someone of criminal damage via the local vicar is weird.

There is a reason that she touched the gate. Was it blocking the pavement? Why would a gate even break if it is designed to open and close?

If you think she deliberately broke your gate you either phone the police or confront her. Phoning the police is a waste of their time.

If your gate is a bit old and it's conceivable that it sometimes gets in people's way and she moved it and it broke because she didn't realise she was pushing it the wrong way or just thiught it was stiff, then you probably need to live with it save escalating this into something it may not have been.

I don't really see a resolution other than getting it mended. I'm still at a loss as to how one even breaks a perfectly working gate.

[Deleted User] · 12 March 2018 at 9:52PM

gillybean129 wrote: »

She had come from church, I had thought if speaking with the vicar

He could replace the gates with pearly ones.

gillybean129 · 12 March 2018 at 9:52PM

It was in perfect condition before she rammed it shut now it's bent it was not on it's last legs - end of
You can see from the video the force she used.
There was no reason for her to even shut it anyway.
I could call the police, I think it would be petty I just thought the vicar knows her very well and he may have a quiet word with her.

Neighbour damaged my gate....I have CCTV evidence!

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