Ubik

We have had a lot of vandalism around our industrial estate, mainly burning and attempts to set fire to buildings.

Just completed the repairs to our equipment after the local vandals drove a car into our next door neighbours building and set fire to it. (We were effected by smoke damage - it cost over 100k to clean and refurbish everything).

Walked in this morning to see my friend across the road scratching his head. The local nutters have made two massive holes in his outer wall to get inside. (He is a sole trader and his unit is very small. Just a stockest of plastics, things like drain pipes etc.)

They took a box of silicon sealent (sp). Happily they didnt set fire to anything this time.

What the hell is wrong with these idiots? In the last four years I have been here we have had eleven burnt out cars, three ram raids and multiple fires. A lot of the trees and shrubs have been removed to make firewood!. The thing is (certainly the fires) its mainly kids around the age of 13-17. What the hell goes through their minds I don't know.

After each event we seem to have a lot of young lads turning up in their pikey chaved up cars asking directions.

boxst

Hello

Why don't you (they) fit CCTV? THe police and council must be able to arrange that?

Steve.

Ubik

The council refuse to, we pushed them as far as we could and they arranged a security guard to pop down twice a night. They have only let that run a couple of weeks, so we are back where we were.

There is a security company here, they pass the tapes they have to the police. On a couple of occasions now late at night there have been groups of kids knocking about and when we have left we have seen a police officer and flagged them down. They always promise to pop down and have a look but as our CCTV footage shows they never apear! Well until the following day to take a statement.

The council say its the responsibility of the police and the police say its the responsibity of the council.

It adds salt to the wounds when they just bunged up everyones rent by 9%.


At the moment we are all pitching in to help each other, making visits at night and sharing the costs of sorting out the CCTV.

Cheers
David

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a typical industrial estate round here. You can't even bolt anything down to floor in the yard, as someone'll think it's worth something.

There are some very stupid criminals though....

For 10months I stored a pre-war Standard 8 car - an unfinished restortion in a shed in our yard. It was under a tarpaulin, it looked a worthless wreck (which it is). I never bothered locking the shed for above reason and the yard has 10ft walls/gates and razor wire.

Every 1-2 weeks for that 10months I found the doors on the shed wide open after some nosey git looked inside to see if there was anything worth nicking! They must be stupid or have the shortest memory known to man! There is nothing but shyte in there, so why bother looking again?

They tried to break in the offices by removing the flue to the boiler - to their suprise there was a boiler behind the flue...durr...pity the thing didn't fire up and fry their faces.

They stole the floor to my Land Rover 2 Sheets of Aluminum, WTF?

The bloke in the yard next door has his portacabin broken into so many times that he doesn't lock it. And he has to take his telephone home with him as they will nick it!

They stole the gearbox to the truck...yes the whole fecking gearbox ...and worse still, the truck was an 1981 Bedford!

Eventually over the years, after nicking bits off it (CB, Radio, Hydraulic bits) they stole the whole truck.

The gates always had huge £80+ quids worth of padlock, which has been acetylened, ram-raided (by a lorry), Hacksawed, disc cuttered, hinges have been hacked at, you name it this gate has seen it.

So what is there so special in this yard? Nothing! few old bricks, an empty shed, a knackered Ford Cargo truck, the odd pallet. A pile of sand and a 50-year old Thwaites dumper that hasn't moved for 20years. Why do they bother?

Oh, and the offices were firebombed too, but I supect that was a revenge attack after the drug squad used them for surveillance!

astraboy

Sounds to me like you need to stake out the place for a couple of nights dressed in black and packing a high powered paintball gun.
"Yes officer I can identify the suspects, they'll be the ones covered in red paint and covered in bruises"
astraboy.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

LOL I could do with some target practice

Ubik

ALi you are most welcome and I will treat you to a slap up meal! Though I maybe saying 'Give us a go!'

As for making lots of noise with the council, we all have. Lots of letters and phone calls. We have been pushing them for a fence around all the units the desision is made today at the townhall. Hopefully the damage to Brians building will tilt their desision in our favour.

The builder who is boarding up the wall made a good point. The bricks are all in very small pieces and the wall is cut quite square, looks like they had some kind of cordless chisel. I have found footprints that lead through a fence (freshly cut by the looks of it).

Still waiting for a visit from the boys in blue.


Everytime we all come to work we drive down the estate thinking whats next?

corradoboy

Relocation

If the damage from one attack was over £100k I would seriously think of finding new premises. Add up all the costs over 4 years and you could afford your own security guard, maybe even a couple of them. It's probably the same half dozen local smackheads chasing something worth about a tenner for their next fix. I don't know why we can't just flood the smack market with dirty gear every few years and rid society of the menace for a while.

tmo

used to work for a large glass manufacturer in Chesterfield, used to have loads of problems on site.

deano

Slightly off topic but I was down in Devon last week trying to find a commercial property. There were two jewlers shops in the town that didn't have shutters fitted and had their stock on show all night

Relocate, you know it makes sense.