Car Keying Vandalism

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Sun 13 Jul 2003 08:16
Car Keying Vandalism - Dude - {P}
IMHO 85 to 90% of the native British public are genuine decent people but the remaining 10 to 15% are social scum. I raise this issue after my son`s 330Ci was keyed in his local Tesco car park yesterday, and after working hard in a sressful job to buy his dream motor, he is naturally gutted. I question how widespread are these acts of malicious vandalism, and how many other members in the B.R. have suffered similarly. Would I be correct in thinking that these crimes are directed mainly against the prestige German marques, or are other makes also attracting the attention of these low-life crims ???
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 08:45
Car Keying Vandalism - Mark (RLBS)
Low-life is accurate.

Pure jealousy and envy from pond life incapable of joined-up living.

I think its aimed at any expensive car, or pretty much anything else expensive in this world.
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 08:46
Car Keying Vandalism - Phil I
Dude
I do not think it is a question of anti German feeling. The scrotes who do this sort of thing are not capable of reaching that level of comprehension. They are just part of a band of the populace which has no respect for property(public or private) and have this desire to destroy things . They get some peculiar pleasure from this. If we knew why they do it we might be able to devise some treatment for them. BRM probably can suggest suitable counselling I have no doubt.:-)

Phil I
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 08:59
Car Keying Vandalism - DenisO
Of course, the fact that they do it with impunity may have some bearing on their continued attitude. Perhaps a quick dose of Saudia justice may reduce the percentage to 2% and that 2% would be easily identified by their lack of hands!!!
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 09:52
Car Keying Vandalism - T Lucas
About 10 years ago i was running a fairly new LHD 535i on German plates,that car was a magnet to low life,it was keyed,dented,blocked in,and just about every other inconvienience you could think of.Never had a problem with any other car,so i assumed it was the plates.
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 11:21
Car Keying Vandalism - Rob C
There were 2 incidents along my road a fair few months ago now. Someone, (yet to be caught, and never will) scratched about 30 cars along their sides, presumably on the walk home from the pub. Didn't do mine, thankfully.

It made the local paper, and then it happened again the next week.
This was indiscriminate vandalism, and the saddest thing is, if I drive down the road today, I will still see the scratches on the cars of those people not wealthy enough to pay for the repairs.

I always presume it must be teenagers doing this sort of thing, who have yet to understand the concept of hard work and reward.
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 11:20
Car Keying Vandalism - Andrew-T
Phil - I suspect that the only long-term cure would be to make sure that they can't pass on their genes to a new generation.
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 11:14
Car Keying Vandalism - bartycrouch
I believe that Rolls dealers used to refer to them as "envy marks". I think that as as the majority of prestige brands are German there will be more German cars vandalised. I can remember my father's car having this problem twenty five years ago. He took solice in the knowledge that he could get his car repaired while the little weasel who damaged it was still left with his inferiority complex.


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Sun 13 Jul 2003 12:55
Car Keying Vandalism - hootie
I feel really, really sorry for him - it's criminal damage, and an assault on his efforts to achieve something he values through his own hard work.

Any kind of stupid vandalism makes my blood boil - and especially when it's a personal attack like this.

I'd like to think that Karma exists - you know, what comes around goes around.

Maybe one day something will happen to that thug (and those like him) so he knows just what it feels like. Fingers crossed.
Makes you wonder what kind of homes they come from, and what kind of kids they'll raise, true.

You do feel nowadays that you need to have something so unremarkable, something that blends into the crowd so much, that no one's going to give it a second glance. Very sad :(
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 13:32
Car Keying Vandalism - SprinterJK
I walked down my girlfriends road in a quite nice area of Reading a few days ago. Noticed that out of 18 cars I passed, 15 had been keyed across at least two panels. None of these cars are worthy of being envious of, just completely unremarkable average runabouts.

My father has had his Volvo S60 for about 18 months, and during this time it's been keyed three times. Thing is, it's rarely left anywhere other than our drive and the car park at work, so in the few times it is left out, it turns into a magnet for morons.

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Sun 13 Jul 2003 13:47
Car Keying Vandalism - Hugo {P}
I think a lot of the time kids dare each other to do it. It's not just jealousy.

They seem to get a kick out of wiping so much value off a £30K car rather than a £300 one.

I had a nice little Pimlico kit car (Mini derived convertable with high door sills and T bar).It wasn't particularly expensive but was unusual, to the extent it had so many genuine admirers that I often had to politely squeeze past a small croud just to get in it!

In the year I had it on the road I had a small slit in the roof, a joker nicked the rotor arm out of the distributor and some plonker left a brick placed carefully on the roof, forunately without causing any damage.

I decided it attracted too much attention and got rid pdq.

H
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 14:15
Car Keying Vandalism - smokie
Not fair that kids are AlWAYS blamed, though I think that mostly it is them.

A friend at work was recently beaten up after a night out by 28 and 30 year olds. His girlfriend suffered a fractured jaw. All they did was try to stop these guys from lifting ands smashing hanging baskets which the council thought might brighten the place up.

And I had a front hedge which was continually being assaulted - people appeared to have lain in it, or at least fallen into it. Mrs once found a TAG HEURE watch left behind. I said let's flog it to make up for the damage, but, ever the saint, she put a notice in the local shop window. Bloke who claimed it (quite legitimately) was a respectable 35 year old with family - just drunk and fell over apparently.

(I've now spent over £2k on a wall, and tongue in cheek asked the builder to embed glas in the top of it, but this is illegal he said...)
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 14:36
Car Keying Vandalism - Miller
Unfortunately this country is full of scum, no other word for them.

Both my last car, a Citroen ZX and my current Mondeo have both been done so no car is safe up here. It is pointless getting the damage repaired as a pound to a penny it will happen again.



I'm a loser, baby....so why don't you kill me?!
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 16:02
Car Keying Vandalism - bartycrouch
It's still jealousy. You've got it. They want it and can't get it and so they want to ruin your day.

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Sun 13 Jul 2003 16:29
Car Keying Vandalism - tpac
Not always jealousy..... not always kids!
I have dealt with grown adults who have done it in supermarket car parks.... and why?
Because (their words not mine) "Mr snob has parked his big posh car in either the disabled bay or mother and child bay" when they are entitled to neither!
The above does get up my nose, but would I resort to criminal damage to get my own back????????
The best way to get them caught is of course the good old CCTV, has he checked this??
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 18:02
Car Keying Vandalism - Dude - {P}
>>The best way to get them caught is of course the good old CCTV, has he checked this?? <<

This is a valid point tsg, I don`t think in his anger and upset, he had thought about this, but will definitely mention it & get it checked out. Thanks for your suggestion. It is heartening to read the replies and realise that the majority of people are decent hard working human beings, that appreciate that nothing in life comes easily and without hard graft. I guess it is now increasingly difficult to control this vandalism, as the pond life seem to breed faster and with little or no parental control and our politically correct government preventing corporal punishment or the police laying a hand on these thugs, don`t know where it is going to end without far harsher punishments.
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Sun 13 Jul 2003 23:22
Car Keying Vandalism - Andrew-T
Dude - I have a feeling that, while I would like to agree that nothing in life comes easily (..etc), perhaps these days some things come more easily than they should to the scum we are talking about. I don't believe the real down-and-outs, the have-nots, indulge in keying cars - it's the ones with inherently scummy minds, with nothing better to do when egged on by their mates.
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Mon 14 Jul 2003 09:38
Car Keying Vandalism - wemyss
Some 3 years ago my daughter’s husband lent his Transit builders van to one his lads for the weekend.
On Saturday morning his lad looked through his bedroom window and could see the local 18 year old thug who lives a few doors away in the van stealing the radio.
This low life had over 70 convictions for stealing and it was the talk of our town that he had never got beyond warnings and probation. He had even burgled his next door neighbours house.
Unfortunately for him he had picked the wrong victim as Billy is a hard man and was downstairs in a flash dragged him out backwards from the cab and gave him the thrashing of his life.
The thug ran screaming and crying down the road and into his house.
Ten minutes later the police arrived and gave Billy a warning that he could be prosecuted for this offence. The matter of trying to steal the radio was forgotten.
Billy\'s answer was “don’t give a toss what you say or do mate, he will get the same next time he comes near me”
After the Police departed Billy is off down the road knocking on the thugs door. His sister answers the door and says that her brother is in his bedroom and won’t come out.
“Tell him if he even walks past my house never mind him doing anything he gets the same”.
That thug would never again walk past Billys house and would run if he even saw him.
Rough justice!! Personally I would describe it as effective counselling.
He did eventually get a custodial sentence for burglary but have heard nothing of him since.
To me this was one up for the good guys…
alvin
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 10:04
Car Keying Vandalism - hootie
Alvin: my heart says well done that man!

Unfortunately, my head says that in the current climate, taking things into your own hands will almost certainly end up with a double loss to the victim.

I think we've all heard of enough reported cases to know that the protection of the law lies with the criminal.

I could rave on at length, but I'm sure everyone knows what I'd be saying anyway, so I'll save your time reading it - suffice to say I feel very strongly about the lack of justice for the victims of crime, and the pampering handed down to low lifes.
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Thu 17 Jul 2003 00:36
Car Keying Vandalism - Hugo {P}
To me this was one up for the good guys...
alvin


Alvin

I would put your son in law's mate up for a public service award

H
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Mon 14 Jul 2003 10:27
Car Keying Vandalism - eMBe {P}
Would I be correct in thinking that these crimes are directed
mainly against the prestige German marques, or are other makes also
attracting the attention of these low-life crims ???


I believe that it is MAINLY Mercs & BMWs that attract mindless vandalism. Other makes are of course targetted from time to time, but you can be virtually certain that if you own particular models in the BMW or Merc range, and have to park in a public area, sooner or later you will be find you car has been deliberately key-scratched.

As someone has suggested, occasionally attacks are made against any make of car where the driver has been "judged" to be inconsiderate in parking/driving. But mostly, these acts of vandalism are the result of the politics of envy. Whatever the justification in the mind of the perpetrator, these acts are nothing but uncivilised behaviour.

Incidentally, both my cars have been key-scratched in public car parks, even though I take great care to park with utmost consideration (and away from other cars wherever possible). Although I can afford to get this repaired, I have lightly DIY filled in the scratches to avoid corrossion getting under the paint, but left the scratches visible as I do not worry about the appearance. That somehow deters any more from appearing - possibly because the vandals realise that scratched paintwork and minor dents do not bother me.

(Spending £500 of your own or your Insuance Company's money on minor dings and scratches is obscene in my view. I would rather give that money to a medical charity in the UK.)
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Mon 14 Jul 2003 11:23
Car Keying Vandalism - Burnout2
Indiscriminate keying - as in the case of the deep two-foot long gouge that my almost execessively unassuming Accord suffered last year - is usually kids. In this case, a fourteen year old who caused untold thousands of pounds worth of damage to more than twenty cars on the same estate, and was undoubtedly given nothing more than a police caution.

Annoying though this was, I find it much less offensive than the idea of a fully-grown adult keying a car out of some kind of spiteful jealousy, or class-based antagonism. Doing it through a haze of self-righteous indignation at the way a vehicle has been driven or parked is if anything even worse.

It would be interesting to learn whether this kind of petty vandalism (like car theft generally) is worse in the UK than other Western countries, given the peculiar antipathy so many of our citizens seem to feel towards the success of their fellows. Very few of these crimes become part of the official statistics, of course.
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Mon 14 Jul 2003 11:38
Car Keying Vandalism - CM
I think that it is often just a case of mindless yoberry. Around us groups of youths walk down the street and sometimes and by looks of things they just put a key out as they walk down, scratching all cars. Doesn\'t happen to often now, just smashed windows (mainly of cars without alarms).

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Mon 14 Jul 2003 11:47
Car Keying Vandalism - Brill {P}
Not sure what PB is ... someone's initials?

My car was 'tagged' on the bonnet, graffiti style with a large fat black marker.
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Mon 14 Jul 2003 19:58
Car Keying Vandalism - midlifecrisis
Not just expensive cars. My wifes bog standard Clio was done the full length of the passenger side.
I rate the scroate that did this on the same level as the ignorant animal that opened his car door into the side of mine, causing a large dent.
Neither care about the damage that they do.
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Mon 14 Jul 2003 20:08
Car Keying Vandalism - T Lucas
Got into work this morning and my locked,fenced 'secure'yard had a visit over the weekend,housebrick lobbed over the fence onto the screen of my MB S280 and smashed it.Retail price to replace the screen £850,real price £230.I imported this car from Singapore recently,guess what the law would do to the perp there when captured.
When i tell people in Singapore and Japan about these kinds of incidents they really do not either believe it can happen or that we allow it to continue.Quite sad really.
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Mon 14 Jul 2003 23:14
Car Keying Vandalism - James_Jameson
T Lucas said "...guess what the law would do to the perp there when captured.
When i tell people in Singapore and Japan about these kinds of incidents they really do not either believe it can happen or that we allow it to continue.Quite sad really..."

Quite, the namby-pamby do-gooders have done a good job of making this country a haven for the sort of lowlife scruffy jealous loser that has been discussed above. If you take action that in any way sets a trap or injures the perpertrator then you are in trouble - unbelievable. If, when driving you creep over the (usually too low) speed limit, you'll probably get more of a fine than the loser who vandalised your car (if caught - unlikely - makes you feel sick doesn't it?
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 09:15
Car Keying Vandalism - pdc {P}
It will all come to a head within the next 4 years. I say 4 years because last year I was saying 5 ;-)

Society does this. It goes through very liberal, debauched times, and then suddenly gets very strict again. Look at the Romans, the Greeks, the Victorians.

My solution would be to shame people. Bring back the stocks. Put them in football stadia and let's have an entertaining time after matches when the fans of the loosing team can throw all manner of rotten fruit at the perps. Let's allow posters all over town, showing who the local scum are. Forget forgive and forget, let them reform. Just make sure everyone knows who the scum are.

Rant over
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 09:59
Car Keying Vandalism - hootie
I'm going to risk sounding like Victor Meldrew here, but never mind.

I've studied child psychology, and raised two children of my own, and they are both responsible citizens (15 and nearly 19)

The main basis of how we've brought them up is simply to act as they would like to be treated, and leave things how they would like to find them. It's not that hard is it?

Just the other day we got the Connex mainline service to bring us home from London, and the train (new one) was absolutely filthy with rubbish. The seats, the floors and the little shelves - it was a ruddy disgrace. What need is there for it?

Have used the underground in Singapore, not only does it run to time, but the trains and the stations are immaculate. Everyone benefits from it.

I truly believe that most of it is down to self respect and self worth. If you don't value yourself, what chance is there that you'll value anyone or anthing else?

Offenders should be taken much more seriously, just like the New York programme and be made to face the consequences of their criminal actions.

If the family wont or can't bring up it's young properly, then the State should take more responsibilty for rehabilitating them - young or old!

Rant over, time for coffee.
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 14:05
Car Keying Vandalism - bugged {P}
I am not so old I dont remember what it was like to be a kid
what it was like to think it was "cool" to do stuff your mates though was cool but there is no way in a million million years
i would have ever dared do something like damage someones car
or any property, kids of today seem awful, absolutly awful, i see them smoking and swearing and prancing up and down teh high street like they own the joint, I was in glasgow coming back from a weekend away when a mother parking in a petrol garage with her three bratty kids threw her rubbish out of the window, i was outraged!!! there was a bin 6 ft away!!! I picked up her rubbish and threw it back in her car, this followed lots of screaming insults!!! If the lazy moo carries on like that
just imagine what her three little darlings will be like when they grow up, (if they grow up).

We are soft on petty crime and it really does BUG me!!!
Teachers are too scared to talk to kids these days without being branded child abusers let alone tell them off, same for parents, all this no smaking malarky no wonder kids think they can get away with murder!!!

crumbs think of me blood pressure
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 18:20
Car Keying Vandalism - midlifecrisis
I was in court yesterday (giving evidence, not 'appearing'), the CPS lawyer complained to me that we were charging far to many people.
I think she got the message when I looked at her in disbelief and walked away.
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 19:27
Car Keying Vandalism - cockle {P}
midlife, I think you've just hit the nail right on the head, if the CPS have that sort of attitude we really don't stand a chance. For my part I think you should carry on regardless, if you think they should be before the beak then that is where they should end up, to be judged by their peers. Mind you, with the opinions of some of their peers justice might be a bit strange!

Ultimately, history shows that a society will either implode into a state of anarchy or react against anti-social acts. Eventually this country will be forced to follow the New York example of zero tolerance to re-establish responsibility, it will cost a fortune and a lot of grief but ultimately it will be worth it. Too many people know their rights but not their responsibilities I'm afraid. Keep up the good work.

Cockle
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 19:38
Car Keying Vandalism - carayzee
Some swine poured a load of diesel over the Mini last night. Thanks a lot. About a month ago probably the same "person" wrote "BMW" in large letters across the windscreen in whitewash or something, came off easy enough whatever it was. At least it's not personal as the other Mini in the street got the same treatment (dunno about the diesel)
Any ideas how to shift the smell?
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 20:30
Car Keying Vandalism - Halmer
Even had it done on my £35000 VW Golf.
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 20:32
Car Keying Vandalism - Halmer
Sorry missed the decimal point out.

Should have been £350.00 Golf. They get more pleasure out of doing an expensive car but basically nothings safe.
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Tue 15 Jul 2003 22:43
Car Keying Vandalism - natashas daddy
Agree with all thats been said,this country is way to soft on crime and criminals. But what bugs me the most is that the good people subsidise the scumbags in so many ways,ie through legitimate living we are likely to generate income and tax.This pays for much more than just unemployment benefit(not that they are all necessarily unemployed). Think about who the police spend most time dealing with,go to a hospital casulty department on a friday night,etc etc.


If things dont change i will be very tempted to take my family elsewhere and give up on britain,sadly i think a lot of people think like this and thus the low life get the country to themselves-could be interesting i guess.
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Thu 17 Jul 2003 00:34
Car Keying Vandalism - Hugo {P}
Whatever your opinion about the Kray Twins -

There was very little petty crime in their patch during their time.

H
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