Scum on the cut - boat vandalised

[MisterP]

Awful situation of a boat vlogger whose narrowboat got vandalised. I can't imagine how violated this person must feel.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by MisterP
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[Arthur Marshall]

While I don't bother with these videos, so haven't watched this, I've never understood why someone should feel "violated" because they've been burgled or had their boat trashed.  Hard done by, certainly, and severely pissed off, but it's not a personal thing. And before anyone asks, I've had a fair few burglaries, been mugged and robbed several times.

[Machpoint005]

I think, Arthur, it's mainly people who think "it won't ever happen to me..." 

 

Then it does.

 

 

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

3 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

While I don't bother with these videos, so haven't watched this, I've never understood why someone should feel "violated" because they've been burgled or had their boat trashed.  Hard done by, certainly, and severely pissed off, but it's not a personal thing. And before anyone asks, I've had a fair few burglaries, been mugged and robbed several times.

Isn’t the very nature of a robbery or burglary a violation? 🤷‍♀️

[Machpoint005]

Depends on the violatee perhaps?

 

 

[Arthur Marshall]

25 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Isn’t the very nature of a robbery or burglary a violation? 🤷‍♀️

Not of the person. It doesn't diminish the victim as a human being, though it might do so to their bank balance. Perhaps it's because some people define themselves by what they own? I dunno. People are weird.

Vandals trash stuff, it's what they do. You can't stop them doing it except by shooting them and we're not supposed to do that because so many non-vandals tend to get killed either by mistake or in the process.

A few more policemen around might help of course, but apparently no-one wants to pay for them.

[MtB]

I remember a lout in Slough once trying to take my Ford Cosworth off me. Bloody cheeky monkey reassured me it would be fine as I'd be able to claim the insurance!!! 

[Arthur Marshall]

Actually, having skimmed the video, she doesn't do the violated bit but seems quite levelheaded about it.

I still don't understand anyone leaving such a huge investment, especially if it's their home, unattended for weeks at a time in a public place with no protection whatsoever. I'm amazed it doesn't happen more often. Mine's been broken into twice even on its relatively secure moorings.

[blackrose]

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've never understood why someone should feel "violated" because they've been burgled or had their boat trashed.  Hard done by, certainly, and severely pissed off, but it's not a personal thing. And before anyone asks, I've had a fair few burglaries, been mugged and robbed several times.

 

One's personal space is very personal to many people and just because you don't feel a certain way when something happens to you, doesn't mean that others should feel the same way as you or shouldn't feel differently to you. Everyone's reaction is different and feelings by their very nature are individual.

Edited July 26, 2022 by blackrose

[Machpoint005]

It strikes me that people rarely ask themselves why the "scum" is in that situation to start with.

 

 

[LadyG]

11 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by LadyG

[Alan de Enfield]

7 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

It strikes me that people rarely ask themselves why the "scum" is in that situation to start with.

 

 

 

It doesn't matter at all "why"

Just becasue they are in a 'situation' does not give themn the right to vandalise, rob and frighten someone.

[Barneyp]

27 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

It doesn't matter at all "why"

Just becasue they are in a 'situation' does not give themn the right to vandalise, rob and frighten someone.

It doesn't give them the right to vandalise, rob and frighten someone. It does make it far more likely that they will, I'm sure a proportion of people who are currently reasonably financially secure would resort to breaking the law if their situation changed.

That's not an excuse or justification for breaking the law, it is in part an explanation of why it happens.

[MtB]

41 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

It strikes me that people rarely ask themselves why the "scum" is in that situation to start with.

 

 

 

 

Quite. 

 

Go back 3, 5, 10 or 20 generations and you'll see the pattern. Desperately sad but people ARE the product of their upbringing. 

 

 

[Chris John]

It’s going to get a lot worse with the cost of living crisis as people rob to sell on to pay bills 

[Puffling]

10 minutes ago, Chris John said:

It’s going to get a lot worse with the cost of living crisis as people rob to sell on to pay bills 

Nothing appeared to have been stolen from this particular victim's boat.

It was sheer wanton destruction of a person's home which looked unguarded, and with a possible intention of joyriding.

[Athy]

8 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

It strikes me that people rarely ask themselves why the "scum" is in that situation to start with.

 

 

Surely they do. Lack of parental control is often cited as the reason.

[David Mack]

37 minutes ago, Puffling said:

Nothing appeared to have been stolen from this particular victim's boat.

It was sheer wanton destruction of a person's home which looked unguarded, and with a possible intention of joyriding.

The boat was found at a different location  to where it had been left and facing in the opposite direction. And at 48ft it is too long to wind in the general width of the canal, so presumably it was joyridden at least as far as the nearest winding hole.

[Tony1]

11 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

While I don't bother with these videos, so haven't watched this, I've never understood why someone should feel "violated" because they've been burgled or had their boat trashed.  Hard done by, certainly, and severely pissed off, but it's not a personal thing. And before anyone asks, I've had a fair few burglaries, been mugged and robbed several times.

 

My ex wife and I were burgled a few decades ago and I do recall feeling a bit 'invaded', although I never lost any sleep over it.

But it didnt feel very nice knowing that almost everything in the house, including of course all of your personal things, have been pored over as part of deciding what to nick etc. 

But women are generally more attuned to any potential threats of physical violence than men (for obvious reasons), and I think for a woman there is an added unpleasant dimension, which is that sometimes the burglars might have rifled through clothes, underwear etc as part of their search (and maybe deliberately). 

I am just guessing, and its so long ago that I cant remember my we-wife even mentioning that element at the time, but I bet its a consideration.

I agree it seems an extreme word for the theft of some personal items, but I can understand why they would choose it, at least in some cases. 

 

 

[Tracy D'arth]

If I ever catch anyone in my boat they will be more than violated.

 

A police sergeant told me many years ago that if you batter/maim/kill an intruder in your bedroom you are considered to be in fear of your life and very unlikely to be  face prosecution.

[Tony1]

10 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

It strikes me that people rarely ask themselves why the "scum" is in that situation to start with.

 

 

 

I struggle with this issue personally. 

On one hand, common sense tells me that these burglars (and in fact most of the louts we see on our streets) would not have ended up as they are, if their upbringing had been different. 

If that burglar had been taken out of their working class home as a newborn child, placed in a wealthy household and sent to public school for ten years, he would not have ended up a burglar, but a banker. 

Likewise if the gang of ten young lads who cause trouble outside an off-license had been born and raised in the 1940s, their behaviour and attitude to society would have been totally different. 

The 'raw material' of these children is surely largely the same as it was 50 or 100 years ago- it is the society and parenting around them that have changed. 

Whatever they are, for better or worse, is what we've made them. 

 

The other side of the issue is the more practical one. Yes we've caused this problem collectively as a society (and I'm not convinced its quite as bad as many believe anyway)- but regardless of the cause, there is a real-life impact from these youngsters that needs to be addressed.

I dont believe personally that society is protecting people well enough from becoming victims of crime, or chasing the perpetrators after a crime.   

A lot of it comes down to there being thousands fewer policemen on the streets than there were even two decades ago, but I lived for a while in a street where a local family had a youngster aged 16 or 17 whose gang was a nuisance and a threat to the entire street.  

At some point I stopped worrying so much about how he ended up as he did, and thought more why the hell he couldn't be stopped by the law or anyone else. 

 

I guess what I'm driving at is that society is not only letting down these youngsters, but also their victims, and at some point they might have to treated more harshly just to stop them inflicting suffering on so many others around them. 

It doesnt feel fair to 'get tough' on these youngsters (in terms of sentencing etc), but if you are a victim thats where your thoughts go. 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Tony1

[doratheexplorer]

Clearly the boat has been trashed and I wouldn't dispute that, but at 4:33 you can clearly see the control panel is in position.  Then at 5:19 it's ripped off and all the wires are dangling out.  Odd.  Possibly she saw the panel was loose and then discovered that the wires had been cut behind it?  But why would the vandals rip the panel off only to put it back in position?

[MtB]

26 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Clearly the boat has been trashed and I wouldn't dispute that, but at 4:33 you can clearly see the control panel is in position.  Then at 5:19 it's ripped off and all the wires are dangling out.  Odd.  Possibly she saw the panel was loose and then discovered that the wires had been cut behind it?  But why would the vandals rip the panel off only to put it back in position?

 

I have to agree, the control panel missing with all those wires hanging out does not ring true or align with mindless vandalism to my mind. A screwdriver and wire cutters would have been needed to do that, along with a bit of thought, and knowledge of what lies behind it.

 

Nor does taking the boat to a winding 'ole and winding it then mooring it up again make sense, either before or after vandalising it. Vandals almost always set a boat adrift if they are messing with the lines. 

 

I think there must be a 'back story' to this we don't know about. 

[Hudds Lad]

4 minutes ago, MtB said:

I think there must be a 'back story' to this we don't know about.

School holidays just started?

 

Back in the day at Uni our shared house got done over, a gang of local youths kicked their way through the front door in broad daylight, chased one of the lads and his girlfriend out and grabbed whatever they could before fleeing (mates bike, cash, cigs, alcohol). The local paper turned up to interview him and take pics, the photographer exaggerated the damage and had a housemate hold a large stick as though that had been used, so there's that angle.

The youths were all 14 or under and hung around in the park next to the house, we had had "banter" over the previous weeks and when they saw what they thought was all of us head to the pub, that is when they struck. So there's that angle too.

Plod caught them, the lad who was in the house ID'd all of them, but they were alibi'd by their parents who swore they were at home so nothing more came of it.

[doratheexplorer]

32 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

I have to agree, the control panel missing with all those wires hanging out does not ring true or align with mindless vandalism to my mind. A screwdriver and wire cutters would have been needed to do that, along with a bit of thought, and knowledge of what lies behind it.

 

Nor does taking the boat to a winding 'ole and winding it then mooring it up again make sense, either before or after vandalising it. Vandals almost always set a boat adrift if they are messing with the lines. 

 

I think there must be a 'back story' to this we don't know about. 

Quite possibly someone else found it adrift and re-tied it.

 

As to the control panel, I'm not sure.  Maybe it wasn't securely attached in the first place and the vandals were able to pull it away without tools?  I'm not disputing the gist of this poor woman's story but I do think that element is a bit odd.  Everything else is consistent with kids smashing windows and chucking stuff into the boat, which has also happened to me.  It was a horrible experience and took a lot of clearing up and cost me a bit to get new windows.