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Thefts from boats on the Macc


Arthur Marshall

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Four boats on my mooring on the lower Macclesfield at Astbury (just south of Congleton) have been broken into overnight, apparently by another boater who specialises in this. He takes food and drink, doesn't touch anything else but has done a fair bit of damage to the boats including broken windows, which can be a bit dodgy this time of year.  One boat had the lock knocked off with the lump hammer from another boat - which was left carefully on the boat it came from.  The police aren't interested unless he is caught on the boat.

The name of the boat isn't known, the name of the suspect is - I am not sure of the protocol of naming him on a public forum, will PM it if anyone wants it, but in old times he would have been known as a maker of arrows...

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9 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Four boats on my mooring on the lower Macclesfield at Astbury (just south of Congleton) have been broken into overnight, apparently by another boater who specialises in this. He takes food and drink, doesn't touch anything else but has done a fair bit of damage to the boats including broken windows, which can be a bit dodgy this time of year.  One boat had the lock knocked off with the lump hammer from another boat - which was left carefully on the boat it came from.  The police aren't interested unless he is caught on the boat.

The name of the boat isn't known, the name of the suspect is - I am not sure of the protocol of naming him on a public forum, will PM it if anyone wants it, but in old times he would have been known as a maker of arrows...

Can't be. He's in Slade prison.

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On a fb sight says he pulled his boat alongside .Surely if goods can be identified then police have a case ?

I think that affected owners should put in a police complaint.

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Are you sure its not " Finchy " he was blamed for ALL thefts from boats on the oxford for decades. He was a bit like bonnie and clyde who were oft blamed for bank robberies hundreds of miles apart on the same day.

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I'm not sure of the name, it was what I was told by the mooring manager.  I'd be happier if I knew the boat name. Finch however was a gentleman of the road, not a boater, and these thefts have definitely been done by someone tying up alongside and breaking in from the canalside of the boats, which of course makes it harder to spot from the moored side.  The implication is that the culprit is known to the police and that it's a regular CM liveaboard user of the Macclesfield canal.  There aren't that many of those, and only a few CMers down our end (one, really), so while I may have my suspicions there isn't a lot of point to speculation, especially as obviously nothing is going to be done about it.

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19 minutes ago, b0atman said:

On a fb sight says he pulled his boat alongside .Surely if goods can be identified then police have a case ?

I think that affected owners should put in a police complaint.

The police don't do much about anything these days if no-one gets hurt.  Friend of mine got his car written off parked at the side of the road in a layby when hit by a bin lorry and as he was OK, they weren't interested in how the lorry managed to hit him.

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On Monday, March 06, 2017 at 13:14, b0atman said:

On a fb sight says he pulled his boat alongside .Surely if goods can be identified then police have a case 

Not if he's eaten them already. 

Jail him for 5 days and wait for the evidence.

Otherwise, the police have nothing to go on........

 

Oh...

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13 minutes ago, Robbo said:

Tip, If you say you live on the boat the police will be more interested.  I was asked if I lived on  the boat when someone tried to break in the other year.

If you live on the boat then the offence becomes burglary, rather than theft, criminal damage etc., and it enters a different category of severity.

George ex nb Alton retired

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11 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Longbow men of old removed the strings from their bow and put it under their hat when it rained to keep it dry, otherwise it went all limp. Hence the saying ''Keep it under your hat''.

They also had their fingers chopped off

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48 minutes ago, howardang said:

I would be careful if you tell the police you live on your boat when you don't. They don't look favourably on people who tell them porkies. :)

Howard

 

Difficult one really.  There are many second home owners about, and there is no question about a break-in to bricks and mortar being crimed as burglary.

I own a house and a boat on which I spend extended periods of time.  I have no doubt that the police would prefer to crime a theft rather than a burglary as it helps the statistics, but when I am on my boat, it is my home and I would be reminding any police officer of all I have just said above should he question my report.

I speak as a former detective sergeant.

George ex nb Alton retired

 

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I have a winter mooring at Whiteley Green. I came back from 2 months abroad this morning to hear that over the weekend someone had moved my boat 2 bridges and turned it round. I presume it must have been towed? My parents received a call from CRT saying my boat was blocking the canal as whoever moved it just abandoned it. The boat wasn't broken into or the engine started. Fortunately a couple of local boaters moved it back to Whiteley Green and tied it up. All that was missing was the front mooring rope.

Very strange. I wonder if there's a connection between this and the break ins on the lower Macc?

 

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