Some weeks back, happily sitting by a door of a train to Toulouse, a bunch of Police popped in the carriage looking for someone,. Not finding him/her, they grouped by the door until the next station.
One of them lent down and in perfect English advised me to be careful of my watch in public. Why these guys seem to know I am English without me saying a word will always amaze me, but to the point - yes I am, or was, lucky enough to have a nice watch, but worryingly, only the winder and part of the bezel was visible outside the sleeve of my jacket, it is alarming that such a small detail is so noticeable…
I told him that I was only going to Toulouse where it is all safe and a nice place to be in… He and a female colleague laughed, wished it were so, but between them they named five people residing in the district between the station and the Capitole who would happily use a machete to get a watch a tenth of the value of mine.
Maybe my age, but for some reason it hit a chord! I took heed. The watch is now gone in favour of a steel one.
Watching Sky news this morning, a wise move. Did anyone see the feature on the rising crime of watch thefts in London? And the video footage of some muggings? Frightening. My thanks to the cops on the train that morning!
It is a sad state of affairs that we are in where we are prevented from having anything nice that we have worked hard for without attracting an attack on one’s person.
These sort of personal crimes are becoming more andmore prevalent amongst those who see people with nice things and want them for themselves or to sell for drugs or arms. Several prominent sportspersons have been targets this year mostly for expensive watches but then, they do tend to flaunt them on social media and then wonder why. Its got to the stage now where people who have probably worked hard and bought themselves something expensive from that hard work are being hit. A lot of these robbers wouldn’t think twice about hacking off a wrist to get at the goods either. NO city is safe any more regardless of what people may think, there is an underbelly of crime everywhere now, maybe not prominent in some places but its there all right.
I shall never forget when, at the age of 10, three of my so-called mates from school, who’d come round to play at my home where I showed them mum’s great cigarette card collection (great smoker was mum), broke in when we were away on a Sunday by climbing up to the top of a bombed out house further up the street, made their way across rooftops to our roof, opened the hatch, managed to lower the ladder, and stole the whole collection, and nothing else. We lived in a rough part of London in the late 40s early 50s.
I’m a sensitive bloke who can easily lose faith in people.
Big City blues @Adam1 , here in the boonies we lock nothing away and the only reason I lock the car is to prevent well meaning people opening a door to stroke the dogs. Jules is safe in a cage but little Opie, 13 year old Lab girl, would be out the door in a flash and, as she moves for nobody, might well get run over.
This topic brought back another memory of theft in the 50s, climbing up the spiral staircase of a London double-decker bus, just ahead of my grandfather. I got to the top and waited for him – he was halfway up - when a man pushed past me and went down, blocking my grandfather’s way, who was impeded by another man coming up behind him. After a bit of a tussle on the staircase my grandfather managed to join me and we both sat down.
He looked for his wallet, couldn’t find it, and then said he’d been pickpocketed on the staircase. I think pickpockets still work in pairs.
I consider fleas and mosquitos to be parasites but there’s nothing worse than human parasites IMO.
Years ago, a French friend, waiting by the doors to get off the Paris metro, had his expensive prescription glasses taken off his nose by someone when the doors opened onto the platform !
Much the same here David, hell, I have even forgotten to take the keys out of my car sometimes! This makes it so much more sad that I must be aware of reality, despite it being near my doorstep.
My wife’s family were in Paris, well before I had met them. They were surrounded by children who jostled them and separated the father from the rest of the family, then left rapidly. He had just lost his wallet and (IIRC) passport. That would have been early 70s.
Theft from individuals is, sadly, entirely normal.
A favourite pickpocket method on the Paris metro and RER is a "distraction ", eg someone hassling/begging people for money (normally a young woman with a screaming baby). It only takes a second
Hanging car keys by the front door is dangerous too.
Thieves use wires to poke through the letter box and unhook them.
I know someone who had their Range Rover taken in this way in London.
Before anyone says anything, their main home is in the country.
An old friend of mine who’s a very well-travelled international art curator, has two Rolexes, one he inherited a long time ago from his father and a cheap fake one that he bought in HK about thirty years ago that is first choice whenever he’s going somewhere a bit dodgy. Apparently the fake keeps very good time…
That happened to my brother whilst they were all asleep upstairs. Car and pickup both taken and they never heard a sound! Pickup found a few days later abandoned but damaged and the car not found until about a year later when my brother received a bill for a car being kept in a car pound for months. He had it written off by the insurers as it was damaged and also the charge. A long while later a gang in the Luton area were arrested and it was found to have been them committing the thefts in the area my brother lived as he was one of several victims in the same vicinity.
I was laughing at myself today because when I took the dogs with me for my haircut rdv I parked the car in occasional sunshine, wound both front windows down out of sight and locked the car as I walked away.
My thoughts were that to all intents and purposes the locked car had very clean windows.
First time I’ve heard of watch crime, for a while now I’ve been umming and arring about treating myself to a Breitling Navitimer.
My sister had her Ford Sierra RS Cosworth stolen when the police found it a couple of days later it had been stripped of the engine gear box wheels etc. Insurance right off. Three years later the police came to the house asking for my sister as her the same car had recently been involved in some sort of serious crime in London and wanted to know what she knew about it. The car had been cloned.
