Police

[Oma]

A few weeks ago my next door neighbour ( not the one with mental health) the other side neighbour,
She had been out with friends and dropped a friend off,

On the way home she came to traffic lights and there was a small white van in front with no lights on,
She was about to flash to warn him when the van reversed ramming her and two men all in black with balaclava 's on and carrying Machete's jumped out and tried to open her car door ,

Luckily her doors were locked so she put the car in reverse and sped away and they ran after her,
She was able to do a quick turn and go down side roads to get away,
When she was safe she phoned the police.

Yesterday they called her to say that the van was obviously stolen no tax or insurance and although they had managed to arrest two of the men as they found DNA in the van the CPS had decided there was no substantial evidence that actually put them at the scene of the crime only that at some point they had used the van.
No clothing or weapons were recovered.

She did have dash cam but as they were all in black with their faces fully covered they couldn't be identified.

Her insurance now has to cover the repairs to her car and cost of a hire car while it was being repaired.

The police who attended said they had no doubt that the ones they took in for questioning was those involved but they couldn't prove it.

She is now reluctant to go out at night and is very conscious of her surroundings now,
In a way that's not a bad thing but the trauma is still with her.

I have told DD and GS to always have their doors locked from now on.

[Lizzie48]

That is awful Oma, the thing is here, we are told not to lock car doors because of all the water.

[Oma]

It's scary Lizzie
On one hand I think safety first then I think what if I was in a accident and they needed to get the door open quickly ?
I know they can break the glass but it's a dilemma isn't it.

I don't think I would have had her instinct to reverse ,
She said she just went into auto mode and doesn't know how she did it.

[Daisy]

Oma, what an awful, scary thing to happen. No wonder your neighbour is reluctant to go out in the dark now. She acted very quickly to reverse and get away from them. My car doors lock automatically as soon as the car starts to move forward but I think I would lock my doors anyway, especially the passenger and back doors.

Our neighbour had a nasty incident right in our road a couple of weeks ago. She had pulled in behind a stationary Transit van as another vehicle approached. The Transit reversed into her deliberately then said it was her fault. Fortunately a workman on a nearby house had seen what happened and said the van had been cruising round our road, looking suspicious. The van driver refused to exchange details with our neighbour, so the workman called the Police. But very unpleasant for our lovely neighbour.

While we're thinking about such things, I remember advice given to me. If a police car follows you and tries to flag you down, especially at night, drive to the nearest "safe" place, like a petrol station before stopping because it may not actually be a police car. There was a spate of such incidents in our area and very scary for women on their own at night.

[Oma]

These people try anything Daisy,
These that brake stop on motorway's and roads are out for a insurance claim , that's why dash cams are great gadgets.
I hope the van driver stayed till the police came.
The police traced the van by the number plate she had caught on her dash cam , it had been dumped in an industrial estate.

[Gemini]

Oh how scary Oma. Thank goodness she was OK. No wonder it has made her nervous.
I always lock my car doors when driving , day or night. I am afraid of someone getting in at traffic lights or something!

[Plantaholic]

Very scary indeed.

[Clover]

How traumatic for the poor lady.I’m so glad she had the presence of mind to reverse and get away. I hope she does get some confidence back.

[Daisy]

Oma, I think you're right about dash cams being useful. We really must get them for our cars, before something happens!

I don't know if the van driver stayed or not, Oma, but both my neighbour and the workman had got the number of the van. Just lately we seem to be getting a lot of dodgy characters lurking round our area. Someone had an e-bike stolen recently from right outside their front door in broad daylight. It was caught on their Ring doorbell. He just walked up, jumped on the bike and rode off very quickly. That was another day when a van had been seen lurking round our road. We have hardly any street lighting and I think it will only get worse with the dark nights.

[Oma]

A lot of these are looking for parcels left outside we were warned about a blue car going around our estate,
Someone had caught them on their ring doorbell got a good picture of the man and the car and the woman driving, they put it on face book.
Several people named them so I hope they were arrested.

[Daisy]

That's one of the advantages of social media! Our WhatsApp and FB village groups are really useful for passing on useful information like that.

[Lizzie48]

Oma, the faces on Facebook etc wouldn't be allowed over here! No camera's in the city centres etc and IF anything is caught on the private camera's of bars etc they have to go to court to be able to use the film.

[Lizzie48]

I was trying to add something to my post, it is in the British papers today about an elderly lady trying to stop someone using the same gate as her at a metro station in Amsterdam, he pushed her really hard, this was in May and only now are the police allowed to use the video.

[Daisy]

Lizzie, that must make it much harder to the police to find culprits. It's quite common here for CCTV footage of suspects to be shown on social media or even broadcast media. People caught accidentally on the same footage might have their faces blurred out, but that is all.

[Lizzie48]

Strange really how it all works in other countries. Because of the privacy law here there are never names given in any reports published, just the name of the place where they live, unless it is a murder, but then the name isn't always published.