Caught a car keyer on my CCTV

[beeej]

After my neighbours' cars were scratched 6 months ago, I setup an external nightvision IP Camera on our behalf, and low and behold this week it paid off. Cars down street were scratched a second time. I went through the footage and I've found the lowlife. It's daylight footage and its brazen not concealed - looks unambiguous to me. As before, I've logged the incident with 101.

If the perp turns out to be a juvenile - he looks like he might be - what's the likely outcome? He apologises, the street sucks up the insurance costs a second time?

Whether the perp is or is not a juvenile, if local plod fail to investigate or identify, is there any comeback on me if I use fb/twitter?

There's a story of this nature on the Daily Hate. Footage was posted on fb, perp was identified, guilty in court, costs paid up, and also named and shamed in national press. Helluva way to regret a few silly seconds.

[beeej]

That's fine. As I said, I installed the thing as a result of previous vandalism. And now I have evidence, just NFI who it is and would like local plod to, um, respond to the incident?

[beeej]

A PCSO has now visited, and I swapped a DVD-R for an autographed evidence chit.

Here's some stills of the perp/twerp:

1. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqTO3l2WEAAxZbN.jpg
2. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqTO4DRXYAAydyJ.jpg
3. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqTO4xBWgAA1fsa.jpg

Fingers crossed he (or his girl pals) can be identified.

[beeej]

Wot no frozen sausages hammered in his lawn?! This place has changed.

[beeej]

Update: Police identified a girl who has named the boy. Possibly not a first offender. Hopefully that means court.

Social media were late to the game. A local FB group has a thread hotter than the sun. It has escalated messily with the boy's Mum saying "he only scratched one car, the girls scratched the rest, if only you had footage of it you'd see" - well, like that, only in fullcaps without the spelling or grammar.

Then the girls in the footage chip in and say he's lying. And the Mum says NO SEE YOU'VE ONLY GOT STILLS SEE. Where does she think the stills are from?! Solid gold. Ongoing. Messy. I'm not posting, obviously.

[beeej]

hora said:

OP he looks about 13-15? DONT let this go to Restorative Justice/the RJ route. It's criminal damage.

Can you elaborate?
What other options [for him] are there?

[beeej]

Okay, let's try to get this back on topic. An update from me is that the boy who keyed the cars is just 12. He is already known to authorities, and local plod are pretty pleased about the footage. We've been asked to go to the station to make statements, so that he can be charged (are juveniles charged?) for each vehicle he damaged.

Of the 6 cars he scratched, just 3 are shown in footage. Would a judge be happy that on balance, he scratched all 6? I guess so. If the girls he was with say that he did, the combination of witness statements from them plus the video from my camera is pretty compelling.

I get the impression from what the police are saying that this would go to court - I have no clue how that works for a kid - and there is no talk of this saying sorry first offence liberal huggy stuff.

[beeej]

Went to the station today to make a statement. "I did not give anybody permission to damage my car". The PC used a phone with a USB keyboard! Mental. Took about an hour. Either way I feel like I've done my good citizen bit. The CCTV footage that I burned to CD-R plus some blown up stills are in as evidence.

[beeej]

The boy is going to juvenile court.

From my POV, this was the best possible outcome.

I've been given some additional forms to fill in (as have the neighbours) relating to compensation. Should we expect anything? Or is this a red herring as his parent will not be able to pay.

[beeej]

9 months since the boy scratched the cars in the street, and the neighbours and I have - somewhat out of the blue as things have been very quiet and we didn't want to create work for the tiny plod presence in our town - we have received letters from the courts awarding compensation. This is not something I've been through before, so here's the "Orders" section of the letter:

"On 18th August at <my town> without lawful excuse, damaged <a motor vehicle> to the value of £420 belonging to <me> intending to destroy or damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be destroyed or damaged. Compensation order made: £110."

We're all pretty chuffed that this got to court in the end. Feels like closure! As neighbours we agree that the token £1/month we might now receive trickling into our accounts is better spent on us, errrr, middle-class victims, than on his KFC or his vaping or his phone contract.

So thanks for reading since my original post, and now I build up to my grand finale... JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED!

Edited by beeej on Friday 12th May 18:46

[beeej]

The boy is 12, broken home, single parent family, expelled from normal school so at whichever sink school the difficult kids go to.

Me and the other victims on the street? We have jobs, cars, happy lives.

If you think perhaps that the complete estimated cost of all damage to all cars should have been given to a 12 year old boy in a household with minimum wage income at best, you sir are an idiot.