Car "entered" without keys in NCP in Manchester - oddness

[thetapeworm]

Me and my wife went to a concert at the O2 Ritz in Manchester last night and parked at the Palace NCP just before 18:00 - on coming back to the car at ~23:00 we noticed something on the floor of the car that was previously in the glove box but thought it had just fallen out and drove home.

On the way back we kept noticing more and more things, the CDs we'd listened to on the way weren't where we left them, items from the bottom of the glove box were on the top (my wife's car, it's full of crap), it just wasn't as we left it.

The car (an '02 Honda CRV) was locked when we left it and locked when we returned, no sign of forced entry or the alarm having gone off and no valuables taken (it turned out my wife had left her passport, bank card, council tax bill, birth certificate, marriage certificate in there from having it all copied earlier in the week) but there was something missing - a 1/4 full pack of out of date M&S sweets that was in the glove box. The "trolley pound" was still there, ~50 CDs were left, an expensive pair of sunglasses was moved and left, my Roadhawk camera wasn't touched (but sadly only records when the ignition is on)... they even left my daughters lunch box I'd forgotten to take out, this has food in so I presume they just wanted sweets. Diabetic in a panic perhaps?

I don't actually know why I'm posting this other than to just get it out of my system, I feel lucky and utterly bemused by this. I've reached out to the NCP in question to see if they know of any other incidents last night and to see if they have any CCTV but otherwise I guess we just move on, leave less in the car and park elsewhere in future? Should it be reported to the police in case of any issues in the future (like they have cloned my wife, the horror!) or not?

Cool story bro etc I guess.

As an aside if anyone in Manchester is offered any black market M&S British Pudding Sweets please let me know.

[thetapeworm]

I can't say for sure that I 100% locked it but it would be very unlike me to not do so, especially when out in the badlands of Manchester on an evening. The car also locks itself after a short time if the keys aren't in it (very annoying at times) - it was locked when we came back though, the hazards don't flash if you try to unlock it when it already is and the "clunk" of the door solenoids is different.

I've been playing with locking / unlocking this morning just to make sure all the doors are closing properly (they are) - a ratty old Honda just seems like such an odd target but I'm guessing its age means it's also an easy one due to poor security and they don't care about the car as such, just the potential of what's inside.

I just find the whole thing bizarre.

[thetapeworm]

Just know that I pre-licked all those sweets

I've reached out to NCP to see if they can offer any input but no response as yet. In hindsight parking near the stairwell was probably a bad move in a car park anyone can enter from the street but things could have been worse.

[thetapeworm]

TooMany2cvs said:

thetapeworm said:

I can't say for sure that I 100% locked it but it would be very unlike me to not do so, especially when out in the badlands of Manchester on an evening.

You may well have plipped the key, but if you didn't look for the flash, a jammer would mean it didn't lock.

thetapeworm said:

The car also locks itself after a short time if the keys aren't in it (very annoying at times)

By which time, they've already been through it. The door was probably open before you were out of sight, but you didn't look back. They finish rummaging, shut the door, it pauses, it locks itself. You come back, it's locked and you don't think any more.

All potentially very true and I'll certainly pay more attention in future as well as having much less in the car, I'm just glad we seem to have escaped with no damage and no loss of items, I really fancy a sweet now though. They left the chewing gum and water thankfully.

[thetapeworm]

Alucidnation said:

I struggle to believe that any scrote ransacking a car will make sure he replaces everything tidily when he\she is done.

That's why we didn't notice at first and I accused my wife of messing things up when she put her sunglasses in the glove box - further checks just kept picking up other small changes though, like the CDs being on top of the USB cigarette lighter charger rather than under and long-forgotten glove box items now being on top. Had they actually been completely OCD we would never have known but it was a relief they didn't just toss everything.

Hol said:

Have you ever seen a film called enemy of the state?

Does you wife also go by the name Janet Bourne??

I'm going to keep a much closer eye on her in future.

[thetapeworm]

TwistingMyMelon said:

TBH just sounds like nothing happened, you just noticed something out of place, then used confirmation bias to explain the rest

As a result of binge eating the sweets? An elaborate way of getting my wife to blame someone else? Interesting.

[thetapeworm]

wack said:

thetapeworm said:

I've reached out to NCP to see if they can offer any input

If you were close enough to reach out you should have just spoken to them

You're right, I should have spent more time trying to find someone on site at the time but there was nobody around and we didn't really work out the extent of things until we were on our way home, to begin with it just looked as though something had fallen out of the glove box.

Still no response from them via email, I can't get through on the phone, their online chat only works in office hours but their office hours don't seem to include 8am > 10pm and their Twitter feed has been dead for years.

[thetapeworm]

NCP finally responded, apparently they have no CCTV and have advised I should report this to the police.

I haven't and don't plan to, I will be parking elsewhere in future though.