Wheels stolen, what to do?

[mikeg996]

In the ongoing saga that is my car ownership, my wife phoned me this morning to tell me the wheels had been stolen from our 98 Mondeo. I've asked her to call the local bobbies, who most likely won't turn up as they'll be prosecuting some nasty moped rider for not displaying L-plates.

However, I was wondering what to do.

1. We could make a claim on the insurance, although I imagine the excess is around £250 so we're not going to get a huge amount back. And is it worth it in the context of no-claims, etc.?

2. Buy some second-hand wheels off of ebay. I'm rather concerned about this as (a) are the wheels going to be the correct fit, not buckled etc.; (b) surely at least 50% of the wheels on there are nicked off other people's cars? I'm just feeding the b*stards who have screwed me twice.

3. Buy a new set of wheels/tyres - quite a lot of cash on a car worth about £900!

4. Scrap the bloody thing.

[henrycrun]

Have you considered ringing a few breakers yards ? I know it can be frustrating as they often just say yes to everything in order to get you to visit.

[mikeg996]

Yup, I've spoken to a few and have found a set at £180 with tyres (not sure what make/condition).

[davido140]

I didnt think people often got away with selling stolen goods on ebay and there was a string of stories of ebay reporting "dodgey" traders to the police and a swift presecution followed, IIRC there was actually a dodgey copper selling stoeln bikes on there who had the proverbial book thrown at him.

[Mr_annie_vxr]

mikeg996 said:

In the ongoing saga that is my car ownership, my wife phoned me this morning to tell me the wheels had been stolen from our 98 Mondeo. I've asked her to call the local bobbies, who most likely won't turn up as they'll be prosecuting some nasty moped rider for not displaying L-plates.

However, I was wondering what to do.

1. We could make a claim on the insurance, although I imagine the excess is around £250 so we're not going to get a huge amount back. And is it worth it in the context of no-claims, etc.?

2. Buy some second-hand wheels off of ebay. I'm rather concerned about this as (a) are the wheels going to be the correct fit, not buckled etc.; (b) surely at least 50% of the wheels on there are nicked off other people's cars? I'm just feeding the b*stards who have screwed me twice.

3. Buy a new set of wheels/tyres - quite a lot of cash on a car worth about £900!

4. Scrap the bloody thing.

Sorry to hear about your crime. I would suggest taking a look locally as they wheels would not have gone far. Most likely the local scrap merchant/breaker or on another local car. Were the alloys special or could they have been after your tyres?

With regards the police not attending. They may or may not depending on the circs. In my force when I started I spent many a happy hour over a cup of tea as I took crime details and looked at the empty space where someone car was or the missing wheels. I didn't solve the crime but I did make them feel better. Now we tend to upon report of the theft start looking for the car or the items. We tend to put it on the briefing or if a suffucient number of wheels have gone then look to locate a possible handler or source information.

The problem is there are finite resources and infinite requirements. In my experience someone not wishing to display the L plates in about half of the the cases I have dealt with has had no insurance no licence road tax and on a few stops was riding a stolen bike.

Low level volume criminals (your volume car theives/burglars etc) tend to commit lots of traffic offences. Which they get targetted for as its accepted they will be quicker to prison for disqualified driving than for amny criminal offences.

Sorry about your loss though. I only hope they locate your wheels. It may just be worth keeping an eye out though.

[Bing o]

Mr Annie VXR said:

The problem is there are finite resources and infinite requirements.

Why not redeploy the scamerati onto small thefts - get them doing something productive. They could gather all the evidence, and let the local BiB pull in the collars.

Better than zapping people doing 36mph down a hill no?

Could be funded by the sale of recovered untraceable goods, and the victims of crime levy they have these days....

[mikeg996]

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Sorry to hear about your crime. I would suggest taking a look locally as they wheels would not have gone far. Most likely the local scrap merchant/breaker or on another local car. Were the alloys special or could they have been after your tyres?

Indeed, there's an area of "lower income inhabitants" not too far away from us, and another person on our street had his Fiesta ST wheels removed a few months back. They weren't special wheels or tyres.

Mr_annie_vxr said:

With regards the police not attending. They may or may not depending on the circs. In my force when I started I spent many a happy hour over a cup of tea as I took crime details and looked at the empty space where someone car was or the missing wheels. I didn't solve the crime but I did make them feel better. Now we tend to upon report of the theft start looking for the car or the items. We tend to put it on the briefing or if a suffucient number of wheels have gone then look to locate a possible handler or source information.

The car is going to be covered in fingerprints one would have thought. Lift a few of them off, run them through the database, pop round and see if anything turns up. Finite resources or not, it's the well-founded belief that these crimes won't be investigated that encourages people to commit them. This in turn stretches police resources even further, leading to fewer investigations, more crimes, etc., etc. However, the whole resources argument falls down when you see how much effort they put in to nicking people for "non-crimes" like speeding, etc.

Mr_annie_vxr said:

The problem is there are finite resources and infinite requirements. In my experience someone not wishing to display the L plates in about half of the the cases I have dealt with has had no insurance no licence road tax and on a few stops was riding a stolen bike.

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Sorry about your loss though. I only hope they locate your wheels. It may just be worth keeping an eye out though.

Cheers, I will keep my eyes peeled.

[Mr_annie_vxr]

Bing o said:

Mr Annie VXR said:

The problem is there are finite resources and infinite requirements.

Why not redeploy the scamerati onto small thefts - get them doing something productive. They could gather all the evidence, and let the local BiB pull in the collars.

Better than zapping people doing 36mph down a hill no?

Could be funded by the sale of recovered untraceable goods, and the victims of crime levy they have these days....

Civilians that are self-financing. Remove speeding fines then they are no longer paid for. They become another form of PCSO and further dilute the police service. I would like to see all monies from speeding fines funnelled back into traffic policing and from that an expansion of traffic back into the towns and off the motorway. Then they can start dealing more with bad driving standards and education.

I agree with limits in residential areas in the majority of cases but do think the derestricted limits could be raised and the motorway limit raised but with higher penalties for those exceeding those newer limits. Give drivers a bit more responsibility. My issue is that whilst those who post on here are often better than average drivers the vast majority see driving as nothing more that a way to get from A to B quickly and have no interest in driver improvement. Fluggy and the like may be fine at correct speed at correct time the majority would mis-use and abuse that responsibility thats whay you do need enforcement.

[catso]

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Low level volume criminals (your volume car theives/burglars etc) tend to commit lots of traffic offences. Which they get targetted for as its accepted they will be quicker to prison for disqualified driving than for amny criminal offences.

So the 'Safety' Cameras will catch the scrotes then?

I'll sleep much better knowing that.........

[Mr_annie_vxr]

mikeg996 said:

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Sorry to hear about your crime. I would suggest taking a look locally as they wheels would not have gone far. Most likely the local scrap merchant/breaker or on another local car. Were the alloys special or could they have been after your tyres?

Indeed, there's an area of "lower income inhabitants" not too far away from us, and another person on our street had his Fiesta ST wheels removed a few months back. They weren't special wheels or tyres.

Mr_annie_vxr said:

With regards the police not attending. They may or may not depending on the circs. In my force when I started I spent many a happy hour over a cup of tea as I took crime details and looked at the empty space where someone car was or the missing wheels. I didn't solve the crime but I did make them feel better. Now we tend to upon report of the theft start looking for the car or the items. We tend to put it on the briefing or if a suffucient number of wheels have gone then look to locate a possible handler or source information.

The car is going to be covered in fingerprints one would have thought. Lift a few of them off, run them through the database, pop round and see if anything turns up. Finite resources or not, it's the well-founded belief that these crimes won't be investigated that encourages people to commit them. This in turn stretches police resources even further, leading to fewer investigations, more crimes, etc., etc. However, the whole resources argument falls down when you see how much effort they put in to nicking people for "non-crimes" like speeding, etc.

Mr_annie_vxr said:

The problem is there are finite resources and infinite requirements. In my experience someone not wishing to display the L plates in about half of the the cases I have dealt with has had no insurance no licence road tax and on a few stops was riding a stolen bike.

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Sorry about your loss though. I only hope they locate your wheels. It may just be worth keeping an eye out though.

Cheers, I will keep my eyes peeled.

Its a common misunderstanding with what forensics can do these days (thanks to CSI). Also in the good old days it meant something if you had prints on the car. Now with clever briefs that just claim they walked past and must have put hands on it as it looked odd without wheels. The exterior surface of a car is not easy to get prints from depending on time passed/weather/ location. If the car is on a public street fingerprints whilst being an indication would never lead to a prosecution unless the offender admitted it. Even if they were known to us as a well known wheel thief we could not use that as evidence to support a prosection alone ( Im not going into evidence of bad character).

[Mr_annie_vxr]

catso said:

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Low level volume criminals (your volume car theives/burglars etc) tend to commit lots of traffic offences. Which they get targetted for as its accepted they will be quicker to prison for disqualified driving than for amny criminal offences.

So the 'Safety' Cameras will catch the scrotes then?

I'll sleep much better knowing that.........

I'm not suggesting that. taking my quote out of context somewhat there. I was talking about police pulling over people in person. I never mentioned safety cameras.

[Mr_annie_vxr]

Oh and the police put very few resources into speeding. Last ticket I gave was about 7 years ago. The camera partnerships which are largely self-financing and do not draw many resources from the police deal with speeding. Officers will often only be deployed to particular areas after complaints from the public. I have little or no interest in speeding per se unless its done dangerously or is at a particular level I feel is unacceptable.

[mikeg996]

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Its a common misunderstanding with what forensics can do these days (thanks to CSI). Also in the good old days it meant something if you had prints on the car. Now with clever briefs that just claim they walked past and must have put hands on it as it looked odd without wheels. The exterior surface of a car is not easy to get prints from depending on time passed/weather/ location. If the car is on a public street fingerprints whilst being an indication would never lead to a prosecution unless the offender admitted it. Even if they were known to us as a well known wheel thief we could not use that as evidence to support a prosection alone ( Im not going into evidence of bad character).

I was more thinking that such fingerprints could be used to pay a visit to said person, and discover a big pile of wheels in their back yard. But anyway, this is all meta-discussion, as nothing is going to be done about it. Criminals 1-0 Society.

[Bing o]

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Bing o said:

Mr Annie VXR said:

The problem is there are finite resources and infinite requirements.

Why not redeploy the scamerati onto small thefts - get them doing something productive. They could gather all the evidence, and let the local BiB pull in the collars.

Better than zapping people doing 36mph down a hill no?

Could be funded by the sale of recovered untraceable goods, and the victims of crime levy they have these days....

Civilians that are self-financing. Remove speeding fines then they are no longer paid for. They become another form of PCSO and further dilute the police service. I would like to see all monies from speeding fines funnelled back into traffic policing and from that an expansion of traffic back into the towns and off the motorway. Then they can start dealing more with bad driving standards and education.

I stated how they would be funded - tax the little scroats in court, and use the sale of unidentifiable stolen goods to pay for them to do the leg work.

Mr Annie VXR said:

I agree with limits in residential areas in the majority of cases but do think the derestricted limits could be raised and the motorway limit raised but with higher penalties for those exceeding those newer limits. Give drivers a bit more responsibility. My issue is that whilst those who post on here are often better than average drivers the vast majority see driving as nothing more that a way to get from A to B quickly and have no interest in driver improvement. Fluggy and the like may be fine at correct speed at correct time the majority would mis-use and abuse that responsibility thats whay you do need enforcement.

This is nothing to do with the speeding debate, as tired and worn out as that one is, this is about why the police no longer attend "petty thefts" (the OP could lose his car effectively, not "petty" in my eyes), and trying to come up with a solution.

Clearly this administration values getting the middle class' money off them for minor speeding transgressions in the name of "safety", whilst they let society disintegrate as petty criminals run wild, free from censure or justice, feeding their drug habits and scrounging off the state.

Not in my name, not ever...

[Mr_annie_vxr]

Bing o said:

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Bing o said:

Mr Annie VXR said:

The problem is there are finite resources and infinite requirements.

Why not redeploy the scamerati onto small thefts - get them doing something productive. They could gather all the evidence, and let the local BiB pull in the collars.

Better than zapping people doing 36mph down a hill no?

Could be funded by the sale of recovered untraceable goods, and the victims of crime levy they have these days....

Civilians that are self-financing. Remove speeding fines then they are no longer paid for. They become another form of PCSO and further dilute the police service. I would like to see all monies from speeding fines funnelled back into traffic policing and from that an expansion of traffic back into the towns and off the motorway. Then they can start dealing more with bad driving standards and education.

I stated how they would be funded - tax the little scroats in court, and use the sale of unidentifiable stolen goods to pay for them to do the leg work.

Mr Annie VXR said:

I agree with limits in residential areas in the majority of cases but do think the derestricted limits could be raised and the motorway limit raised but with higher penalties for those exceeding those newer limits. Give drivers a bit more responsibility. My issue is that whilst those who post on here are often better than average drivers the vast majority see driving as nothing more that a way to get from A to B quickly and have no interest in driver improvement. Fluggy and the like may be fine at correct speed at correct time the majority would mis-use and abuse that responsibility thats whay you do need enforcement.

This is nothing to do with the speeding debate, as tired and worn out as that one is, this is about why the police no longer attend "petty thefts" (the OP could lose his car effectively, not "petty" in my eyes), and trying to come up with a solution.

Clearly this administration values getting the middle class' money off them for minor speeding transgressions in the name of "safety", whilst they let society disintegrate as petty criminals run wild, free from censure or justice, feeding their drug habits and scrounging off the state.

Not in my name, not ever...

They may or may not attend depending on the circumstances. It depends on what is or not to be gained from attending. Personaly I'd rather spend my time not looking at an empty gap in the road but trying to locate the stolen items or disrupting local criminals. When I first started we spent a lot of time with victims and very little time looking for offenders and finding the property. Most police areas where I work only have between 8-12 patrols covering 240 square miles with a population of about 350,000. There are at any time 40 -60 incidents that demand attendance and we can get up to 3 or 4 calls for the area in a minute. Incidents are prioritised and those that we can gain evidence at we attend those that we would ot gain eveidence or futher the investigation at other than spend half an hour driving to it and then back to put the report on we don't. Its no ideal but due to the growing demands ( we spend days looking for 'missing' teenagers) upon the limited resource unfortuntely speaking one on one with victims has gone. While you may think more investigation was done in the past the outcome was still the same. FIled. We identify more criminals and arrest more people than ever before with safer convictions.

None of us pretend its ideal but we work within our resource limitations. Peoples perception of what is or is not done is often not accurate. Thats where we fall down we don't communicate with the victims as well as we should and explain steps that are bein taken and why. Victims have a perception of what we should/should not do with incidents based on television or what the papers say. I find if you explain the reasoning behind actions often victims do feel they have received proportionate response. The problem with the police service is we do not publicise our success but our failures are seen far and wide. We have a lot more success than failure.

[mikeg996]

Thanks for everybody's input. I just wanted to ask that you please don't turn this into an attack on Mr_annie_vxr, who has been kind enough to offer his thoughts and views. It's not his fault that so many of us perceive the legal system to be in a very bad way!

I hear from my wife that the bodywork has also been damaged, unsure whether to pay £180 for a new set of wheels/tyres, and get the bodywork repaired, or just ditch the thing.

[jacko lah]

There's a mondeo owners forum /club. I thought about buying a 4x4 si Circa N reg non running off my work and went and had a look. You'll find someone with wheels there.

[mikeg996]

jacko lah said:

There's a mondeo owners forum /club. I thought about buying a 4x4 si Circa N reg non running off my work and went and had a look. You'll find someone with wheels there.

EDIT: found it, thanks

Edited by mikeg996 on Thursday 28th June 12:07

[Mr_annie_vxr]

mikeg996 said:

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Its a common misunderstanding with what forensics can do these days (thanks to CSI). Also in the good old days it meant something if you had prints on the car. Now with clever briefs that just claim they walked past and must have put hands on it as it looked odd without wheels. The exterior surface of a car is not easy to get prints from depending on time passed/weather/ location. If the car is on a public street fingerprints whilst being an indication would never lead to a prosecution unless the offender admitted it. Even if they were known to us as a well known wheel thief we could not use that as evidence to support a prosection alone ( Im not going into evidence of bad character).

I was more thinking that such fingerprints could be used to pay a visit to said person, and discover a big pile of wheels in their back yard. But anyway, this is all meta-discussion, as nothing is going to be done about it. Criminals 1-0 Society.

Potentialy. Depends on what the surface is like / rain etc and what other crime happened. In my area what soco attends depends on what else happened the night before. Serious assaults go first followed by burglaries then theft of,then theft from then damage. We only have a small number of soco's so depending on the nightime crime they do sometimes attend this. Did they leave any items at scene? jack? wrench?

Edited by Mr_annie_vxr on Thursday 28th June 12:11

[catso]

Mr_annie_vxr said:

I'm not suggesting that. taking my quote out of context somewhat there. I was talking about police pulling over people in person. I never mentioned safety cameras.

Sorry, I couldn't resist the cheap shot, but I am concerned that the 'Criminals commit many motoring offences' line is being used as an excuse to clamp down on minor transgressions which we all make and the majority of us are not 'criminals' (well unless the definition of a 'criminal' now extends to those who occasionally exceed speed limits). A 'clever' criminal would ensure that he did not commit any motoring offences

I realise that you are one of the 'good guys'