Symbols to watch out for on your house
Discussion
Many years ago I had an alarm salesman visit us at home, I was young and stupid at the time.
They did a "security assesment" and then tried to sell us an alarm at some stupid price.
The security assessment was simply to apply some crazy scare tactics with tales of various robberies he had hear of, a good way to sell an alarm.
One of these tactics was these symbols and how houses are "marked" by theifs.
Low and behold, next day when I left the house there was a big "X" scribed into our front door. The b
d obviously did it when he arrived. I ended up being late for work as I had to get the paint brush out to cover it up.
They did a "security assesment" and then tried to sell us an alarm at some stupid price.
The security assessment was simply to apply some crazy scare tactics with tales of various robberies he had hear of, a good way to sell an alarm.
One of these tactics was these symbols and how houses are "marked" by theifs.
Low and behold, next day when I left the house there was a big "X" scribed into our front door. The b
d obviously did it when he arrived. I ended up being late for work as I had to get the paint brush out to cover it up. 
They'll print anything wont they.
I enjoyed looking at the tweets on the Torbay Twitter Account saying firstly that the symbols may be used by a small team of local crims and not the entire criminal fraternity (there is no nationwide criminal union of course) oh and they'd hadn't actually seen any of those symbols themselves, but if anyone does call us on 101 (PLEASE!! We're looking like idiots).
I imagine half of Daily Mail readers are desperately painting a big 'D' on their house now (apart from PH's drawing flowers of course).
I have no idea if the DM is talking out of its arse but I do have experience of this, it definitely used to happen.
In the mid eighties there where about 8 blocks of flats, 20 floors or so each in and around the Butchers Road/Freemasons Road area of Canning Town. They were all due to be demolished and about 20 percent of the occupants had moved out already, the places were very run down and rough. My company had the contract to clear the flats out of all rubbish and furniture after they had been vacated so we ended up being in and around them very regularly for about a year. The burglary rates where very high, no security doors or camera systems in them days and they experienced constant break-ins.
One day I noticed something scribbled very faintly in pencil on the door frame of one of the flats, it looked like this:
2
xxx
After a while we started noticing them next to each flat, more usually on the wall about 3 feet from the door, very faint and hard to spot, like this:
4
xx
We were working in a flat one day when a few coppers rushed in after a neighbour reported somebody banging about next door(happens from time to time in my line of work).
After telling them why we were there and getting chatting they explained the system.
House breaker goes to each flat at a certain time on a week day, say 2 o'clock and knocks. If the tenant answers they say "Does Gary live here" or some other nonsense to cover themselves. If there is no answer they scribble 2 with an x below it. They would then go back at the same time the next day and try again. Once they had three x's they could be pretty confident that it was safe to rob the place at this time.
Not rocket science but it worked for them. The police said they just rubbed them off when they came across them because they didn't have the resources to plot up on a given property at the right time.
/Edited because I'm getting old and senile, it wasn't the early nineties, it was the mid/late eighties, where did that 25 years go!
In the mid eighties there where about 8 blocks of flats, 20 floors or so each in and around the Butchers Road/Freemasons Road area of Canning Town. They were all due to be demolished and about 20 percent of the occupants had moved out already, the places were very run down and rough. My company had the contract to clear the flats out of all rubbish and furniture after they had been vacated so we ended up being in and around them very regularly for about a year. The burglary rates where very high, no security doors or camera systems in them days and they experienced constant break-ins.
One day I noticed something scribbled very faintly in pencil on the door frame of one of the flats, it looked like this:
2
xxx
After a while we started noticing them next to each flat, more usually on the wall about 3 feet from the door, very faint and hard to spot, like this:
4
xx
We were working in a flat one day when a few coppers rushed in after a neighbour reported somebody banging about next door(happens from time to time in my line of work).
After telling them why we were there and getting chatting they explained the system.
House breaker goes to each flat at a certain time on a week day, say 2 o'clock and knocks. If the tenant answers they say "Does Gary live here" or some other nonsense to cover themselves. If there is no answer they scribble 2 with an x below it. They would then go back at the same time the next day and try again. Once they had three x's they could be pretty confident that it was safe to rob the place at this time.
Not rocket science but it worked for them. The police said they just rubbed them off when they came across them because they didn't have the resources to plot up on a given property at the right time.
/Edited because I'm getting old and senile, it wasn't the early nineties, it was the mid/late eighties, where did that 25 years go!
Edited by br d on Thursday 10th January 11:12
P-Jay said:
They'll print anything wont they.
I enjoyed looking at the tweets on the Torbay Twitter Account saying firstly that the symbols may be used by a small team of local crims and not the entire criminal fraternity (there is no nationwide criminal union of course) oh and they'd hadn't actually seen any of those symbols themselves, but if anyone does call us on 101 (PLEASE!! We're looking like idiots).
I imagine half of Daily Mail readers are desperately painting a big 'D' on their house now (apart from PH's drawing flowers of course).
I suppose this sort of thing can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There’s actually something akin to it going on in my home town at the moment, I'm not sure how many PH's are on Facebook, I know it's not PH cool to admit it, anyway my FB has been full of messages "please cut and paste!!11!!" and "like" and all that nonsense about a man trying to abduct children from outside of local schools.
The story changes regularly from a certain area to another, and the description varies wildly from short fat, to tall thin and everywhere in between and he's been seen driving everything from a pick-up, to a Van to a Fiesta and he's been actively grabbing kids pretty much every week since the middle of last term, he must have poor grip because they've managed to escape at the last moment every time.
I don't believe a word of it, as the local police weren't contacted, it seems the parents were too busy posting about in on FB to call 999 and report an attempted abduction.
Eventually the Police, probably under the weight of enquires from the public and local press about what they were doing about it, put out a statement saying they were "investigating reports of attempted abductions from local schools" and Facebook glows white hot with people posting it up and saying "seee! seee! It really happened!" The panic grew to such a level that when the Police asked for help locating a man with learning difficulties who had approached young women asking inappropriate questions (not terrible, just naive) it was pitch forks at dawn.
There’s actually something akin to it going on in my home town at the moment, I'm not sure how many PH's are on Facebook, I know it's not PH cool to admit it, anyway my FB has been full of messages "please cut and paste!!11!!" and "like" and all that nonsense about a man trying to abduct children from outside of local schools.
The story changes regularly from a certain area to another, and the description varies wildly from short fat, to tall thin and everywhere in between and he's been seen driving everything from a pick-up, to a Van to a Fiesta and he's been actively grabbing kids pretty much every week since the middle of last term, he must have poor grip because they've managed to escape at the last moment every time.
I don't believe a word of it, as the local police weren't contacted, it seems the parents were too busy posting about in on FB to call 999 and report an attempted abduction.
Eventually the Police, probably under the weight of enquires from the public and local press about what they were doing about it, put out a statement saying they were "investigating reports of attempted abductions from local schools" and Facebook glows white hot with people posting it up and saying "seee! seee! It really happened!" The panic grew to such a level that when the Police asked for help locating a man with learning difficulties who had approached young women asking inappropriate questions (not terrible, just naive) it was pitch forks at dawn.
colonel c said:
LOL. That's *exactly* what I was thinking but thought I should read the whole thread in case someone beat me to it. Clearly you did. 
There's nothing like professional journolism is there, and this is definately nothing like professional journolism is it.
Whilst this is obviousley in the Urban Legend (read crap) file, why in gods name hasnt anyone stopped to think (Dm readers not posters here,although sometimes they are one and the same
) as to why would criminals want to tell other criminals what are good targets?
I mean, criminals, being erm, criminals would surely want it all for themselves, they're not generally known for their altruistic behaviour are they, even towards other crims, and thats because they're criminals.
DM really plums the depths doesnt it, Sam Webb who 'wrote' that should be ashamed.
Whilst this is obviousley in the Urban Legend (read crap) file, why in gods name hasnt anyone stopped to think (Dm readers not posters here,although sometimes they are one and the same
) as to why would criminals want to tell other criminals what are good targets? I mean, criminals, being erm, criminals would surely want it all for themselves, they're not generally known for their altruistic behaviour are they, even towards other crims, and thats because they're criminals.
DM really plums the depths doesnt it, Sam Webb who 'wrote' that should be ashamed.
Dracoro said:
mybrainhurts said:
Dracoro said:
Really is pathetic tabloid rag.
That supports us against speed cameras.Surely you're sufficiently intelligent to ignore the crap they have to print in order to generate sales and stay alive?
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