"T i m" wrote in message
...

No insurance. We've paid out thousands over the years, we decided that it
wasn't worth it.

I take it you don't drive then? no buildings or contents insurance?

Sorry, I meant buildings and contents insurance. I thought everyone round
here knew that :-)

Of course we have car and scooter insurance, we're law abiding.

Ours is the only house in
the street without a burglar alarm. Perhaps we're wrong.

Perhaps you have been lucky?

Or perhaps we don't have the things which people want.

People don't always know that you haven't got anything worth stealing
.. and don't know that you would be friendly to them if you met them
face to face in your house at night?

I reckon that all the local lads know everythng in our house. I've said that
the house is locked at night - when we remember.


'His' valuables .. and they needn't be 'valuable' in the commercial
sense?

Who would want 'uncommercial' valuables?

Who would want to key a car?

Um, I don't know what that means.


I can hear the doorbell when I leave the key on the inside of our
front door and 'she' wants to get in. But with our multipoint locking
you have to lock the door to stop someone just walking in anytime?

But who's going to do that?

*I* don't know their names but the Police have a list of those who
regularly do and a bigger list of those they want to find out about?

I wasn't asking for names :-) I do think it's easy to exaggerate risks.
Recently there was a public meeting about a local ginnel which some folk
want closed. I shan't go into the details but someone said that it was
dangerous, people were scared of being mugged and raped every time they
walked through the ginnel. The police were there. I asked them how many
people had been mugged or raped in the ginnel in its seventy year history.

None.

But people are mugged on the main road, someone was shot and killed a couple
of years ago. No-one suggests closing that and people walk along it.

Look, Tim, I'm certainly not saying that you and your ladies are wrong or
that I'm right, it's just different points of view. My personal take is that
I wouldn't want to be looking over my shoulder (as it were) all the time.
Life's too short.


Well, I'm not going to change. If I had a bad experience I might. But you
say that your ladies haven't ...well, that you know of.

I wouldn't want them to take the chance?

Do you allow them to walk down the street without you? People are mugged ...

So out of interest, are the Neighborhood watch, Security companies,
the Police, Locksmiths, banks, CCTV system suppliers etc all wasting
their time?

Not all of them but I do think that fears are played on for the sake of
profit by some companies. I'm officially the NW co-ordinator in this street.
I don't do anything. Don't need to with all the 'protection' people have
installed for themselves - at high costs and, sadly, resulting loneliness.

Bad things which people do to other people are awful but they happen
everywhere, not just in houses. We simply can't protect against everything.
Perhaps I'm too lazy to think of what might happen.

I don't rejoice in advance of possible good luck either :-)

Mary