"T i m" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 23:09:37 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


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 :-)

So you do or do not have:
Contents insurance?
Buildings insurance?

Neither. We've saved a few thousand since we took the decision not to have
them.


Who would want to key a car?

Um, I don't know what that means.

sigh .. so worldly wise ... when you run a nice big scratch down
the side of someone's car with a key ..

Oh, hereabouts it's called 'pennying'. Most keys don't work on most modern
car finishes, if you sharpen a penny it does.

seriously though, if you
don't know the risks you can manage them ?

I don't understand that.

sigh there's so much I don't know, unlike most people in here :-)


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.

So they would only be aware of the *reported* instances though then?

LOL! You think that if people were mugged or raped they wouldn't report it?

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.

Of course, more people will be attacked where there are more people?

More people to witness such attacks you mean?



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.

There are quite a few places round here that if you were to walk
through them at the wrong time of day (or wearing / doing the wrong
things) you life would be short if you *didn't* look over your
shoulder?

I suggest you move to Chapeltown, the red light, drug and high crime area of
Leeds. That's where we live. Yorkshire Ripper country.

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

The wife rarely walks anywhere (bad knees / no need) and the daughter
will generally be with someone (or her group) during the day and would
be taken / collected by one of us if moving about at night.

Gosh, our children wouldn't have been seen dead being collected by parents!
They'd have lost all their street cred.

An older
lady neighbor was mugged at the cash point at the top of the road
recently (lunchtime), many neighbours have been burgled (houses) or
stuff stolen from their outbuildings. Neighbour 3 doors along has had
3 motorbikes stolen out of his front garden (before he moved). I
watched a couple of lads acting suspiciously in Gregs the other day ..
turns out they were stealing a bottle of drink (they say it happens
all the time) and the Police patrol most of the time. The local tramp
was beaten up and had his bike stolen. Yes, we are careful.

Would a chain on a plastic door have prevented any of those things though?
That's what the question was about.

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 not aware of any company that would invest thousands of pounds in
security systems / staff if there was no problem to address?

It's called selling. Salesmen can sell anything to anyone (except to us),
they use figures and statistics and ... gullibility. Yes, even when talking
to companies. I've seen it happen.

Some
local companies are having difficulty getting insurance and this is
not particularly a 'bad place'? Our local Dorothy Perkins fitted a
nice new 'vandal proof covert dome camera system to protect the shops
back entrance for staff exiting / unloading. Lasted two weeks before
it was stolen. Our daughter enrolled in local Tai-quan-do classes ..
in the hope that if something should happen she might just have a
chance ..?

I really think you should move to somewhere which speaks English. Like
Chapeltow ... oh. Um. we have thirty odd languages in the parish. Forget
that -)


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

'High costs' compared with rising insurance premiums or the disruption
caused by loosing all your stuff?

Well, in our case the answer would be yes. But we haven't spent huge sums on
protection.

I tell a lie. We spent a lot of time and money and effort in building a high
fence round our back garden. Any human invader would need a ladder to get
over it. It was to keep out fox. Our chickens are more important than
anything anyone would want to steal from us.

and, sadly, resulting loneliness.

Suits us fine. On our door it says "No religious, political, cold
callers or free papers thanks". Last thing I want is the neighbours
wandering in and out taking our sugar! ;-)

Most of our neighbours can't read English so such notices would be useless.
But are you saying, honestly, that your neighbours would want to steal your
sugar? If so, give them some. Are you saying that you don't talk to your
neighbours? That you live in a little cocoon, with no social interaction
except with each other?

Bad things which people do to other people are awful but they happen
everywhere, not just in houses.

Indeed, but I think you will find something like that happening in the
home is more destructive than if it happens outside it?

I can't see why.

We simply can't protect against everything.

Correct, but we can resist being 'victims'.. by not being in the wrong
place at the wrong time, not advertising our possessions to all and
sundry (how many un flattened "Huge Plasma TV in here" empty cardboard
boxes do you see sitting like an advert in peoples front gardens)?

I've never looked. But we weren't talking about advertising possessions, it
was about a chain on the door.

Perhaps I'm too lazy to think of what might happen.

Or just a frightening old witch with no valuables? ;-)

Not frightening enough to stop people coming to talk to us, borrow things,
asking advice and the like. Nor a witch, the local loony is a better
description but it doesn't put anyone off.

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

Probably (god forbid) just as well! ;-)

I don't understand that either.

Mary