22 March 2023|Thoughts about
This is one of my favourite movies and I must have watched it at least half a dozen times (the 2020 version of the movie that is). I always find myself rooting for Memphis Raines and his gang of car thieves. I can ignore the morality of the car theft because they are trying to save his brother Kip from certain death at the hands of mob boss Raymond Calitri. As someone who has always had a bit of an obsession with cars, I enjoy all the amazing vehicles in the movie. I really want them to get all the cars on the list and save the brother. It's a lesser of two evils thing.
That changed last week though when three people broke into our home to get the keys to my car and took my wife's car at the same time, just because they could. These were no fancy exotic cars like "Eleanor", they were just a bog average VW T-Cross and a slightly less bog average VW Golf R Estate. To add insult to injury both cars had just been serviced and MOT'd with a couple of expensive repairs needed. Mine was also just back from getting a car park bump repaired too - very annoying!
Not exactly a classic Mustang Sportsroof
It's been really important to keep some perspective since this happened though. The good thing is that we know they were only here for the cars and nothing else. Most importantly, no one got hurt, as I've heard horror stories about what some of these criminals can do if they don't find keys or the cars have code immobilisers etc. Ultimately the cars are insured and will be replaced. Our girls don't know the full story of what happened because they don't need to as it would only cause them to worry. Worse than the inconvenience is that it's going to take a long time to get over the feeling of being violated and insecure in our own home. CCTV next door and the visible deterrents of alarm boxes on our house didn't put these people off. They knew they would be gone in 60 seconds!
Watching my joiner demonstrate just how easy it is to break a lock was quite frightening. If you have locks where the key barrel sticks out any distance then please consider getting these changed for barrels that are flush with, or at least much closer, to the door frame. This way they can't get any purchase on them to physically break them. I'm amazed that a multi-point deadlock door can be so easily opened just by breaking the lock barrel, it's a serious design flaw. Good old bolts top and bottom help prevent that though. The police did say that if the barrel can't be broken then they struggle to get in with a battering ram. That's not much use to us after the event, but if it can prevent any reader here from suffering the same fate then hopefully it's good information.
Needless to say, we have now considerably upgraded our home security. It's a shitty way to have to live! But it gives us additional peace of mind and helps us sleep at night. I have to say that my insurance company has been excellent, but the company my wife uses has been quite poor so far. I got my settlement offer and received the cash within 8 days, which I think is impressive. The offer was also fair and reasonable, so despite being armed with evidence of the replacement cost of the car, I didn't need it. We are still awaiting an offer on the other car. It's quite surprising that turnaround times on two claims, submitted on the same day, can be so different. Fortunately, I have a hire car, but you only get it for a further 7 days after settlement, which isn't long to find a new car. Our situation is made a bit worse by both of our cars being stolen and trying to find two (very different) replacements. If anyone wants information on the stock of small to mid-sized SUV's in the Fife, Dundee and Perth area right now, then I'm your man!
For me, there's been a fair bit of soul-searching while car-searching too. At times, I've found it quite hard as I've felt personally responsible for the burglary because of my choice of car. Have I brought this upon us and caused unnecessary stress and inconvenience? It has caused me to look at very different cars than I've owned in recent years for fear of it happening again. It's so annoying that the actions of someone else are making me question how I should live. Why should we have to live in fear of someone stealing our things and what gives them the right to do it in the first place? Some of the cars I've looked at this week have made me feel so depressed. These people have not just stolen my car, they've stolen some of my mojo too. That really makes me angry.
At the end of the day, I am grateful that this incident was not worse. My family were unhurt and while we have been inconvenienced as a result, the cars are insured and will be replaced. Fortunately, my golf clubs weren't in the car, that would have been worse than losing the car! We are all now much more aware of domestic security and have increased ours considerably. It's annoying that we've had to, but I guess this is the way of things. Any opportunists will find us a much tougher target in future.
Eleanor - tell Memphis to “get tae France”
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