Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Scottish Cleaning Service on February 03, 2025, 08:23:51 am
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg7285zz8eo
I wonder if we are next to be targeted for our poles?
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Had mine broken into a few years ago overnight whilst on my drive. They will have been very disappointed as I take the poles and pump box in every night.
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
You are lucky because if our van gets stolen with keys left in ignition then they don't pay out. I have those Garrison £150 locks on my back and side doors and not been broken into yet. Heard someone say, glue or screw a length of carpet gripper inside at top of side door just incase they grab it and try and fold it. At least they will leave some blood and their DNA behind. It's all about making it harder for them so they will not be bothered and move on.
Decades ago I was standing by some dodgy people in a big DVD store. They were opening up the DVD plastic covers to see if they were inside. When they realised they were empty they left the store, sad but true.
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
Your asking for it mate!
Why the hell would you do that? You almost deserve to be robbed!
You wouldn't last 2 mins round here....everything would get robbed within minutes....
Gangs of lads walk round in the middle of the night trying vehicle doors on a regular basis....
It's just foolish to be so lax with your security!🙄
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My old van got broken into, they took nothing at all, side door was left wide open.
Obvioulsy they werent interest in window cleaning gear
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
You are lucky because if our van gets stolen with keys left in ignition then they don't pay out. I have those Garrison £150 locks on my back and side doors and not been broken into yet. Heard someone say, glue or screw a length of carpet gripper inside at top of side door just incase they grab it and try and fold it. At least they will leave some blood and their DNA behind. It's all about making it harder for them so they will not be bothered and move on.
Decades ago I was standing by some dodgy people in a big DVD store. They were opening up the DVD plastic covers to see if they were inside. When they realised they were empty they left the store, sad but true.
Aye because forensics would be dispatched to a van that’s been broken into ::)roll
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
Your asking for it mate!
Why the hell would you do that? You almost deserve to be robbed!
You wouldn't last 2 mins round here....everything would get robbed within minutes....
Gangs of lads walk round in the middle of the night trying vehicle doors on a regular basis....
It's just foolish to be so lax with your security!🙄
No one deserves to be robbed, ive never really locked the van, just habbit I suppose, 9 times out of 10 my front doors not locked at night either. They would open it up and ignore the poles and look for expensive tools probably. If they did look, there's none there in the back, my ladders sit on top of my van unhooked aswell. You could just lift them off.
It's been a mistake when I've left the keys in the ignition though, or left the bacl doors wide open.
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I i’ve just brought a brand-new van. I wasn’t going to sign write it or put roof rack on top as I want to go ladders less
but the van looked like any builders parcel guys or gardeners van which made it vulnerable to someone looking inside. I’ve got the signwriting nice big letters with Window Cleaner on the side and back and a big phone number. Hopefully they won’t be interested in a bucket sponge and squeegee we know how much the poles cost. Hopefully they don’t want the tank as it’s is nicely bolted down and will take half an hour to get out. It weighs a bloody ton so I guess they’ll just have to go for the scrims. They do more damage than the stuff you lose thousands of pounds ripping the doors off to get a few quid of stolen tools pure scum of course the boys in blue aren’t interested. Traditionally you never stole the tools of a man’s trade or bailiffs would never take the tools of a man’s trade seems like times have changed sometimes for the better, but mostly for the worst.
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
You are lucky because if our van gets stolen with keys left in ignition then they don't pay out. I have those Garrison £150 locks on my back and side doors and not been broken into yet. Heard someone say, glue or screw a length of carpet gripper inside at top of side door just incase they grab it and try and fold it. At least they will leave some blood and their DNA behind. It's all about making it harder for them so they will not be bothered and move on.
Decades ago I was standing by some dodgy people in a big DVD store. They were opening up the DVD plastic covers to see if they were inside. When they realised they were empty they left the store, sad but true.
Aye because forensics would be dispatched to a van that’s been broken into ::)roll
To be fair many of the van robberies nowadays are by organised gangs. Good chance the rozzers might take an interest if it's suspected organised crime.
They took a few of my landys in about 6 years ago. They were checking serial numbers on the engine/gearbox/axles etc. They didn't find anything untoward.
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I once disturbed 3 blokes breaking into my van. As I was running across the road they all jumped in their van. I managed to kick one as he was getting in the back doors.
They had smashed the lock through but nothing was taken.
My new van is sign written and has deadlocks.
Funny enough someone nicked my steps out of the van two weeks ago! Must be desperate to do that. Thankfully they are only worth £19.99 from amazon.
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Over the years a couple of my vans have had rear glass in the rear doors. Although the van is signed, it good anyone on the rob can see it’s just a tank and reel in there.
I’ve never been robbed. Yet.
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When I bought my van and was using it for building work, I bought a 36kg tool vault. Bolted it down and put all my power tools in the vault and it was hard to break in. Ended up buying another one and doing the same in my lockup. When I moved into window cleaning I removed it. You can get bigger vaults which are good for sheds and garages. So if anyone has expensive stuff they don't want stolen then its a good idea. No doubt in the future someone will make one for our poles because I have 3 in the van all the time and I will need my 35' pole to be included because I have a customer who bought a new town house. I need that to clean the veluxes and some solar panels on the roof.
That means I will have over £3k worth of poles in my van. Thieves want to be in and away as quick as possible so anything that slows them down usually works.
Just some thoughts for anyone wanting to do some theft prevention in the next few months. Okay it may cost a few bob but could save you thousands and keep you on the road making money.
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I live in a pretty low crime area but the back of my pick up has no Mountain Top or otherwise.
So far, 25+ years of driving pick ups, no one has nicked anything...yet.
If I do have to go anywhere urban, I lock the pole inside the truck.
Possibly, every potential criminal, being able to see that there's nothing worth nicking results in less potential crime or damage than having a van that they just speculatively break into?
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I live in a fairly lively area.
Last year we sat out on back patio for the last of the late summer sun in early September with patio doors open.......in late November we went to Canaries for 2 weeks and whilst checking everything was locked up just before setting off I found that the patio doors were unlocked........2 months unlocked.
Earlier that same year whilst going off for the w/e I checked security and found the side door was unlocked.......we very rarely use this door and it had been unlocked for roughly 6 weeks.
Just goes to show.
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
Your asking for it mate!
Why the hell would you do that? You almost deserve to be robbed!
You wouldn't last 2 mins round here....everything would get robbed within minutes....
Gangs of lads walk round in the middle of the night trying vehicle doors on a regular basis....
It's just foolish to be so lax with your security!🙄
No one deserves to be robbed, ive never really locked the van, just habbit I suppose, 9 times out of 10 my front doors not locked at night either. They would open it up and ignore the poles and look for expensive tools probably. If they did look, there's none there in the back, my ladders sit on top of my van unhooked aswell. You could just lift them off.
It's been a mistake when I've left the keys in the ignition though, or left the bacl doors wide open.
You will get robbed one day having such a security 'blind spot'.....
You obviously never had your house and shed burgled(we did numerous times in the 80s)
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
What's your postcode?
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
Your asking for it mate!
Why the hell would you do that? You almost deserve to be robbed!
You wouldn't last 2 mins round here....everything would get robbed within minutes....
Gangs of lads walk round in the middle of the night trying vehicle doors on a regular basis....
It's just foolish to be so lax with your security!🙄
No one deserves to be robbed, ive never really locked the van, just habbit I suppose, 9 times out of 10 my front doors not locked at night either. They would open it up and ignore the poles and look for expensive tools probably. If they did look, there's none there in the back, my ladders sit on top of my van unhooked aswell. You could just lift them off.
It's been a mistake when I've left the keys in the ignition though, or left the bacl doors wide open.
You will get robbed one day having such a security 'blind spot'.....
You obviously never had your house and shed burgled(we did numerous times in the 80s)
Never had shed etc done either no, in the summer when it's really hot, my front door gets left wide open all night because the dog gets to hot in the house and likes sleeping in the garden because it's cooler for him. Never had anyone even attempt to come in the gate, never mind the house. There's a 53kg german sheperd lying sleeping in the garden mind you that you would have to bypass to get into the house.
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
You are lucky because if our van gets stolen with keys left in ignition then they don't pay out. I have those Garrison £150 locks on my back and side doors and not been broken into yet. Heard someone say, glue or screw a length of carpet gripper inside at top of side door just incase they grab it and try and fold it. At least they will leave some blood and their DNA behind. It's all about making it harder for them so they will not be bothered and move on.
Decades ago I was standing by some dodgy people in a big DVD store. They were opening up the DVD plastic covers to see if they were inside. When they realised they were empty they left the store, sad but true.
I think you have to be very careful advising others to do this.
While it sounds a good way of teaching a thief a lesson, the thief/thieves could sue you for causing personal injury.
Remember the farmer who shot a thief on his property? He was charged with murder if memory serves me.
Someone in our village put up an electric barbed wire fence around his property. He was told he had to put up warning signs advising thieves they could get electrocuted.
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My van gets left unlocked every night with everything in the van, a pair of bose earbuds sitting on the dash and ray ban sunglasses in view aswell. I've forgot to close the back doors a few times and they have been wide open all night. Left keys in the ignition more than a few times too. Nothing has ever been took.
You are lucky because if our van gets stolen with keys left in ignition then they don't pay out. I have those Garrison £150 locks on my back and side doors and not been broken into yet. Heard someone say, glue or screw a length of carpet gripper inside at top of side door just incase they grab it and try and fold it. At least they will leave some blood and their DNA behind. It's all about making it harder for them so they will not be bothered and move on.
Decades ago I was standing by some dodgy people in a big DVD store. They were opening up the DVD plastic covers to see if they were inside. When they realised they were empty they left the store, sad but true.
I think you have to be very careful advising others to do this.
While it sounds a good way of teaching a thief a lesson, the thief/thieves could sue you for causing personal injury.
Remember the farmer who shot a thief on his property? He was charged with murder if memory serves me.
Someone in our village put up an electric barbed wire fence around his property. He was told he had to put up warning signs advising thieves they could get electrocuted.
Or put up signs saying if you steal things you'll get your hands chopped off.
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I think you have to be very careful advising others to do this.
While it sounds a good way of teaching a thief a lesson, the thief/thieves could sue you for causing personal injury.
Remember the farmer who shot a thief on his property? He was charged with murder if memory serves me.
Someone in our village put up an electric barbed wire fence around his property. He was told he had to put up warning signs advising thieves they could get electrocuted.
There's a vast amount of Daily Express twaddle that's ended up in the minds of people as fact.
My brother has just retired as a criminal defence solicitor. He regularly had clients who had clearly had seven bells knocked out of them by householders. The Police would never, ever investigate. Ever. No matter how badly damaged the criminal was. No matter what you're told, the police aren't on the side of criminals.
Tony Martin sat in waiting and shot a burglar in the back. Even the police couldn't ignore that and he deserved his sentence for cold-blooded murder.
The signs on the fence might just have been required to stop innocents from electrocuting themselves. Sounds to me like it has been translated after the event to say it was to protect thieves.
Vin
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Tony Martin sat in waiting and shot a burglar in the back. Even the police couldn't ignore that and he deserved his sentence for cold-blooded murder.
"Excuse me, would you mind awfully just turning around? Thank you."
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When I joined the Prison Service in 1990 after the riots, they were instructed to change the regime in favour of the criminals. That was the bottom of the cycle and it slowly trended up in favour of the criminals rather than the victims. Now we are at the top of the cycle and it is slowly changing in favour of the victims which was shown after the riots. Prison works, even the politicians know this but it costs a grand a week to keep a person in prison.
Gov knows if they turn their back on crime then it just gets worse until there is a tipping point which I believe has been reached. I study the sentences criminals get and they have slowly risen to the point that some folk will never be released. This is what I have noticed but I study cycles. WFP has been growing for 20 years down south but has just started up here about 10 years ago and that was slow as a snail. It meant it was good for me but trying to change customers opinion was pretty hard. fwiw
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I think you have to be very careful advising others to do this.
While it sounds a good way of teaching a thief a lesson, the thief/thieves could sue you for causing personal injury.
Remember the farmer who shot a thief on his property? He was charged with murder if memory serves me.
Someone in our village put up an electric barbed wire fence around his property. He was told he had to put up warning signs advising thieves they could get electrocuted.
There's a vast amount of Daily Express twaddle that's ended up in the minds of people as fact.
My brother has just retired as a criminal defence solicitor. He regularly had clients who had clearly had seven bells knocked out of them by householders. The Police would never, ever investigate. Ever. No matter how badly damaged the criminal was. No matter what you're told, the police aren't on the side of criminals.
Tony Martin sat in waiting and shot a burglar in the back. Even the police couldn't ignore that and he deserved his sentence for cold-blooded murder.
The signs on the fence might just have been required to stop innocents from electrocuting themselves. Sounds to me like it has been translated after the event to say it was to protect thieves.
Vin
In the unlikely event someone did try rob me, when I got my first house I bought a baseball bat and knife and whatever house I've been in its always kept in the nearest cupboard to my bed, I have zero intentions of ever using them and I really don't want to ever be in a position where they have to get used either. If I had to use them to defend myself from an intruder they would be used though. Everyone should have something they can get to relatively quickly incase they find themselves in a scenario where they have to defend themselves in there own home.
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Worth remembering some key fobs have a panic alarm button you can press if you hear an intruder trying to get in to your van in the dead of night so keep it close to where you sleep.
I'm lucky my dog growls like mad when anyone approaches regardless what time of night or early morning it is, not even the postman can walk past the house without the dog knowing someone is about.
Got a doorbell camera and several pan zoom cameras that track any movement and send it to hard disk and the cloud for storage, good deterrent which has my car, van, garage and shed monitored at all times.
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Tony Martin died last week.
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I was getting a hard time from a neighbour. The moment I came in she would shout over the fence all sort of stuff. The police told me to get a camera that records voice and they will charge her. I did what they said, told her work what I had done so she would be aware. I didn't want her to lose her job and pension but it was becoming constant.
The moment I put up the camera and a sign next to it, she was as quiet as a mouse. That was 3 years ago and it records my back decking 24 hours a day. Humans are not daft, when they know they will get caught they change.
CCTV is great and audio is even better but it does cost a fair bit. Its a wired system so no wifi involved because all folk do is carry a blocker from ebay which stops the recording. One of my neighbour's door got tried at 2 in the afternoon and he ran out to chase the young guy. He went in to check his doorbell and the bit with the guy coming to the door and leaving was missing. He now has a wired system.
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I don't know if the Tony Martin case in itself was the demarkation line or if it simply reflected a breakdown in society, but from living in the countryside since 1970 I do know that prior to the publicity surrounding the incident, farm break-ins, here anyway, were quite rare.
The understanding was simply that farmers have dogs and farmers have guns. That In itself was a deterrent.
The fallout from Tony Martin effectively removed that deterrent from the collective minds of the lowlifes who then seemed to gain a new boldness.
Initial criminality thereafter was usually limited to the theft of Quad Bikes, chainsaws, power tools or anything that could removed relatively easily.
As the law now seems to have largely given up on enforcing such matters, subsequent criminality has progressed to stealing farm vehicles, thousands of litres of heating oil and violence.
As most farms are some distance from any potential law enforcement response times and the number of available Officers has been cut, the future is not looking good.
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I don't know if the Tony Martin case in itself was the demarkation line or if it simply reflected a breakdown in society, but from living in the countryside since 1970 I do know that prior to the publicity surrounding the incident, farm break-ins, here anyway, were quite rare.
The understanding was simply that farmers have dogs and farmers have guns. That In itself was a deterrent.
The fallout from Tony Martin effectively removed that deterrent from the collective minds of the lowlifes who then seemed to gain a new boldness.
Initial criminality thereafter was usually limited to the theft of Quad Bikes, chainsaws, power tools or anything that could removed relatively easily.
As the law now seems to have largely given up on enforcing such matters, subsequent criminality has progressed to stealing farm vehicles, thousands of litres of heating oil and violence.
As most farms are some distance from any potential law enforcement response times and the number of available Officers has been cut, the future is not looking good.
Imagine you live in a remote location far away from help and some lowlife decides to come to your property in the middle of the night to steal things from you and possibly hurt you if they don't get their way. I'd be protecting number one first and worrying about consequences later on.
RIP Tony Martin.
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I think you have to be very careful advising others to do this.
While it sounds a good way of teaching a thief a lesson, the thief/thieves could sue you for causing personal injury.
Remember the farmer who shot a thief on his property? He was charged with murder if memory serves me.
Someone in our village put up an electric barbed wire fence around his property. He was told he had to put up warning signs advising thieves they could get electrocuted.
There's a vast amount of Daily Express twaddle that's ended up in the minds of people as fact.
My brother has just retired as a criminal defence solicitor. He regularly had clients who had clearly had seven bells knocked out of them by householders. The Police would never, ever investigate. Ever. No matter how badly damaged the criminal was. No matter what you're told, the police aren't on the side of criminals.
Tony Martin sat in waiting and shot a burglar in the back. Even the police couldn't ignore that and he deserved his sentence for cold-blooded murder.
The signs on the fence might just have been required to stop innocents from electrocuting themselves. Sounds to me like it has been translated after the event to say it was to protect thieves.
Vin
In the unlikely event someone did try rob me, when I got my first house I bought a baseball bat and knife and whatever house I've been in its always kept in the nearest cupboard to my bed, I have zero intentions of ever using them and I really don't want to ever be in a position where they have to get used either. If I had to use them to defend myself from an intruder they would be used though. Everyone should have something they can get to relatively quickly incase they find themselves in a scenario where they have to defend themselves in there own home.
Having a baseball bat in your house is a terrible idea, totally premeditated,only one reason anyone in this county buys a baseball bat. You need to get more imagitive Tam, have a look for some everyday heavy item already in your house that could be of great assistance to you in an emergency. Then your just "picking up the nearest thing " to defend yourself. I may have lazily not cleared away an offcut from a solid wood curtain pole which has just got kicked under the bed.. "i didnt know it was there my lord", "1st thing i came accross" :)
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I think you have to be very careful advising others to do this.
While it sounds a good way of teaching a thief a lesson, the thief/thieves could sue you for causing personal injury.
Remember the farmer who shot a thief on his property? He was charged with murder if memory serves me.
Someone in our village put up an electric barbed wire fence around his property. He was told he had to put up warning signs advising thieves they could get electrocuted.
There's a vast amount of Daily Express twaddle that's ended up in the minds of people as fact.
My brother has just retired as a criminal defence solicitor. He regularly had clients who had clearly had seven bells knocked out of them by householders. The Police would never, ever investigate. Ever. No matter how badly damaged the criminal was. No matter what you're told, the police aren't on the side of criminals.
Tony Martin sat in waiting and shot a burglar in the back. Even the police couldn't ignore that and he deserved his sentence for cold-blooded murder.
The signs on the fence might just have been required to stop innocents from electrocuting themselves. Sounds to me like it has been translated after the event to say it was to protect thieves.
Vin
In the unlikely event someone did try rob me, when I got my first house I bought a baseball bat and knife and whatever house I've been in its always kept in the nearest cupboard to my bed, I have zero intentions of ever using them and I really don't want to ever be in a position where they have to get used either. If I had to use them to defend myself from an intruder they would be used though. Everyone should have something they can get to relatively quickly incase they find themselves in a scenario where they have to defend themselves in there own home.
Having a baseball bat in your house is a terrible idea, totally premeditated,only one reason anyone in this county buys a baseball bat. You need to get more imagitive Tam, have a look for some everyday heavy item already in your house that could be of great assistance to you in an emergency. Then your just "picking up the nearest thing " to defend yourself. I may have lazily not cleared away an offcut from a solid wood curtain pole which has just got kicked under the bed.. "i didnt know it was there my lord", "1st thing i came accross" :)
I might be a keen baseball player though, i think everyone should have a bat etc tucked away somewhere for a worst case scenario type, id never in a million years even consider hitting someone with a baseball bat in any other situation than someone breaking into my house. Just in case people think im some bat swinging maniac, thats really not the case.
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I think you have to be very careful advising others to do this.
While it sounds a good way of teaching a thief a lesson, the thief/thieves could sue you for causing personal injury.
Remember the farmer who shot a thief on his property? He was charged with murder if memory serves me.
Someone in our village put up an electric barbed wire fence around his property. He was told he had to put up warning signs advising thieves they could get electrocuted.
There's a vast amount of Daily Express twaddle that's ended up in the minds of people as fact.
My brother has just retired as a criminal defence solicitor. He regularly had clients who had clearly had seven bells knocked out of them by householders. The Police would never, ever investigate. Ever. No matter how badly damaged the criminal was. No matter what you're told, the police aren't on the side of criminals.
Tony Martin sat in waiting and shot a burglar in the back. Even the police couldn't ignore that and he deserved his sentence for cold-blooded murder.
The signs on the fence might just have been required to stop innocents from electrocuting themselves. Sounds to me like it has been translated after the event to say it was to protect thieves.
Vin
In the unlikely event someone did try rob me, when I got my first house I bought a baseball bat and knife and whatever house I've been in its always kept in the nearest cupboard to my bed, I have zero intentions of ever using them and I really don't want to ever be in a position where they have to get used either. If I had to use them to defend myself from an intruder they would be used though. Everyone should have something they can get to relatively quickly incase they find themselves in a scenario where they have to defend themselves in there own home.
Having a baseball bat in your house is a terrible idea, totally premeditated,only one reason anyone in this county buys a baseball bat. You need to get more imagitive Tam, have a look for some everyday heavy item already in your house that could be of great assistance to you in an emergency. Then your just "picking up the nearest thing " to defend yourself. I may have lazily not cleared away an offcut from a solid wood curtain pole which has just got kicked under the bed.. "i didnt know it was there my lord", "1st thing i came accross" :)
I might be a keen baseball player though, i think everyone should have a bat etc tucked away somewhere for a worst case scenario type, id never in a million years even consider hitting someone with a baseball bat in any other situation than someone breaking into my house. Just in case people think im some bat swinging maniac, thats really not the case.
I’m more worried about you swinging 😁