really annoying. yes! another car thread.

[root]

It's a good news bad news situation.

I'm hoping that brookfield is on this morning so he can perhaps advise, (given his previous job)...

Bad news...
My car was broken into last night... someone bent the door out and pulled up the open door lock pole thingy on the inside...

Good news.
Nothing was taken... and they even left a lighter.

My stereo whilst expensive comes appart, (it's a hard disk MP3 player, and the hard disk is removable...) it was inside the house... and the controls are atached by a cable, but I never got around to properly mounting that... so that was safely hidden up inside the dash board, (out of site out of mind...) besides the controls would be useless without the harddrive part anyway as that part also contains the main player electronics...

Other good news, the (relativly) cheap speakers that I'd intended to install were still in the boot, even though they released the back seats to look in the boot. (as were all the cans of oil and antifreeze and all the other little car bits that I just don't have room to store in the house)

more good news. the (wireless) reomte control for the stereo, My GPS reciever, my multimeter (don't really know why that was in there), my emergency screw drivers, phone charge and all the other little electronic bits were still in the car as well...

literally nothing was taken... just rummaged through.

great news... I have a gas cooker, (without an ignition button so I have to use a lighter to light it... the lighter I use was running out so now I have a new one... (thanks to the dude who broke into my car...).

Now.. I can't say that I'm happy, I mean nodoby should have to start their day standing on the side of the road bending their door back into shape before they can drive to work...

but I can't say that I'm unhappy either... I mean nothing was taken, (either valuable, or not).

I also can't say that I'm really all that surprised... when I moved here and changed my insurance details the insurance premium did go up, because there is more car crime. in fact there is more crime in general. so it's no surprise at all that one day I'd be the victim...

The question is...

Do I report it? and if so who to?...
I know it's not a 999 emergency, so I'd just have to get the local stations number (or drop in on the way home from work). but if nothing was taken, should I put myself out to add a few more numbers to the crime statistics?

second... do I report it to my insurance company? as I said, nothing was taken, so there is no claim, but I'm *fairly* sure that there is a clause that would mean if I reported it that I would loose my no claims bonus, even though I didn't claim. (would it be a non paying claim?).

I think that the worse part is that it rained a little last night and my jeans were a little wet when I got out the car as the seat had gotten a little damp... but that will undoubtably be dry by the time I'm driving home anyway.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Deathstar1]

The question is...

Do I report it? and if so who to?...
I know it's not a 999 emergency, so I'd just have to get the local stations number (or drop in on the way home from work). but if nothing was taken, should I put myself out to add a few more numbers to the crime statistics?.

Local station though it's probably not worth the effort as nothing was taken and no real damage, they're not going to be interested.

second... do I report it to my insurance company? as I said, nothing was taken, so there is no claim, but I'm *fairly* sure that there is a clause that would mean if I reported it that I would loose my no claims bonus, even though I didn't claim. (would it be a non paying claim?).....

Also probably not worth the effort unless you want to claim for a new door which as you say will probably cost you your no claims bonus, also they may require you to report it to the Police.

 

[UK31337]

Sounds like opportunist chavs TBH.

You could try letting the police dust the lighter for prints, but seeing as you've touched it I doubt it'll come up with anything.

 

[MooseMan1]

yea...UK31337 is probably right....how badly is the door damaged? i mean if it's going 2 cost you some hard cash to fix it then i would report it to the police and hopefully they can fingerprint it or something...

 

[David Lindon]

Isn't there a non emergency number like 222? You could always just report it like it anyone saw anything etc.

 

[root]

the trouble is this...
I touched everything in the car, and I've had my friends and things in the car as well... the lighter is the only thing that is unique, and I touched that when I picked it up... (also it's the nature of a lighter that people borrow them, so it could have hundreds of finger prints on it...).

besides, I agree with deathstar, nothing was taken, will the police actually care?

the door... yes, the door is damaged, very very slightly... the trouble about that is this...
first the insurance probably wouldn't pay out because the door hasn't been assessed, and the damage is a minor kink in the metal where I had to bend the door back before I could drive to work. the damage isn't really even noticable, and it's only really charecterized by the paint flaking slightly where the metal has expended/contracted).

it was parked on the street on a fairly major road, (it's not an estate road it's a B-road), and it's usually fairly busy.. (though not so much at night). yes, it probably was an oppertunist, and that person probably wasn't even from around where I live.

yes... I've googled for brstol police in the UK and was taken to their web page. there are three numbers depending on which particular beat management team member in my area I want to talk to...
there is also the general crime stoppers number that I could call to report something like this...

but the question still stands. will I just be logged assured and ignored? I can't actually see any possible action that *could* be taken

 

[MooseMan1]

hmm...just curious but what car do you own?

 

[~K-Pow~]

Same thing happened to my friends car as well nothing was taken so the cops said there was nothing they could do the only charge they could lay is vandalism and that don't carry much weight. If nothing was stolen there ain't nothing the cops can do so there's no sense even bring them in on it.

Get yourself a good car alarm and hope it don't happen again.

 

[root]

it's a nissan Micra...
I don't have a picture of my actual car... but this ebay auction should give you some idea of what it's worth...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1989-NISSAN-M...8QQihZ009QQcategoryZ18238QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(currently £9 with 2 days to go!)

(the only difference is that the body, it in better condition and it has tax/MOT). -Oh the other differece is that mines silver not red.

 

[^Mike^]

One question what the heck is a boot? Also i would call the police so they can file a report on the situation then that will come in handy if they find the person.