Morris Minor Owners Club

Saturday morning I noticed that the rear of the car cover had been pulled up, revealing the tail lights, numberplate and rear bumper. As the wind had not been strong enough to move the car cover, I decided to run through my CCTV recordings.
To my dismay, I found footage (time-lapse recording) of two b**t**ds molesting my poor old '51 saloon's rear end.
I copied the tape footage to hard disc and taken some stills from it. As it was 05:30 in the morning, the camera was in IR mode and the quality of the image degrades - enough not to recognise features
They stop to look over -[frame][/frame]
They saunter over[frame][/frame]
They start looking[frame][/frame]
Interferring with her "skirts"[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
This is where they must have spotted that the car is only standing on 3 wheels and an axle stand, also it looks like the skinny one had spotted the IR camera, as they then walk off briskly covering their faces!
I've reported this to the local police. They can't do much, apart from log it, as features cannot be identified.
I'm just hoping they don't come back anytime soon (I do hope to find them and trace them back to their homes and then ....)

Do you reckon they were 'just looking' to see what was under the cover, just out of curiosity p'raps, or am I being a tad too optimistic here?

That camera is useful - can you give details? Point us to a similar one on ebay?? I think they were maybe just curious - but you never know....

They look like two drunks on their way home after a night out, blokes do allsorts after they've got a few inside them. It is somewhat disconcerting, but as long as there's no damage...

I always sleep with the window open a crack myself.

The camera came from Maplins, and I sleep in the back bedroom. They could be drunks, but their movements, on camera, were not that "unsteady". As they come into shot, they stop in the middle of the road and spend a few seconds looking over to my property. I may try to post up the copy footage (recorded by playing back the CCTV time-lapse tape with manual jog control). Gave me a sleepless Saturday night!

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote:They look like two drunks on their way home after a night out, blokes do allsorts after they've got a few inside them. It is somewhat disconcerting, but as long as there's no damage...

I always sleep with the window open a crack myself.

Same here. Slightest noise outside and I'm like a cat on a hot tin roof, especially after 2 years ago this week when a s****e broke into our house, rummaged found and nicked the keys to my Fabia vRS and tried (almost hilariously) to unsuccessfully to find reverse gear before me hanging out of the window scared him off.

If it was dark would they be able to see behind the modern car?

They must have known beforehand/seen during daylight.

100% Caution with this.

Would suggest a noisy or painful 'booby-trap' to welcome them next time!

POMMReg wrote:If it was dark would they be able to see behind the modern car?

...

My frontage is flooded with sky polluting new street lights, that are a couple of metres taller than the original 1965 installations. From the perp's position in the middle of the road, they would not have seen the IR camera mounted on the front of my house (at 1st floor level), until they walked onto my property and had the streetlights behind them.
A "bright" area did not put them off. My PIR light may not have come on unless they had been in line with my modern car.
I do have a "noisey" solution, but that may be seen to be "excessive force" in the eyes of the misguided Judiciary when it comes to property and personal protection.

The camera, I currently use, is passive. The recording medium is CCTV S-VHS timelapse recorders that I salvaged from my workplace when they changed over to Hard Disc recording media - I have 4 of these Sanyo TLS-S7000P machines and 2 muliplexers.
I've just lifted another still of Litte&Large leaving in a hurry (faces covered) and you can see the strong shadows they cast, thanks to the street light to the right of my property - the other light's output can be seen to the left.[frame][/frame]
I haven't heard back from my Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator yet.
All in all, the incident took 1 minute 4 seconds to enfold - drunks would have taken a lot longer.

Yer hedge/bush need trimmin' btw!

Go for the noisey pre warning solution, needs to be something that'll wake up the whole
street.

Agreed,a 12 bore activated by a trip-wire IS a bit extreme!

Any similar sights of 'suspicious' characters, please report on here!!

C.J. wrote:Yer hedge/bush need trimmin' btw!

Leylandii "hedge" planted about 23 years ago (bad idea now), which I try to keep down to 2 metres and the "bush" is 2 rhododendrons, one of which flowers about 5 times a year!

POMMReg wrote:Agreed,a 12 bore activated by a trip-wire IS a bit extreme!

There are trip-wire "mines" available, that use a 12G blank (anti-poaching devices), but that means it could also be tripped by the Postie and I would have to set it up each night, then take it down each morning

I do have a "noisey" solution, but that may be seen to be "excessive force" in the eyes of the misguided Judiciary when it comes to property and personal protection.

Personally if I catch anyone interfering with Abby (or my home for that matter) I won't be too concerned with what the liberals think about criminals 'human rights'!
They'll get what they deserve!
The problem is more an issue of catching these b*st**ds at it!
(Rather than just finding / having to deal with the devastation the leave behind after.)

On the other hand... it might just be 2 "nosey" blokes wondering what was under the cover, totally harmless, but spooked by the lights etc so didn't replace the cover when they'd had a peek.

POMMReg wrote:If it was dark would they be able to see behind the modern car?

They must have known beforehand/seen during daylight.

100% Caution with this.

Would suggest a noisy or painful 'booby-trap' to welcome them next time!

Just wire the car body to the mains! Disconnect the battery first, of course!

I have a 300 watt halogen PIR floodlight covering the front of my house and carport where the Minor sleeps.
Anyone comes within 10 metres the light activates and two cameras automatically cut in to identify the intruder on the TV screen.
If we are asleep the light coming on is enough to wake us.

My garages have an air raid syren in them the only thing you do if you are inside is put your hands over your ears as the door closes automatically and you are trapped until we come down with the 410.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.410_bore
Blimey!
I think the floodlight + cameras is safer and less likely to end in grief.

Well you could always satisfy yourself that they were up to no good before you shoot, just incase there was a good reason for being there . I don't know, I must be a big softy!

I think the floodlight + cameras is safer and less likely to end in grief.

If they're in there up to no good, then people should have the right to defend their property. Given the current climate with regard to this and criminals rights, the only 'grief' element I can think of would be what to do with the vermin once you've shot it!