F***ing vultures

I've got an old Sierra on the drive. It's been sat there for 14 years ever since the engine expired and I couldn't be arsed to build a new one for it. It's quite handy for general storage though with the boot full of scrap aluminium cylinder heads waiting to go to the scrap dealer and the inside full of sundry crap I don't want in the house. It's attracted bugger all attention from anybody in most of that time.

The current rise in scrap steel prices is driving the local vultures crazy though. It's up from about 4p a kilo to 24p a kilo in the last year for decent sized chunks of metal with a 50% rise just last month. Even thin sheet like car bodies is about 170 quid a ton.

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Every bleedin' week now I get at least one pikey chav banging on the door asking me if I want any help "scrapping it in for you mate". Some of them just kids trying to turn a quick buck. Today though I've had two already. One heavily tattooed oik this morning and just now some fat git who could barely fit down the path wondering if I wanted to sell it. He was well put out when I started ranting at him. "Well you want to put a notice on it mate if you don't want it scrapped". Why TF should I have to put a sign on my car to stop these bloody leeches pestering me.

Last weekend on the Bank Holiday Sunday it was an Irish bloke in a suit offering me 50 quid knowing full well he could get three times that at the scrappy. The week before that it was two kids who couldn't have been older than 14 or 15. The week before that someone who not only hammered on the front door but when I didn't answer that went all round the house banging on every window. I only have to look at who's knocking on the door now to say "no I don't want to sell the bloody car" before they've had time to open their mouth.

You'd think it was a pile of diamonds on the drive from the attention it gets. I live in what's supposedly the most affluent area in the UK but even round here the prospect of a few quid in the back pocket from a mug who doesn't know what his scrap car is worth is enough to have these people flocking round in droves. How the hell many of them can there be out there? I tell each one of them to piss of in no uncertain terms so they won't come back but new ones just appear like fleas on a dog's arse. I'm beginning to think the entire economy round here is based on scrap car values.

Dave (very pissed off) Pumaracing.co.uk

Reply to
Dave Baker
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"Dave Baker" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I'm just surprised it's not gone walkabout yet.

Reply to
Adrian

Heh heh. I've been doing a refurkle on the bathroom which included a new boiler. Put the old one in bits in the front 'garden' - along with lots of rubble bags, etc. Waiting for me to take it all down the tip - bit by bit in the car. And after two days the boiler went. Had a large cast iron heat exchanger - I'd guess it weighed about 80 kg. Wonder how much it was worth? If they'd taken all the rubbish too I'd have been well pleased. Trouble is I don't know of a scrap metal buyer anywhere near here so it would have to be worth quite a bit to pay for the petrol.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I feel your pain. I've given up answering the door these days. I mostly get the one's wanting to clear my garden, put up upvc or lay a drive. I love my garden the way it is. A bit shaggy and wild, but great for the birds and my interest in wildlife. Its like they are saying your garden is a disgrace as its not clipped within an inch of its life and full of nasty chemicals. I swear I am the only garden in my road that gets snails when its been raining. All the others must use weed killers etc and the poor things can't survive.

I scrapped my old Sierra earlier this year (but still running a better example) and the tight sod at the scrappy would not give me a penny. All right, he had to drive 12 rural miles and use his fuel and time, but £10 would not go a miss. I refused to give it to them the first time I called, but a few weeks later just wanted it gone from my garage, so called again and let them have it.

Didn't they pass a law recently about cold calling at the door. I know it doesn't apply to Pikeys (or does, but they would never take any notice), but I hope it reduces the usual suspects. I even have a sign on my dorr saying "No selling at door, No Churches, No charities, but they still waste their time ringing my bell. I don't go to the door anymore as they are in danger of me killing them.

Reply to
Graham

So am I

I replaced my bathroom about a year ago and put the old bath on the driveway ready to go to the tip.

I came home one day to find the bath had been smashed up and the taps stolen.....

Thats trespass on my property (driveway), theft of my property (taps) and criminal damage (of the bath)

They just left the broken bits of bath all over the driveway....

Stephen

Reply to
Mallory

Have you ever considered moving somewhere less pikey ;-)

Reply to
SteveH

I heard a great story recently about someone who had called their council to take away an old broken upright fridge. They were told to leave it by their front gate and someone would be around to pick it up 'on Thursday'. Thursday came and the fridge was still there; and still there a week later.

Rather than call the council again, they stuck a sign on it saying "Fridge for sale, £40. Please knock" and it had been nicked by the end of the day.

Some aspects of this story may have been mis-remembered.

Reply to
OG

Yup.

The guy in the unit next door to me let someone doss their unused car there. The pikeys (several of then visit each and every day rummaging in the ships) noticed it wasn't being used, I got frankly sick of them in my place asking me questions about it. One day I looked out of the window and they had a flat bed and a crane and took it, I assumed he had sold it, he hadn't.

Reply to
R D S

We disconnect our doorbell. That way they ring and we don't get disturbed. All our friends know the score so they knock.

Reply to
malc

I've got a switch on mine so I've got the option. But if its off they just bang on the door. I've noticed in the last few ears people actually bang on the door, rather than tap the letterbox. Others seem unable to use a doorbell and press the button so briefly that my electro/mechanical Ding-Dong type bell (not electronic) does not get a chance for the plunger to hit the bells. Then they bash on the door and when I say the bell is working and press the door push to demonstrate it really does work, they look confused. If possible though, I don't answer the door. I think its a damn cheek knocking on my door if you have no direct business with me like the postman, or a meter reader. I could be sleeping, eating, having sex or just watching the TV and do not want to be disturbed. EVER.

Graham

Reply to
Graham

It's worth it for them to travel these days.

Reply to
Elder

Shhhh, you'll scare the fish.

Reply to
SteveH

Put a notice on it then. Simple as that. It should be easy for you.

Reply to
Rob

I had one offer to take away my current car. "It's looking a bit low". It's a BX...

cheers, clive

Reply to
Clive George

Round here they don't bother to ask.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Don't be so tight - give it to the next one and it'll save you a job. .

E.

Reply to
eastender

The "most affluent" areas in the UK don't have Sierras sitting on their drives for 14 years. That sounds more like the sort of place Onslow ("Keeping up Appearances") lives in.

Reply to
Graz

I had the fuel pipes cut on my old mark 2 Astra twice, on the first occasion they drained off a gallon and let a full tank of petrol run into the gutter, on the second occasion the car was in my drive [I caught them red handed on the third occasion] but at least they did block up the pipe with a stick, and that was before the astronomical rise in fuel prices. I'm surprised that fuel theft from private vehicles is not more endemic than it actually is, and I would have thought that nowadays they could simply drill a hole in the tank with a battery powered drill, grab a gallon or two and scarper.

Reply to
Ivan

Not sure I'd risk that technique...

Petrol thefts are nothing new. Years ago when I had a Pinto engined Transit, I only made it to the end of the road one morning when it stopped. After 15 minutes or so or diagnosis, I found the petrol pipe from the tank was cut under the N/S door.

I became aware of another vehicle close by that was being cranked repeatedly, but not firing. When I looked up, it was also a Transit. The owner was quite impressed when I walked over, bent down and pulled the cut piece of pipe out from underneath.

The stupid thing was that unless the tank was more then 3/4 full, the fuel didn't run out anyway!

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Agreed, not with petrol anyway, but I suspect even that will depend on how expensive it eventually becomes.

|| Petrol thefts are nothing new. Years ago when I had a Pinto engined || Transit, I only made it to the end of the road one morning when it || stopped. After 15 minutes or so or diagnosis, I found the petrol || pipe from the tank was cut under the N/S door. || || I became aware of another vehicle close by that was being cranked || repeatedly, but not firing. When I looked up, it was also a Transit. || The owner was quite impressed when I walked over, bent down and || pulled the cut piece of pipe out from underneath. || || The stupid thing was that unless the tank was more then 3/4 full, || the fuel didn't run out anyway! || || Chris || || -- || Remove prejudice to reply.

Reply to
Ivan

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