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Old 5th Dec 2022, 6:15 pm   #1
Panrock
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Default Burglary and our hobby

Reading elsewhere on this forum how sets in a collection can sometimes outstay their welcome and become a burden...

Has anyone ever been 'helped out' in this regard by having their sets stolen?

Or is it the fact that it's rare for any of our old radios and tvs to hold any interest for the criminal fraternity?

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Old 5th Dec 2022, 6:26 pm   #2
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

IMHO any criminal who can lug-away an AR88 RA117 or B40 must be seriously motivated....

My only experience with unauthorised radio-removals was back in the very-early-80s when a number of the two-way radios I was renting-out were stolen from cars presumably by light-fingered ignorami who thought they were stealing a CB.

Often the thief just got the dash-mounted 'head end' control unit, the radio-proper being mounted in the boot. Mobile antennas were often stolen, either by competitor taxi-companies or the CB fraternity wanting something to replace their DV27/Half-breed.

Ordinary broadcast car-radios, and TVs/video-recorders were once a popular item for theft, but once the market became saturated [cars came fitted with in-car-entertainment as standard, everyone already had a TV/VCR] the market for 'fencing' such items disappeared and so did the associated thefts.
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 6:26 pm   #3
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Well I did pinch a 50's Ferranti wooden cased radio off the top a dustbin in Stroud a very long time ago (I did ask first!!)

I wouldn't think that general vintage radios and television sets would generate much interest. When a considerable number at the BVWS auctions struggle to get £20 or more, Their size and weight and possible pass-on value as well as their target audience would deter most I belive.

What would be more interest to a burglar would be workshop items such as battery power drills, hand tools ECT. Possibly things like digital multimeters which are small and light. Maybe oscilloscopes because they look expensive though the pass-on audience isn't going to be too great.

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Old 5th Dec 2022, 7:06 pm   #4
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Yes, they're of relatively low value even when sold to their specialist market, and many are physically difficult to steal and handle. There are three markets really - upmarket cars, expensive antiques and jewelry which is stolen by professional gangs, plant and agricultural machinery which is smuggled to Africa and eastern Europe, and cash or phones which is used by the local smackheads to fund their habit. No interest in old valve radios there.
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 7:17 pm   #5
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

There must also be a market for audio and AV, judging from the recent break-ins at our local church. On the first occasion a short-throw projector was taken and on the second it was an audio mixer amplifier and a hearing loop amplifier.
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 7:28 pm   #6
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

The Sc***ags will steal anything if they get the chance, whether it is even worth anything or not.
Make sure you are well alarmed up with recording camera's and a phone dialler to call your mobile. Better prepared than sorry later.
It will be one of your finest investments.
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 7:29 pm   #7
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Some of the druggies will just take anything without knowing what it's for. They try to sell it for a few quid in dodgy pubs and homeless hostels. If they can't find a buyer they just dump it.
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 7:36 pm   #8
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruisin Marine View Post
Make sure you are well alarmed up with recording camera's and a phone dialler to call your mobile. Better prepared than sorry later.
It will be one of your finest investments.
I've got all that, plus a resident 52-kilogram dog, who is trained _not_ to give his presence away by barking. He'll beat you over 100 Metres and tackle you as well as any member of the England Rugby-squad.

I also use 'defensive planting' - Pyracantha bushes intermingled with unexpected lengths of coax antenna-feeds as tripwires.... !
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 8:25 pm   #9
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Quote:
Originally Posted by high_vacuum_house View Post
Well I did pinch a 50's Ferranti wooden cased radio off the top a dustbin in Stroud a very long time ago (I did ask first!!)
Reminds me of something I did once, I must have been about 7 or 8 years old. A valve radio on top of a dustbin, ready at the kerb edge a few doors down, was just too irresistible, and encouraged by my father, I went and knocked on the door. Nobody answered, and seeing the bin men coming down the street, I couldn't help myself and liberated said radio from the bin and made off with it!

You see, I started with all this very early...
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 9:00 pm   #10
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

No need to make off with it. I've had radios - and even a radiogram - dumped on my doorstep.
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 9:11 pm   #11
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Originally Posted by Panrock View Post
No need to make off with it. I've had radios - and even a radiogram - dumped on my doorstep.
At that age, I was still too polite to help myself, even though I was saving it from the dustbin lorry.

I can't remember where it ended up, but I did get some pleasure from it for a while before I moved on to a radiogram
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 9:57 pm   #12
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

G6.

In Aus both the dog, and the trip wires are "not allowed ". By that I mean if the dog bites someone they will shoot the dog and you will pay all the hospital/medical bills. Here you MUST have a fence high enough so the dog can't jump over, and there MUST be signage stating you have security dogs on the premises.

The tripwires the same, you will pay the bills.

Here its probably better to help the thief carry the stuff away, but then you know what they look like.

I would have thought GB would be the same, both Westminster systems, and some of our laws date back to 17th century England.


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Old 5th Dec 2022, 10:37 pm   #13
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

I'd kind of expected that Australia would be more like "stand your ground" a.k.a. apply suitable violence to the thief, since it has a bit of a rough around the edges reputation in the rest of the world.
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 10:48 pm   #14
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Maarten,
It's a long time since Ned Kelly was around. Australia is today, rather a more Police state
( or country ) than it once was. As far as "defending" your property, it's not easy at all. If somebody
breaks into your house and attacks you with a knife or a gun and you bash him with the fire place poker, YOU will be charged with grievous bodily harm, and any other charges they can dream up at the time. The thief will be charged with illegal entry.
Even if you use Judo or Kung Foo, YOU are the one at fault.
Funny how that works, isn't it ?.

Joe
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Old 5th Dec 2022, 11:59 pm   #15
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

The relevant laws are roughly similar in the UK. You certainly can't shoot burglars unless your life is at risk, and if your dog seriously injures a burglar you will be on dodgy ground.
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Old 6th Dec 2022, 1:56 am   #16
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Whilst I sympathize with the sentiments, one cannot simply act as though one's property is some kind of oasis where the law that applies is whatever one dreams up.

Imagine, say, a child climbing over to retrieve a football -we've all done it - and getting mauled to death by a dog or speared or electrocuted by some home made man trap. Now one could argue he shouldn't have been in there, but one cannot act as though trespass were some kind of pretext for 'anything goes'. On that note reasonable force is permitted and is at the same time dependent on various circumstances. Too many people have been riled up by ill-presented tabloid stories and American drama, sadly.

As to the theft risk, there's one area nobody seems to have mentioned, scrap metal especially copper. A family member even had an old washing machine stolen from up the side of her house, presumably for scrap value. Some people literally do take anything.
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Old 6th Dec 2022, 2:08 am   #17
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Many decades ago, burglars broke into my girlfriend's (now wife of 44 years) house and stole the old TV.

Then they waited a week or two until an insurance claim resulted in a brand new TV - which they broke in a second time and stole.

Given the weight of colour TV's in the early 70's these guys must have been both very strong and very quiet.

In hindsight, Carole's father had a broken leg in plaster at that time (he was a fireman), so it could have been an inside tip off.

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Old 6th Dec 2022, 2:48 am   #18
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Burglars don't generally take old electronic items like valve radios, unless perhaps you have some high-value ones. However if your workshop is in a separate shed or garage that can be easily broken into, things like tools, bicycles etc. are frequently stolen. Thieves find these items easy to sell at car boot sales. It's a good idea to get a strong lock, an alarm and also visibly mark tools etc. with your name and postcode / house number. If you're unlucky enough to have them stolen, report it to the police. One nearby car boot sale is notorious for stolen tools - I think they're mostly taken from building sites. The police do check from time to time. Occasionally arrests are made. If your property is marked, it can be identified as stolen and maybe returned to you.

If your garage has an inside door that leads to the rest of the house, this can be an easy way in for a burglar. They may be looking for money, gold jewellery or other small valuable items like laptops and smartphones, but in the process they turn over cupboards and cause damage. This can be very distressing to come home to, even when nothing of great value has been taken. Dogs can be a good burglar deterrent, but so is a light bulb on a timer - it's very simple and cheap. Avoid leaving valuables on display through the window - another obvious tip. Some years back, one of my friends was burgled while he and his family slept. The burglar spotted a bunch of keys hanging up in the hall, then snagged them with a hook passed through the letterbox. The thief used the keys to unlock the front door, took the flat screen TV and drove off in my friend's car which was parked in the drive. In the morning, they couldn't believe what had happened. The car and TV had gone. The local newspaper reported several similar crimes in the area in the following weeks.
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Old 6th Dec 2022, 3:21 am   #19
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

In the days when I had my pre-war telly, I was aware it could have been stolen due to its value. However the tiny market for them would have made it hard to fence, and then its weight - at 13 stone - would have made removal a major effort. I don't know of any cases, even when they were new in the 1930s.

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Old 6th Dec 2022, 5:28 am   #20
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Default Re: Burglary and our hobby

Radio gear, no, but I have had a couple of people fancy the camera I was holding. Still got it.

An Icom R9000 receiver (5 grand at the time) was stolen from the firm where I worked. Rob Mannion and the other magazine editors helped with a non-specific about where it was stolen from appeal for info with just the police phone number mentioned.

It was Icom UK's receiver on loan for evaluation. We'd just got a delivery of 3 for a development under way and wanted 140 more for the customer units. The loaner had let software development get started. We only noticed the loss when looking for it to ship it back to Thanet. Embarrassing!

The next thing, in the week of publication of PW, a radio amateur about 30 miles away phoned me asking for advice. He'd read of it in PW and wondered if I'd heard anything about it. It was in the hands of an old disabled chap who'd bought it to listen to aircraft with. £400 had been a lot for him. It didn't work and he'd asked for help. Being used for development of an automatic receiver system, the radio had been switched into remote control mode, so the front panel was disabled. The thief and his fence didn't understand so they went looking for some dodgy radio people, and it wound up in the hands of a bunch of illegal CBers. They took it apart to try and 'fix' it. Use your imagination about the results! They advertised it by word of mouth locally as not working, repairable. The old guy bought it, thinking a friend, the young-ish radio amateur ought to be able to fix it. He was not aware of its history.

As Icom UK's demonstrator box, this was the very radio which had appeared on all the covers of all the usual radio magazines and reviews inside them. Priced beyond what almost all readers could budget, a bit of a drool-inducer of an article. The radio world's equivalent of nicking a hypercar fresh off Top Gear.

The old guy and the amateur were unsure what to do. Did they just bury the thing and hope it never came to light? I suggested that so long as they were not involved in the theft, or knew at the time that it was stolen, phoning the police and going through the normal channels might be safest.

The police traced it back to the illegal CBers, who pointed at the fence, and he immediately ratted on the actual thief. This meant the thief goot charged, but the CBer and fence were treated as witnesses. I understand, but was left feeling that without the fence, there would be fewer crimes.

Our firm didn't want the old guy losing out for doing the honest thing, so he wound up with his cost covered and a thank you in the shape of a brand new, fully functional scanner of more comfortable proportions. We bought Icom UK an new R9000 to replace their demonstrator.

It turned out that the thief was a security guard employed by a contractor who was in the act of losing his job for not being on the premises when he should have.

It went to court, him pleading not guilty. The value of the item put the case in a higher level court up the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. All the witnesses etc turned up, and only then did the plea change to guilty.

I'd been phoned at work quite above board by the defence lawyer and I explained that a more prominent radio could not have been stolen. Hobbyists all over the country would be aware of it. It was going to come to light eventually. He could look on the magazine stands in Waverley Station and read the appeal for info. He still had the client hang onto 'Not guilty' until he was sure all the witnesses had turned up.

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