Car Crime

[poliphilo]

There's an abandoned car sitting outside our house. It's been there for months. Last night someone broke four of the windows and threw a firework inside. Whump, whump, whump, whump, fizz-bang! The whumping sounded just like
someone bouncing a football up and down and I thought maybe it had bounced out of control and landed in out front yard. By the time I went to look there was no-one in sight and the car was full of smoke. Had it caught fire I guess it could have blown our windows out. Nasty.

I stood around with the neighbours (in the bitter cold) and we sherlocked. No-one had seen anything. Then we called the police. Half an hour later a single copper turned up and took notes. He says they'll get it towed away because it's a danger to the public. Sure is!

The copper opined it must have been "kids" (ain't it always!) but Ailz has the more persuasive theory that the car's owner hired someone (and she thinks she knows who) to write it off so he wouldn't be liable to pay to have it scrapped.

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

What is it with the English and cars abandoned in the streets? It doesn't seem to be a common occurrence in Denmark, but while I was living in London a whole range of different cars were dumped, and the wrecked, in my street. You islanders with your quaint, local customs!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It used to be the case that the authorities would remove unwanted cars for free. Now owners have to pay. I think that has a lot to do with the increase in dumping. A wrecked car will still be removed for free- hence (perhaps) the attempt to destroy the one outside our house last night.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I wonder what Danes do to dispose of their cars... I actually haven't got a clue, but they're not standing around in the streets of Copenhagen. Maybe they're all just stolen and sent to Eastern Europe? Maybe they get bored with this fairytale country, develop free will and decide to drive to Mongolia? Oh, so many posibilities!!!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Wow! Excitement on your street!

I'm glad the police will be taking away the fireworks car, hopefully today.

In my usual narcissitic way, I can even relate your event to my own life (sorry!):

When we were young, my husband, toddler Kate, and I lived in a row house in Atlanta. Next door to us lived a wild hippie woman who wore long dresses with matching headbands. She took up with one of the yard men who mowed the grass who was, unfortunately, married to a very fierce and unforgiving woman, and that woman and her friends took revenge on Connie the wild woman.

R and I were asleep one night when we heard a pounding on our front door and Connie's hysterical voice: "Let me in! I need to use your phone! Let me in!"

R ran down the stairs and I ran into Kate's nursery at the front of the house, where I looked out into the night.

Connie's old green Corvair was parked in front of our house, and it was on fire! Flames were totally engulfing it, and in the shadows beyond was a line of neighbors silhoutted against the orange light.

R let Connie in, and she called the police, who, of course, could do nothing but arrange to have the hulk of the car hauled away. But Connie knew exactly who had done it, and so did the entire neighborhood.

Those wives knew how to keep wild women in line.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Luckily this one didn't catch on fire. We'd have been in danger if it had; there's only about five or six feet of yard between us and the street.

We had a garage/shed thing at the back that kept catching on fire a few years back. Whee, but that was spectacular! And now the kids gather on the vacant lot to throw stones at our neighbour's back windows.

Hmm. I'm making this sound like a high-crime neighbourhood. It's not really. Visitors tend to comment on how quiet and peaceful it is.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it didn't catch fire, too! I didn't realize how close the car was to your house.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a terrace house, raised about two to three feet above street level with a very small yard in front. It was built in 1910- a very typical middle of the range example of the urban housing of the period.

I just looked out the front and I see the dead car has been removed. Hooray!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I just looked out the front and I see the dead car has been removed. Hooray!


Oh, good!

1910--I imagine your house is charming.

And how is your terra cotta kitchen? (You now have a yellow ceiling, right?)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's coming along, but it ain't finished yet. One of the walls I've still to paint is damp, but we think it's down to the clothes-dryer and not anything more sinister.

And yes, the ceiling is a bright lemon yellow.

[thewayupward.livejournal.com]

If you do not mind the terrible weather and worse English, you may consider moving to Singapore. Cars here cost so much because of government taxes that nobody abandons them. You can buy a small flat with the cost of a car, and flats here also cost a lot because there is not enough land for everyone.

That is my dismal fact for the day. I was very pleased at the way people in other countries can just abandon their cars merrily alongside roads and under trees! I find it a charming barbaric custom. Also the way people write words in the dust, like, PLEASE GIVE ME A BATH. I guess it ain't so funny when people are dropping firecrackers in them. You may be pleased to know firecrackers are banned here. I have filled my dismal fact quota for the week!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started on firecrackers! It used to be the case that we had fireworks once a year- on Guy Fawkes day, Nov 5. Now the firework season runs all through the winter. This is a comparatively recent development and it took me much philosophizing to get used to it.

My favourite thing for writing on dusty cars is "Also available in white."