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Shed owners warned wire on windows could hurt burglars : could be sued if a burglar is injured
The Telegraph ^ | 02/14/2011

Posted on 02/14/2011 7:47:34 AM PST by SeekAndFind

A spate of thefts in several towns and villages in Kent and Surrey over the past few months led to many householders taking action to protect their property.

Some have been warned by police that using wire mesh to reinforce shed windows was ''dangerous’’ and could lead to criminals claiming compensation if they ''hurt themselves’’.

Thieves target sheds to steal lawnmowers, power drills, bicycles and a variety of DIY tools.

Thomas Cooper, of Tatsfield, Surrey, used wire mesh to protect three of his garden sheds after two break-ins over the past four years. He decided to take action after reports of a rise in garden raids in the area.

Mr Cooper said: “I reinforced my shed windows with wire mesh, but was told by the police I had to be very careful because thieves can actually sue you if they get hurt.

''It is ridiculous that the law protects them even though they are breaking it.”

Last month Samantha Cullum, a mother-of-three, of Brasted, near Sevenoaks in Kent, had her whole shed stolen when thieves lifted it on to a lorry.

She said: “We had some tools stolen every now and again, but this time they took the entire shed – I couldn’t believe it.”

Dave Bishop, of Tatsfield, said: “The law is so stupid, and you never know what decision judges are going to make. People do get fed up with these people trying to help themselves to things which you have worked hard to gather together.”

Pc John Lee, a crime reduction officer for Tandridge, said: “We are constantly advising home owners to protect their property and the contents of their shed or garage, however, a commonsense approach needs to be taken.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: burglars; lawsuit; shed; windows
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1 posted on 02/14/2011 7:47:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

3 S’s
Shoot, shovel, shut up.

OH WAIT this is the UK

make that the 3 B’s

Bludgeon, bury, be quite


2 posted on 02/14/2011 7:50:11 AM PST by farmguy
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To: farmguy

Or set up a meat pie stand.....


3 posted on 02/14/2011 7:51:49 AM PST by dragonblustar ("... and if you disagree with me, then you sir, are worse than Hitler!" - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: SeekAndFind
Pc John Lee, a crime reduction officer for Tandridge, said: “We are constantly advising home owners to protect their property and the contents of their shed or garage, however, a commonsense approach needs to be taken."

This guy wouldn't recognize common sense if it broke into his house and beat the hell out of him.

4 posted on 02/14/2011 7:51:57 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ("If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." -- Barry Soetoro, June 11, 2008)
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To: dragonblustar

Would you like some Old Bob with your burglar pie?


5 posted on 02/14/2011 7:54:20 AM PST by farmguy
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To: farmguy
Put this up and just follow the blood trail....
6 posted on 02/14/2011 7:54:39 AM PST by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: SeekAndFind

In the UK, defending yourself from criminals is actually a crime. Most crimes go unreported for no one actually expects the police to apprehend criminals and they are not going to be punished in the event they are actually prosecuted.


7 posted on 02/14/2011 7:55:12 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: SeekAndFind

I was going to say, ‘well, a guess a burglar could sue if he cut himself on yr. wire, if he also happened to working for OSHA, and doing a safety inspection’, but then I saw this was from the UK.
It’s a pattern that occurs predictably here, there, and everywhere.....they’re ineffective fighting crime, the criminals are nowhere to be found, the criminals CAN’T be controlled, so the things they CAN control are the victims, who tend to stay put and are easily findable.They’re good at issuing good, friendly, ‘practical’ warnings like “please don’t cover anything with wire, the criminal could hurt himself’, which implies that the UK is also full of barristers ready to jump at the chance to cash in on personal injury cases. It’s happened hundreds of times on our southern border, the most blatant example anywhere of ‘criminals invading your (our) space’.


8 posted on 02/14/2011 7:57:29 AM PST by supremedoctrine (Come closer. Let me get a better look at you.)
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To: goldstategop

Pretty much a nonrefutable indicator that a society has given itself over to Satanism when the wicked are protected and the innocent punished.


9 posted on 02/14/2011 7:59:30 AM PST by MrB (Tagline suspended for important announcement on my home page. Click my handle.)
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To: SeekAndFind

My parents house was broken into and my brother came home to find the burglers in the house. They fled the house through the backyard and over the ten foot privacy fence. After that my dad lined rcthe top of the fence with six inch spikes.
I’ve been warning him that he’d probably end up looking at a lawsuit should anybody including another burglar scaled the fence and got hung up on those spikes.


10 posted on 02/14/2011 8:01:42 AM PST by diverteach (If I find liberals in heaven after my death.....I WILL BE PISSED!!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Farewell, England.


11 posted on 02/14/2011 8:02:09 AM PST by OldNewYork (social justice isn't justice; it's just socialism)
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To: SeekAndFind

So I guess this means motion sensor activated flame-throwers are a definate no-no?????

Glad I don’t live there or I would be in real trouble.


12 posted on 02/14/2011 8:03:10 AM PST by commish (Freedom tastes sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Hey not to worry, when the Muslims finally take over in England, those crooks might not only have their hands chopped off, but they might not have a leg to stand on, on their attempt to sue.


13 posted on 02/14/2011 8:03:30 AM PST by pennboricua
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

Isn’t that what’s on top of the border fence?? Oh silly me!!
There is no border fence.... Sorry. I forgot.

Never mind.....


14 posted on 02/14/2011 8:04:14 AM PST by NeverForgetBataan (To the German Commander: ..........................NUTS !)
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To: farmguy

“Bludgeon, bury, be quite”

lol! Nice.


15 posted on 02/14/2011 8:06:03 AM PST by CodeToad (Islam needs to be banned in the US and treated as a criminal enterprise.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Many years back I had a “friend” who would constantly enter my house (trailer) uninvited when I wasn’t home. After locking all the doors he started climbing in the windows. It was summer and I didn’t want to close the windows so I took a bunch of nails and hammered them in part way along the length of the sill. Then I cut them off at sharp angles just below the nail head. SOB still managed to get in there somehow and to this day I’m not really sure how.


16 posted on 02/14/2011 8:06:34 AM PST by the_devils_advocate_666
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To: SeekAndFind
It could be funny if it was not outright spooky, when you think about how fast Britain turned into asylum. Given that we are on the same pass too, it gives me shivers.
How many years of sanity do we have left?
17 posted on 02/14/2011 8:07:57 AM PST by Samogon (Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. - Plato)
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To: SeekAndFind

My question to our english friends. Why do you continue to employ police?


18 posted on 02/14/2011 8:11:13 AM PST by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
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To: SeekAndFind
As soon as I saw the Headline in the sidebar, I KNEW this was in the UK.

That place is lost. Lunatics are running everything. The people may as well all commit suicide and get it over with asap.

19 posted on 02/14/2011 8:14:51 AM PST by Condor51 (Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Congressman. But I repeat myself. [Mark Twain])
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To: SeekAndFind
In 1985, I bought 1.5 acres of old mobile home park to put my house on. After I put a barbed wire fence around the property line, I moved in about three feet and planted a perimeter of buckthorn trees/bushes. I got the buckthorn seedlings from all over the area, telling perfect strangers throughout Central Texas that, if they wanted to get rid of the buckthorn seedlings in their yard, I would do it for them.

Then, eight feet in from the buckthorn, I planted an inner perimeter line of Texas red cedars eight feet apart all around the line. Didn't cost me a cent, as I just dug out seedlings under the larger cedars already in the yard and went from yard to yard offering to dig up all of their little cedars. The seedlings varied in height from six inches or so to two feet tall.

After they were all planted, I went out to the open range on Fort Hood after a major field exercise and policed up about 50 rolls of concertina wire. I unrolled the concertina wire over the seedlings and carefully monitored their growth over the next five years.

Now, the buckthorn is growing along the inside of the fenceline, backed up by some very nasty 20-foot tall red cedars, with their branches interlaced through growth.

Inside that cedar hedge, at a varying height of between two and five feet, is a coil of very sharp, very rusty concertina razor wire.

My late wife wanted bunkers and machine gun nests, but I had to draw the line somewhere. [smile]

When the doorbell rings, either my present wife or I will look out the small kitchen window that flanks the front door and porch. If it's someone we don't recognize, we retrieve the pistol (for me) and the shotgun (for her) and open up the window to ask them their business.

Should they try to break in the steel door, they're going to have a little problem because, whenever one of us is in the house, the two deadbolts are thrown (2.5 inches of deadbolt into the doorframe which is a treated 4x4) and the bar is across the middle of the door (a 2x4 in the manner somewhat akin to what you see across castle gates held in steel braces with 2-inch bolts securing it to the 4x4 door frame).

The windows are all covered with painted treated wooden lattice .. easy enough to kick out if you have to escape a fire, but delaying and noisy enough to discourage break-ins .. and, underneath the paneling below the kitchen window is a 4'x4' piece of 3/8-inch steel plating from a salvage yard, in case of gunfire into the kitchen when we're asking them their business.

We live well out in the sticks, away from the main road .. a lot of privacy, but we're pretty much on our own. My wife, who is from England, took to the property and the Texas way of life with guns like a duck to water.

20 posted on 02/14/2011 8:17:59 AM PST by BlueLancer (Nuke Austin from orbit .... it's the only way to be sure.)
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