Jump to content

*Be vigilant* Possible imposters in the area


Hickory

Recommended Posts

Hi all


Don't want to unnecessarily scare people, however I thought I should share my experiences this week.

Whilst at home during the week (I'm usually at work) a man came up to my bay window and stared in. I confronted him in the street and he said he was from Virgin to 'check the cables', but was so incredibly rude to me and walked off.


Yesterday evening the same thing happened. Different person, but faces up against the window, having walked all over the front garden. This bloke was incredibly rude and abusive so I called the non-emergency police as well as Virgin, who said no installation teams were expected in the area.


There's a small chance it may well have truly been Virgin workmen (albeit who lack basic human skills). However please, please be vigilant. Real Virgin installation engineers should be wearing a full uniform, have a Virgin van nearby and carry ID, which you should always ask for.


The police suspect these are have-a-go imposters, trying to see who is away for Christmas. Lucky that we are not.


Similarly, if you see anyone hanging around your street that you don't recognise, might be worth mentioning to the neighbours or asking if they're having any work done.


OK lecture over! :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I live near Dunstans Rd in East Dulwich, but it goes for anyone living around here, no matter the street. Luckily we have good security measures and good neighbours AND I did take a photo of the bloke! But I echo the other recommendations of having anything valuable out of sight.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Loz is right and the same would also apply if the photo was taken in a public space including the pavement outside of your property as long as you weren't causing an obstruction. If the photo was accompanied by a caption merely stating the circumstances of the picture and you didn't accuse the subject of any wrongdoing then it could be quite useful as a safeguard and deterrent.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally I'd post on forum and print A4 posters to stick on lamp posts in your street, why should you live in fear, the guy was out of order and you're entitled to know who he is and why he did that.

If he was legit he could have waited by your front door when you noticed him and explained what he wanted - it's obvious that sticking his face against windows unannounced will concern anybody who's inside.

I understand anyone not wanting to post-up the pic though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fear of what a stranger, apparently up to no good might do if he sees his pic online (and knowing where the person who took it lives) is an understandable fear. There are also issues around publishing pictures of people, especially as at this stage, no crime has actually been committed. It's a matter for the police, and only the Police imo. They can publish photos if they feel there is good enough reason to do so.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How arrogant can you be - if you have a photo post it. Or are you happy that as long as the potential crime against you has been overted all is well ?


What about the old man who can longer go out to face the world ?


The wife who no longer feels safe in her own home and lives in fear of her own community ?


Why do criminals have rights and the community none ?


Post the picture if you have it, you could really save someone the hurt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rights are no good unless everyone has them and we protect them for everyone. To publish the picture of a 'potential' criminal, who actually has not committed any offence or has not even been charged with anything, on the spurious basis that it might protect others sounds like the plot for Minority Report, which as you may recall was actually a science fiction movie. Your community rights argument sounds like a leaflet for the Pitchfork Brigade. Put it down. We pay taxes so that a police force will detect and prevent and collect evidence to prosecute crime. You are not a genius for circumventing established civilised community standards but a numpty.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WTF is a guy doing looking in through house windows then leaving when he realises someone IS in the house ?

So you'd be happy for guys to do that all day long at your house then because there's no crime being committed ?


Give me a break.

Casing a joint is not a crime, true enough.

Neither is posting pictures of the guy doing it. How else could you take the photo if he's not trespassing on your property and glaring at you through your own goddamn window !!

Rights ???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't post.


It will be the forum admin who pays the penalty if a mistake is made


Usually admins are very sensitive on these matters - who wants to risk being sued.


Fabricio the Guido Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Rights are no good unless everyone has them and we

> protect them for everyone. To publish the picture

> of a 'potential' criminal, who actually has not

> committed any offence or has not even been charged

> with anything, on the spurious basis that it might

> protect others sounds like the plot for Minority

> Report, which as you may recall was actually a

> science fiction movie. Your community rights

> argument sounds like a leaflet for the Pitchfork

> Brigade. Put it down. We pay taxes so that a

> police force will detect and prevent and collect

> evidence to prosecute crime. You are not a genius

> for circumventing established civilised community

> standards but a numpty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Believe it or not people out there do have a motive against you. Yes rights needs to be protected but a line must be drawn. Its blatantly obvious the guy was / is up to no good. As a community we should be vigilant together. As for your minority report comment - ridiculous, please review the film. This liberal mind set has to end or would you actually see the point of view of the person who pulls a trigger against you and say you were in the wrong for the sake of their rights ?


Horse sh!t Lets start a name and shame board !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But John is right. A forum is read by much more than a local community and unless a crime is committed the person in that photo does have rights. Yes we all know that it is likely that the guys were casing for burglary, but there is no evidence of that (as accepted in law) until it happens. That is why posting photos online of someone under suspicion of what he might later do is unwise (hence the minority report reference). Admin did remove a photo posted by someone who did just that after a young man was a bit anti-social towards them at ED train station.


And it's not a liberal mindset that points out the above, it's one that understands why laws exist and what would be the consequences if people were allowed to ignore them. I would like to see many laws changed, that I feel would give power back to the victims and take it away from criminals, but I'm not going to advocate breaking the existing laws to please my own feelings on them either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JohnL's point is reasonable.

If admin / the forum could be compromised in some way then it's not OK to post on EDF.

However this is a technical distraction, just one example of where it may not be prudent to display the photo of Mr. Joint-Caser.

But the principle of getting the photo out locally or posting on other www channels where the hosts are OK with it I have no problem with.

Put pictures on the street, give a copy to police, on public notice boards, etc.

Mr. Caser can explain what he was doing if he does not like it.

Once the guy is on your property with no good intentions he's waived his 'rights'.

FFS

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok. Lesson 101.

This individual may have intended to commit a crime. We do not know because we are not mind readers and there is no actual proof of his intention. If he committed a trespass, that is an offence and that could be reported to the police who will investigate and prosecute. What if there is an innocent explanation for entering someone's garden? What happens when you post a picture and someone else decides to take the law into their own hands the next time they see this person -because in their opinion, these 'criminals' get away with crimes because the police are too weak to prosecute? Why don't we just by pass the whole criminal justice system and issue on the spot penalties for doggy looking people or people who act doggy in our opinion? I would like to issue a penalty notice to anyone who looks doggy in my opinion, community sentencing you might call it. We could all draw up lists of people we don't like the look of, including suspected paediatricians and even pedophiles, chavs, blacks, travellers, swarthy looking eastern europeans, gingers, northerners. The list is endless.


Sure, they might not have committed any offence, but it is a strong generalisation that based on anecdotal evidence, these types of people are likely to commit certain crimes, sooner or later. You are right, I have taken the scenarios to it's logical extreme until the argument appears absurd.



Technically, if you post a picture and called someone a potential their and they have not done anything, that's libellous.


The Daily Mail did that to the Stephen Lawrence accused. They didn't sue. BBC tried that schtick recently, and are still paying the price. Leaving aside the underlying class issue and questions of evidence, nice when laws protect everyone. I feel safer in my snuggly liberal bed because I expect to stand up for others and I would hope they would do the same for me if my rights are at stake. So there is a sense of community here, but it's a community that tries to do the descent thing rather than take action to assuage some sense of knowing better than other people, because of self righteous indignation.


Liberal feathers, not even slightly ruffled. Always glad to try and explain why the principle of universalisation is a reasonable/ proper basis for human action. Means and ends and all that jazz.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • I had no idea about the sourcing of the paving stones - where is the info on this? The extension of the paved area seems completely unjustified- plus, there is a cycle lane right thru the middle so there are bound to be some near misses with pedestrians. 
    • That's really awful. There must be someone further up the management chain who could be made aware of this? 
    • I'm assuming that anybody who has a cat can afford  its food, litter, vets' fees etc. Nobody was saying that two quid is "nothing", but it's cheaper than some brands of cat litter, so was hopefully useful to the OP. Still, hopefully your post made you feel better 👍 🤣 We still don't know why there was a bag of cat litter at the bus stop! Surely it would be rather difficult to take it away unnoticed if the owner of the cat litter was  also at the bus stop? It's not like someone distracted your attention and picked your pocket and you didn't notice till some time later! But what is also confusing me is, if the OP knows where the thief lives, why don't they go and ask for their cat litter back?
    • The market is only there for a few hours on Saturdays! Surely all street markets are "a bit tatty"! That seems a strange reason to close a road permanently to traffic!  There is already at least one seat  in North Cross Road (which seems to be quite well used),  apart from those for customers of The Palmerston,  and several of the shops in the road have greenery outside 
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...