House burgled, van stolen.

Van is undamaged, police have had a moan saying they wanted to retrieve it but they didn't get back to me when they said so I took it into my own hands. CID coming at 11.30
As if you're going to leave it there, by the time the police did anything it could have been long gone. They don't live in the real world. I know you're still missing bits but you must be buzzing to have got it back
 
You did right aytonstrummer. You would have been paying the statutory removal and storage charges if the police had retrieved it.

If your van had been left overnight, chances are it would've been parked up somewhere else this morning after being used in another attempted burglary. A little longer still and it ends up stripped or burnt out.
 
Glad to see you get sorted!!

We have had similar occurrences on our estate in Stockton over the past 6 months. Chancers checking car and house doors. Police have been involved but they sent a van round once a week as a presence. People have belongings pinched left, right and centre which is actually leading to a vigilante mentality. People are prepared to sit up all night to catch them and dish out their own judicial action. We think lads are marking cars which could be "keyless" entry as a lot of scratch marks (mainly attempted stars) are being left on new vehicles across the estate.
 
The police use a garage in Stockton for retrieval of stolen vehicle’s.
They then charge you £150 for the retrieval.
The garage would you believe is ran by an ex-policeman.
 
What a roller-coaster ride reading this thread was.
Devastated for ayton and then buzzing that northriding found the van! That almost NEVER happens.
Now left angry by virtue of the fact that this happened at all in the first place. Brough back painful memories of my own motorbike being stolen and burnt out when they couldnt get it started. Absolute mindless, shameful excuses for humans.
I would 100% have gone to pick the van up myself for the record ayton. But dont blame the police. I'd like to think that they do the best job that they can. It's the system and the government that is broken.

Best of luck getting back to work. If you are missing any tools that are essential to your trade, and I have anything that can be of use...PM me and you can borrow what you like. I have a decent selection of powered hand tools.
 
Glad you got it back.
Glad you got it rather than wait for the police and risk it being stolen or pay their storage charge
Disappointed the scum will no doubt get away with it
 
Good to hear you can get back to some normality tomorrow. (y)

At eight o'clock a girl she wakes, at five past eight a bath she takes
At ten past eight (hm) my ladder breaks, when I'm cleaning windows

 
@aytonstrummer little consolation but sadly its a nationwide issue that's only going to get worse as the economy take a dip. Here in North Kent its rife - I had a new shipping container foolishly covered in lock boxes, etc and they came through a golf course and muddy nursery to cut it open with gas bottles only to find a bit of house furniture but they must have thought it was Brinks Mat or something. Years ago when a student in NW I had a £250 Fiesta stolen which was later reported abandoned in a wood near Blackburn - fortunately it only took a can of petrol and 2 spare wheels to recover and was good for another couple of years!
 
CID Said I did the right thing took away the lighter for prints and evidence.
Back to work tomorrow 👍
Tell them not to bother. We all know northriding took it 😜.

On a more serious note. Great ending. Really glad to hear this turned out not so bad.
 
Ring Police, they will recover and finger print it etc?

I had a very similar thing happen to me recently, my car was stolen after a burglary. I have a mate who is a postman who found the car a couple of days later.
I made the mistake of ringing the police, who recovered the car to take fingerprints.
Two weeks later the police still had my car and still had not taken any fingerprints. Both my wife and myself are self employed and not having a vehicle for two weeks was extremely difficult, so we eventually just told the police we wanted the car back regardless. At this point they told us WE had to pay them £150 storage fee, for the privilege of them keeping our car without our consent and doing **** all with it.
The burgalry was a major inconvenience but the police made the situation a hundred times worse.
I'm absolutely delighted the OP has found his van!
On the plus side both our house and car insurance companies were very good.
 
Great news regards to getting your van back Aytonstrummer.

Just wanted to add a few points regarding the general criticism of the police.

This isn’t aimed at any one in particular, however I just wanted to provide some information for people’s awareness.

As has been pointed out, the police are massively overstretched. To give a real world example.

I’m in West Durham CID, we cover Stanley, Chester le Street and Consett (and all the other places in and around those areas), it isn’t a particularly challenging “patch” however we have 3 CID teams (without going into detail on the shift pattern, generally speaking 1 team is on early shift, 1 on lates and 1 team is off).

The teams should consist of 6 ppl on each team. The best it has been lately is 2 teams of 3 and one team of 4 (the team of 4 consisted of someone working part time and a new starter).

However at present generally with long term sickness and suspensions etc. Two of the teams have 2 people in, and the other has 3.

Since last week and for the next couple weeks my team will consist of me and only me. This is due to 2 of my team mates being on annual leave and the other lad being suspended.

I promise you >90% of cops would love to spend a significant period of time investigating burglaries and other crimes however it just isn’t possible. There is a finite amount of time, finite amount of people and finite amount of resources.

I am currently the OIC for 16 crimes, it was as high as 21/22 a couple weeks ago. I have to prioritise rapes, section 18 assaults, sexual offences against children etc. We are legally bound to prioritise investigations whereby people are being held on remand. The vast majority of cops are doing their very best in massively difficult circumstances.
 
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Great news regards to getting your van back Aytonstrummer.

Just wanted to add a few points regarding the general criticism of the police.

This isn’t aimed at any one in particular, however I just wanted to provide some information for people’s awareness.

As has been pointed out, the police are massively overstretched. To give a real world example.

I’m in West Durham CID, we cover Stanley, Chester le Street and Consett (and all the other places in and around those areas), it isn’t a particularly challenging “patch” however we have 3 CID teams (without going into detail on the shift pattern, generally speaking 1 team is on early shift, 1 on lates and 1 team is off).

The teams should consist of 6 ppl on each team. The best it has been lately is 2 teams of 3 and one team of 4 (the team of 4 consisted of someone working part time and a new starter).

However at present generally with long term sickness and suspensions etc. Two of the teams have 2 people in, and the other has 3.

Since last week and for the next couple weeks my team will consist of me and only me. This is due to 2 of my team mates being on annual leave and the other lad being suspended.

I promise you >90% of cops would love to spend a significant period of time investigating burglaries and other crimes however it just isn’t possible. There is a finite amount of time, finite amount of people and finite amount of resources.

I am currently the OIC for 16 crimes, it was as high as 21/22 a couple weeks ago. I have to prioritise rapes, section 18 assaults, sexual offences against children etc. We are legally bound to prioritise investigations whereby people are being held on remand. The vast majority of cops are doing their very best in massively difficult circumstances.
And you are spending too much time on here instead of arresting Stanley's finest.

All joking aside, they are many out there who don't have a good word for the police but they are the first ones we ring when something goes wrong. You don't need to be highly educated to know they are overstretched and have been underfunded for years. I take my hat off to them.
 
Great news regards to getting your van back Aytonstrummer.

Just wanted to add a few points regarding the general criticism of the police.

This isn’t aimed at any one in particular, however I just wanted to provide some information for people’s awareness.

As has been pointed out, the police are massively overstretched. To give a real world example.

I’m in West Durham CID, we cover Stanley, Chester le Street and Consett (and all the other places in and around those areas), it isn’t a particularly challenging “patch” however we have 3 CID teams (without going into detail on the shift pattern, generally speaking 1 team is on early shift, 1 on lates and 1 team is off).

The teams should consist of 6 ppl on each team. The best it has been lately is 2 teams of 3 and one team of 4 (the team of 4 consisted of someone working part time and a new starter).

However at present generally with long term sickness and suspensions etc. Two of the teams have 2 people in, and the other has 3.

Since last week and for the next couple weeks my team will consist of me and only me. This is due to 2 of my team mates being on annual leave and the other lad being suspended.

I promise you >90% of cops would love to spend a significant period of time investigating burglaries and other crimes however it just isn’t possible. There is a finite amount of time, finite amount of people and finite amount of resources.

I am currently the OIC for 16 crimes, it was as high as 21/22 a couple weeks ago. I have to prioritise rapes, section 18 assaults, sexual offences against children etc. We are legally bound to prioritise investigations whereby people are being held on remand. The vast majority of cops are doing their very best in massively difficult circumstances.
I actually felt sorry for the CID fella who came out to me this morning. Finished 10 last night and back on shift to see me at 11.30 this morning. Got loads cases on and little resources to do it. Shocking how much car theft is about, wouldn't have a range rover or Ford ST for free. Anyway we are best mates now 🤣
 
It’s terrible what is happening in the uk no respect no police presence and no political care for real people I hope you get over this burglary is disgusting the perpetrators are as low as it gets
 
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