Sally's World

I had to give a statement to the police yesterday, some reprobate made off with my spare wheel…again! This is getting ridiculous; they surely can’t be worth very much on the black market. You don’t often see people on street corners accosting passers by to see if they want to buy a fiat wheel! It’s going to be two trips to the (not so local) dealer to get the wheel replaced now; quite frankly I don’t need the hassle.

I was quite embarrassed to phone the police station and report it. Motabilty won’t replace the wheel without a crime number, you can’t get a crime number until you’ve reported it, so over one spare van wheel, I spent ages on the phone, twice, giving details, phone numbers, number plates, vehicle colour, e.t.c. and two police officers had to pay a visit to my house.

I’m pretty sure every one of them was thinking they had far better things to do that to hunt down a rogue fiat wheel thief, and who could blame them.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, that’s two spare wheels and a stolen stereo in total. Also, a long while ago someone bizarrely broke into the car to steal Aarons oxygen cylinder, proving that people really will steal anything. I had to report that too so that I wouldn’t be responsible for replacing it. Again, hassle I didn’t need. And the policeman was pretty confused too, when you report stolen items, they have a list with and item number by it, no surprises for guessing that an oxygen cylinder wasn’t on his list. He scratched his head for a while as we both scanned the list and settled on first aid kit as ‘items stolen.’

Now, one could argue that it is total inconsideration that a thief would target a disabled vehicle, after all our van is very clearly a disabled vehicle, in a disabled bay and covered in various stickers to prove it. And there is certainly enough to worry about without someone making life even more difficult.

On the other hand is there any such a thing as a considerate thief, I doubt the thief was considering the victim and/or their limitations for a second as he crawled under the car and nicked the wheel.

And after all, I’m always shouting about us not being treated differently just because of disability issues, should I be pleased that we have been treated just as badly as anyone else. We were not discriminated against in this case; the thief couldn’t care less about the physical disability of the wheel owner.

So what should we be most concerned about, the fact that someone is totally thoughtless and is willing to steal from some of the most vulnerable people in our society, concerned in general that there is no respect across the board, that people will steal anything from anyone, or should we be glad that our vehicles are not singled out and left alone simply because they display a blue badge???

It just got me thinking, that’s all. What do you think?

So yes, it is annoying for everyone, it’s called petty crime, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a wheel, it replaceable. But it doesn’t feel petty when you’re taking half a day to sort it out, its still people taking something that doesn’t belong to them.


Hoping today’s crime free!

Sal xxx