Around my neck of the woods there appear to be more and more abandoned cars at the roadside and in supermarket car parks etc etc.
Yesterday, I spotted an abandoned Polo with a removal notice on it. My brother (some of you may know him - Rob the Bus) has just purchased a Golf which needs a new headlight glass. The Polo looks like it fits the bill perfectly. Obviously I would be breaking the law by going and removing a piece of the vehicle, but would anyone really bother? The council are going to come along and move it soon anyway! Is this view too simplistic?!
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Reminds me about the guy who broke down at the side of the road.
Standing there with the bonnet up.
Car pulls up with old guy wielding spanners. Guy says "if you want the battery, I'll have the wheels and tyres".
It would be a hard copper who'd do you for taking bits off a wreck. There are some about,though.
In Leeds, we take what we want as next time you go past it, the wreck's been set on fire.
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Obviously I would be breaking the law by going and removing a piece of the vehicle, but would anyone really bother?
Help yourself, but don't complain if you get caught!
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Hmm... Legally, it's theft and that's about all there is to it. The odds of being caught are low and the CPS is likely to take one look at it and decide it's not in the public interest, but you take your chances.
Oh and I don't think that headlights are interchangeable between the Polo and Golf anyway, they're just round.
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Does somebody have to own something before taking it is theft?
Who owns an abandoned car?
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Its theft...The Police will charge with "owners or owenrs unkown" That's why its theft to pocket anything you find like a £10.00 on the pavement. I had a client charged with stelaing from a skip....
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Most if not all Local Authorities are also against people removing items from ofical rubbish dumps ("amenity tips").
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Bizarre, isn't it - if you dump something that's illegal, but if you help to take bits of it away that's also illegal!
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There is, or used to be, a crime of 'stealing by finding'.
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Abscissic acid.
Remember. Think it was "A" Level biology. Might have been degree-level, but 30 years ago, so give me a chance.
It drops your leaves at Autumn time. Used to dump them fly-by-night style on the field.
Then wheelie-bins, so in they go.
Now, it's all environment, recycling and stuff. Better to put them on the field than in the bin, then the landfill.
If there is something you can re-use, you really should.
See where I'm going?
This is a proper defence, by the way. You can use it in the magistrate's court.
Just didn't really want to go there, did we?
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Around here the LA take a dim view of 'salvaging' bits and pieces from dumped cars. They seem to argue that nicking parts:
a) makes the dumped car more of a hazard and
b) encourages vandalism by attracting those who like nothing more than a good bonfire on public roads.
I tend to agree with them.
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Cliff - presumably as the car has only been abandoned, not handed over to another party, it still belongs to the latest owner, whether or not he wants it any longer. When he disposes of it in a recognised manner (junkyard, tip) it is no longer his/hers. Otherwise it is merely parked in an inconvenient place.
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Interesting thought
Would the owner not have to press charges for the police to prosecute?
If he's abandoned it I wouldn't have thought he would give a monkeys.
Alternitively, why doesn't your brother advertise for a golf for spares offering to take it off the owner free of charge, take off the bits he needs or may come in useful, then tow it to a scrapper?
Do they charge you to take it off you in your area yet?
I know that Plymouth City Council will remove them for you free of charge, no matter how much or little there is of the car left. Will your LA do that for you?
H
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DieselBoy (or should I say brother?)
Hmmmmmm. Glad to have you on board old bean - but I do seem to remember you taking the pink fluffy dice (my italics) about me posting on a "sad b*****s" site!
Worryingly, I had no idea that you were my brother! Oh well! The odd thing is, I travelled in the Corsa of which you spoke in another thread and still had no idea! Ho hum....
Cheers
Rob
PS - Ta for robbing the headlamp for me!
"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast."
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Ah, brother, you have me soooo wrong!
I eventually bought the headlight for you from a breakers in Liverpool for the princely sum of £10. Where they got it from is another question!!
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