Tuesday, October 03, 2006
September - a rich month for thieves
One of the blessings of our neighbourhood thieves was that they limited themsleves to relatively small items. In fact, the vast majority of items that they have taken have almost certainly been transported away internally, with others carried in pockets. The exception was one winter visit when they stole our sled to carry away the twenty litre fuel can, with a few litres of old and worthless petrol. Last month, either the stakes went higher or the thief changed. They would certainly have needed some form of transport to get some of these items away, which precludes the young 'lads' who we always assumed were to blame. During two visits, two weeks apart, we lost, among other things:
Fifty metres of hose on a large reel
Some more hose
Thick black waterpipe-type hose
Waterpump and power supply
Kettle
Vacuum cleaner
Toaster
Sandwich toaster
and various other items
Our local copper was his usual sympathetic and probably totally useless self, suggesting that the items probably ended up in one of the local tochkas - illegal alcohol shops - in exchange for a dubious mixture of home made vodka and imported ethanol. He claimed that he would go and ask at the three village tochkas, which prompted us to wonder why, if he knows about the shops, they still exist. Apparently Latvian laws preventing entrapment make it almost impossible to get a conviction. I cannot help wondering if a slightly more dynamic policeman would, perhaps, find another way around that problem, and also suspect that his promise to go and look falls into the same category as his claim that he could be at the house within ten minutes if we fitted a remote intruder alarm. It always takes him hours to arrive when we call him, and it seems to me that a thief who knows that he has beaten the alarm is unlikely to be deterred. It's fortunate that he is such a 'nice chap'.
The silver lining, or less bad news, is that they have not managed to get into the tool shed since a different nice policeman rehung the door for us last winter, so at least that collection is safe so far, alhtough who knows, as I write these words anything could be happening.
It is all pretty depressing, to be honest, and really starting to get me down - hence the silence for the past month. We really cannot see a solution, apart from going to live there full time, but the additional cost of round the clock security that would be needed at the building site makes that even less likely to be affordable in the near future. Fed up, and finding that I really don't even feel like going out there at the weekends, except for...
1. The occasional fun discovery - our vegetable garden has finally been found by the local wildlife and a deer has enjoyed a great meal of mangolds. It was inevitable sooner or later, and however disappointed I am about the vegetables, we had eaten a couple of meals from them so I really cannot begrudge them to a hungry, or even greedy, deer.
2. The latest addition to our family really likes to get out of the city.
Her name is Emma, and she came from a dog's home so we know next to nothing about her, except she obviously has some collie blood and runs like the wind.
Fifty metres of hose on a large reel
Some more hose
Thick black waterpipe-type hose
Waterpump and power supply
Kettle
Vacuum cleaner
Toaster
Sandwich toaster
and various other items
Our local copper was his usual sympathetic and probably totally useless self, suggesting that the items probably ended up in one of the local tochkas - illegal alcohol shops - in exchange for a dubious mixture of home made vodka and imported ethanol. He claimed that he would go and ask at the three village tochkas, which prompted us to wonder why, if he knows about the shops, they still exist. Apparently Latvian laws preventing entrapment make it almost impossible to get a conviction. I cannot help wondering if a slightly more dynamic policeman would, perhaps, find another way around that problem, and also suspect that his promise to go and look falls into the same category as his claim that he could be at the house within ten minutes if we fitted a remote intruder alarm. It always takes him hours to arrive when we call him, and it seems to me that a thief who knows that he has beaten the alarm is unlikely to be deterred. It's fortunate that he is such a 'nice chap'.
The silver lining, or less bad news, is that they have not managed to get into the tool shed since a different nice policeman rehung the door for us last winter, so at least that collection is safe so far, alhtough who knows, as I write these words anything could be happening.
It is all pretty depressing, to be honest, and really starting to get me down - hence the silence for the past month. We really cannot see a solution, apart from going to live there full time, but the additional cost of round the clock security that would be needed at the building site makes that even less likely to be affordable in the near future. Fed up, and finding that I really don't even feel like going out there at the weekends, except for...
1. The occasional fun discovery - our vegetable garden has finally been found by the local wildlife and a deer has enjoyed a great meal of mangolds. It was inevitable sooner or later, and however disappointed I am about the vegetables, we had eaten a couple of meals from them so I really cannot begrudge them to a hungry, or even greedy, deer.
2. The latest addition to our family really likes to get out of the city.
Her name is Emma, and she came from a dog's home so we know next to nothing about her, except she obviously has some collie blood and runs like the wind.
