Yesterday I had a call from the police asking me to fill in a Victim Impact Report for the judge to read at the sentencing of a certain young man who'd happily smashed the passenger window of our car and stolen my handbag.
Yep, in October my DB and I were on holiday in NZ's North Island when we drove up to the lookout of the town we were about to leave. I won't name the town because this could've happened anywhere. I rarely leave my handbag in the car but the car was locked, we were only 30 metres away, and less than ten minutes looking at the view. Yet in that space of time a vehicle came up the hill, two men leapt out, smashed our window, took my bag and drove away - all without anyone seeing it happen. I did turn and wonder why our car was rocking but then saw a man getting into the car beside ours and thought I'd imagined it.
But something made me turn back and when I saw this vehicle spin out of the park I ran and got the number plate. Turns out the police were already trying to track these ratbags for driving off from a petrol station without paying. The car was stolen, of course.
Anyway, within an hour they were apprehended, after the police dog took a large chunk out of one thigh, and I got everything back except cash and credit cards which had been hit hard repeatedly in that short time.
So now I have an Impact Report to fill in. I explained to the detective that we didn't really suffer except for inconvenience and a wee bit of shock, and missing out one destination on our trip as we had to stay in town for an extra night by the time we'd done interviews and checked through my bag for what had been stolen, got the car fixed, etc.
Worst part of the whole deal - going through my handbag with the detectives. I mean, our bags are personal. Right?
And this one isn't small so there was a lot of stuff to check out.
There were a lot of people on that hill at the time and not one woman had her bag with her. Be warned, it's not much fun when the bag gets stolen.
Back to this report. I've been told to put down how our holiday was interrupted and what we missed out on. Here's my problem. At the time it was a pain in the butt, very annoying and yes, a little scary in hindsight. But this all seems a little precious, especially to be read out in court. However the police were so good to us, so I'll send it in and get over myself. And hope the perpetrator gets more than a smack over his knuckles.
Has anything like this ever happened to you?
Hi Sue
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry it happened when I was a young teenager and just started work we went to a concert and 3 of us girls left our bags in the car well hidden when we went inside but sadly when we came out all bags were gone and I had just bought my weekly train ticket for work my Mum had to buy me another one never caught the people who did it and it was way back in the 70's but it does leave a bad taste in your mouth luckily nothing like this has happened again and it is scary and I too hope the people who did it do get more than a slap on the wrist hugs and glad you were not hurt
Have Fun
Helen
Thanks, Helen. You're right, at least we weren't hurt in any way. I am more circumspect about what I leave in sight in the car now, not just my handbag.
ReplyDeleteOh how awful, Sue! Big hugs. Not a nice thing to have to go through.
ReplyDeleteNothing like this has ever happened to me. Touch wood!
And I hope it never does. More an annoyance than anything but did rattle my cage a bit.
DeleteOh, Sue, what a pain in the backside! The inconvenience, the shock, messing up your trip, and now the paperwork. Having just spent most of this day catching up on bits and bobs of paperwork that I've been shuffling for ages...it is a time-consuming pain but sometimes has to be done.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I've not suffered like this -- although on 2 separate occasions I've left a handbag somewhere and had lovely persons find/return it. But my daughter-in-law had her bag stolen from her home in London the day she was supposed to travel home for her grand-father's funeral. As well as her card being hit hard at every Paywave along the road where they live, she lost her passport, missed her flight, suffered the change-of-flight costs. And the police shrugged it off; too busy to bother with petty theft.
Ouch, that's hard, and at a very stressful time. At least we can say the police were extremely helpful, but this particular town is known for that and I suspect we wouldn't be saying the same elsewhere.
DeleteNever had a bag stolen in this way. However as a teen, my home was broken into and among the stuff taken was a limited edition Coca Cola bag produced for Sydney Olympics. I think what irked me the most about the situation was the fact that once the police tracked the culprit down he was given immunity on this burglary (and I'm assuming some others) because the police wanted to know how active he'd been since the last time he'd been caught - clearly someone they were familiar with.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you are saying that the situation you faced seems small and not really worth putting into an impact report, but perhaps the police personnel who asked you to complete it, have an idea of how little punishment the culprit will get without the report (not that it should be necessary to provide victim impact reports to make the judge to go harder on a culprit)
You have a valid point and I for one hope the culprit gets some punishment. A lot of trouble was caused for a lot of people, not just us.
DeleteHello Sue, I understand how you felt because it happened to me twice. The first time I was young, with my boyfriend (now husband) went to the movies and I left my bag in the car, when we came back there was a broken window and the bag was gone. The second time we had left the car in the hospital parking lot, when we returned we found that we had stolen the car radio. In neither case they have found the thieves and what they stole.
ReplyDeleteThat's annoying that they didn't get the culprits, Franca. I guess we were lucky in that a) I got the number plate of the car and b) the police were already out looking for them.
DeleteOh Sue, sorry to hear about that. It is an inconvenience for sure. I've never had my bag stolen (touch wood!) but my car was broken into outside my old house. They'd pulled the leads and must have been attempting to jumpstart it, but then got interrupted. Nothing much came of it, because it all happened in the middle of the night and thankfully my car wasn't stolen in the end. But it did make me feel like my space had been invaded, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteYes, you do feel like that, don't you, Stefanie? The incident has made me more aware of where I park and what I leave in the car.
DeleteOh Sue, that is no fun at all! A good lesson for me as I do often leave my bag in the car around Byron.
ReplyDeleteI was mugged in London - not fun at all. Guy grabbed my bag but I stupidly ran after him and grabbed it back! Well, that didn't make him happy, raised his fist to hit me, I let go and jumped back and then he ran off. I did learn then not to take on big men who have grabbed your bag. I didn't get anything back except my empty handbag dumped in someone's yard. I donated the bag to charity as I just couldn't bring myself to use it again.