Chatterbox 2

[Pampy Profile]

My nephew bought a car from ebay. Some months later, he had a visit from the police - turned out it was stolen and on a false registration plate!

[Seatallan Profile]

I love ebay. We sold one of our cars on ebay. It wasn't stolen I hasten to add (though it was stolen from us once during its very long life, and used as a getaway car. Has to be said it was never quite the same after we finally got it back ).

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

My friend had a car written off after it was stolen and used in a robbery.

It wasn't written off during the raid.
But when the police blocked off the crims, who locked themselves inside the car in a stand off.
The damage was done when a window was smashed and a police dog was thrown in at them.

[aero280 Profile]

A friend of mine in the Met Police, in the days before mobile phones and computers, had his parents drive up from Devon to stay for a few days. Parents car was stolen. It was found abandoned in Cardiff after being used as a getaway car.

When the car arrived in London it was being driven gently as the clutch was slipping, but, when recovered, the clutch was fine and the car had new tyres!


My friend used his police contacts to find out what happened. He found that the car had broken down on the M4 of the way to Wales. Police arrived and arranged recovery , but also advised that the tyres were worn below the limit and, if they got them changed while the clutch was being fixed, they would not take it further. The police asked the driver to present his licence and docs to a police station within 7 days as was the norm back then. A week or two after they got back to Devon, my friend's parents were visited by the police wanting to know why they hadn't presented their documents...

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Oh that's brilliant aero! Payment

My Dad drove 3 series BMWs for years, in those days you could choose to have them unbadged, so he had one of the fastest configurations but not badged to show it was a very fast car, it just looked like a plain green saloon unless you were a connoisseur

The gang went to a lot of trouble to take the car from inside a locked garage and drive it off, the policeman investigating guessed at once it was for a getaway as both anonymous and quick

Sure enough, 8 days later it was recovered having been used in a bank raid 40 miles away - because they'd had it a whole week they'd all forgotten to wear gloves inside, and it was covered in prints, all on file

[Linnet Profile]

Back in the day, I had a company Mondeo, which we only found out had been cloned when there were parking fines for that reg when I could prove I was at least 40 miles away at work!

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Back in the day, I had a company Mondeo, which we only found out had been cloned when there were parking fines for that reg when I could prove I was at least 40 miles away at work!

this also happened to one of the fleet of cars I managed while I was at Hilton

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I was lined up as a witness if needed because my colleague’s VW Golf was cloned

He kept getting parking fines from the same street, so went at lunch time and took photos of the other car in situ and took them into the police, explaining (as he was a complete car geek) that the clone was made up of bits of 3 Golfs of different models welded together. The police were very pleased, they followed the car driver and caught him running a business making up cars from bits of insurance write offs.

[Seatallan Profile]

Back in the day, I had a company Mondeo, which we only found out had been cloned when there were parking fines for that reg when I could prove I was at least 40 miles away at work!

this also happened to one of the fleet of cars I managed while I was at Hilton

Happened to my mum once. The cloned car had been recorded on a speed camera in another part of the country travelling at well over the limit. Mum was by then in her early 80's and only drove locally. I think she was rather chuffed to be a boy racer!

[ZeroCook Profile]

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All ok in Spain Gill, thanks for asking. They eased the lockdown recently but I don't know whether numbers are still falling or if they've gone up as they have elsewhere.

Don't get the constant pushes to reopen before vaccination numbers really get up there. Like trying to browbeat a virus into submission by sheer willfulness. As if.

Getting bsck to Ebay, I got a lemon and trying to get a recalcitrant seller to refund.
.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

No I don't know about the numbers in Spain at the moment, either.
Although my school chum in Pamplona says they have one day a week "open".
Where they can go out and about I believe, but I don't know the details.

Had my vaccine on Wednesday and am just about getting back to normal after a reaction - both Tony and I didn't feel so good. Fine now though, I'm even treating myself this morning to a "Forte" coffee - it's not even decaf!

Bummer on the Ebay purchase. What did you buy, just out of interest?
My latest purchase this week was a tap adapter, that will swivel to reach all areas of the sink in the kitchen - plus it has a spray setting for rinsing.

It's a joy not to just have a tap that just pours straight down, and nothing more.
I'm sure everyone here has one, but it's new to me.

[aero280 Profile]

Modern taps are designed to prevent things being stuck on the end! But the makers of add-ons have circumvented that to an extent.

We used to find that a lot of aftermarket nozzles were poorly designed and “stuff” grew inside them, giving rise to taste problems that were blamed on the water supplier...

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I'm hoping mine isn't going to be troublesome, Aero.
I've got a mixer tap, where you change the 2cms screw on "mesh", and switch it for this screw on adapter from Lakeland.

It looks clean to moi: https://www.lakeland.co.uk/2495/Tap-Ada ... and-Chrome

But I will keep my eye on it.

[Pampy Profile]

I had that adaptor from Lakeland for years before I modernised the house - loved it and never had any problems. I used to take it off occasionally to clean/disinfect - but I do that with a "normal" tap end too.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Oooh! We discussed these on the old Wildie board but decided the tap needed a thread, which mine hasn't got. I've just seen that the Lakeland one will fit threadless taps! Thank you - it's been added to my wishlist.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Good to hear it.
I didn't realize my tap had a removable "head" - but noticed a hairline outline on it, and was able to unscrew it carefully with a set of pliers.

Are you sure you cannot remove it, EM?

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Yes, very sure! The Lakeland one will be great ... I'll be over to Dobbies in Cirencester as soon as I'm allowed!

[aero280 Profile]

If the nozzle has a WRAS label, it will have been approved for use on a drinking water supply.

If you can push a hose onto the end it won’t be approved. There are two risks. One is bacterial growth in the fitting. The second is “backsiphonage”. This is where there is a fitting that can get below the surface of the water in the sink or bath. If there is a burst main or a draw-off in a downstairs tap, the contents of the bath or sink will be sucked into the water supply system.

Outside taps have to have a non return valve to stop back flow. There have been instances where a burst water main has caused the contents of a bucket of weed killer to be sucked back up a garden hose into the water main. You don’t want to drink paraquat...

[aero280 Profile]

Just checked and the Lakeland adaptor is WRAS approved,!

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/2495/Tap-Ada ... and-Chrome

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I'm hoping mine isn't going to be troublesome, Aero.
I've got a mixer tap, where you change the 2cms screw on "mesh", and switch it for this screw on adapter from Lakeland.

It looks clean to moi: https://www.lakeland.co.uk/2495/Tap-Ada ... and-Chrome

But I will keep my eye on it.

I've got one of those, love it. I have a white sink and it stays nice and clean because it's so easy just to swoosh around a bit