Octoman

Haha, I could see myself as a street vigilante!

Actually, my exercising at lunchtime has been getting a bit tedious so I have been toying with joining some form of martial arts class. Only problem is I have terrible eyesight and without my glasses I can't see a thing. I joined a kick boxing club once and got knocked flying when I walked into the path of someone practicing! maybe I'll try boxercise (non contact boxing). Then I can intimidate the neighbours by running around punching the air outside their house shouting `come on!` (and run away when they come out).

Hevyn - That story about the glass is unbelievable! I dont even try to comprehend the behaviour of people like that any more. In fact I would worry if I did understand it because to do so would mean I had something in common with them.

barb dwyer

thanks Octoman - just making sure you're smiling.

(heehee - walking into a kick practicing ) heehee.

sorry - got th whole Monty Python/ your avatar cartoon thing going in my head right now ....

Octoman

Well, got my incident number from the police which means I can claim for the repairs on my insurance. I have contacted my neighbourhood watch and arranged to attend their next get together. I also phoned our local community police officer to make sure they had recieved details of the crime and would be following up - and letting me know the outcome.
Not more I can do now really except arrange for a glazier to come in and do the work. Oh, and wait and see if we have any more trouble.
All in all though feels like things are under control. And that includes me

WLDKATZ

I am having all sorts of sick and demented thoughts about Octo and karate.......lol like these






and which do you think he would choose????

dave47

Hi Octoman,sorry to hear you have been having hassle with problem neighbours.We moved from London when the kids were very young.When i was single i loved it,but no way would i want to bring up my family there.We had a lot of trouble with neighbours a few years ago and my wife begged me not to take direct action.Her view was let the police deal with it,we are homeowners and they are not,we work they don't etc.Basically if i went looking to sort it out then we would probably get in trouble with them laughing at us.The CPS dropped the case after our witness backed out but we made sure they knew we were on their case night and day,and eventually the main instigator cleared off.The biggest thing on my mind was that these scum were quite happy to intimidate a woman and young children,and i was always worried when not at home.Martial Arts?Theres plenty of minimum contact self defence classes you can take,you can learn karate and not take part in sparring and competitions.Glad you are in control,best of luck.WLDKATZ-Southend on sea,i know it very well.

rloomer

Just a thought. I'm actually really intrigued by your story Octo. I just took a class a few months ago called Advanced Criminal Investigation and we studied situations similar to yours. They even classified them. It's called the "Broken Window Theory" Itis basically your situation. It keeps nice neighborhoods nice and keeps the garbabe in the trash. It's like if you go into a nice neighborhood and one house on the block has a bunch of broken windows, eventually whoever is braking the windows will have broken all of the windows on that house and will move to the house next door. and basically as long as the windows don't get fixed, or the problem doesn't get fixed, it will continue to get worst and worst.

Here is anothers point on the matter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Jan29.html