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I’ve recently had a ‘normal’, i.e. not sexual offence related, encounter with the police and thought that it might be interesting to relate the story on the forum as one of the commonest gripes about them is that they always believe the ‘victim’; in the case I’m going to relate I was the victim and of course I would have been most upset if the first reaction to my complaint was to investigate if I was telling the truth rather than immediately pursue the perpetrator!
I was with Mrs CH & 4 year old goddaughter in the local Morrison’s when we were surprised to hear the announcement “Would the owner of car registration number xxxx xxx please come to the customer service desk”
I abandoned wife, shopping, and toddler and hurried over to meet a rather agitated young woman who explained that she had just seen someone ‘key’ our car. The story was that this lady had just remonstrated with a solo male driver for parking in the ‘Parents & Toddler’ spaces , he took umbrage at being told off and keyed ‘her’ car, i.e. the one by which she was standing(!), when he thought she wasn’t looking. (We don’t normally park in these spaces but had a toddler and booster seat on this occasion)
As she gave me a description as well as his car registration number I nipped round to the police station, to see if I could get his address. The very helpful and sympathetic civilian clerk suggested that it would not be a good idea to go round to confront him personally but to let them deal with it.
In due course I was contacted by the ‘OIC’ , they’d been to see the perpetrator, who immediately confessed citing a ‘moment of madness’ (It later transpired that he was receiving treatment for cancer and had said he wanted to park near Morrison’s entrance due to an urgent need for the toilet) Because of this health issue and his circumstances (late middle-age homeowner) the PC decided it wasn’t in anyone’s interest to take him to court but suggested we get the car repaired and the culprit would pay the bill. Apparently this is termed as ‘Restorative Justice’.
This is in fact what has happened, we have had a first class respray on the scratched panels (at circa £1,200) no lawyers or courts have been involved, so minimal cost to the public purse, and though we and the perpetrator are not likely to become the best of friends at least we have
not become protagonists.
Best of all, everyone concerned has come away from the situation with a good perception of the police force......
However just to end with a rant: I was confident that should the culprit had denied the offence, the CCTV covering the car park would have him 'bang to rights'. However the PC told me rather ruefully that the CCTV doesn't work and therefore I was rather lucky that the perp had 'held his hands up' to the offence
The car park used to belong to the local authority who installed the CCTV; they then sold/gave it to Morrison's (presumably so they no longer had to maintain it??)
Morrison's promptly slapped a 3 hour limit on the car park backed up by APNR cameras covering the entrance road but didn't take over the monitoring of the cameras covering the rest of the car park
I was with Mrs CH & 4 year old goddaughter in the local Morrison’s when we were surprised to hear the announcement “Would the owner of car registration number xxxx xxx please come to the customer service desk”
I abandoned wife, shopping, and toddler and hurried over to meet a rather agitated young woman who explained that she had just seen someone ‘key’ our car. The story was that this lady had just remonstrated with a solo male driver for parking in the ‘Parents & Toddler’ spaces , he took umbrage at being told off and keyed ‘her’ car, i.e. the one by which she was standing(!), when he thought she wasn’t looking. (We don’t normally park in these spaces but had a toddler and booster seat on this occasion)
As she gave me a description as well as his car registration number I nipped round to the police station, to see if I could get his address. The very helpful and sympathetic civilian clerk suggested that it would not be a good idea to go round to confront him personally but to let them deal with it.
In due course I was contacted by the ‘OIC’ , they’d been to see the perpetrator, who immediately confessed citing a ‘moment of madness’ (It later transpired that he was receiving treatment for cancer and had said he wanted to park near Morrison’s entrance due to an urgent need for the toilet) Because of this health issue and his circumstances (late middle-age homeowner) the PC decided it wasn’t in anyone’s interest to take him to court but suggested we get the car repaired and the culprit would pay the bill. Apparently this is termed as ‘Restorative Justice’.
This is in fact what has happened, we have had a first class respray on the scratched panels (at circa £1,200) no lawyers or courts have been involved, so minimal cost to the public purse, and though we and the perpetrator are not likely to become the best of friends at least we have
not become protagonists.
Best of all, everyone concerned has come away from the situation with a good perception of the police force......
However just to end with a rant: I was confident that should the culprit had denied the offence, the CCTV covering the car park would have him 'bang to rights'. However the PC told me rather ruefully that the CCTV doesn't work and therefore I was rather lucky that the perp had 'held his hands up' to the offence
The car park used to belong to the local authority who installed the CCTV; they then sold/gave it to Morrison's (presumably so they no longer had to maintain it??)
Morrison's promptly slapped a 3 hour limit on the car park backed up by APNR cameras covering the entrance road but didn't take over the monitoring of the cameras covering the rest of the car park
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