UKH

Here's a fun one for the UKC hive mind (armchair psychologist branch) to ponder. 

Some time between 4.30pm Saturday and 1.30pm Sunday, my car was vandalised but in a very specific way. Just the door mirrors, obliterated. Like on most cars nowadays, they are the fold-inward-when-car-parked-and-locked type. They have been pushed/rotated forward ie in the opposite direction to where they fold to, which must taken a fair bit of work/strength. And then just generally smashed. Also the front and rear registration plates which are not screwed in but just stuck on (perfectly adequate adhesive) have been pulled off, and the front one broken into three pieces. 
No other damage, no key scratches or window breakage or tyre slashing. 
Just the mirrors and registration plates.

I am getting it all sorted, this isn't a request for advice on that aspect. I don't believe that this was personal/malicious. 

After I'd initially assumed it was "daft pissed-up lads on a dare", it struck me that "just mirrors and registration plates" was a bit weird. A friend suggested someone with learning difficulties / behavioural issues - an adult with "toddler tantrum" tendencies who maybe reacted to the bright blue of my car, or the fact that it was parked (legitimately) in the first street space immediately in front of a bus stop, or some other factor beyond my imagination. 

Just thought I'd put this out on the forum as it's an interesting theory from my friend. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Interesting. My M-i-L's car had the rear number plate ripped off a few weeks ago by a chap that lives opposite with known mental/behavioural issues.

He also smashed one of the headlights and did some damage to another neighbour's car - who got it all on CCTV, which is how we know who it was.

Mostly just short term hassle for her (£20 for a new plate and screws, paid for by him/the care company, fitted by me), but a worry he might do worse next time.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

No CCTV anywhere near my car and also no residents. It's restricted residential zone street parking for which I have a permit, but it's along a road that is mostly trade (a huge charity furniture shop, a Travis Perkins builder trade outlet and a car dealership). Which is probably a better situation that your mother-in-law's. 

I think on Saturday, unusually my car was the only car parked on that part of the street. Without wanting to do amateur overanalysis on something that doesn't bear too much analysis, I wonder if that was a factor. 

NB this is my regular parking spot and has been for years. Hardly ever seen any evidence of car crime there, maybe a smashed door mirror once or twice which was probably accidental. 
My blue Nissan 350Z never attracted any crime; my current car is a deliberately humble Citroen C3 Picasso so I don't think it was someone with a grudge against flash cars  

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Someone took a blow torch to the vw logo on the front of my friends California recently... there's some weirdos about!

In reply to Baron Weasel:

THAT is niche! 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

It seems like a long time ago now, but the Beastie Boys wore VW badges as an adornment - cue every VW being deprived of their badges.  In the end, VW gave replacements to those who presented themselves with a car missing its badge

In reply to nniff:

For some reason, around the same time, I remember putting the grolsch wired bottle tops into the laceholes of your trainers being a thing - not so destructive, but every bit as daft.

It's funny the lengths we'll go to in order to look different from the previous generation, while desperately trying to fit in with our own.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

350Z to a C3? Must be a petrol head who’s massively affronted at the huge performance downgrade.

what on Earth were you thinking?

In reply to nniff:

I remember that era well, my great uncle drove a VW camper ( -foot on the pedal, rusted metal, engine running hotter than a boiling kettle) and parked it up in Inveralligin, only to return to find the badge gone. No sleep 'til Plockton.

In reply to Stichtplate:

Indeed, probably the saddest thing about the human condition I've ever read.

In reply to jimtitt:

Is there such a thing as a reverse midlife crisis car?

In reply to Stichtplate:

I’d realised that every time I’d had a rental car, I’d been disproportionately excited at being able to just chuck things in the boot without having to carefully shape and pack them! And something to do with thinking I might get a dog. 

In reply to Stichtplate:

Developing a conscience can happen at any age... 

In reply to Ciro:

Just one word... 'Bros'...

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Fair enough, but a C3?

In reply to Ciro:

all right Greta...

In reply to Blue Straggler:

This sounds like the most likely scenario to me. The damage you're describing requires nothing more than brute force. Slashing tires, keying paint work and breaking windows requires tools, however crude. Brute force suggests rage, maybe someone just got fired, dumped or their football team lost and your car was what they decided to take their anger out on. 

Or did you sleep walk Saturday night and take a trip to a safari park?? 😃

In reply to Stichtplate:

It was either that or a VW Phaeton! 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Bentley in disguise. You should’ve done it!

Both are easy to do with no tools. If you can get fingers under edge of plate you can rip one off. Wing mirrors you can heel/stomp kick them. Apart from kicking dent in a door, the mirrors and plates are the obvious brute force vandelism points

In reply to Stichtplate:

Been mulling that idea over for around 6 years and decided to see sense! 

In reply to CantClimbTom:

Good point. Although keying should be easy as you'd usually have a house key on you. Anyway, it's done, it's being sorted, and at least there was not a return attack last night...

Cheers

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Own up, you went to the grand reopening of Knowlesy Safari Park didn’t you?

In reply to wilkie14c:

I suspect bears...

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/05/bear-attempts-to-get-into-car-with-woman-i...

In reply to Bob Kemp:

No crackers were kept in this vehicle overnight.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Ages ago in Edinburgh there was somebody that attacked Citroen 2CVs.

Maybe it was a crazy Brexiteer damaging it for being French.

In reply to wilkie14c:

Perhaps the baboons had a night out on the town to celebrate.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

My elderly neighbour who parks on-street had her mirror GLASS stolen, not the whole mirror - just the glass the other day and on both sides.. it boggles the mind... 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

My friend had a 350Z. Rapid car but absolutely hopeless for climbing, we always had to go in mine! I seem to remember it had some sort of ridiculous crossbeam which made the boot effectively useless.

In reply to nikoid:

I could get climbing and camping gear for two, into my 350Z easily despite the crossbeam. I actually thought that compared to some of the alternative possibilities for a 2-seater daft thing, it had decent boot CAPACITY even if, arguably, a tricky shape to deal with. The lack of back seats helped, you could put plenty of stuff there on the other side of the crossbeam. 
Getting that car down the rough track to Thorpe Farm Bunkhouse was a cringeworthy epic of finding the most delicate underside scrapes and grinds though. 

In reply to nikoid:

Loaded up with about 140 meals for a climbing club weekend. Somehow I ended up with the job of buying and transporting all the food! 

In reply to Garethza:

Years ago in London I had a car broken into to steal the tax disc which had 3 weeks remaining on it! 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

The boot doesn't look too bad in that photo. Actually come to think about it, it wasn't all about the boot, he drove his like a nutter. We would occasionally spin on roundabouts.  Lots of fun for him, but more relaxing all round if we took my car!

In reply to Blue Straggler:

At the risk of universal ridicule, has anyone tried to go climbing for the weekend in an F Type coupe?  I'm asking for a friend, obviously.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I had many a happy climbing/bouldering/camping trip away with a mate in my Z3, it was surprisingly practical until the dog came along, you just need to find and fill *all* the space. MR2 was the same, pretty big boot, loads of cubbyholes and hollows in the cabin.

jk

In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

Where I grew up in Greece, PAOK hooligans would vandalise cars with Athenian plates...

In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

That may not be far off the mark. Did you car have Euro plates, Blue Straggler?

That's actually a current concern of mine. I changed car recently which has just plain plates, and was thinking about ordering Euro plates so that i don't have to put a GB sticker when i drive to Europe. However i'm concerned about pissed up brexiteers vandalising cars with them.

That may sound silly, but when i was a kid it was standard fare for cars to be vandalised depending on the plates as they were region specific and there was (is?) the usual stupid rivalries between regions

In reply to Mr Lopez:

No, just standard UK plates. I now think it’s as another poster mentioned upthread, not so much someone with a fixation on shiny blue or something, but “just” someone in a temporary rage about whatever, and my car was the only one along that part of a street. I would be puzzled about where the person would have been walking from and to, though. 

In reply to Stichtplate:

Is it a hybrid Toyota estate?

*looks nervously out the window*

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Totally depends on your previous motor. If it had more cylinders than seats then the answers probably a Yes

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Wing mirrors are quite common vandalism as you need them for your vehicle to be road legal, are relatively fragile, quick to smash, and cost quite a bit to get fixed (at a garage anyway, £20 at a scrappy). I reckon more 'twatisfaction' is gained from smashing something functional that you know the owner has to fix than say, keying some already scratched-up motor. Where I grew up, I lived on a cul-de-sac that had a pedestrian cut-through to fields and on numerous occasions kids went down the street on their bikes with a bat of some description, just smashing them one after the other.

Not sure about the licence plates; bit weird that one.     

In reply to PaulJepson:

Yeah, you’d have to crouch or kneel or sit in the road to get enough purchase on them with bare hands and it was absolutely lashing it down on Saturday night when it happened 

In reply to PaulJepson:When living in a fourth floor flat in Bruntsfield I once had the joy of watching a scrote working his way down a line of cars. Stopped it by shouting, managed to save mine.

I cannot park outside my current house as it is the M1 for drunks and once done.... always spaces there. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Plates is understandable. Friend of mine recently recieved a speeding fine after his plates had been nicked (he had the crime number for the plates so nothing came of it). Obviously not his car.

Wing mirrors: either they were stupid enough to think they were nickable (I've had the covers off mine nicked in the past) or frustration at not getting the front plate off

In reply to Duncan Bourne:

Both plates were off and left in the street. Rear one intact, Front one broken into three pieces but fixable (I am replacing it though)