Local trailer thief gets caught out badly

ringo747 · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:02

No links to press articles but just sharing story from not far from where I live. A guy had trouble with losing a lot of flatbed trailers so he came up with the idea of burying hooks into concrete bollards in the ground and chaining up the trailers.

Just the other night somebody else decided to try and nick another of the trailers. He hooked up his getaway jeep, sped off quickly. Everything was ok until the long length of chain finally tightened up and the jeep stopped dead and the guy went through the front windscreen! Has been in hospital since! Finally some justice to some of these scum!

tom_e · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:24

haha thats how it should be done, although it wouldnt surprise me if they now and try charge the guy whos owns the trailer for something daft

wez130 · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:37

yep, they will go after the guy that owns the trailer, typical blame culture of Britain :/

Meatball · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:44

Now that's justice

. I hope he has a good lawyer though.

thecremeegg · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:48

Tbh the bloke who tied his trailers down really hasnt done anything that the law can see wrong surely? Its his trailer on his land chained to the ground. Its not dangerous in any way so there really cant be a case

-TNT- · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:57

haha, thats awesome!

good on the guy who chained the trailer up

SlyReaper · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:58

Yeah I'm struggling to see how the trailer owner could get in trouble over this. He was simply securing the trailer on his own land. The only thing I can think of is that the chain might be unnecessarily long, but I'd be surprised if there's a legal maximum length of chain you're allowed to use.

I AM surprised that the car stopped dead though, I would have thought it would just rip the towball off the jeep.

ringo747 · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:01

I think he had the concrete hooks in the ground and then attached to some concrete weights for his tractor too. Probably would have ripped the towball off though but he'd already have been on his way out the window!

Housey · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:02

Waste of a hospital bed.

mk1_salami · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:08

Why would the thief go full steam ahead - quick enough to put him through the windscreen - to remove the trailer until he had taken the strain or put tension on the chain?? Doesn't make sense to me. Good idea to rip the back end of your car off?

Locky · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:10

Housey said:
Waste of a hospital bed.

This.

jon.bda · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:10

mk1_salami said:
Why would the thief go full steam ahead - quick enough to put him through the windscreen - to remove the trailer until he had taken the strain or put tension on the chain?? Doesn't make sense to me. Good idea to rip the back end of your car off?

Maybe he hadn't noticed?. Nice end to the story though!.

utajoker · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:12

mythbusters tried to rip the axle of a car with a cable but the car just stopped, they had to cut through almost all the metal connecting the axle to the car.

trailer owner will prob get punished for not having a sign saying the trailer are chained to the ground.

Housey said:
Waste of a hospital bed.

also this

ringo747 · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:17

mk1_salami said:
Why would the thief go full steam ahead - quick enough to put him through the windscreen - to remove the trailer until he had taken the strain or put tension on the chain?? Doesn't make sense to me. Good idea to rip the back end of your car off?

Probably didn't notice the chain and thought it was time to make his high speed getaway. He won't be doing the same thing in a hurry! Awful lot of trailers and diggers and quads going missing these days. All the ATM robberies in NI are kicking off big time.

Gittins · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:18

Haha! Wish they caught that on CCTV! Would have made me chuckle more lol!

thepharcyde · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:51

LMAO, quality

R B Customs · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:53

Result! I can see it turning in the thief's favour though, as it usually does :rolleyes:

craigieboy · 13 Dec 2009 at 17:06

As Jimmy Saville said "clunk click every trip!"

LoadsaMoney · 13 Dec 2009 at 17:06

Nice one, cracking result for the thief that, as the owner will get sent down, and have to pay the thief a big wad of compo.

Werewolf · 13 Dec 2009 at 17:18

utajoker said:
trailer owner will prob get punished for not having a sign saying the trailer are chained to the ground.

I doubt it, it's reasonable to assume that anything like a trailer may be secured, the owner had not done anything that could be construed as likely to cause harm to someone operating legally or taking reasonable care themselves.

Unlike things such as setting traps which will get people who may just be walking in the area/touching a door, or putting glass on the wall etc.

As mentioned about the only thing that might be questioned is the length of the chain and the easy explanation for that is that you didn't want to break the chain down as it had other uses/might be used to secure multiple items.