Models stolen, Lancashire

I have received the following notice from Rochdale SME:-

I have, unfortunately, to report that a member of Rochdale Model Engineers has had a model stolen from his garage on Saturday night /Sunday morning

The details are as follows:-

Model Butch
Gauge 5 inch
Colour Midland Red
Boiler Number 625/759

The crime has been reported to Greater Manchester Police and the Crime number is 041488T/16

At the same time an unfinished tender for Virginia was also stolen. This was awaiting painting and was in bare brass.

Please be vigilant. If you would prefer not to contact the police please contact the editor in the first instance.

Thank you for your help.

Diane

A second contact for the above:

Rod Hartley on 01706 367640 or email him at: [email protected]

Sorry to hear that, I had my first Osc' engine stolen from my garage not long after I'd converted it to workshop, along with compressor, some mic's & other tooling back in 2014, fortunately I managed to disturb them as they had a lot more stuff layed out ready for accomplices to pick up. There are a lot of low life scum bags around, mores the pity the justice system is so weak these days, hope you get your models back. Check on e bay as these scum quite often put their gains on there.

George.

Given that this is a club with maybe, a lot of people coming and going, i can't see how anyone would chance their arm without having some prior knowledge. It's too risky for what might be no gain. As mech said, alot of unprincipled types, perhaps even the ones that'd do this behind your own back. I say it's an insider job, the person already knew it was there and took it.

Michael W

It does say 'from his garage' so actually more likely to be someone who's seen him coming and going from his workshop/loading etc and seen cntents. Indeed they often go back for some more goodies...

Neighbours and regular passersby would be on my list. Sadly my experience is that Plod will have no interest

My thoughts are with you, a couple of yrs ago I had £2000 worth of model engineering equipment stolen,police offered me " counciling", & I had to try & describe the items to them, needless to say I didn't want councilling[well not their type!!] never got anything back, one problem is,when you repair something for someone people in pubs talk ie " the old bloke who lives down the end of the village can fix all sorts in his workshop etc etc" & well meaning but it's overheard by wrong uns.

Graham.

Am sorry to read this, not good for the blood pressure.

(DON'T get me started on what should be done to such thieves. For once Sharia law does look appealing)

Too late to be much help in this case, but may help others to avoid such event.

If your garage door is of the Up and Over type, the diagonal reinforcements only have pop rivets on one side.

Apparently, it is a popular ploy to flex the door, so as to spring past the latch at the top. Placing another 3/16 (4.5mm) pop rivet on the other side of the top hat section reinforcement will strengthen the door, and make unauthrised entry less easy.

If you access the garage via another door, so that the main door is only opened as and when required, drill a hole through the moving latch, above the catch plate, and insert a pin, or even a bolt and nut. It does not need to be big, 3/16" / 2 BA / M4 will quite sufficient, (They won't shear that easily). This will prevent the latch being disengaged from the catchplate.

The central lock, is often carried on a plate which is pop rivetted into the door. If the four rivets are drilled out, a hand can be inserted to pull down the wire that is connected to the catch, REplace at least two of thos rivets with dome headed bolts with nuts on the inside. If possible use self locking nuts or anaerobic sealant to prevent the nuts loosening.

No dome headed bolts? Turn off the hexagon, and radius the head.

If you make it difficult, the unmentionables, will find somewhere easier to burgle.

A security light may help, as long as it doesn't provide light for them to do their worst.

If the garage has a side door, it would be worth making sure that the lock is 5 lever, to be difficult to pick.

(For my shop I specified a five lever, but in the event, the door came with a six lever lock, which is even harder to pick)

Hope that some of this may be of some help.

Howard

Whilst i commend any attention to make thieving harder it doesn't always help. My clinic was on a busy through road in a residential area, CCTV, sophisticated alarms systems, front lights and good locks and the towrag smashed through the door and stole the till..with all of £15 float change in it.. smashed the till to get at it too. Total damage many hundreds of ££. The police were sorry I was a victim of crime.after chasing them up for a crime number. They didn't bother turning out..just sent a letter....

I would have been gutted if these toe rags had made of with any of my stuff so I am happy to keep this thread alive in the hope that it will help these nasty perps get "theirs". May they rot !

Rik

Without going back over; I'd posted the break in on my garage on this forum with a more detailed result from 'Mr Plod, in the same thread another victim mentioned similar circumstances with his property only his burglar was caught in the attempt, the perpetrator had managed to end up with a broken arm, cuts 'n' bruises, when questioned by 'Mr Plod' the victim mentioned something along the lines of ' he must have tripped over the low wall when I was chasing him', IIRC the poster mentioned something about 'Mr Plod' mumbling words to the effect of... 'Oh dear, how unfortunate, can't have been looking where he was running then! ... sounded like a good result to me.

George.

I learned of a theft from a different kind of garage today (my local MOT/service station). The thieves had removed an 8 foot long window to get in and made off with a heavy safe by the same route. The other item stolen was the plug-in reader for today's computer controlled vehicles.

Howard,

I had a garage door that you described but last year it had to be replaced, I contacted a local company who came to show me what they had and I now have an up and over door that doesn't rely on a cable to operate the latch, I have a center mounted handle and lock with four diagonal mounted rods which run to all four corners where there are four locks two at the top and two at the bottom, a very secure door which also comes with a heavy box section frame to replace the original wooden door frame and well worth the £600 pound it cost me.

Martin P

Henderson up and overs have a brass locking pin it's a well known dodge that forcing the handle breaks the pin.

and there goes the door open.

1 Replace the pin with a lump of stainless steel., soon fixes that

2 I also fitted an old 3 level backdoor lock in the lower side of the door. matching the key hole is the biggest issue. Better than a rack bolt.

3 Alarm your garage door, they dont expect it and they ran off! You need a roller shutter alarm switch for that.

If you have a facebook account you could put it on there, if you haven't try and find someone local who has to do it for you.