Odd things stolen.

[classic33]

I had my car stolen from a garage where it was being serviced. The thieves took out the passenger seat and used it to move an acetylene cylinder to somewhere where they used it to open a safe. I got the car back and the police took a lot more interest than if it was a simple car theft.

Nice alibi.

 

[swee'pea99]

I once had a driveway nicked and my neighbour watched them take it

When I was a lot younger I worked in the electrical dept of Whiteleys - as it happens, London's first dept store, where I was told the legendary story about the two blokes who had turned up in the lighting dept one day in white coats, with a stepladder and a large storage box, and proceeded over the course of a couple of hours to dismantle, carefully pack in tissue paper, then into the box, a chandelier that was hanging from the ceiling in pride of place in the middle of the floor. Sometime after they'd left, people began to twig that no one knew who they were, and they had absolutely nothing to do with the store...

 

[vernon]

I had the rotating core of the speedometer of my motor cycle stolen. I thought that it had snapped and its absence came to light when I unscrewed one end of the outer cable to replace it.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

The one from @mr_cellophane reminds me about when my local garage was broken into. The crooks were after a Porsche and managed to get into the workshop, move the other cars blocking it in and get it outside but were foiled when they couldn't start it to drive away..... which was mainly because the engine and gearbox were still inside on the workbench.

 

[JMAG]

I once had a small local workshop do a small job on my car, but the guy then did a disappearing act leaving my car locked in his yard. I had a quick consultation with a local solicitor who confirmed my suspicion that this was a civil matter, which the police would not help with. He did express his opinion that the police would be unlikely to come after me if I was to break in and retrieve my car especially if I were to leave the premises secured by replacing the lock on the gate. The solicitor made it clear this was what he might do in similar circumstances and not professional advice.

Anyway, I broke in, recovered my car and never heard anything about it.

 

[tyred]

Someone I know had someone break into his house and take the keys and drive off in his E class Mercedes. They left an battered old Dawes hybrid lying in the driveway where the car had been

 

[PK99]

I just remembered another. Like many places, we have a book club man that comes to the office, and leaves the books in a central area with a sheet to write which books you want. The only thing that's ever gone missing is a book on real life crimes in the area.

Clearly, someone in the office is the perpetrator of one of those crimes and stole the book to prevent anyone in the office working it out!

 

[ufkacbln]

I remember hearing a story of someone's tent being stolen... Whilst they were still sleeping in it!

The person inside must have been a pretty heavy sleeper, that's all I can say!!

More fun in the old days was to reverse the outer so they were trying to exit through solid canvas

 

[ufkacbln]

In Liverpool a friend of ours came down to find her wheels missing from her car

Called insurance who arranged replacements


Following morning they were left in her front garden with a note saying that they had only been borrowed to pass the MOT

 

[SteCenturion]

Our rather Fat & Lazy, ney bone idle neighbour of around 50 years young at the time stole our black bin...

Nothing unusual in that but, on searching for it, her indoors spotted it in her garden from our bathroom window.

She had badly tried to scour away the big number 10 I had painted on the lid in gloss white paint... which was still clearly visible.

Freeloading state sponger.

 

[Sandra6]

Somebody once broke into our allotment and stole a broken rake and one glove.
I heard a story recently, count vouch for the truth of it, but someone's car was broken into and they stole a packet of mints.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I left my car unlocked one night and some cheeky swine pinched the logbook, left some quality country and rock 'n' roll CDs behind, unbelievable!

 

[ColinJ]

A friend of mine had some food stolen during the night! The thief got into her kitchen by pushing the key out of the back of the lock and putting his hand through the cat flap to pick it up. He made himself some sandwiches and ate them in the kitchen. After he finished, he left, locked up, and put the key back through the cat flap!

My friend got up the next day, and wondered why there was bread and cheese lying about on her worktops and the door key was on the kitchen floor.

Then a police officer knocked on the door and told her that the man responsible had been caught in another house down the road and had admitted letting himself in to her house and stealing the sandwiches!

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, I saw our cat being stolen when I was about 5 years old!

A car stopped and someone got out and grabbed our cat. My mum told me years later that pets were getting stolen at the time to be sold to labs for vivisection.

 

[MarkF]

Today I parked my bike outside a Wetherspoons in Peterborough center, just after arriving there from Leeds, I didn't want a drink (well, I did), just a tinkle. I locked my bike up outside where there are 4 or 5 bike racks. My tinkle trip can only have lasted 3 minutes, on returning I unlocked the bike, lifted it up to turn it around and the front wheel fell out! Somebody had pilfered my skewer. Why? A friendly local directed me to Motosave about 1 minute away where a new one, ok, not Shimano, cost me £3.