Buddleigh Salterton people - a question / a mystery situation

[SWnewstart]

Buddleigh is a about 30 mins from home and a favourite beach walking place (never seen it crowded)). We've been going several times a week since restrictions eased. Park in carpark next to the gardens behind Town Hall. There is a Citroen C4 (06 reg) which has been there for months (DP thinks it was there around Christmas time). The car is obviously abandoned. It's packed full of stuff - Christmas tree, small items of furniture, crockery, clothes and food shopping. Carriers have fallen open and items quite visible - beef mince complete with maggots / cheese / tuna salad growing fur in their packets, milk cartons bulging. The car has some notices attached asking owner to get in touch etc. I'm very curious - why can't the owner be traced via DVLA? What on earth could have happened? Inside that car is a positive health hazard and is nobody concerned about the owner?

Following with interest! Spooky.

Yes, really odd. There's a notice from the local council treating it as an abandoned vehicle, so authorities are obviously aware but I can't understand why police haven't traced the owner / visited house etc. There's even a spooky spider web across the front seat (I couldn't believe my eyes). Hope the car owner is OK and won't be reported lying dead at home months later. Sorry, don't mean to be morbid, simply concerned at the apparent lack of action.

This has been a thing locally, a car parked under a streetlight on a residential road for maybe seven months. As long as it was taxed, insured and not stolen there was nothing that could be done about it. The owner of the house opposite who had to look at it was frothing at the mouth and ringing everyone he could think of but it was parked legally and that was the end of it.

Have you put the reg into the DVLA mot checker? To see if it is taxed and has an MOT.

Really, Knotaknitter, that's quite strange. I pity whoever opens this car door - the smell will be horrendous!

I'm obviously way too invested in this - didn't know you could check tax etc (taxed to end of June but MOT expired last December) but why isn't any body local curious? The rotting food element is enough to make me want to know WHY the car was abandoned! Come on Buddleigh Salterton folk, solve my mystery!

Maybe report it to environmental health, sounds grim!

This is actually really sad because suggests that the person in the car has gone missing. abducted maybe? Seems very unlikely to be suicide or someone disappearing on purpose if food and christmas things in there.

This is intriguing. Do the DVLA check thing and let us know the result.

My first thought was someone living in the car, someone transient maybe just upped and left for a better place to stay? But why would someone living in a car buy groceries that obviously need cooking?

Someone parked up and went for a walk along the beach, if it was winter maybe they got swept out to sea? And have no family to report them missing? Seems a stretch though.

Maybe they were arrested for some terrible crime and are now on remand awaiting trial?

Maybe they won the euro millions and abandoned all their old crap to start a fancy new life of luxury?!

Gosh how strange! I hope it's nothing sinister

Jux - I did check public government website regarding car registration, and posted the details - you must have missed that post!

Agree with all other comments, but have to say it's only an average sized hatchback and full to bursting with "stuff" so there's no way anyone could be living in there (especially now with maggot-infested meat and tuna salad with mould growing). And yes, whatever has happened to the owner is obviously not normal and possibly very sad.

I have no idea about this particular car but my dad died suddenly while out, and his car was essentially “abandoned” where he’d left it since it took me months to find someone who could drive and was willing to drive a strange car, get all the legal stuff sorted, and arrange to be able to travel to the city he’d been visiting when he died to be able to collect and move it.

So it could be something as simple as the owner died and has no next of kin nearby or next of kin who are able/willing to deal with it.

Is there any way to report it as an abandoned car?

TheEmpressMatilda - that's a very difficult situation and I'm sorry to hear it. None of knows what background stories there might be in such cases. In this particular case there are 3 notices taped to back window, one of which is from South Devon Council, so authorities are aware to a degree. The other notices are faded but the word "abandoned" is just about legible so, again, someone is actually aware, however it's now 6 months later ........

Gosh, this is strange. Either the person just doesn't care about their car and stuff (but that doesn't make much sense) or something has happened. Maybe they had to run away? They died? They are not from this area and are not traceable now? Abducted? Gosh I don't know.
We live not too far from Budleigh, next time we go I will check it out.

Microwaveoven - it is really strange. If you know the car park I mean, the vehicle is parked on the right just up the slope and facing the gardens. Not being from the area and something (possibly fatal or total amnesia) has happened to them sounds feasible.

I'm not far from Budleigh. What a strange situation, I hope it doesn't have a sad ending. It seems strange also that one of the notices is from South Devon, we're covered by East Devon District Council. Would that suggest that the car has been moved more recently than it might seem? And moved back?

Nothing more useful to add, unfortunately, but I hope the mystery is solved soon.

MrsPhyllisTyne (love your user name) - apologies, I should have said East Devon District Council, not South.

Ah, sorry! I was channelling my inner Sherlock trying to think how it could've got down to Kingsbridge and back without anyone noticing

I had a rusty old banger parked opposite my old house for years, left deliberately by the car’s owner as part of a dispute over the ownership of the land it was standing on. It didn’t have anything in but it still went mouldy eventually. It was still there when I moved out!

This sounds like there’s probably quite a sad story behind it though

It's intriguing and sad.

That sounds like the car of someone who is a hoarder, and the chances are that they are older and have either gone into hospital or care and no one knows about the car.

Can you talk to the police? They at least can identify the owner.

Have you tried calling the non emergency police number? Whoever put the notices on May not have properly looked inside. I'd call and explain your concerns.

We have an abandoned car on our street. Tried reporting it to the council, but they only dealing with them at the moment, with limited resources at this time. But the council down there might. I would report it again, seeing as it’s been some time since they put the notices on it and they might not realise it’s still there. I would also ring 101

*NOT dealing with them at the moment