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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

people stealing

77 replies

Sportslady44 · 08/01/2022 16:39

Why do people keep stealing in general. All the time in the paper or local facebook groups, its my car has been broken into, my bike has been nicked, my shed has been targetted, one estate where i live is particularly having a problem with cars being broken into a night at the moment. They do have cameras and they post the footage etc.

Its everywhere though, whats wrong with people why do they keep taking things that arent theirs? Why have they no morals.

How would they like it done to them?
They are a nuisance all the time to law abiding people and keep causing upset?

Why cant people stop taking what is not theirs? Dont they think of how the people they are stealing from are going to be affected by their actions?

Grrrrr. Sick of seeing it all the time!!

OP posts:
daimbarsatemydogsbone · 08/01/2022 23:24

@Ozanj

These crimes are opportunity based. If ppl locked doors / kept bikes indoors or in sheds / didn’t leave keys in cars & kept automatic keys in rfd wallets many of wouldn’t happen.
What a terrible victim blaming attitude.
daimbarsatemydogsbone · 08/01/2022 23:29

This is one of my least favourite things about the UK. When I go to other countries I see things lying around that I know would vanish to thieves within seconds in the UK.
There seem to be an amazing amount of thieving gits here.

BurntToastAgain · 08/01/2022 23:33

I’m not sure Somalian piracy is comparable to arseholes stealing your Christmas decorations, plants from your garden or your wheelie bins.

Nor do I think those are the crimes of the desperate and/or drug addicted. There’s not a huge amount of money to be made from a banged up wheelie bin with several years of use (and no regular cleaning schedule) and a cracked glass caddy inside. Nice new, clean and unbroken ones are £25 from the council. I know because I’ve had to pay for one.

I think there is quite a lot of really petty theft and vandalism that is just due to some people being arseholes.

Bike and tool thefts from sheds are often not random or opportunistic in the least. It’s not people stumbling upon unlocked sheds. People with decent bikes are targeted. Even if you lock your shed, it’s very easy to take the door off from the hinge side. And the police will generally warn you not to put the replacement in the shed because they will more than likely come back to steal that too.

WomanStanleyWoman · 08/01/2022 23:37

@malmi

That's a minute of my life you've just stolen right there
GrinGrinGrin
mumda · 08/01/2022 23:38

Heroin addicts for the most part.

OhGiveUp · 08/01/2022 23:45

I hate thieves. It makes me so angry that decent people work hard for what they have, only for a low lived scumbag to come along and think he / she is entitled to it.
My garden shed was broken into overnight a few years ago. I had the last laugh on that one though as it was completely empty due to getting it ready to be dismantled and removed.
I'd just love to be able to snap their fingers off one by one!.

Snugglepumpkin · 09/01/2022 00:01

Where I live, people started stealing bins when the rubbish collections went from weekly to fortnightly.

My council will only give out one bin of each type per property here, but I've walked past houses that have suddenly acquired 4 bins of each type & you can see on some of them where the old numbers have been removed as much as possible & they've painted their own house number over the top.

It's still stealing of course, but that particular issue is caused by people needing to get rid of more rubbish than the bin can hold for double the time it was originally intended to before being emptied.

Addicts will do anything (although I don't think they are bin stealers) when they get desperate enough for a fix & if the shops are closed (so they can't get in to shoplift) they'll try for anywhere else they can get anything they might be able to sell for a few pounds.

HalloumiLovers · 09/01/2022 00:03

@haribofiend

I doubt it’s a morals problem, more of an impoverished society problem. Thank you Tories.
It IS a morals issue. I’ve been on the bones of my arse having to use foodbanks and have NEVER stolen from anyone.
TooMuchSugar22 · 09/01/2022 00:05

I reckon I may live near you op! As honestly I could have said similar word for word.
DH had his car broken into last week. He had nothing in there it was just chancers. They had rummaged through the cds but left them.. Clearly he has shit taste!

WrongWayApricot · 09/01/2022 00:10

You make it sound like it's always the same people or like it's a failed experiment. Jealousy and desperation are just quirks of humanity unfortunately. You can't get rid of them while making more humans. Just look at people that steal radioactive waste and the like. They don't even know what they're stealing, they just want something for nothing.

goawaystormy · 09/01/2022 02:33

I'd just love to be able to snap their fingers off one by one!.

I think you're the one with a morals problem!

Also a completely warped sense of justice and creepy sadistic fantasies.

Twentypast · 09/01/2022 05:21

@haribofiend

I doubt it’s a morals problem, more of an impoverished society problem. Thank you Tories.
We have had a spate of catalytic converter thefts round here. 4 males in a brand new BMW caught numerous times on cameras.

Hardly impoverished.

Butchyrestingface · 09/01/2022 05:40

Stealing to feed an addiction I can understand - obviously doesn't make it okay but understandable.

But when I lived in an inner city, there were these mindless acts of hooliganism and anti-social behaviour committed at night by drunken twats on their way home from a night out that were impossible to understand - ie, walking along a residential street and attacking/jumping on every car they passed, smashing their windows, scraping keys along the paintwork.

Standing in the middle of the road screaming their heads off just to wake up the neighbourhood. And so on.

Why?? Angry

GeorgiaGirl52 · 09/01/2022 06:19

Two reasons not to commit crimes:

  1. Fear of the law
  2. Fear of the Lord (whether Jehovah or Allah)
Nowdays, the law is hampered and helpless so why not take a chance? So many smart people deny the existence of God in any form, so why bother with moral rules? We are returning to the law of the jungle - survival of the fittest.
Youngstreet · 09/01/2022 06:21

I taught my dc that if it’s not yours then it must belong to someone else.

Stealing takes many forms however.
How many people have thrown a sickie? That’s stealing a days pay.
Or got off a train or bus without having paid?
Or not told a shop that an article didn’t get scanned at the till or was priced too low?

We recognise stealing more easily when it affects us.
Many people don’t steal because they’re frightened of being caught not just because it’s wrong.

sweetbellyhigh · 09/01/2022 06:23

Well I don't steal but not do I have an addiction to feed plus I was taught the importance of honesty.

However, addiction is widespread and a lot of people have been so lucky with their upbringings.

Plus I think there is a lot of greed. The CCTV footage can be surprising, seemingly well dressed, "respectable" folk engaging in opportunist theft, also a lot of fly tipping presumably to save tip fees. Ugh.

SuPerDoPer · 09/01/2022 07:02

It's the same small group of people (mostly boys and young men) committing 95% of the acquisitive crime in one relatively small area. They are mostly drug addicts and /or from a high crime family. Often generations of unemployment, falling out of education. A sort of underclass for want of a better word. They aren't just poor they are disadvantaged in every sense and see court and prison as inevitable. They will have their own children in time and the cycle will continue. The amount of public money spent on dealing with the fall out created by this relatively small number of families is huge but the government don't want to invest in the other end - to preventing it.

Onehotmessiah · 09/01/2022 07:07

If you don’t know why people steal, you’ve got bigger problems. Open your eyes to the world outside your bubble.

BurntToastAgain · 09/01/2022 07:25

@Snugglepumpkin

Where I live, people started stealing bins when the rubbish collections went from weekly to fortnightly.

My council will only give out one bin of each type per property here, but I've walked past houses that have suddenly acquired 4 bins of each type & you can see on some of them where the old numbers have been removed as much as possible & they've painted their own house number over the top.

It's still stealing of course, but that particular issue is caused by people needing to get rid of more rubbish than the bin can hold for double the time it was originally intended to before being emptied.

Addicts will do anything (although I don't think they are bin stealers) when they get desperate enough for a fix & if the shops are closed (so they can't get in to shoplift) they'll try for anywhere else they can get anything they might be able to sell for a few pounds.

That policy might have created or encouraged bin stealing behaviour. But it still requires people to decide that they’ll solve their own problem by taking someone else’s bin and creating a bigger problem for them. And brazenly sitting there contemptuously showing their neighbours that they think they are more important than them.

That is being an arsehole. Having more recycling than you can fit in your bin is not a desperate situation where they had no choice because of the awful system.

JamTartLover · 09/01/2022 08:02

It's really sad that people steal from other people, especially when they have no idea if the financial situation of those they have stolen from.

I remember having my bicycle stolen when I was younger. My garden fence was very high and my bike was locked away in the shed but they still managed to steal it by breaking the door down and just taking it. It took my mum ages to save for that bike only to have someone take it. I never got a new bike, due to fears that it could be stolen again.

We couldn't store the bike in the house due to lack of space.

user1471538283 · 09/01/2022 08:08

Entitlement. I can understand parents stealing to feed their child. I dont understand those that steal to feed an addiction.

My friends ex neighbor stole her bin!

A580Hojas · 09/01/2022 08:15

Easy answer - drugs. Honestly, ask any copper.

JSL52 · 09/01/2022 08:17

@haribofiend

I doubt it’s a morals problem, more of an impoverished society problem. Thank you Tories.
I , and plenty of people I know, have been poor at times. I've never stolen anything.
AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken · 09/01/2022 08:47

I was in boots last Christmas and a man walked in, picked up a load of perfume gift boxes (about 6) and walked out.
We all stood and watched him do it.
The assistant said they phone the police but the police don’t even turn up. The security guard can’t actually do anything because the thief can claim assault. The assistant wouldn’t invade of being harmed.
The way all looked so defeated. It was so sad.

FindingMeno · 09/01/2022 08:58

I don't understand how some people accumulate wealth to the point they spend money on status objects with no real necessity, and moan about the people they walk past living on the streets.
There's a massive problem in the inequality of our society and that is quite obviously the more likely cause of crime than every individual committing crime being evil.
Morality can be seen from different viewpoints.