.. to think this would blow some minds?

[BeepBoopBop]

….. standing next to my van, loading my stuff into it when a black Volvo pulls up behind me and the female driver asks if I’m leaving. I tell her no not yet so she thanks me and reverses back a little and stops and asks if the two men in a van (having a tea break) are leaving. They tell her the same thing, so she asks if it’s okay to leave the car in front of the van as she only needs five minutes. They say it’s fine and she says great, I’ll leave the keys in it just in case they need to leave and then off she pops.
Two minutes later, a car opposite starts up and the driver can’t manoeuvre out. as her car is in the way. Van driver jumps out and gets in her car to move it. At which stage, two startled heads pop up in the back. She had left the keys and her two young kids in her car.
Van driver lets the other driver out and neatly parks Volvo in the now vacant space.
Could you see this happening in the UK? By this time it was about 10 minutes - I wonder what she thought as she came back to the car park and saw her car wasn’t sitting where she left it?

What's lovely is that her husband can also let his property - her - wander around with no security other than the absolute basics like him having full legal control over her.

we dont lock our doors at night in Dublin - i have a terrible fear of being trapped in the house if a fire started - scrambling looking for keys when you only have 60 seconds to get out.

Family members all leave their keys in the cars - they are in the city centre but have never had a car stolen unlike me - 2 cars stolen when locked

This is what I say on a regular basis - 'it's not 1932, where you have to get out and crank the engine!' or even pull the choke like you say. It flabbergasts me to be honest, modern tractors start very easily too.

People don't live in fear. Unless they've done something illegal I suppose. Quite the opposite to lawless uk where people are helping themselves to supermarket sweeps for free etc

You're out of date...

DH and I stayed in a stately pile in East Anglia. The owner told us (a bit sheepishly) that we could go out in the evening and come back whenever we liked because the doors were always unlocked.

I've known a couple of young women who've jumped out of their cars and asked passing middle aged men to park their cars in tight parking spaces that couldn't do themselves. Totally harmless and quite nice, civically, to help others like that. This is near Glasgow.

I didn't abandon my car with children in it, but there was a time when I was driving a car with a trailer and got diverted by a road closure into a cul-de-sac which was not long enough to turn around it - in the UK, near Milton Keynes. I was trying to work out what to do and a couple of workmen working outside one of the houses in the cul-de-sac said "we'll sort you out, love", took the keys and reversed the car and trailer back onto the main road and told me which way I needed to go. They were great.

Yeah, I’m sure we’d love to be whipping people and cutting their hands off in the U.K. for theft.

Oh don’t be daft. I live in a market town in Kent and I bloody love it here. Feel very safe and I feel so happy my children are growing up here

Do you spout this fear mongering drivel to your children @Northermcharn ?

Yes, but ...
I live in rural Scotland. People often leave doors unlocked, babies in prams etc and a very proud of it being a very traditional very 'local' community.
Some years ago Robert Black snatched a child from her garden in broad daylight. Even closer, a couple of years ago, a local businessman, long known for being troubled, with a history of cross dressing and stealing womens underwear, abducted a young girl in broad daylight & kept her in a specially made area in his house (fortunately she was eventually able to call the Police)
NAMALT but the ones that are are a massive risk. It's not a safe option.

Speak for yourself. Where do you live in the uk? So I know to avoid it!

When I lived in Australia this happened in our city. Parents had left the keys in and the a/c running so they could unload groceries without waking a sleeping child. The car was stolen while the car sat on the drive way and the baby was missing for several hours, it was awful, there were helicopters out searching and the car was eventually found abandoned with the baby absolutely fine.

I don’t know why this is always seen as so unbelievable on here. I’ve genuinely not seen my house keys in months. I need to find them before we go on holiday.

In Saudi you can be executed for lots of things. Proven and unproven, like eg witchcraft. Often trumped up charges. One reason I would never live there.

Same. I’m SE London and no crime in recent years that I I know of in our street.

Well we did have that, but it was a long time ago!

Oh is this a stealth thread where people can claim the lawless UK is overrun by bad un’s and subject to Sharia law? 😂🥴

Yes, indeed. I don't think I'd care to live in a country with an absolute monarchy and Sharia law, but we're all different.

Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on the place.

God, those parents must have been terrified

You're right. It's rare, fortunately, but you just never know.

Same here in North Yorkshire. Low crime rate, safe place to live. I suspect some people see reports in the tabloids and wrongly apply it to the whole of the UK.

Me then... we never lock our back door.
Intruders would have to nagivate an enormous Rottie.

Iceland has an almost non-existent car theft rate - a combination of most people knowing each other and being such a tiny island a car is easily traced