Nickers!

The theme from the last blog continues, simply because the subject keeps cropping up in conversations with friends, relatives and in the media.  This has now brought into sharp focus for me one of the hitherto vague reasons people like us uproot ourselves and emigrate to another country and another culture.  People here are much less likely to nick things, ergo French society has retained more of its respect for other peoples' property.  I'm not talking so much about the habitual criminal fraternities but rather the mentality of people who will 'lift' a portable object and walk off with it simply because it is momentarily unattended.

Since the last blog the self-employed antenna and satellite-dish-installer son-in-law of a friend working in the UK told us how first, his ladders were taken from the top of his van, then valuable tools stolen from inside.  As an aside we learned that the insurance wouldn't pay up because the van was deemed a 'workplace'.  He's an honest man but is sure he'll lie next time and say that the stuff was stolen from home so his household insurance should cover it.  Otherwise, another hit like that and he'd be out of business.

Yesterday my former professional colleague, still working as a Land Surveyor, had his work umbrella (a special piece of kit, used to protect the survey equipment) stolen when it was left unattended for a minute or two, 50 metres from where he was standing.  Our friends with whom we were dining when we heard the ladder story, told us how their English village church roof had its lead taken - an everyday occurrence now.  It will cost £140,000 to replace which had to be raised by voluntary funding, not to mention the extra £40,000 for the security arrangements, insisted upon by the insurance company, to guard the scaffolding as obviously, that too would offer an irresistible prize to the 'nickers'.

The final straw, prompting this outburst was to hear on the TV yesterday of an English doctor, whose car was stolen after stopping to attend a pensioner badly injured after being hit by a bus in Salford.  Read it here.

Apparently, sat-nav units in ambulances are now the latest craze - ripped out by opportunist thieves while the crew attends an accident victim.  Nice one.

Am I being smug?  After all, we live in a rural corner of France, 45km form the nearest city Brive-la-Gaillarde, population 49,000.  Rural France is 85% of her territory but only 27% of the population live there.  Are the French that bad in their cities?  It doesn't seem so from here.

Be that as it may, my 'quality of life' is enhanced by being able to leave my car unlocked in my garden, my fishing gear hanging outside in the porch, ever ready to use as soon as the fish start to rise, my bicycle outside, potted plants around the house, safe from marauding 

opportunist ne'er-do-wells.  Great Britain is, I believe, the third most densely populated island in the world behind Java and Japan.  Is that a reason?

Mapmaker