One thing I really hate is being alone here at the full moon. The last time was on Halloween which is obviously particularly bad but tonight has a double edge of unease as I have the spooky
AND the criminal to contend with. Skipping to my bedroom for the bottle of whisky which resides by my pillow, (a natural remedy for night-terrors), I glanced out of the window and noticed to my horror that there is a RING AROUND THE MOON. I know that this means something weird but I can't remember what. (Perhaps it is better that way). Google just has pages of scientific sites ...... 'The reflection of moonlight from the frozen crystals in the upper atmosphere ...' Don't speak to me of frozen crystals, I am already wearing a hat in bed. This is probably a job for the 'Witches' Bible' but I can't be bothered to go and look for it.

The criminal part is that the pre-Christmas burgling fest is upon us once more. Two years ago at this time every other person in the district had their small, but expensive motorised vehicles stolen. Quad bikes were the favourite but they also were happy to take ride-on lawnmowers, motorbikes, the more unobtrusive forms of 4 wheel drives, chainsaws and trailers. We didn't lose anything as our stuff was old and crappy and got rather overconfident until burgled three times a year later. It is very creepy that it has started again as they were never caught and also went in for highly skilled and daring snatching. Including removing a motorbike from outside a kitchen window during breakfast and clearing a farmyard of everything valuable while the family were out for two hours for the first time in months. You must remember that this is very empty countryside in terms of casually strolling strangers, combined with large numbers of wandering farm workers, game keepers, women with dogs etc.

It is believed that they are a gang who drive down the motorway from Birmingham and move around the country targeting different areas. They then ship their stuff to Ireland, having stolen it to order. They use fairly small white builders' vans and seem to push the bikes silently well away from the houses and then load them up. They have never even been seen except once when they were caught driving out of a track but just accelerated madly away and the van turned out to be stolen. The last time they waited for a couple of months until people had replaced everything from their insurance and than came back and stole from all the same houses again. Except now armed with bolt cutters to remove the fancy new safety chains and padlocks.

Police in London are saying that muggers are using, Dickensianly, teams of small boys on bicycles to alert them to anyone walking along wearing expensive jewellery. The pinpoint accuracy of these thieves' timing makes everyone here sure that they are being tipped off by someone local.
Probably teenage boys lurking around in the hedges with binoculars. A happy thought on a night like this, especially when, like us, you've never got round to putting curtains up except in the bedrooms.
- posted by Iris @ 12/09/2003 08:38:00 PM comment