Cornell Finch

Hampshire’s 101 Service

Most will not have heard of this so I will give a quick overview. Hampshire and the Isle Of Wight has, for the last 10 months or so been running a new service called 101. It’s an alternative to 999. It is meant for the less urgent requirement for emergency services. Chavs hanging about, excessive noise, reporting vandalism etc. A report in February 07 said that the Hampshire 101 service had taken I believe, I can’t find a source on the net right now to confirm 145,000 calls from the public.

That number went up by one more tonight. I know this because I used the service to report a crime. A crime against humanity. A crime against all intelligent people the world over. More importantly, a crime against my MG.

We went to a friend’s wedding reception this evening, left about nine, got takeaway, came home and ate. About ten past ten I couldn’t find my cigarettes so went back to the Astra to check if they were in there. Unfortunately not. Walking back to the garage, just like I always do I glanced at the MG to admire the badges. Except that I couldn’t. Some expletive I refuse to use on the internet that rhymes with hunt has removed the MG logo, the 180 logo and the flags from the rear and the MG logo from the front grille.

I am pissed. I am very pissed. This isn’t the first time that this has happened. a few months ago (might be 18 by now) the badges were keyed from my Mini. I replaced those but you can still see the key scratches where I can’t afford to get the car painted.

So, the MG now has very similar scratches. I have a couple of issues here:

1. The MG (like the Mini) was specifically targeted. No other car in the area has had their badges removed. Either it was a bored kid or the badges have been stolen to order.
2. I was going to prep the car ready for sale this weekend. I had a quote for the insurance renewal of over £500. I don’t know what to do now.
3. I can’t afford to claim from the insurance to get the badges and paintwork sorted. £200 excess. :(

The very nice guy that took the crime report said that they will probably just file this and count it as a statistic. Fair enough, I didn’t really expect them to do much. I will go ask the neighbours if they maybe saw or heard something.

I have no faith in people any more. Why me?