There has been a spate of dust cap theft around here in recent weeks. Seems that they are regarded as collector's / swopping items by the local kids. Trivial enough at one level but I suppose it could lead to worse if not checked.
My son came home upset the other day because some of his friends were doing it and when he wanted no part of it they did what kids do and abused him for it.
Anyway, tonight I came home and found some kids taking the dust caps off my wife's car. I know them all, they are local so I just gave them a telling off and told them to beat it. Well, within minutes I saw them raiding the caps off a car across the road. Out I go again, thankfully this time they had also been seen by another neighbour who came out too. We made them return the caps to their rightful owners and made it clear we knew who they were and where they lived and that any repeat of such behaviour would result in parents, headteacher and if necessary police being informed in that order.
Difficulty is they are all in my son's class at school and I don't want to make waves for him.
However, I have decided to have a quiet word with the headmaster in the hope that he can make some general comments about stealing and the safety issues in assembly without at this stage naming names.
I've never heard of this stupid pastime before. Is it just something local or have others heard of it ?
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Makes a change from VW badges.
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It used to be wheel trims then alloys came in and they went missing too.!
The thing as kids was to to remove the dust cap and get a lolly pop stick break it and shove part of the stick in the valve so the tyre went down, Wait till they get there revenge on you for grassing them up at school.! lol...................
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...Difficulty is they are all in my son's class at school and I don't want to make waves for him...
Genuinely awkward situation.
No reason why you should tolerate your property being stolen, so having a word with the thieves is fair enough.
I think I would stop short of involving the head, smacks of making yourself a bit too busy.
But as I say, it's a tough call.
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Not petty at all - these are pieces of "engineering" on my BMW bike - they are actually part of the tyre pressure measuring system......I would be very cross.
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The car across the road belongs to a young lad of 19. It's a C3 and he's got it blinged up. You know the sort of thing, unfeasably loud ICE, aftermarket alloys, big exhaust etc. He is though a pleasant enough young man. He's just in a phase I guess. His car always polished until it sparkles.
Anyway, the caps on his, while not to my taste, are worth £10 a set so he was pleased to get them back. Here's hoping they are more scared of him than of me !
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...the caps on his, while not to my taste, are worth £10 a set...
One of the caps on the CC3 doubles as a valve key.
They came in a set, but there was no point in risking the theft of all of them by fitting all four at once.
Not much gets past me, is there?
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Kick them VERY hard. No no, not the dust caps.
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Well there were three of them in the group. Two of them come from, shall we say, the sort of families and backgrounds which might see such behaviour as practice for later life. The other one though, I must say, I was surprised at. One of the brightest kids in the class. I know his parents well and was quite taken aback to find him up to no good. There were tears from him and beggings not to tell his dad. I haven't. I know it's trivial stuff really but I fear that little things can lead to bigger things if not checked.
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Wed 13 Oct 10 at 19:49
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Lot of peer pressure in this sort of behaviour.
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...I know it's trivial stuff really but I fear that little things can lead to bigger things if not checked...
They can, we've had mention of the 'broken window' principle on here before.
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A liberal application of fresh doggie-doo to the dust caps oughta put them off.
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One non-confrontational way of dealing with this would be to remove the dust caps and run without for a few weeks, by which time the fad will probably have passed.
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I think I prefer that to Dave's idea ! We don't have dog so I'd have to go and ask a neighbour if I could possibly trouble them for a small bag of...
:-(
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Wed 13 Oct 10 at 20:01
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A liberal application of fresh doggie-doo to the dust caps oughta put them off.
Yes then you get a slow leak and have to pump it up pooooooooey.
Better still to get this dog poo preferably the hard ball type stuff not the sludge type and a black widow catapult.
Load the catapult with the smelly balls aim and FIRE.!!
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dust caps can be a life saver so impress on the headmaster the danger of removing them
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Muggins here decided to 'colour co-ordinate' and bought some metallic red dust caps for my last car. You'd have thought Wham bars were being dispensed from the exhaust pipe judging by the amount of kids on BMXs circling the car all day.
The following morning they were gone. Stick with the black plastic ones......
Last edited by: Boggy on Wed 13 Oct 10 at 21:03
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I personally wouldn't involve the school. I feel that they do not hold the same authority as in the past and their attitude may well be that it is not a school issue. May be some sort of repercussions for junior H D'b.
Personally I'd have a a word with their parents. Done in the right manner you can get them on board to educate rather than discipline.
Or as you have already got one of them on your side as he fears you telling his Father just explain that anything going on in the neighbourhood will be put down to the group and you WILL tell his Dad. He may then be able to put peer pressure on his accomplices.
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Fair enough, I'll let things be for a day or two. We'll see how it goes.
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"A liberal application of fresh doggie-doo to the dust caps oughta put them off."
The problem with that is that you will one day (quite shortly if you check your tyre pressures regularly) have to remove them yourself!
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I, erm, 'liberated' the little dust-cap removal tool from a car I sold.
I find it can exert far more torque than my fingers. Perhaps screwing them down really tight would discourage the perishers (unless they've also had access to the inside of a Corsa filler cap).
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I "lost" two smart chrome dust caps from the Z3 the other day. Not being one who cares what dust caps look like, I bought the cheapest ones I could find in Halfords and put them on. No problem since.
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>>I bought the cheapest ones I could find
You don't need to buy them. I can usually find one or two around any filling station air line. If that fails, any tyre place will have dozens on the floor at the end of a working day.
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A mate of mine used to have a Porsche 944 about 15 years ago. Yes, probably because he couldn't afford a proper Porsche. Anyway he spent 50 quid buying chromed Porsche valve covers for it. Within a week they'd gone. So he bought some more and spent unfeasible lengths of time watching the car from the kitchen window. They went too. Probably doubled the value of the BMXs they ended up on.
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Put bog standard rubber ones on, and forget about it.
IMHO you are making a mountain out of a molehill. . By singling out your son as the goody-goody you are setting him up as the outsider who gets bullied. Boys will be boys and all that. They are nasty little devils at the best of times, and you are encouraging them.
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I agree with Cliff. A minor issue which you are in danger of turning into a problem. Time to move on.
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>> IMHO you are making a mountain out of a molehill. .
My caps are bog standard. As for mountains out of molehills. Whole bikes have gone missing recently and we know who did it but can't prove it. Guess who's in the frame ?
Sorry, but what some see as naughty, I regard as theft. End of.
Edt - As stated above, I've already said that I'm not currently taking any further actions. But thanks for your advice.
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Thu 14 Oct 10 at 08:49
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Sorry, but what some see as naughty, I regard as theft. End of.
>>>
>>>quite correct
if this is not nipped now then it will be bent wipers next as boy goads boy
it really does need to be reinforced that your property is not for tampering with or it WILL escalate and anyone who thinks it wont has never been at the butt of petty vandalism on a frequent basis
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Kids stole the pressure-sensing dustcaps on the Prelude when I parked it in the middle of Weymouth.
I replaced them with quite nice-looking polished alloy ones that were promptly nicked by French kids.
Now both cars have ordinary plastic caps and I've learned a lesson about attention seeking.
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>> I've never heard of this stupid pastime before. Is it just something local or have
>> others heard of it ?
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It happened when I was at school 30 years ago - it was only teachers cars though!
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>> or have others heard of it ?
>> >>
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They have now, thanks to a publicity campaign by H D'b :)
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Blame the bicycle manufaturers for putting car valves on cycles, when I was a lad bikes had different valves to cars.
Last edited by: Kithmo on Thu 14 Oct 10 at 16:10
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...when I was a lad bikes had different valves to cars...
We are in Presta and Schrader territory.
When I was a lad, rubbishy sit-up-and-beg bikes had Schrader (car type) valves.
If you had a racer, it had to have 'high pressure' Presta valves.
Last edited by: Iffy on Thu 14 Oct 10 at 18:13
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Find leader of local toe rags. Tell 'it' in a certain way that you require your goods returned. Tell 'it' that he shall be held responsible for ALL local misdemeanour's from now on. Usually best to get a great big scary git to do it, but it has been known to work. It's quite amazing just how much respect some of these chavs can have at times when out of their comfort zones.
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You can get a set of lockable valve caps for £3 from Amazon.
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>> You can get a set of lockable valve caps for £3 from Amazon.
Now you're talking ! Those would be fun... Try getting them off you little......... :-)
I feel though, that people stole less when I was younger. I grew up in a large city. ( Edinburgh ) and always used to leave my bike parked with a pump on it, a saddlebag with a coat and other bits and bobs such as tools, lights left attached to the bike etc and never had any of it stolen. Often as not the bike wasn't padocked either. Nowadays, you wouldn't dare do that even away from the cities. I wonder what happened to honesty among "normal" people ? Of course there have always been thieves from humble apple scrumpers upwards but generally, I feel anyway, average kids didn't steal things. Or maybe I just didn't notice them doing it.
Some of the posts above are quite disturbingly accepting of such behaviour as apparently normal and somehow trivial and excusable. Strange values in my view but there it is.
Probably enough said from me.
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>> I feel though, that people stole less when I was younger. I grew up in
>> a large city. ( Edinburgh ) and always used to leave my bike parked with
>> a pump on it, a saddlebag with a coat and other bits and bobs such
>> as tools, lights left attached to the bike etc and never had any of it
>> stolen. Often as not the bike wasn't padocked either.
Yep. You just propped the bike up with the pedal on the edge of the kerb in the middle of town, went and did your shopping and could guarantee that the bike would still be there when you came back for it. The strange thing is that people were much much poorer in those days, so there would be a lot of people who didn't own a bike who you would expect would be tempted to steal an unattended bike. It all comes down to the fact that moral standards were much higher in those days. Morality goes in cycles (no pun intended) but the cycle time is very long so I expect it will be several decades before the current situation improves.
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Yes, Humph, you are in a tricky position. The right thing is to make a fuss, but then this might lead to your lad getting unwelcome attention.
I think if I were in your position I would ignore them (i.e. not replace the caps), tell the headmaster, (and maybe have a quiet word with the parents?), but most importantly reinforce with your lad that he is doing the right think by not joining in.
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The huge modern day problem with 99% of people in 'Authority' is that they cannot just be told a small fact and then discreetly attempt to deal with it. It becomes an 'issue' that may or may not blow out of all proportion and they are often quite indiscreet with the information that they have been entrusted with. A simple fact of obvious right against obvious wrong doesn't seem to be a priority and 'you' the giver of that information, given in the best interests of the general populace I might add, may become embroiled in something that may/could get out of hand. This leads to a say nothing policy which in turn leads to the scroats prevailing.
As an aside I believe that UK PLC is beyond economical repair.
Martin.
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Slight thread drift but in 1959 I was in London en route to Italy (overland by rail) and called into a chemist's shop just off the Embankment to buy a roll of film for my camera. Bought the film and then caught the Tube into the West End to fill in a few hours before catching a train from Victoria to Dover. After about an hour I realised that I did not have my camera. I'd left it on the counter at the chemists'. I got back on the Tube and got to the chemist at least 90 minutes after my purchase. My camera was still on the counter and, from memory, I don't recall ever thinking during my return trip that it wouldn't be. Nowadays would you even bother to go back?
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I dislike 'Nowadays' intensely. Nice story SH.
Martin.
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>> I feel though, that people stole less when I was younger. I grew up in
>> a large city. ( Edinburgh ) and always used to leave my bike parked with
>> a pump on it, a saddlebag with a coat and other bits and bobs such
>> as tools, lights left attached to the bike etc and never had any of it
>> stolen. Often as not the bike wasn't padocked either. Nowadays, you wouldn't dare do that even away from the cities. I wonder what happened to honesty among "normal" people ?
The Difference between then, and now, is that my local Copper would give me a clip round the ear, before legging to my house before me, and telling my dad - who would also clip me ear - or worse.
Today, the cops would get sacked, and sued for daring to raise their voice at a troublemaker.....
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Humph, I am sure you have already , but make sure you compliment your son on making the right decision and knowing right from wrong. Huge amount of peer pressure will be getting applied to him, similar to what happened with my own son, it takes a lot of balls to stand up to it.
Well done Humph junior.
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...and never had any of it stolen...
Ah, the good old days....
My mother was widowed at a young age in the early 1960s, which meant the sale of the marital home and farm.
An 'on-site' auction was held of the farm equipment.
Still happens today, a gaggle of buyers follow the auctioneer around the yard and buy the items where they stand.
Except in our case sales were not made because a lot of the more valuable things were stolen first.
The auctioneer was so disgusted to find people had stolen from a widow he waived his fee.
And this was rural south Devon, not a crime-ridden inner city.
Thieving is not new.
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Indeed. The blitz for example: houses raided whilst occupants were in the shelters. Bombed buildings looted. There were plenty of spivs and low-life then as now.
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>> looted. There were plenty of spivs and low-life then as now.
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Putting them against the wall and shooting them (looters) tends to slow their gallop, not suggesting that it's justified for nicking Humps caps.
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Humph lives in Cheshire not Chechnya !
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>> You can get a set of lockable valve caps for £3 from Amazon.
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On second thoughts, they look as if they have a transverse grub screw which could/will damage the thread of the valve.
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Around five years ago we pulled into service area somewhere on the A30 in Cornwall and parked up, upon walking back to the car I caught a young boy of around six nicking the stainless caps from the Mondeo, it turned that his family were sitting in a newish CRV parked next door and knew what he was doing. I simply asked for them back and the boy's father in turn asked him to give them to me, no hassle though of course there were many other cars to move onto.
The thing that struck me was that the family looked very scruffy, hippy, traveller ish, rather at odds with the nearly new CRV hence I wondered if it were stolen.
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When I lived in London years ago I kept finding the tennis ball cover on the tow ball was missing. After a while the boy responsible got tired of that game so took to removing it but leaving in in the road underneath, or sometimes on the bonnet or the middle of the roof. I knew who it was but I just pretended not to notice him, and he pretended not to know that I knew if we passed in the street.
He kept it up for a few weeks and then obviously got bored by my lack of response so gave up.
Boys like to try and provoke adults into getting cross, so that they lose face and look foolish.
It's better not to let yourself be provoked. Some fights are worth fighting, but 4 cheap rubber valve covers are not.
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He's not mayor of London now is he ?
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>> Boys like to try and provoke adults into getting cross, so that they lose face
>> and look foolish.
Doesn't seem that long ago when as a boy i'd do my best not to antagonise an adult less they told my dad, not that i'd be belted unless i really deserved it but he'd make it plain i'd let my family down.
Maybe we need proper fathers again (that'll upset the liberal lefties), respected by their children not feared but with honour a set of morals and a code to pass onto their offspring.
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>> Maybe we need proper fathers again (that'll upset the liberal lefties), respected by their children
>> not feared but with honour a set of morals and a code to pass onto
>> their offspring.
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The limp wristed liberal lefties deserve all the flak and grief that people with common sense can muster. They have turned this country into what it is today. A bankrupt wannabe world leading nation.
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I can't stand this type of interference with property by bored kids that many put up with these days. We're lucky that for the past 25yrs our houses have been in more rural locations with cars down longer drives or behind farm gates but a few years back, when our house renovations were at their most intense, we rented a house on a nice estate in the main part of our village.
I was gobsmacked by the level of hassle folks expected to put up with from kids. Chalking all over the footpaths, kicking balls hard against fences, kicking balls hard against a wall that abuted a path which was actuall the sitting room wall of an elderly persons house who had to put up with the bonk bonk bonk noise all the time, throwing gravel from lanscaping into gardens, trying to kick through panel fences in landscaped areas, older lads playing football in the tots play area putting mums off daring to go in with small kids.
Despite being normally quiet and non-confrontational over the time we were there I stopped all this behaviour in the immediate area without laying a finger on them. Other folks were grateful and said they were too scared to confront them. Perhaps I had an advantage knowing who they all were through our kids being at the same school but the truth is if only one in ten residents took the same zero-tolerance attitude the whole area would be sorted.
Keep after them Humph!
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In the 25 years of car ownership I've never had a dust cap nicked. Have I been lucky up until now, careful where I park or that I just use the cheap plastic ones that no one wants to steal?
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>> In the 25 years of car ownership I've never had a dust cap nicked. Have
>> I been lucky up until now, careful where I park or that I just use
>> the cheap plastic ones that no one wants to steal?
Yup, excepting those with pressure control functions, I reckon they only became stealable when they turned into a fashion statement.
Just use the simple plastic ones that also fit the Schraeder valved MTBs/Brommies. I've saved plenty from otherwise wrecked inner tubes over rte years.
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Stealing dust caps - Old Navy
