Sunday, January 3, 2010

Nigerian car thief targets Woody Allen

This story is a wonderful encapsulation of modern Britain where the law-abiding are ripped off and completely failed by an institutionally socialist state.

Modern cars are exceptionally difficult to steal due to the electronic immobilisers they use. There are, therefore, two options for a determined thief in the UK with a pressing drug habit who is running low on cash. Both involve getting hold of the car keys.

First option: What do a lot of people do when they come home? Drop the house and car keys on the hall table. British homes have letterboxes in the front door where mail is placed. The enterprising thieves use a hook at the end of a pole to reach through the letter box and hook the keys from the table. I included the link to the Police website because this sort of thing sounds like an urban myth.

In the case of an elderly homeowner or a very fit burglar the second option is a more direct approach, where the victim is robbed and murdered in-home and the keys taken (in the UK a 'life' sentence for murder is about seven years)

And in the event that the homeowner resists, the trusty shield of British justice is there to jail the homeowner for defending his property

Famous filmmaker Woody Allen has a thing for the UK. He's a smart businessman, so my guess is he likes the fact that the actors and crew he hires there are desperate for the work. And some of the locations can be made to look nice on film if the bums are cleared away and the trash swept up first, and the actors filmed under bright lights to make it look like the sun's shining.

He's paying about $17,000 a week for an upscale home while filming. Next door is a bunch of squatters - people who break into unoccupied homes to live for free. Recently they spotted a guy who sounds like a Nigerian illegal immigrant trying the bamboo pole hook on Woody's house.

So this story has everything
- A state which can't keep out foreign criminals
- People living in an upscale house for free
- Even paying $17,000 a week doesn't get you a home free from the anarchy
- And a justice system which enables the above

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