May 27, 2004
Impressed by the fuzz
My Bent Bike Wheel - thanks mr. thief
I had a strange day. The data centre for our servers lost power (should never happen), a bloke fell off his scooter coming round a corner near me, I was frustrated late to the pub and then, on returning to my d-locked bike, I found that someone had tried to steal it. I'm guessing, but as they attempted to pull the bike off the street post it was attached to, the force of the d-lock against the front wheel and the frame caused the front wheel to become bent like a pringle (crisp, not sweater). The chap in the bike shop alternatively suggested that it may have been kicked in frustration. Anyway, one locked bike, one crappy attempted theft and a £50+ bill.
In order to make an insurance claim, you need a 'crime number'. I don't like ringing the police. On the one hand they are probably busy enough with other, important stuff. On the other hand, I'm quite nervous of them, although they have always been polite and friendly enough to me.
So I decided to look on the web to see which police station I should call. And I found this:
The Non Emergency Minor Crime Notication web page at www.online.police.uk
In its functionality, its nothing special, a simple form to capture the relevent information. What is special is that the police have had the sense and foresight to set it up. It is one of those examples of a truly useful webpage. It saves the police time, lets me fill in the data and avoids me clogging up police phone lines. The form was straight forward (mostly) and off I submitted it. After going out to play squash for an hour, I came back to a message on my voicemail. New Scotland Yard were calling to clarify one point on the form - only 1.5 hours after submitting it.
The next day, a very polite and efficient copper calls me up to inform me of procedure and, more importantly, to give me a crime number. Him, me and the rest of the world all know that they ain't going to catch someone, or even try. Him, me and the rest of the world know that all I need is a crime number to claim on. This system is a supremely efficient and effective way of getting that crime number.
Posted by tom at May 27, 2004 11:40 AM | TrackBack