BobClay
Well-Known Forumite
Some years ago, while pedalling around the country lanes around these parts (of which there are many) I stopped to pump some ballast. I went down the side of one of those thousands of little bridges on these lanes (I often wonder who built all these bridges) and under the bridge, looking a bit forlorn, was a motorcycle. Parked up on its centre stand in the middle of the stream and looking like it had been there for some time.
There wasn't any way I was going to get it out myself, so that day I went into Bude to report it ... I figure it had been stolen and abandoned, but strangely, the numberplate was missing. Bude has a police station, but for the most part, it's unmanned. There's a phone outside so I picked it up and somebody as far away as Plymouth answered.
Having explained the situation and attempted to describe the location (buried deep deep in Morwenstow, (Mordor ?) the officer at the other end said: 'Stop there, give me your name, address and number and I'll try and get someone who knows the area to call you.'
The end result of this was a local copper came to see me and I took him down to the bridge and showed him the bike. This 'local' copper came from Launceston, some 20 miles away. It's 20 miles of winding road which I know well as I worked at Launceston College for a while.
'Right,' he told me. 'I'll get it recovered and we'll try and trace it.'
I never heard any more about it, although I checked a few days later and the bike was gone. I did get to thinking that if the nearest local copper was 20 miles or more away at any given time, maybe I should consider a career in crime ....
There wasn't any way I was going to get it out myself, so that day I went into Bude to report it ... I figure it had been stolen and abandoned, but strangely, the numberplate was missing. Bude has a police station, but for the most part, it's unmanned. There's a phone outside so I picked it up and somebody as far away as Plymouth answered.
Having explained the situation and attempted to describe the location (buried deep deep in Morwenstow, (Mordor ?) the officer at the other end said: 'Stop there, give me your name, address and number and I'll try and get someone who knows the area to call you.'
The end result of this was a local copper came to see me and I took him down to the bridge and showed him the bike. This 'local' copper came from Launceston, some 20 miles away. It's 20 miles of winding road which I know well as I worked at Launceston College for a while.
'Right,' he told me. 'I'll get it recovered and we'll try and trace it.'
I never heard any more about it, although I checked a few days later and the bike was gone. I did get to thinking that if the nearest local copper was 20 miles or more away at any given time, maybe I should consider a career in crime ....