I went to Kingston on Sunday with my family, with the intention of having a relaxing Sunday lunch at Jamie’s Italian followed by some shopping for various bits and bobs. Well, we did do all of those things, but the lovely relaxing day out in the beautiful spring sunshine was completely ruined when we returned to our car to find the passenger side front window smashed out. We weren’t alone. A couple of other cars in the car park had the same problem – a smashed passenger window.
The car park attendants were very helpful, vacuuming the glass out of the car for us, taking our details and passing on the information to the local police force. They even gave us a couple of hours of free parking for our next visit, although I am not sure I’ll want to use that car park again! Unfortunately, the car park does not have camera monitoring, so that was pretty much all they could do.
What was strange was that nothing was missing from the car. The sat nav unit was still on the dashboard, expensive sunglasses were still in the glove box, CDs still in the centre console and the player. It didn’t make sense. We just assumed that it was kids being vandals. Then we heard from the attendant that another of the cars was missing their road tax disc. I looked at ours, but it was still there. However, we have a plastic tax disc holder that feels like it is superglued to the windscreen. My best guess is that the idiots WERE actually after the tax disc (which was brand new, so had a long expiry), but in the limited time they had before someone was alerted they couldn’t get it unstuck from the windscreen.
For those outside the UK, road tax (or Vehicle Excise Duty) is payable to the government to allow you to have your car legally allowed on the road. To prove you’ve paid, you get a small paper disc that you display in your front window, that has the date of expiry on it, as well as your car registration details.
I looked into this online and found an article that said (taken/slightly edited from Duck2Water Car Insurance Site):
More than 142,000 replacement tax discs were issued by the DVLA in a single year and it is believed that the majority were taken by thieves. At first glance, it is not obvious why a little paper disc which is marked with your car's details would be worth stealing. However, there is actually a very good reason. It is very difficult for criminals to get a legitimate tax disc for a stolen car, as they would need to provide the motor insurance documentation and MOT certificate. In order to prevent a car looking suspicious because it lacks a tax disc, they will use a real tax disc stolen from an innocent motorist's car windscreen. The details on the disc will then be altered to make it appropriate for the new car.
So, UK folks, take note. It cost me £75 to have the window fixed (the excess on my insurance policy) and it took until midnight on Monday night for the glass company to have an open slot. Yes, midnight! Most Police Forces sell Secure Tax Disc Holders for as little as £1 that are designed to be tamper proof (the tax disc will be ripped if you try and open the holder). This should act as a deterrent to would-be thieves. If you want to save yourself a large insurance excess and the hassle of replacing your tax disc and window glass, get hold of one.
