Weve had cctv installed because things kept disappearing from my drive and I put an ironing board right at the bottom of my drive as bait, and its gone. Weve watched the cameras back and a guy in a van pulls up, someone jumps out, walks down the drive, picks it up, puts it in the van and drives off in broad daylight. is there anything I can do about it?

You can't prove it's the same person every time, though. But I believe, in theory, it is theft if taken without your permission.

Im not saying its the same person, Im wanting to know if theres anything I can do about this episode?

It's theft - report it to the police

we have cctv on our front drive as an overview of the cars with a light that comes on if you walk in to a certain point...really dont know what we would do with it if anything happened ... it is more of a deterant... people do notice it as it has been mentioned a few times esp by children in the avenue.
I bet if the person doing the thieving knew he was being filmed it would stop pretty quickly...is the camera hidden or advertised..?

You can't do much unless you got the number of the van.  I don't find cctv good enough to see detail.  Collecting scrap metal is big at the moment.  Not a day goes past without hearing someone calling - driving around in vans, lorries.  Someone I know put an old washing machine out for the large rubbish collection.  When the council guy came to pick it up it had already gone.  You can report it to the police and make sure that you back up the image and save it just incase.

Probably stolen because it's metal and can be recycled, we've put old fridge freezers/washing machines outside and they've all gone within 24 hours, one day a guy knocked the door and asked if he could take away the frame to the kids bunk beds that we were throwing out.

Maybe they think if you've left it out, then it's to be disposed of, not that I'm saying it's right to take without checking first though.

I had the scrap man come take away my boys broken scooter yesterday. He did knock on my door and ask first though but i was amazed at the stuff they must take haha

Copy the incident to tape or disk and report it to the police. I'm currently waiting for the police to arrive and collect a DVD of our CCTV footage from the night before last. Neighbours across the road had their wheel trims stolen during the night and they want to see if it can pinpoint when it happened - our cameras pick up when their outside lights are activated, even though it doesn't actually show anything on their property.

It could be that the person and van are known to the police, so worth giving it a go!

we have a guy come around in a flat bed truck and anything metal outside he takes away sometimes he knocks and asks but other times just picks the stuff up and off with it, he gets paid by the tonnage for scrap but i suppose if he actually comes onto your drive it can be classed as theft.

Gosh! you lot are so lucky having a scrap-man! I have a fridge/freezer, washing machine and old gas fire, crying out to be taken away --- send him 'round mine! :-D

anyone remember the 'old days' when this was what a rag+bone man did, everyone now is banging on about 'recycling' but they used to recycle about 60 years ago
ps ours even used to come round with a Horse and Cart :-D
Chris

Oh yes!  I remember - we used to get a goldfish for a big bag of rags - and TWO goldfish if we had an old bucket :D :D :D :D

Actually I don't remember many of the goldfish surviving for more than a couple of weeks :( - but I am talking about 60 years ago !!

> Gosh! you lot are so lucky having a scrap-man! I have a fridge/freezer, washing machine and old gas fire, crying out to be taken away --- send him 'round mine!

But on the down side of that is if the person who takes the scrap doesn't have a licence to carry waste both the scrap man and yourself can be prosecuted. All scrap collectors have to hold a licence now and in some areas the authorities are very hot on stopping and checking vehicles carrying scrap.

> Gosh! you lot are so lucky having a scrap-man! I have a fridge/freezer, washing machine and old gas fire, crying out to be taken away --- send him 'round mine! :-D

Know the feeling killickchick - I had to pay the council to remove mine from my drive.  They also charged me £20 to take two 2 seater settees.

> £20 to take two 2 seater settees

That is bad luck.  We do get free collections - just have to wait a week or two - which some people can't because they have nowhere to store the stuff = so it gets dumped.  I can't imagine how much worse the dumping problem would get if they charged.  Today I found two young men dragging old metal out of the old quarry - it was dumped there by the land owner over the last 30 years.  After struggling for 5 hours or more they said it was worth more than £100 as scrap.  How enterprising of them. 

yes you are lucky, we always have to pay for old fridges or washers to be collected

yes their is something you can do about this,, dont leave things on your drive , this is a common thing in my area at all hours of the day and night now we have a few different men in white vans going round looking out their van windows outside peoples doors looking for anything metal, their alot of money in it no days , we have people round here wheeling shopping tollys up the road full of scrap metal as the yard is near us,, its mad,, if you wanna keep your stuff dont display it,