Club Arnage

I'll post a full account later.

The short version is.

Someone saw a pikie stealing from a tent and caught him.
Police Arrived looked in their tent and it was like aladdins cave.
After the police left with the Pikie in the Van.
Somehow their car flipped on toits roof.  Also someone did some garafitti on it too.

I think there will be photos available soon.

t.

Thank goodness the police actually did something.

S-U-C-H a shame about the pikie's car, how very unfortunate for them, just amazing how these terrible things happen ......  ::)

Some tried to take our gazebo's while we were packing up, they got most upset when the lads threw petrol on them (the gazebos that is, not the pikies, more's the pity) and lit 'em up .... mouthed something about us 'better not be coming back next year' ..... hahaha, counting the days already! ;D

Hurrah! A blow for democracy!   ;D ;D ;D

I wonder whether it was the suspicious types that I saw wandering around Bleu Nord on the Saturday afternoon as we were driving out to go to Arnage, and mentioned to the security bods  ???  Two pikie type blokes with pikie wimmin in tow behind with pushchairs containing small kids.  Not the sort you see meandering around the campsites.

MG Mark

Some "yoofs" walked past me around 16:00 on Sunday as I was collapsing my tent and to say the least they looked suspicious.

They definitely looked they were casing the joint.

My car also showed "alarm triggered", really wonder just what was going on.

Landman.

Seen the photos ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Landman- the yoofs and the Pikey's you saw could just be some people from Barnsley. They have passports now. 
 Don't be alarmed, just give them some ciggies and blue pop and they will not cause any bother.
 

share the fun.

Passports AND an uncanny ability to speak French like a native.
 ;D

LM

Right here is the whole scoop.

Having packed away all my stuff and said my farewells I was about to change my shoes and begin the long trek home.  When I realised I needed a final visit to the Portaloo.

At the end of the row a crowd had gathered round a tent where some French were camping there were some Police there too.
The Police where loading stuff in to their van so I asked one of the crowd what was happening and they said they had caught the Pikes stealing.
So I asked  "They did have a genny with a 'Nopanic' sticker on it".

The guy replied "Yes they have it in the van,  Tell that guy he seems to be in charge".

The guy was not in uniform in fact he looked a bit like a Pikie himself.

He showed me the Genny and sure enough it had the 'Nopanic' sticker.
"Yes! That's it" I said pointing at the Sticker.

He said you have to come to the Police station to collect it.

A couple offered me a place in their car as they were going to be following the Van to recover their stuff too.   So I rushed back to the car grabbed my phone and asked 'Lorry' if he could get the Genny back to the UK. One of his group could get in his caravan. (CA comes though again!).

 Nick from our group came back with me to help carry if need be.

We jumped in to the car with the couple that offered the lift and we were off.  Following the Van with Blues and Twos, Down the wrong side of the road,  Though red lights and so on, On the way I called JPC & Doris to see if they had number for Neil.  One of them got though to Wishey
and he relayed the message to Neil who by this time was in Aloncon.  But would return to collect his genny.

Tom and Jo the couple giving us a lift called their friends back at the site. Who reported back that the car belonging to the Pikies was now on it's roof.

At the Station I was the first to walk in the duty office didn't speak English but we managed to made him understand that we were there to collect stolen goods that had just been brought in along with the Pikies. 

He had just started to give us the forms to fill out when three more people walked in. So he handed them the paper and as he did so another bunch walked in and the poor guys face was a picture.  I think didn't like the look of all the paperwork this was going to generate.

Having completed the form and Identifying the Genny again.  We were asked to wait 20 minutes.

Chatting to one guy and his wife.   They hadn't lost anything but had caught them in the act.  So held him while someone went off to get a the Police.

I made a formal statement and was then told I could take the Genny away.

Tom and Jo needed to get back to the campsite so I left Nick with the genny and went back to BN to pick up my car and so I could collect Nick if Neil could not give him a lift.

On the way back to Blue Nord we saw the Pikie car on a Flatbed.  It did look bit of a mess.


So that is my first hand account of what happened.

I understand that the Police took away the Pikie car.  The general consensus seemed to be the Police were worried that having flipped on to it's roof for no apparent reason they feared it might spontaneously combust.   I just hope it was not stolen like I guess the rest of the stuff they had.

I believe that someone attacked the car with a spade.

I'm waiting for a few photos of the Pikie car.

t

I think Chris 24 has the photos.  I'll have some in a day or two once I get them from the camera owner.

t.

Chris has an excellent photo of the car with a rude word painted on the top. ;D ;D

This sounds like a blow for the good guys as unfortunately we were victim to a rather nasty attack by the pikies. Having left the site on Sunday night at about 5 to go for a quick dinner in Arnage (we had left nothing of significant value, a couple of chairs, some cooking utensils, a trangia, a table - all of which had been placed in our tent -luckily all our valuables were either locked in the boot of the car which was with us or on our person), when we left our pitch was well surrounded by neighbours - none of whom looked like they were leaving anytime soon. When we returned we found they destroyed our gazebos, stolen our chairs, table, trangia, bottled water, coca cola, utensils, Carrefour BBQ and a few other items but had left the few items worth nicking (a nice penknife, electric shaver). They had rummaged through our clothes bags.

Now here is what annoyed me - the way the campsites are going on a Sunday night with the security completely abandoning the site even though the site is advertised as being open till Monday a few thefts is almost inevitable - when we retuned our immediate neighbours had packed up but the site was still pretty busy. When I asked several pitches who had a clear view of the wrecked gazebos I was met with the we didn't see anything and a shrug of the shoulders, but there were a few guilty looks exchanged when I questioned them if they had seen anything. The gazebos were trashed it was not a silent attack. I finally found out what had happened when our German neighbour who was an old man on his own whose tent was pitched directly behind ours explained that he saw 3 french speaking teenagers of African descent was his phrase when he approached them to question them they got aggressive so he backed off. I don't blame him, he was 60+ and on his own. Who I do blame was the massive group of British lads who were within 50 yds of it and must of noticed and didn't intervene - however they were to busy digging up the field doing donuts, starting toxic fires, and throwing fireworks into said fire and hence shattering another groups tail light.

We had two girls with us - one of whom it was her first time and she is was pretty shaken up by the whole thing so I ended up taking the decision to cut our losses and clear off. We ended up checking into the Le Mans Nord Formule 1.

It was a sad end to a great weekend. I plan to send a strongly worded letter to the ACO regarding the campsite security as someone is going to get hurt or arrested by accident. Later I caught two kids rummaging through next doors rubbish after they had left - and I gave them some pretty harsh tongue lashing in proper angry Glaswegian. Turns out they were Danish kids from nearby who were just getting the water pistols they had left - it could of been a nasty incident if I had really lost my rag with them. It would then be me who would be speaking to the police.

Oh blimey... am I going to have to put all this into my campsite report for Bleu Nord?!!

Which site were you on Jay?

F

P.S.  Yet again, I had nothing stolen... whats wrong with my gear that even the pikies dont want it!  :-\

We were out on BSJ. It was excellent and the toilet and shower facilities were kept spotlessly clean - much better than 2007. The cleaners stayed long after security left.

Any success with the ***** keying cars on Houx Annexe?

Seen a Merc CLS, Porsche 996 and Alfa 147 keyed big time. The last two belonging to "Team Zarse"(?)
Another group of germans we spoke to has seen 10 keyed cars :o

Jesus, what's the sense of it? Not to justify it, but they didn't go for a special brand or a single group whose music/genny was too loud? Just randomly keyed expensive cars

too many tossers.......

we talk of the good times and open up how good it is, and the tossers then have to follow.

From what we can gather it was just a random keying, although it seems a coincidence that all of the cars were british, and the line of cars stopped when the next nationality of car came along, then started again with the Cobra on the corner.....

The alfa is Doris's, the Porker is Paul Zarse's - the guy with the Merc wasn't with us, but the message on his windscreen made both the thoughts of everyone on our camp, and his, abudantly clear.....

    "to the **** who keyed 10 cars last night, we hope you f****** die"

If the aim was to dampen spirits though, it didn't work....we were partying long into the night, every night...we saw some cars too.....

Good to hear it didn't ruin your Le Mans, but it must be a pain in the ...
Nobody seen it? Just a shame something like that happens, who cares about a nicked genny if you have a 1500€ paintjob to come...

Also from what I've seen the cars on the other side of the road were fine, as well as those of the "Beer Disposal Team" stationed at the junction - though they have one window smashed, because one of them left the keys in the car...

We were the silver Alfa Romeo 147 with the huge flagpole (Germany and Porsche Flag) some 50m further down the road towards the Beer Disposal Team. Sadly didn't see anything, may be we went to bed a little too early at 1:30. Two days of Kronenbourg and you are not used to good German Beer any more. Spend the friday after the parade on Houx with German journalists

OK, here you go, enjoy !  This is how to deal with thieving Pikey scum. Glad Neil got his gennie back !

And a few more  ;D

I was on BN, and saw the pikie motor leaving on the low loader. Heard the rumorus going around the site about pikies getting arrested.

We had some itmes stolen too........our kettle........a bottle of wine.....in a plastic bottle and 3 cartons of cooking wine. (the cheap wine was meant to be consumed as part of a dare).

Strange these items were taken, becasue at the time (02.30 - 05.30) there was a lot of other stuff left out.

We suspected it was kids having some fun.

I was late in going to the circuit on Saturday afternoon (15:30 ish) and also saw what looked like non campers visually taking interest in campsites, but no actual theft or attempted theft. The Security on site had left by 14:00 as I was trying to find them to see if they had my lost camera.
I also saw the pics of the pikies car on Sunday evening which Chris had , however I didn't remember that at all until reading this thread!

We were actually camped very close to the toilets/1st for tickets block, so as there was always quite a few people in the area.

PS
don't assume that just because someone checks the rubish piles they are a Pikey , I found a polystyrene box with dry ice in it on Sunday night and that cooled our remaining beers down very nicely!

We were situated just between camp Zarse and the guy with the keyed Merc, only thing that saved our cars from keying was the fact that we decided to put our cars within the perimeter of our camp, rather than park them on the road.

Good to see it didn't ruin your fun this year and from what I understood when having a beer with our neighbour with the Merc, he didn't let it spoil his trip either.

Bad thing about being on the centre road of HA-sud this year was that there was so much (drunk) passers-by to and from the tramway and the new entrance. It sadly only takes 1 idiot to do this much damage.

Pikies roaming around and taking stuff only started near our plot on Monday morning.
It was good fun to see a dozen of them circling our camp like vultures when the last few items left were 2 brand new fridges, only to see them leave very disappointed and mad when our local storage contact turned-up to collect the stuff.  ;D

No,  One has to wonder if the car was their car.  One of our guys salvaged some tent poles to make a trampoline cover when he gets back to Blighty.  I've no objection to anyone salvaging stuff.   It the outright stealing that I hate.   Most of the stuff I saw at the cop shop was just Chairs, Gaz lights and other low value stuff that I simply can see as worth the effort of nicking.  Though one of he guy at the station did recover a wallet and it's cash.

t.


 

There appeared to be a bike in the back, was this his to go and do the recce's around the site?
Probbably nicked as well, Nice sign writing, I hope they get the message.

Thank God we were away from the British criminal justice system and found someone to produce some proper punishment - well done to whoever.

Buddha

Back on the subject... I had an engine sensor come on but after talking to other Audi owners was assured it happens all the time, did another 250 miles and got my friendly garage to plug in his doodad. Just a problem with a fuel surge or something... no charge.

The real disaster was I lent a hat to someone and forgot to ask for it back, only a tatty old floppy hat, but sentimental... oh well.

Shame the pikeys didn't pinch the speakers from the Jersey lot on HA. >:(

>Martini...

As you'll see LPP makes a very good Pikey...  He looked very similar to a few of the stunning lady Pikeys as he rummaged through the bins!

Just logged on.  Strangely we had nothing nicked (for a change) and the "valuable" car was under a cover when it wasn't being worked on.  We just locked everything up.  I can confirm the spade.  About 3 people had grabbed things and were very enthusiastically beating the sh!te out of the poor Renault - probably nicked too.

By the time we left (11am) there were more Pikies on the site than campers.  Some were clearly scap metal dealers, and another started taking down this gazebo not realising that the other side was on fire

I take it that you are not keen of Techno then Martin ;D

Was that the bunch of morons playing their "music" from 2 am till 6 am thursday?

I wasn't to chuffed with our Danish mate and his "musical" or decibel-competition with the neighbours.

You might have noticed that the speakers didn't come out of the van after Wednesday, I personally love the music of Ferrari, Aston Martin or Corvette and no Pink Floyd or boink-boink concert can even get close to it when I am in Le Mans.

Then please stay away from MB as well.

Only saterday the music stops for 24 hrs.

Thanks for the "friendly" advice Max but I guess our lot know about MB all too well as we've been there for the past decade or so.
Decibel competitions and starting-up your stereo in the middle of the night just to piss off the neighbours are a big no-no, on whichever campsite you are.

A couple of pikeys on HA were lucky. I could have got them with 1/2 a barbecue. ;D

too right.

its usually some european techno shite .

wasnt there this year but love a good bun fight.

Was that the bunch of morons playing their "music" from 2 am till 6 am thursday?
[/quote]

Did not see these guys move from their camp all they seemed to do was play music have a large fire and throw beer bottles ..........very odd, they could have stayed at home and done that!
As for pikeys one of our guys was woken up in the early hours of sat morning mooching around team spanner camp on h/a and our cars were parked on the road within a stones throw of where the cars were keyed up but were not touched, it just seems very random????????/

Some pikies tried to remove our barbie on Monday morning ................. shame it was still hot  ;D

Martini - Did you lend it to one of our guys on Saturday?

No music after 4 at our campsite.

B.T.W we use plastic cups and no glas bottles and on thursday visited HAN

Believe the music on thursday came from the inside, Danisch campment.


.

I actually enjoy Techno, from 150ft away this was more like drum & base, and still very, very audible even with ear plugs in (4.45am)

>Martini...

Not there this year, but the 'music' playing has been a constant problem.

Some years are worse than others clearly, but I really can't see the point in driving 300 odd miles, camping in a dusty field only to try and be as anti social as possible.

Last year someone awoke to see a hand feeling around in his tent, grabbed it and raised the alarm. Three pikeys were caught and when the police arrived they were not looking their Sunday best. The police enquired why and on being told they had "fallen over while being chased" smiled and carted them off. Another blow for the good guys!

Can't wait to see the pics though. If anyone can email me a high density one I'll write it up in my articles for Australia, south africa and the UK magazines. I'd just love to!

Is there any way of finding out what 'goods' the pikies had lifted and which police station they are at?
We lost some pretty petty bits & pieces with some sentimental value to them but our Dorset neighbours lost 2 mountain bikes.

I assume Lawnmower Tom knows which station it was.  I will try to find out what the procedures are though.

The main police station at Le Mans - the one at the top of Rue Coeffort 72000 Le Mans D72

Some who has seen the picture of the car has pointed out the Renault with the slight damage is from the local area,  as shown on the number plate 72.

Sounds like local village idiots!

I expect the car was nicked too.

I'm investigating what to do next, but in the meantime, I suggest that anybody who's missing stuff makes a list of the things, with descriptions and photos should you have them and forward it to me via pm.  Then I'll call the police station and see what gives.

EDIT:  I have found their e-mail address: ddsp.72@interieur.gouv.fr

I will drop them a line later to find out what to do.

Our site got hit when we were out watching the end of the race - our fault for not packing everything up, I suppose, but one of our number who was making a break for the ferry chased a few pikeys away about ten to three... they had started to dismantle the gazebos and did nick one of the coolboxes and a bunch of kitchen stuff (knives, chopping board, that kind of thing... easily replaced but a pain to do so).

Later, we took great delight in standing by watching a well organised group of French packing away the party tent that the T.W.A.T.S. had vacated and left onsite. Somehow, it slipped all of our minds to point out to Monsieur P. Ikey & co that the T.W.A.T.S. had been using one corner of the tent as a latrine for the whole weekend (and I don't mean "nearby", we're talking "rivers down the side")  :laugh:

Someone took a picture - I'm sure it'll surface at some point...

We were there for all of the BN event.  First guy was subdued by a couple of Brits - another Brit camper rode up to the track to get the police who showed up.  By that time, the whole gig had unfolded, amazingly no one had been chinned.

The guys in question (6 of them) were camping in the trees near the road.  They'd arrived with a tent and gradually knicked stuff over the whole event (table, chairs, booze, generator, pushbike, an axe etc. etc. (who brings an axe to Le Mans?).  Their little orange tent had stuff like folks' bags, etc, in it, the car had car stereos, cameras etc.

The whole scene was like an interactive crime scene as you could basically stroll around it and interact with the cops, victims or perps.  We ended up doing a little translating for the cops and English campers to explain the basic premise.  Then I looked in their other filthy tent and discovered another dude asleep, covered up.  He was subsequently hauled out by the feet.

Eventually, they pulled out some of their less legal posessions (a mighty red bong) and it went on from there. They all looked like junkies - one was a right arrogant bastard and gave the cops a fair bit of crap.

It went on endlessly with lots of people standing around and the cops appearing alarmingly disorganized and semi-interested.  Finally they decided to cart the dudes off - only to realize they didn't have enough handcuffs.  They tried a pair and they failed so had to be cut off the perp with bolt cutters.  Then an enterprising camper came-up with long zip ties and they were carted off.  As they closed the police van door, one of the coppers bowed to the crowed which got a cheer.

We reclaimed one of or camp chairs they'd knicked and went back to drinking from a distance.  Then the thoughtful campers set about "their" car and scooter.  They did what Chris24 captured above - and then the cops came back to inform everyone that it was a stolen car.  Nice foresight from the campers there.  Not that that was obvious then?

All in all a good catch - and tremendous restraint shown by the immediate surrounding campers and initial 2 dudes involved in the first apprehension.  It could have all gone horribly wrong.

The thieves were kids - literally.  It doesn't make them any less scum - but they were clearly junkies and idiots to boot.  Steal stuff and then keep it at your campsite.  In addition to that, they were stealing stuff from literally across the pitch from them.

We all think that the villains are sneaking around and using opportunity before disappearing into the night - not camped right next to you!!!

We've got photos of the entire event.  They'll probably show-up on Dunlopbridge.com in coming weeks.

Ahh, so it was probably this lot that made off with our kettle and cheap wine. So cheap it came in a plastic bottle. And the cartons of cooking wine one of our lot had bought to have in his packed lunch.

Being junkies I doubt they noticed how shite the wine was. But the kettle was a good un, I hope they appreciated it.

They were ladies?????[



quote author=Queen Vic of the Melans link=topic=8834.msg118739#msg118739 date=1213719569]

As you'll see LPP makes a very good Pikey...  He looked very similar to a few of the stunning lady Pikeys as he rummaged through the bins!
[/quote]

I think you maybe used to UK standards which is widely regrderd as the best Policing Service in the world. The UK bobby is far more skilled to deal witha wider range of tasks than many others.

And I have no doubt that the French police have ten times the number of forms to fill in....

10 times more than the UK bobby..... They wouldnt ever get out the door. Let alone start the car up.

Well it looks like they are taking the theft seriously.
I have just received a request to give evidence in court on the 5 July.  At least I think that is what it is.
I need to get a translation.

t.

Just scan it and e-mail it to me, L/M.

I trust they'll meet your expenses Tom?? In which case Ia ssume you would need to be there for the whole week and they will therefore pay for your trip to The Classic??  ;)

Witnesses are entitled to expenses - Loss of earnings, travel expenses and a daily living allowance if the witness needs to travel far, as in this case.

Tom

I'm glad it was your generator  ;D

Let us know if you need anything, as I still have the paperwork.

Done,

Received.  A quick glance says to me that all he is asking for is a breakdown of what was stolen and the value, so that a claim can be made from the offenders. Or you can appear if you wish, and bring a solicitor.  But I will do it word for word later to make sure!

Quite happy to translate for anyone if they wish to take some of the weight off Termie. PM me if you need help.

Already done, but thanks anyway Lynx.

It seems I don't need to attend.  To be honest I can't really afford the time due to forthcoming events.  I can just write to them.

t.