nid-day Danger of Lorry Thefts
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ETWEEN noon and 2 p.m. is the
period when the lorry driver who :ayes his loaded vehicle unattended in .,ondon is most likely to lose it. tatistical evidence to this effect was iven to members of the Road Haulage lssociation. at a meeting in Manchester in Wednesday by Mr. J. T. Brown. fiairrnan of the Association's vehicles eCurity committee. According to infortation supplied to Mr. Brown by a .ondon Police district, 19 per cent, of 11 vehicles stolen in that district during 1st year were lost within the space of wo hours. Serious losses also take place
the period between midnight and Mr. Brown said that in many cases /here vehicles loaded with valuable terchandise spent a night unattended in .ondon streets this was done by drivers /ithout their employers' knowledge but other instances it was with the owner's onsent.
Aware of the grim toll that thieves had tken from vehicles left in this manner, le vehicles security committee had ssisted in .getting lorry parks made availble but, far from these being overflowg, they had been badly supported and undreds of loaded vehicles were still :ft on the streets.
,Mr. Brown quoted figures obtained -om one small London police district -om which 58 loaded vehicles were
driven away and their loads stolen .last year. Of these: 14 went between 6 a.m. and 12 noon. 11 went between 12 noon and 2 p.m.
7 went between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
8 went between 5 p.m. and midnight. . 17 went between midnight and 6 a.m. I went between 2 p.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. Monday.
Mr. Brown described the London facilities now offered by National Car Parks. Ltd., and recommended that wherever possible operators should reserve space in a park and insist that their drivers hand in their parking tickets when they return from a journey.
However, he said, the security picture as a whole was not so gloomy, as was shown by the latest figures for the London area:--
No. of Value Value Person
CUSeS recovered charged
Jan ./ March.
1961 1.100 £2051100 £25.000 70 1967 1,300 5157.4100 £14.000 90
The fact that despite extra thefts in 1962 their value had decreased by £38,000 suggested that firms carrying the more valuable loads had taken better security precautions.
It was certain, he said, that the most dangerous criminals were the receivers who often ran ostensibly legitimate businesses which offered vehicle thieves a safe dump for stolen goods.