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Golden Voices - 14 March 2008

Josie Loftus
14/ 3/2008

WHENEVER you read or hear about people being robbed and conned by bogus callers, are you like me and wonder why these victims fall hook line and sinker and let these con men and women into their homes and then can’t believe how or why it’s happened to them?

And if like me you believe it could never happen to you because ‘I wouldn’t fall for it’. Well I very nearly did and I am still shocked by the way in which I was so unsuspecting of the person and the situation that very nearly had me becoming one of the many bogus caller victims.

It was only the fact that I can’t stand being disturbed by door-to-door callers of any kind; that saved me from whatever crime the ‘gentleman’ who had knocked on my door, had in mind.

I really hate being bothered by ‘knockers’ who no matter what they’re going on about feel that they have a right to stand there and expect me to listen to what uninvited information they must tell me.

I am so annoyed by them that I am my rudest and indeed most abusive with them regardless of how respectable they try to appear to be. As far as I am concerned they are not only intruding on my time but also on my property and I feel I have a right to make them unwelcome and know it.

So, one late afternoon last week a respectable looking white man dressed in dark suit, white collar and tie, aged about middle thirty to forty; walked past my window as if on some official mission and knocked on my door.

As always I immediately resolved that whoever he was I was not going to let him disturb my day and where normally I would not have answered the door, for some reason I did and for some uncanny reason I had the security chain on which was something I never, ever normally do. I opened the door as far as the security chain would let me and glared at him.

Smiling and with confidence he said he was from Northward Housing and as I could see they were in the area (vans and cars) and he showed me his badge which looked very genuine. He said he just needed to check out a few things with regard to certain safety procedures and appliances. I had no intention whatsoever of letting him in even if there were safety checks needed of any kind. I just didn’t want disturbing and I told him to make an appointment and I shut the door.

I fully expected Northward Housing to either contact me by ‘phone or by letter which they never did and like most things the incident went right out of my mind … until … last Thursday evening at our local New Moston Homewatch meeting.

A police officer (from Chadderton) was talking about the clever way bogus callers gain access into people’s homes.

It was only when she said that it was policy that all service providers, official visitors and all other organisations who need to visit your home must first inform you by letter that they will be calling at your home on official business. I realised with horror that I’d had no such letter as to the visit of that ‘nice gentleman’ at my door.

The next day I contacted Northward Housing and told them the story and asked them to check out as to whether any of their representatives had in fact called at my home.

I have to say that Northward Housing regarded my concern very seriously and did indeed check everything out and got back to me to confirm that there had not been any person from their organisation instructed by them to randomly check out any safety aspects of any houses in the area.

I am still shocked and shaken by how easily I might have fallen for this bogus callers scam. More so because the crime would have happened in the afternoon, in broad daylight and whilst there were a lot of workmen around and whilst there were people walking up and down the road going to and from schools and shops.

The only things that saved me from being another victim of these vile, verminous, rat-like weasels was the security door chain which is now on permanently and that thankfully I’m an awkward begger.

Please, please, please, if you haven’t got a security chain on your door, get one fitted now by someone within your family or circle of friends who are able to do it for you.

I have been trying for the past four and a half hours to obtain a ‘phone number for you to ring in order for you to be able to obtain a security check and a door chain fitted.

Unfortunately this has been impossible because every organisation I have contacted from: Help the Aged, British Gas, Harpurhey Police, Grey Mare Lane, Age Concern, Manchester Council, Homewatch, and every other body of contacts who purport to be concerned about the safety aspects of older people have been absolutely useless, which now prompts me to say to you all … please do not open your door if you are not expecting anyone to call upon you.

It is ok to feel impolite by ignoring the knocking or ringing at your door. If you haven’t had a letter telling you that you are to receive a visit by an organisation on a particular day at a particular time, then please, please, please, do not open your door.

If someone like me, who thinks they know it all and it can’t happen to them, can be taken in by the slimy rats who know how to worm their way into robbing and defiling us of our lives and belongings, then it can happen to you, so beware ... please. If in doubt ring 999.

AND talking about the last ‘Homewatch’ meeting, Tom Berry Junior, who is the chairman, read out a list of the businesses on Hollinwood Avenue that have been burgled and robbed during the last four weeks.

To say that, I was shocked and astounded by the fact that every shop on the avenue had experienced an incident of some sort of violence and robbery during the past few weeks, is an understatement by any means of the word - intolerable.

It is now unacceptable in that we people and residents who use the area as residents and shoppers are in fact unintentionally accepting that everyday violence and robbery are part and parcel of living within the ‘Avenue Triangle’.

Facts, figures, statistics, list and incidents are lost and ‘filed’ away because the ‘Hollinwood Triangle’ has been a dis-jointed zone that criminals and perpetrators are using to commit their crimes knowing that ‘ne’er the twain shall meet’. But, no more. The buck stops here and now. There is a definite need for an action group which incorporates not only the businesses on Hollinwood Avenue. but also the residents who live around the area. I am really concerned about this matter and I hope you are too. Watch this space.

Last week’s Golden Voices about how certain smells, etc, can evoke powerful memories quicker than a ‘bolt of lightning striking a tree’ prompted so many of you to email me with those particular sensory triggers that transport you right back to the time and place as though you are actually there again.

It does only last a few seconds but it really is as though the clothes you were wearing, the hairstyle (if any), the people who were around you at the moment in time, the weather, the noises, the colours and even the actual words someone said or you said or even the tears that come again at the memory of them, is like a time capsule that burst open with such precision that is impossible to describe in any other way than to say it is all so very uniquely special and priceless.

Mary who was born and brought up in the railway ‘dwellings’ over the ‘orange bridge’ off Collyhurst Road remembers so well not only the smell of the River Irk but the sound of it as it changed with the seasons and the moods whenever some child or older person had drowned in its dark polluted waters.

And, ‘Barney’s’ that span of country that we Mancuniun urchins would explore to our hearts content not only during those post war long summer after school noons but also during those deep cold ice frozen Saturdays when the ‘puffer trains’ would cloud us with white steam as they chuffed their way under Reather Street Bridge.