If not for Barratt homes .
As a pennyless tyke I used to jump at the chance of making money even if it wasn't quite legit. Fortunately my gullibility and poor planning managed to prevent me from becoming a career criminal.

I was about 12 years old and my best mate had heard that there was money to be had in car parts. We reasoned that the most expensive cars had to have more expensive parts but lacking any mechanical knowledge we aimed for the most noticeable yet easily removed part we could think of: the insignia. More specifically the Mercedes insignia that used to stick up from the front of the bonnet.

And so started our crime spree, nearly every Mercedes car within a 3 mile radius was hit and we managed to amass about 20 badges. The plan was to sell them to garages who would then resell them to the owners. We knew we couldn't resell them immediately without arousing suspicion and we couldn't risk having them in our houses, so we went with the only other option we could think of, we buried it in a plastic bag, just like the pirates did in the cartoons.

We picked an area of scrubland near the estate and decided we would leave it buried for a month. A week later the whole area was fenced off as building had started on a new housing estate. We never got to dig up our treasure. It was probably for the best though, I imagine that two 12 year olds selling a bag full of Mercedes badges would have been rather suspicious. But I often wonder if our bundle was dug up by a builder or if not, what a future archaelogist would make of it.
(Bo Nidle Coming back in from the cold., Tue 31 Jan 2012, 23:16, Reply)