sad but true
i have a good friend from university called freddie. when he and his two sisters were younger, their parents invested in 3 flats on the 2nd floor of a nice development in the not-nice area of bow, east london.

fast forward 10 years to 2006 and the area has improved massively. freddie is in the army, so he lets his flat, but his older sister is living in hers as it's now quite a nice place to be. she is a painter, indeed many of you will have walked past her as she paints portraits in leicester square sometimes. cassie is a lovely girl, but she is quite impractical.

she was working at home one sunny morning when two guys came round to read the meters. she didn't think twice, just let them in. but walking back to the lounge and her painting whilst they fiddled around in the kitchen, she remembered her manners. she turned back to the kitchen to offer them a cup of tea - and heard them arguing over how to kill her once they had robbed her blind.

she said it was like something out of a bad dream. she couldn't help but give a tiny scream of fear, and they heard her. they crashed through the kitchen door as she ran back into the lounge and then out onto the tiny balcony. there was nowhere else to go. these two huge men were blocking the only door and one of them was coming at her with a rope very quickly indeed.

cassie didn't stop to think any further - she jumped clean off the balcony into the quad.

if she'd been on the first floor, she might have been ok. if she'd been on the third floor, she'd have been dead. the second floor jump has left her paralysed from the waist downwards and with severe short term memory loss. her husband was amazing at first, but he couldn't cope and he left her. all this at the age of only 28 because two men couldn't face getting a job and working for their own money.

sorry this is a bit depressing, but it's 100% true, and the truth often is depressing!

the other sister had happier but similarly dramatic story in the same block. i'll tell that one later...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 10:44, 10 replies)

Bastards!
Were they ever caught?
( girlinthehole, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 10:54, closed)

nope
her account of it was naturally very garbled, and i think all the police really got was that they were white with eastern european accents.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 11:01, closed)

Shit...
that's grim.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Fri 15 Feb 2008, 11:23, closed)

Bloody hell
when there are phrases like 'these things are sent to try us' you wonder just how tried the people were. Probably never this much.
( Matazone has new icons, but is keeping this one, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 12:07, closed)

What a couple of worthless excuses for human beings
It's one of those horrible crimes where there's no rhyme, no reason, and no justice to be had. Very sad.
( the_other_jeff_lebowski Croutons on my tits, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 12:26, closed)

Things like this
make me a firm believer in the "eye for an eye" policy...

If only they'd caught them eh!

*sympathy click*
(Nuclear Ninja like a radioactive Chuck Norris..., Fri 15 Feb 2008, 13:51, closed)

Cnuts
I sleep with a razor sharp hunting knife next to my bed and I like to think what would happen if some pikey bastard broke in. He'd be butchered into steaks in five minutes and I'd make his hide into slippers to send to his mother.

Or I'd shit my pants and jump out the window. One of those two.

I do wonder, re the story, why a couple of supposed eastern Europeans would be speaking English to each other.
(frankspencer, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 14:02, closed)

similar story...
We had a family friend who'se East London flat (not sure where) was the target of an arson attack. Both he and his gf jumped from a 2nd floor window to avoid the flames. He landed with relatively minor injuries but his girlfriend landed on her back and died of her injuries.

He coincidentally stepped out of a friend's car about 6 months later and was hit by a passing van and its taken him years to get anywhere near back to his normal self mentally...
(dangleberries, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 15:10, closed)

Well..
There really are some cunts out there, eh?
(Psycorp603, Fri 15 Feb 2008, 15:21, closed)

good point
and one i never thought to question freddie on - i guess either (i) they weren't from the same eastern european country or (ii) her memory was a bit fucked up by it or (iii) they just wanted to practice their english...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Sat 16 Feb 2008, 11:38, closed)