The (not Bollands) Burglar
By Richard Goddard
Regrettably, this article is not about the Bolland Burglar working model, I only wish it
was. I last contributed an article to MMM last autumn; a jovial look at the machines at
Southport Pier, little did I realise then that my next contribution would be anything but
jovial and would relate to my machines being stolen.
I read with interest Richard Brewerton's letter in the June edition of MMM
regarding the stolen machines. The burglary was very upsetting and distressing not only
to me but also for my wife Sally, because quite a few other personal items were stolen as
well. I was going to use the word devastating but on reflection that is too harsh a word,
the Asian Tsunami was devastating, we all know that countless individuals were killed,
it ruined people's lives and deprived many of their livelihood; my loss is totally
insignificant compared to this.
But then we all exist in our own individual worlds and are often oblivious to
circumstances other than those that directly affect us. Some widen their 'life experiences'
by actively doing charity work or becoming involved within organisations but in the
main we are becoming generally solitary creatures, compared to a generation ago.
Many of Richard Brewerton's comments were spot on. The police have indeed
phoned me to say that the case has now been ' filed ' and that means no further action or
investigation but they were in fact more thorough than I had expected. They did conduct
house-to-house enquiries and did keep us informed of developments, we also received
calls from the community support officer and crime reduction officer - note that the title
of Crime Prevention is no longer used!
The burglary has given us a further understanding to the phrase Victims of Crime.
A burglary was something that we considered could happen but never thought it actually
would. To come home from a very pleasant evening to find that your home, your own
very personal private spaces have been violated by someone is indescribable. It left a
very deep sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and I consider the act of a burglar going
from room to room and riffling through your own personal possessions as
'psychological rape' .
I have been asking myself many questions since that night and the biggest
question is 'do I wish to continue collecting machines'? Over the past couple of months
I find this the most difficult question to answer. I do not wish to collect anything if I
can't share the pleasure with other people and this is where my point about being
rather 'solitary' comes from. We keep ourselves to ourselves not because people are
intrinsically lonely, private or withdrawn; but for self-preservation purposes and that is
a sad indictment of today's society.
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