Mechanical Memories Magazine

No More Clowning Around
By Richard Goddard
Some of you may remember that in the May 2009 issue ofMMM Jerry kindly printed
an article about a burglary that occurred at our house, whereby a number of
possessions were stolen, including my machines. I subsequently followed this up with
an article in the September 2009 issue entitled 'The (not Bollands) Burglar'. Well I am
pleased to say that after three years, I am now fully re-united with one of those stolen
machines: my Pessers Moody Wraith and Gurr Ltd Clown Catcher. I will elaborate on
the word fully later but first, as they say .. .. ... .. . the story so far.
Following the burglary in 2009 the police kept my wife Sally and I informed of
all developments, of which unsurprisingly, there were very little and after five months
they subsequently 'filed' the case, which presumably went on to form another
numerical statistic. The insurance company were quite helpful as were the loss
adjusters and we finally received a cheque a few months later for the loss of all the
items that were stolen from our home. It was in some ways a bitter-sweet moment; we
were now able to replace the stolen personal items but I knew that I could not just as
easily purchase replacement slot machines.
I mentioned in the previous article that insurance companies insist that ownership
must be proved for any stolen item to be claimed for. If it were not for the fact that I
comprehensively photographed and recorded my machines and was therefore able to
substantiate ownership beyond any doubt, I would not be writing this now because the
information and photos also proved to be very useful again.
At the back end of2011 I was browsing the Internet and saw a Clown Catcher for
sale in a shop in Warwickshire. I thought, "nice machine, reminds me ofmy old stolen
one." I looked a bit closer at the photos and to my amazement and racing heart beat,
discovered it was indeed my stolen machine! I had kept a file on the burglary and
therefore had a direct dial telephone number for the police who originally dealt with
the case. With a mixture of elation, anticipation and apprehension I phoned the
number and spoke with a police officer who actually remembered the burglary, owing
to the machines being very unusual items (to him).
And then came the crunch question from the police, could I prove that this
machine was in fact the one that was stolen? We discussed the numerous features of
the machine and when I told him that I had photos and recorded certain numbers and
details he was flabbergasted saying "Blimey we don't usually get that level of
information." I immediately emailed my record photos of the machine to him and
spoke again on the phone whereby he confirmed that in his opinion it was the same
machine.
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