New neighbour keyed my car

[mattylondon]

A new neighbour moved in next door on the Monday 9th Sept. Wednesday morning, 11th Sept, she keyed our A6 along the passenger and drivers door. We've not even spoken to her or been introduced and she does this!!!

The only events preceding her keying the car was I parked outside her house late Tuesday night. I kept 2 kerb stones passed the shared dropped kerb - so not blocking her in or anything as I've always done and no parking restrictions along the road.

Wednesday when I'm outside looking at the scratch she comes immediately outside and I say I can't park there. I don't react to that and point out the scratch. She denies being outside and suggests another car may have done it.

To cut the story short it's all on our CCTV where she extents her left hand, leans into the car and gives it a good old keying. Dog even reacts to the sound of it. After walking the dog she inspects the damage on her return - again all on CCTV. Not really sane actions by a mid 70 year old lady!

We went on holiday 14th, back yesterday and it's been reported to the police, have a crime number for damage less than £5k and uploaded all evidence to the Police portal. We've not confronted the new neighbour yet and she probably thinks she's got away with it. Meanwhile in our absence she's met all the other neighbours and probably formed nice relations...

I've not been a victim of crime before, so question I have for the forum is the CCTV enough evidence to successfully have this taken to court get the car repaired? Should I be doing anything else? We'd like this to be dealt with fairly hard as where else can this lead to - more aggravation, boundary disputes etc, etc... SHMBO was even thinking of cancelling the holiday in fear of whom has moved in next door.

Would like the forum's wise advice on this, as my mates just say to **** in her letter box
Many thanks.

YouTube CCTV

[The_Laird]

First question is ‘does your insurance cover vandalism’?

My guess is that the insurance company would be more interested than the police, particularly as, IMHO, the CCTV footage doesn’t capture the actual keying.

Unless you know a friendly solicitor, of course, in which case a preliminary letter might do the trick

[ainarssems]

Not sure police will do much other than talk to women but if she denies it, probably will not take further. Cannot see the actual damage happening and cannot see the women's face ice to identify her.

Don't think insurance will do much as well for the sake of £5k, will just down as your claim. Work colleague's Tesla Model Y got damaged in car wash, needed new boot lid costing £6k and insurance company did not go after car wash as their legal costs would likely be more than £6k

[steamship]

Originally Posted by The_Laird

My guess is that the insurance company would be more interested than the police

I tend to agree with Jim's comment to some extent in that you 'might' get more action from the insurance company than the police, although that isn't saying much.

As Jim noted, you don't see the actual keying, but everything about her actions (and the dog) are a very good indication that she did it. She comes out of her drive, and instead of walking on the footpath, she deliberately walks 'around' the car. Her left arm is up as she walks out, and just as she starts walking alongside the car, just past the rear wheel, her left arm extends down, and you can she is holding something. As she gets near the front wheel, she raises her arm again, and then it's back onto the footpath again.

[The_Laird]

There’s another, additional, approach which is to report it as Anti Social Behaviour to your local Borough Council. They may also come and ‘have a word’. If the police also have a chat, then she might be, at least, scared off from any further action.

If I were in your shoes, I’d ask the police to follow up with a chat and ditto the Borough Council (our BC has a dedicated ASB team who installed their own CCTV for a while when we were ‘troubled’). A solicitor will charge around £500 - 1000 for a letter and a good local body shop might be able to do a repair for less.

[sarg]

I know somebody who'll break her legs for £500...

[pete-p]

You could try going through your car insurance, if you have legal cover they might even sort a few things out. Would likely be a small claim court.

I played the video at 0.5x speed and you can see she has a key in her hand and even hear the sound of it scratching along the car. The fact she walked all the way around too seems deliberate rather than using the path, does she know you have CCTV? Odd she'd go that side.

[mattylondon]

Originally Posted by sarg

I know somebody who'll break her legs for £500...

Trouble is we've got to live next to her, so feel have to be seen going though the due process

[mattylondon]

Thanks for the comments on this. My main concern was that the CCTV may not be enough as we don't see the scratch. All other actions may be circumstantial. However, I've heard back from the Police and they are interested and will be paying her a visit. I just want to go tough on her because it's aggressive actions in only 2 days. Would she just key any car parked there or specifically targeted ours? Questions I can't answer.

It would be good if the police do a good initial visit and scare her to settle the damage. I'm not so interested going via insurance as it's an older car and my daily all-rounder. Paint work was good so I am a little pee'd off.

Maybe I'll try to get her mug shot when she opens the door to the police

[tintin]

Originally Posted by mattylondon

Thanks for the comments on this. My main concern was that the CCTV may not be enough as we don't see the scratch. All other actions may be circumstantial. However, I've heard back from the Police and they are interested and will be paying her a visit. I just want to go tough on her because it's aggressive actions in only 2 days. Would she just key any car parked there or specifically targeted ours? Questions I can't answer.

It would be good if the police do a good initial visit and scare her to settle the damage. I'm not so interested going via insurance as it's an older car and my daily all-rounder. Paint work was good so I am a little pee'd off.

Maybe I'll try to get her mug shot when she opens the door to the police

It's encouraging that the cops are taking it seriously, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're also checking to see if she has previous at her prior abode.

And I wouldn't worry too much about her getting your other neighbours on side - they'll see through that if she's trying too hard...