I chased a burglar, but not a soul tried to help me
IT IS undoubtedly true that the police discourage citizens from taking the law into their own hands. But when they only record burglaries, rather than investigate in order to catch culprits, what are you supposed to do? Last year, I discovered a burglar in my house. He ran out with his swag bag and I gave chase while my wife rang 999. Shouting ‘Stop thief!’ in the street, I was hoping for help, but no one obliged. Frankly, I was ready to turn and run if he had pulled a knife when I caught up with him. I’m fit enough, but short, thin and 67, while he was tall and young. But when I confronted him, he handed me the cash he had stolen from our bedroom. Since I wasn’t brave enough to physically restrain him, my citizen’s arrest did not work — he fled before the police arrived. My son thought these events newsworthy and phoned the local newspaper. They told him that police policy is to not encourage such selfhelp, so they would not run the story. More have-a-go heroes challenging criminals might be inconvenient for the police since it would highlight the madness of their priorities, but it might help to deter crime. We need to remember who are the victims and who are the villains. Three cheers for Richard Osborn-Brooks, who bravely confronted a burglar in his own home, and to Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn for expressing the common sense view of the vast majority on this issue in such a refreshingly forthright manner. Certainly, Mr Osborn-Brooks is a hero, but he is also a victim three times over: he was burgled, arrested and, though no further action will be taken after the death of one of the burglars, he and his wife are unable to return to their home because of threats.
JOHN LAWRANCE, Enfield, Middlesex. Commissioner to consider a mixed choir.
We needed at least 20 women but only eight attended the first meeting, with three the following week.
But over the years numbers dwindled so much we were in danger of folding. We advertised for new members, male
and female, and today we have a mixed choir of 60. We have renamed ourselves the Metropolitan Police Choir and sing in uniform.
Our music has changed to incorporate mixed voices, but we also sing separate male voice and female numbers in our concerts.
Name and address supplied.
Gain without pain
THE Mail’s campaign to raise awareness of prostate cancer is commendable but I question the use of phrases such as ‘a painful internal investigation’ and ‘a painful biopsy’.
I was diagnosed 14 years ago and can assure you that a biopsy is not painful. Uncomfortable, yes, and embarrassing, but mine was carried out by a wonderful surgeon. It feels like being pinged inside with an elastic band. DAVID SANSOM, Cambridge.
Passion for pop
LIKE Craig Brown, my interest in pop music peaked as a youngster (Mail).
When I was ten in 1961, my parents bought their first record player, which they brought home on a motorbike with my mother as pillion.
We had only four singles: Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean, Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Elvis Presley, You’ll Answer To Me by Cleo Laine and Helen Shapiro’s Walkin’ Back To Happiness, all of which I still own.
Two years later, along came The Beatles and changed the face of music. CLIVE WALLIS, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
Litter shame
I OFTEN drive on motorways where the amount of rubbish thrown from vehicles is a disgrace (Letters).
If local councils haven’t the resources to clear it up, why can’t people on community service do so? I take a bin liner when I go for a walk and pick up sweet wrappers, paper and bottles in fields, alongside roads and on paths.
TILLY BROWN, address supplied.