cold cruel britain
 

one of my employees was driving around in one of our minibuses recently

a chap approaches him, aged 18. sober, clean, speaking clearly etc
the story went, he had come to the town (outside cardiff) to stay with his mate for the night, but his mate had been robbed and his flat and windows smashed

so the cops took evidence and both guys had to leave the flat. but this chap lived 30 miles away and didnt have a penny to his name as he had planned to stay in this flat the night and work out how to get home the next day

so he has no money and no mobile, the police offered him nothing, no room, no lift to the samaritans, no lift to any hostel, he wasnt even allowed to sit out of the rain in their police waiting room. he tried 3 times to ask them for help, he rang the 101 minor emergency line, the lady didnt care, told him he was old enough to survive. he rang his mother on the drivers mobile, she didnt care and he hadnt seen his father in years.

so there he is 18 years old, standing in a tshirt in the pouring rain, no money, no food, no shelter no phone and no help. he tried the 24 hour taxi office. they wouldnt allow him inside.

my driver rang me to ask for advice, so I rang a friend at a hotel reception and agreed to give him a spare single room. i told my driver to give him £5 too and told him to ask the boy to ring us the next day. our driver then took him to this hotel 3 miles out of town.

if we hadnt done anything, the kid could have had hyperthermia, could have been beaten , robbed, who knows what?

so much for caring compassionate britain, when did we become so cold, so selfish so mean spirited. cant people imagine what theyd feel like stranded aged 18, skint, freezing, hungry , thirsty , 30 miles from home in the middle of the night, he wasnt even a trouble maker or a violent drunk, just a decent young fella who needed a little helping hand

I do wonder what exactly the police are for? they drive round in circles all night, usually refusing to help people. they shut their doors after 8pm at night, their call centre is unhelpful too. havent they a moral duty to help a person whose flat has been destroyed? cant they help these people get a roof? I also wonder what would have happened if it was an 18 year old girl stranded? no doubt thered have been a queue of coppers ready to be the white knight in shining armour to save the damsel in distress. bunch of hypocries.

considering we pay billions for them. can you actually name a few good examples of when cops have in fact helped you out?

How did he get to Cardiff with no money :suspect:

im not sure tbh, he had a mother in the north of england who wasnt interested, a brother 30 miles away, a long lost father. perhaps he had a train down, i guess thats possible and couldnt get the retun till some time the following day. i spoke to him and he seemed a decent straight forward well spoken chap. hed been walking the streets in the rain for hours.

must be more to this story?
where was his money?
where was his mate?
why did he not stay with maybe one of his mates friend?,
the police are only there as a deterent
there are still good people out there im one of them! the problem is bad people prey on the goodness of others!

Your employee was driving around, picked up an 18yr old and took him to a hotel?
They are the facts, like sherriff says the rest of the story seems a little vague.

so the cops took evidence and both guys had to leave the flat.

Bit weird that, the police normally make sure they have somewere to go if they are going to ask them to leave and where did the guys mate go, did he just leave him?

Has to be more to this than meets the eye, I think it's possible this lad has pulled off a bit of a scam, may be wrong, but I can't see help being refused him so completely. :shrug:

my driver took him to the police station where the cop refused to come out and spoke to him through a hatch telling him he couldnt help him. my driver also leant him a mobile to ring the 101 police line, they wouldnt help him as he was 18. his mate had gone into the police station to give a statement. not sure what happened to him after that. this guy was in a bit of a state of shock. he was a genuine bloke. i spoke to him. as i say the mate of mine at the main reception at the local hotel put him up in the end. a local taxi firm in the town centre wouldnt even let him sit in their 24 hour office and drink a cup of coffee as it was against their security policy?

makes you think how warm and friendly the UK really is eh? if you had planned to stay at your friends flat but it had been smashed it, then you were homeless for the night, how would you feel? or if lost you wallet and you had no money or way home, and no one gave a damn , how would you feel? at age 18, i think most would feel cold and scared

This is true. When my car was seized for having no MOT the police dropped me off at the local train station. It was midnight and I had to wait 5 hours for a train in winter but they did as much as they were allowed to do. I cant believe they didnt help him.

There's more to this story. I bet the guy was up to something.

What was the point of putting him up in a hotel? If he had no money he wouldn't have been able to get home the next day either?
Couldn't the driver just run him home with your permission?

30 miles is a long way to go in the middle of the night for nothing, especially as the driver had school contracts at 7am

at least by putting him up for the night he was safe and dry and he had the chance to sort out transport the next day.
the guy was genuine imo he wasnt drunk , he was well spoken, just slightly scared and confused.

the police refused to help him at all. he had no money for a train anyway. the next train would have been at least 6 hours possibly more anyway

Well, the guy was lucky he bumped into your driver so its all good...
to be fair though at 18 he isan adult, I was watching 999 emergency on C4 last night it was from blackpool and trust me the police have their hands full.
I'm sure they would have liked to help further, but as an adult he is not classed as 'vulnerable' and there are 1000's on the streets of the UK that are.

I cant believe the police did that...on the rare occasion I have been picked up (not getting into those :blush2: )they always made sure I could get home/somewhere and tried to ring my parents for me, if I had no cash and noone answered the phone they actually drove me home and waited to check I could get in too.

Maybe its different for females.

You are wrong about the damsel in distress..... recall the 23 year old woman short of 20p on a bus at 3am with a driver refusing to wait to allow her to get to an ATM (or letting her off with 20p) - or any other passengers giving her 20p. To the point that she was beaten senseless after being refused passage.

I don't believe the police are there for that purpose. I'm quite sure that if he'd gone into a police station, or gone into any hotel etc: and asked to use a phone to contact someone after explaining his predicament: he'd have been allowed use their phone.

That had nothing to do with the police, it was a bus driver? and she was raped whilst waiting for her mother to collect her.

Kizzy. Please desist from trying to correct me when you are wrong and stop finding fault in my posts for the sheer hell of it - it is not smart and it's certainly not clever.

If you are going to attempt to do so, at least get your own facts correct,
She was also beaten so badly that her mother did not recognise her - so vicious and brtual the attack was.

My comments were to do with the part that I highlighted the 'damsel in distress part' - and that Britain is cruel and cold etc.

kizzy is right that this was taken to the police, whereas that incident wasnt. he tried the police station 3 times and phoned them. they refused to help at all.

im certain it is. but its disgusting to think the cops did less than nothing.

Kizzy is offering her view I offered mine...and mine is: that the police are not there to offer bed/board or taxi service. I have no doubt that if this young man would have asked a policeman for assistance to use a phone to contact friends/family, they would have helped. I do not believe for one second that he asked the police 3 times and was refused: what did he ask them for: free B&B or ask them for assistance in contacting friends/family......

I was not wrong..
''Last night the firm admitted the driver had acted against company guidance.''
A quote from the guardian, that individual should not have done that.
The police would certainly not have done that either.

I know he did for a fact. he used my drivers phone, the driver also drove him to the police station, he used the voice com, the cop refused to come out and talked through the latch. I swear on my life this is what happened. the cops refused to help. he told them clearly over the phone and in person the story, that he was skint, had no phone , no roof over his head. they refused to help , they left him out in the rain with no assistance at all.

Like I say Kizzy.... she was beaten senseless. due to the same type of cold cruelness shown by a bus driver and passengers.... the same type of behaviour that the OP alleges the police apparently displayed to this 18 year old boy. If I want to raise that, I'll do so.



Now if there is any truth to this: I'm sure the young man's parents (?? mother who didn't care - makes you wonder why - but wonder if she will care if there's a buck to be made through a claim - and father not seen for years?) (or he himself) will be raising a complaint with the police who apparently blatantly refused to help provide him with any form of assistance whatsoever, instead, telling him - allegedly - he was old enough to survive.

One other thing : seeing as he was visiting his pal - he arrived at the house then .... coz remember, he didn't have a mobile so would only have found out about his mate being robbed and his mate's flat being smashed when he actually arrived there.....

Where did the 'mate' stay then..... did he vanish into thin air?

no money
no phone
no mate
no other clothes

And you will have reported this to your local rag and raised an official complaint with the police station in question: given your obvious concern?

Imagine the excellent publicity for your company then.... after all, didn't you say that even another local taxi firm refused to let him sit in their office with a coffee.....