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Thief steals useless TV from estate agents

7:22am Tuesday 3rd June 2008

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A bungling thief in ski-goggles used a metal bin to smash through an estate agents in Chessington, and stole a plasma television that does not work.

The screen, used to display properties in the window, is not equipped to pick up television reception, leaving him with nothing but pictures of houses.

“It’s just the inconvenience of it. At the moment it is a bad enough market as it is.”

Sarah Melbourn

Police were called to the Greenfield estate agents in Hook Road at about 12.30am on Wednesday, May 28.

A man wearing goggles and gloves was seen running down the road carrying the television. It is thought he threw a round metal bin from a nearby bus stop at the window before climbing in and collecting his duff prize.

Police forensics teams have taken samples of blood from the window but no arrests have been made.

A witness described the smash as sounding "like the chimney falling off the roof".

Manager Sarah Melbourn has been forced to relocate her four members of staff to the nearby Tolworth office while the clean up operation rolls on.

She said: "It's just the inconvenience of it. At the moment it is a bad enough market as it is."

The branch is expected to be closed for a few months, while they fix the window and refurbish the interior.

Police are appealing for people with information to call 020 8541 1212.

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Thieving Git, Mitcham says...
2:39pm Tue 3 Jun 08

Technically this article is incorrect, just because this monitor doesn't have a reciever attached doesn't mean a thing. If it has HDMI and/or scart inputs (as all monitors this size do) then it is more than capable of receiving Satellite and TV images so whilst the article tries to poke fun at the robber he did indeed get away with quite a decent bit of kit, which with a £10 freeview box would undoubtedly look good in someone's front room.

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Thieving Git, Mitcham says...
2:39pm Tue 3 Jun 08

Technically this article is incorrect, just because this monitor doesn't have a reciever attached doesn't mean a thing. If it has HDMI and/or scart inputs (as all monitors this size do) then it is more than capable of receiving Satellite and TV images so whilst the article tries to poke fun at the robber he did indeed get away with quite a decent bit of kit, which with a £10 freeview box would undoubtedly look good in someone's front room.

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Pete, Surbiton says...
8:08pm Tue 3 Jun 08

Yeah, I'm with TG on this one. If it really was impossible to look at anything other than houses with this TV, then it means that the pictures of the houses must be hard-wired into the TV's electronic circuitry.

But if that's the case, then what happens when the agency actually sell houses? What happens when the agency take new houses on? Is it impossible to clear the old houses and upload new ones to the TV? I think not somehow! I know it's a slow market right now, but house sale transactions do still happen from time to time.

This implies that the TV absolutely has to have some sort of data interface. And, chances are, that'll be a SCART socket or RGB input, or possibly composite video.

The thief will have no difficulty punting this one on. People who deal in second-hand gadgetry are generally not that technically inept.

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Amused, London says...
3:34pm Fri 6 Jun 08

I read this headline as "Thief steals TV from useless estate agents". *lol*

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Roy Batty, Surbiton says...
2:09pm Mon 9 Jun 08

Must be useless estate agents if it takes them a few months to clean up & replace a bit of glass & a telly. Like the way they get a dig in at the housing market as well, Awww diddums!

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sharon, tolworth says...
10:21pm Thu 12 Jun 08

well, nice to see the public are concerned about vandalism ! i wonder how mr " i'm a geek " would feel if someone smashed his lounge window and stole his tv, regardless if t worked or not its wrong to steal is it not ! I hope that they catch him and the agency ho ar very good as i know from experience continue to sell houses.

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geoff, london says...
6:31pm Wed 18 Jun 08

A few months to Repair.These don't want to admit it but they have gone bust and moved all their staff to another office...PLENTY MORE TO COME..

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