#198 Vandals Damage Vehicles

Mark: Hi again, Mark Kaufmann here with Jill Soles for another installment of the EnglishLingQ Podcast.

Jill: Hi there.

Mark: What's new today Jill? Jill: Oh gosh, what's new today? Oh, you put me on the spot when you ask me stuff like that.

Mark: Oh, I know, I know it. It's a tough question, it's a tough question. Jill: You know when you think when you have such an exciting life like mine there'd be so much new to report. Mark: I know, I know, I know, I'll send you a cheat sheet before we do the podcast so you'll have a chance to prepare. Jill: Warm me; exactly.

Mark: Actually, some of our members, I should say, ask for that before our discussions. They prefer further discussions when topics are posted so they can prepare for those topics and prepare for the discussion.

Jill: Right and others actually like the impromptu thing and like sort of thinking on their feet and just having no specific topic.

Mark: I mean everybody's different. To my mind if you're really trying to become proficient in the language I would think you want to be ready for anything but, obviously, if you have a chance to prepare you can go and study specific vocabulary and in that way be better able to carryon a conversation. Jill: Yeah, if you feel a little bit nervous or intimidated then if you feel like you're more prepared you might feel less intimidated. Mark: But in real life Jill you can't always be prepared for what conversation is going to occur. Jill: This is true.

Mark: This is what I'm trying to achieve here by throwing these curveballs at you. Jill: Great, so what's new? Oh, but really not a whole lot.

Mark: Not a whole lot?

Jill: No.

Mark: You were talking about on the weekend though the news reports that you were listening to. Or maybe that was you out there keying cars.

Jill: Oh yeah, in my spare time. I have nothing better to do but to key cars, which means for any of you who don't know… Mark: Which is probably most of you. Jill: Right.

When we say to key a car or somebody keyed cars it means that they took a car key or any key or any sharp object really and ran it along usually the side of a car and took off the paint. It scratches the whole paint.

Mark: Right, basically, idiots.

Jill: Yeah, vandals.

Mark: Vandals trying to cause trouble.

Jill: Right.

Mark: I mean I can't understand that mindset. Jill: It happened to my car years ago.

Mark: It did aye?

Jill: I never got it fixed. It wasn't a major, major scratch, but a lot of people it will be long or thick or wide and it really needs to be repaired. So what happened here on the weekend, apparently, in Coquitlam, which is one of the suburbs of Vancouver somebody or several people went to two different locations, neighborhoods within Coquitlam, and just keyed…I'm not even sure how many, but quite a large number. Mark: It's amazing. Jill: And so one area was hit Saturday night. I believe it was a residential area, so just all the cars that were parked outside they just went along and keyed all these cars. Then Sunday night it was around a movie theatre, so I guess maybe a parking lot where there are lots of vehicles parked. Here if you want to get that fixed then you have to pay your deductible and you can make a claim through – as we've talked about before on other podcasts – ICBCR our insurance corporation here. Depending on how much you pay for your insurance you have either I think a $300 or $500 or $700 deductible, so that's the amount you have to pay. Mark: So all these people, it's not like it's covered by insurance. Jill: No.

Mark: I mean it is, but only after you've paid your $300-$400-$600-$700 deductible. Jill: Right.

Mark: Like it's amazing that you know a couple of probably two or three kids or whatever, teenagers, whatever they are… Jill: Just thought it would be fun. Mark: Thought it would be a good idea; isn't this funny. The number of people that are (A) inconvenienced (B) it costs them money (C) it's just, you know, you're wrecking somebody's personal property. Like it's not a good feeling, it's just unbelievable. I don't know if they'll ever catch the people who did it, but… Jill: And even if they do, especially if they're minors, you know under 18… Mark: Well I know. Jill: Nothing is going to happen to them anyway.

Mark: That's where our system is so wrong. Jill: Yeah.

Mark: I mean I'm maybe a little bit extreme, but they should be, you know if they're caught, well here are the guys that did it. Here, look, here they are; come on.

Jill: Throw them to the wolves?

Mark: Yeah, for sure.

Like here they are tied up to a post.

Jill: I don't know. Mark: Come speak to them, throw stuff at them, whatever. Well that would sure discourage it; there wouldn't be any keying of cars. Jill: Yeah, our laws are definitely too lax here.

Mark: Well the laws aren't necessarily lax like they exist, but they're not enforced. They seem to favor the perpetrator of the crime very often as opposed to the victims. Actually, the victims suffer and the criminals get off scot-free most of the time or a lot of the time.

Jill: Yeah, it's true. Mark: I mean they should have to pay for all the damage.

Jill: Yeah, they should have to pay.

Mark: I don't care if they're minors. Here, here, this is who did it, face the music.

Jill: Well, they should have to… Mark: You know if you think it's a funny prank, okay, I hope you had fun because now it's time to face the music. Jill: They should have to do something like work, work it off. You know, work for the city or whatever.

Mark: Absolutely.

Jill: And do as much work as it takes to work off the amount that it cost to pay for all of… Mark: Every last penny that it cost, including what the insurance company shelled out. Jill: Yeah, I agree, there should be consequences.

Mark: Because right now even if thieves steal stuff and sell it and whatever and you don't get it back the insurance pays for that, but that thief is not responsible to pay for any damages or losses, which is amazing to me. Jill: And our insurance premiums increase.

Mark: Like this person stole X thousand dollars worth of stuff, now they're caught; now they should have to work that off for whoever ended up footing the bill for that. I mean that's only fair to my mind. Jill: Yeah, me too; I don't know. Mark: But that's not how it works unfortunately. Jill: So now all these poor people you know…even if you've got the minimum deductible of $300 that's a lot of money. $300 is not nothing to anybody, even to somebody who is well off. $300 is a lot of money and it's just the fact that it's through no fault of your own. You've done absolutely nothing wrong and you just have to shell out $3-$5-$700. Mark: Yup.

Jill: It's just not right. Mark: It's not right and even if they catch those guys that did it you still have to pay. They're not going to be made to pay; it's just not right. Jill: No.

Mark: It's just not right. Jill: And I found it kind of sad because, you know, people just don't think about how their actions impact other people. They were interviewing one young woman whose car had been keyed and you know, clearly, she doesn't have a lot of extra cash laying around. She said her mom had just been diagnosed with cancer and so she's already going through a hard time a stressful time and she was just out at the movies Sunday night to have a bit of fun and to relax and comes out and finds her car vandalized and now has to pay. I don't know what her premium is or her deductible – I'm sorry -- is and you know it's very disheartening. Mark: Yeah, yeah, it's very disheartening, annoying. I mean it's, obviously, only a couple of people like it's not like people in Coquitlam are bad. Jill: No.

Mark: You know it's these two or three handful of vandals ruining many people's day, evening. Jill: Exactly, yeah.

Mark: You know and it's…yeah, I don't know. Jill: It's too bad that there are people out there who find it amusing to wreck and destroy other people's property. Mark: I know, I know. Yeah, I don't know what…I mean that's always kind of been an issue here people vandalizing things. I mean not a major issue, but it's always kind of been there. I've just never understood it, but you always see, whether it's street signs or mailboxes pushed over, bus stops wrecked. Jill: Yeah, the glass shattered at a bus stop.

Mark: Yeah, I don't know, I've just never understood that mentality. I can't help thinking that if there were stronger punishments for that sort of thing and being forced to repay any damages. I mean that's the most; those people shouldn't be put in jail. Jill: I was just going to say, I think it would be more effective and better for everyone involved if they were made to pay back.

Mark: Pay it back; you work it off.

Jill: Don't send them to jail. Mark: No.

Jill: They don't get sent to jail anyway. Mark: No.

Jill: Basically, they get a slap on the wrist.

Mark: Right.

Jill: But that's right, they should be made to pay everything back. Mark: Yeah, I mean probably, I guess there…yeah, somehow or other. I've got to believe that and maybe obviously some kind of public… Jill: …flogging? Mark: Not flogging, not unless you want to.

Jill: We're in Canada, we don't allow such things. Mark: Well there's nothing wrong with flogging, it leaves no permanent scars. No, but sort of public recognition or like in the North Shore News the local newspaper they'll put the drunk drivers of the week or something. They put their pictures up like these guys… Jill: Their names and their pictures. Mark: These guys were caught for dunk driving this week, well that's pretty good. Jill: It's humiliating. Mark: It's humiliating. Same with these guys, these idiots were keying cars. They're going to be working it off at the license plate factory. Jill: You know that reminds me of a story that we talked about probably a year ago or something like that that happened in the States. I think it was at a Wal-Mart or several Wal-Marts were doing this where anybody caught shoplifting had to wear a pin or a button that said I stole from this store and they had to for X amount of time, so a week or two weeks or whatever, every day, go and basically stand there at the front of the store.

Mark: I mean that's great! Jill: I mean I don't know. Mark: Absolutely.

Jill: I don't know if that's the right thing. Mark: Absolutely, you want to talk about a deterrent. I'm not going to steal from that store I'll go to the next store. Jill: Yeah, that's true. Mark: You know?

Jill: Yeah.

Mark: But it's true and that person shouldn't go to jail because they stole a pair of socks or something whatever it was. No, listen, don't do that anymore. To make sure you don't or you think about it harder next time you can stand there with a dummy sticker on. Jill: For a week.

Mark: Yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with that. You did something wrong and you knew it was wrong before you did it.

Jill: Yeah, for sure.

Mark: You're not suffering by being made to do that it's teaching you a lesson. I don't see that as a problem at all. Jill: Yeah.

Mark: Far better than going to jail.

Jill: Yeah, for sure.

I don't see any value in sending somebody like that to jail, but we'll see; maybe one day. Mark: We'll see, maybe they'll catch those punks. Jill: Yeah, we assume they're just young punks. Maybe they're not, but in general the people that commit those types of crimes are, typically, fairly young males. Mark: Yeah, for sure.

Jill: That's generally who it is, so we'll have to wait and see. Mark: We will. I guess with that we'll probably sign off. Jill: Alright.

Mark: And l look forward to talking to you again. Maybe not for awhile… Jill: Probably not for awhile, but eventually. Bye-bye.