Larcenous thoughts….

There’s an item on the This is Nottingham website about a raid on a newsagent using a handy narrowboat as a “floating stepladder” to access a rear door to the premises. While I obviously sympathise with Mr Patel, you’ve got to admire the miscreants for their ingenuity.

I’ve always daydreamed about an “Italian Job” type of bullion heist (the 1969 original using real minis, not the 2003 effort of the same name), but using a narrowboat as a getaway vehicle instead of a coach.
Transferring the gold from the minis to the boat at a remote canal wharf, the deck boards would be lifted, the engineering brick ballast removed and replaced by the ill-gotten gains. OK, so she’ll probably sit a little deeper in the water, but no-one would notice, nor would they associate the heap of bricks left on the bank with the robbery.
Who’d ever think of stopping and searching a narrowboat chugging along at 2½ mph? And even if they did, would they think of looking under the floor?

Maybe a plot-line Fred Coppenhall could use on his next novel. He’s the lock keeper at Dutton Lock down on the Weaver who writes in his spare time. I picked up his second book today, Untying the Knot, having enjoyed the first, Fools and Villains.

We didn’t move anywhere today, a good long walk with Meg this morning, pottering about jobs this afternoon.

Locks 0, miles 0