So I got into an argument for saying common sense would have avoided an old lady being robbed... (i

Now I notice this seems like the worst of the worst when it comes to things to say when an old lady is robbed BUT hear me out!

Sorry I can not post a link as its on my towns FB.

The situation is as follows:

At around 2.30pm on Wednesday the 11th of July a 77 year old woman entered Barclays bank and withdrew £5000 (like over $10,000), putting £2500 into two brown envelopes a woman became interested in the elderly ladies transaction which lead to her being followed to a store close by. Soon later the old woman had discovered one of the envelopes were missing from her bag and had called the police to report this.

Now here is the juicy part, I commented on this by saying "not that this is right or anything but.. what old lady id STUPID enough to carry £5000 around?" to which about 10 people had responded, I will copy and paste the important parts of the conversation into this (please read it all to understand the question).

]Woman 1: Maybe she was withdrawing to transfer cash from bank accounts. Its a shame you cant without some thugs stealing it from you!!

Me: transfer bank accounts? because poundland is a bank isnt it?

Woman 2: Dont be so bloody condesending.A lot of "old People" live like they used to,without soooo many thieving bastards around to steal off them.

Me: 100 years ago.. would have been stolen, 1000 years ago.. would have been stolen, 2000 years ago.. would have been stolen! It is nothing new so she should have transferred it by check or electronically. £5000 is alot of money -_- so much you would not carry it around no matter what, that is my point! Common sense and all of it would have been avoided.. I get things stolen all the time but I realise that usually it was my fault.. would be nice if people would not steal yes but carrying £5000 on you is a little tempting to all criminals (now you will say something about me having a criminal mind, NO! its just common sense).

Woman 3: This lady should be able to withdraw and carry as much money as she likes its her money that dont give scum bags the right to take it i hope the police find her. me: Im not being ignorant, nor stupid! Since money came into the world people have robbed and conned.. Carrying that much money is begging to be robbed.. How do none of you women get this?

Woman 4: Yeah I think its very unfair to blame the lady - its the theives you should be concerned with! I had to transfer money the other day and walked around with similar amounts - its the only way to do it in some types of accounts. But you shouldn't expect to be stolen from just because you have money on you - you're not the stupid one - its the theives that are the bad people and ones to blame - the victims innocent! Pssshhh leave the poor old lady alone! See not many people do care about others nowadays do they obviously not..

Woman 5: Asking to be robbed!?! Idiotic remark, nobody asks to be robbed the their is in the wrong no one else

Woman 6: Na u r standing up for the scank who stole and saying an old ladie wanted to b robbed wat if that was ur nan

Woman 7: Omg is this a joke haha. Some poor old lady has been stolen from and by some scabby little rat and your concerned about why and how much she withdrew?? She has the right to withdraw her money from her bank account without being robbed. As if the amount matters surely it should be the poor old lady your concerned about! Woman 8: And I agree you should be able to walk about with how ever much money on your person but then maybe the bank staff could Of been more discreet about it therefore no one else should of heard her buisness

me: Standing up for the skank? no i am saying it is a stupid thing to carry that much money! -_- Seriously.. you are all over reacting to what i said, she was stupid to carry it and theywere wrong to steal it. If it was my nan i would be mad as hell at her for walking around with that much money. Woman 9: this is sick.. and some of the people are on here too. old lady getting money out, for family or anything. you should be able to take money out without some silly selfish slut taking it off of her. hope she gets beaten the # out of

Man 1: It might be a bad idea to carry that sort of money around but every one makes bad decisions some times .the fact that some evil enough wanted to steel it from some one let alone an elderly lady is bang out of order what the hell is this town coming to I hope they catch her and she gets banged up .as for the money it's probably gone a Ready gutted for the victim

me: see man 1 and woman 8 see it was a bad idea to carry it around too!.. I did say it is wrong to steal but you all were too busy arguing about "you should be able to carry it around" but 'should' and 'can' are different things. ask yourselves this, would you carry that much money around? -_-

Man 2: (my name) wind your neck in.... your gonna end up being the most hated person in (the town i live in) for stupid comments. No one (whatever your age) should have their property (money, items, life etc) taken away from them. The young girl in the pic needs to be found and bought to justice for the very low crime she committed.

Me: Yes man 2 she needs justice but the point was.. Carrying that around on your own is a stupid thing to do, atleast ask a relative to come along. Not once did i stand up for the person that stole it, not once did i say it was right (i actually said it was wrong at the start to try avoid all this), neither did I say she should get away with this or that the old lady should not be able to walk around with the money yet you are all making a big deal out of me thinking common sense would have avoided all of this?. As for being the most hated person in (the town i live in), (the town i live in) is a # place to be due to people not looking after it, littering, vandalising, chavs bullying old people and younger children.. I am sure I am going to be more hated than those.

man 3: there really are some idiots on this page. It doesn't matter how much she withdrew or what it was for. Some low life scum robbed her which is totally wrong & I hope she/they is/are caught. But even if they are they will not be punished. as we have seen very recently our 'justice' system is a joke.

man 2: Well you have made your point... which seems to be the opposite to everyone else on this post. If you feel that strongly then why not ring the old lady who has been mugged and pass on your words of wisdom, I'm sure she will be very pleased to hear from you!

Woman 9: yeah but he's proper cool and thinks he knows what he talking about let him natter away.. and think he knows what he talking about, when he doesn't know # blah blah blah

me: all i meant was she shouldn't have been carrying it around! nothing more, nothing less

woman 9: he SHOULD be able to carry it around is what were saying. nothing more, nothing less.

me: yes she SHOULD be able to.. but with people like this lowlife we CAN'T.

Point here was that it is stupid to carry that much money, it will be stolen 90% of the time. We should be able to carry things around but we can't but these people were missing my point. Some people just don't get that it is stupid to carry £5000 around. Common sense!

NOW, my question is: am I right (she was stupid to carry it) or are they (she was not stupid to carry it)? what do you guys think?

Some people agreed but as I didn't say "she should be locked up" they all argued with me as if I was supporting such behaviour

Oh this is my first post.. it will be full of un-needed things but cut me some slack :3

The reason I post this is because I want to know if people have started ignoring common sense just because she is old or is it just me in the wrong? I am open to any ideas!

She is old school apparently and that means trust your neighbor. Unfortunately you are right in todays day and age you just cant afford to do that. If in fact she could not put it into a cashiers check or wanted the cash to pick things up along the way I think she should have used common sense in that making her transaction out in the open was asking for problems. She should have gotten a bank manager to assist her in making this transaction away from prying eyes. Then she could have carried it without or with very little fear or chance of it being taken.

As I see the conversation, everyone was right. If she chose to carry the cash she should be able to without it being taken and the woman that stole it should be punished, but this old lady needs to understand she was not taking out a 20 and the transaction should have been done a little more discreetly. IMO.

Originally posted by sirbanterlot
Oh this is my first post.. it will be full of un-needed things but cut me some slack :3

The reason I post this is because I want to know if people have started ignoring common sense just because she is old or is it just me in the wrong? I am open to any ideas!

Common sense is definitely good, and yes, being seen with money may make you a target.

But you also have to consider that she may have needed the actual cash for something (possibly some business or creditor who does not accept other methods of payment), she may have been getting the money out of the bank to keep it somewhere safe directly (given the situation with banking concerns, account freezing, etc., in quite a few places), and so forth.

Yes, common sense should always be used - but she may not have had the option of getting it in a check or electronically transferring the funds for some reason, and may also not have had anyone else to reach out to as an escort to help protect her during the transfer.

It's your fault. One should be able to argue with idiots and win. What's the matter with you? You argued with idiots and lost. I can't believe some of the people in (town you live in), but they were idiots, and you argued with idiots and didn't even win!

And it's your own fault! No wonder so many people in (town you live in) think you're such a loser!

But I kid

What can I say? If you argue with idiots.....

I completely agree with what you said. Felt like you got attacked because no one wanted blame on the poor old lady. She obviously made it this long in her age to realize the world we live in and how dangerous what she was doing. In an even harder neighborhood in Texas she would have been completely robbed of the full amount if not worse.

Our actions are like Freedom of Speech, you are able to say anything you want. But it does not mean you don't have repercussions to the words you say.

reply to post by Ex_CT2


I argued and argued for about three hours with these people, none of them were understanding that if you carry that much money then you are just a sitting duck.

Latest comment was: "Riki ledster (my name is on here so why did I hide it?) you. Are a dick let's hope the bitch gets wots comeing to her a good slap"

There is no winning when it is against the masses of sheep :/

Maybe if I was to add "this bitch should rot in hell for robbing the old lady" people would not have reacted towards me so badly?

I agree with the people writing on your page.
The fact there are people willing to steal things, should not stop people walking around with money.
Where does that mindset end?
People get carjacked occasionally, should no one drive cars worth more than £5000 so the criminals wouldn't feel compelled to steal them?

Fact is, they are right. It is the criminals in the wrong.
The attitude that the victim is wrong is what is wrong with a lot of people in society - if everyone just realised how despicable the behaviour was and stopped showing any excuses, sympathy or understanding towards criminals, maybe the world would be a better place.
Like you saying you would be mad at your gran for doing the same thing. Why not be mad at the low life who stole from her, and show sympathy to her for the incident (hypothetically)

More people need to show stronger anger at scum who take such action. Why just take what someone else has worked hard to save...hope she gets caught, gets made to pay it back and faces a harsh punishment for her crime.

Originally posted by facchino
I agree with the people writing on your page.
The fact there are people willing to steal things, should not stop people walking around with money.
Where does that mindset end?
People get carjacked occasionally, should no one drive cars worth more than £5000 so the criminals wouldn't feel compelled to steal them?

*facepalms* so what you are saying is we should carry £5000 with us and that people will steal it but that should not stop us?

The car thing is different, that is not £5000 in cash in your bag is it? That can be traced and followed.

reply to post by BurntOrange


I agree, i did feel like they were just defending an old woman out of natural response and I was called heartless because of what was said by me but what if the old lady was mugged and stabbed for carrying that money? would I be the one caring by saying it is stupid to do it or would they be for telling her she should go about carrying it?

This is a small town where they are sheltered from the worst of the country, they all think they are better.. I am from one of the roughest places in England and if it was there she would have been shot for the money, they would not have just taken it but shot and took it

Society has hit all time stupidity.


You get no freedom of speech without people telling you that you are wrong and you should shut up :/

reply to post by Agarta


I am sure though even when she was younger these issues were around, 18th century it was pickpockets, 19th century it was gangsters, 20th century it is now online scamming, mugging and robbing so she should already know that it is a dangerous thing to do..

This old woman may have had a senior moment or thought "ah it will be fine". What she will think next time is "I should use cheques or atleast have advise from my bank manager before I withdraw this". I wish it was all trust your neighbour but it won't be until the greed is ridden from us.

Originally posted by sirbanterlot
*facepalms* so what you are saying is we should carry £5000 with us and that people will steal it but that should not stop us?

That comment above- and the attitude that oozes from it - is probably more of a reason why people on your FB page think you are a complete ****.
You do not have a great way of reacting to anyone who doesn't share your viewpoint. Show some maturity.

Yes I am saying we should be free to carry money without fear of theft.
I am well aware that unfortunately we don't live in some dreamy society where this is the case - but perhaps if everyone, everywhere started thinking like this, drumming it into their kids, friends etc not to be robbing, lowlife scum then we would be a lot closer to it than now.

As for the car comment - when cars are carjacked it is generally by organised gangs who rip out the trackers and change plates, ship abroad and the damn things are never seen again, so no you are very mistaken in saying they are easily traceable. That is why that crime is still happening.

What people are annoyed at you for is you basically blaming the victim for being stupid for carrying her money.
This applies to all crimes.
Should women not go out at night because there are rapists, and by doing so they are at fault for being a victim.
I think the answer is NO - of course not.
Once society had the attitude of utter derision for thieves,muggers, rapists, violent criminals, not blaming victims on any level, maybe we would be a step forward.

reply to post by facchino


Maturity does not come into this, I meant that the way you were wording it sounded like you were saying people will steal your money but you should walk around with it anyway..

Feel free to defend your comment or maybe explain what you meant?

I am not saying you are wrong but that just makes no sense to me, thats all. Perhaps they think I am a dick but I am the only one willing to say she should know better.

Originally posted by sirbanterlot
reply to post by facchino

 

Maturity does not come into this, I meant that the way you were wording it sounded like you were saying people will steal your money but you should walk around with it anyway..

Feel free to defend your comment or maybe explain what you meant?

I am not saying you are wrong but that just makes no sense to me, thats all. Perhaps they think I am a dick but I am the only one willing to say she should know better.

Maturity does come into it. When you respond with *facepalm* for example - it immediatelty gets peoples backs up and makes you seem unable to formulate a solid argument without just being insulting.

As for your point - I am trying to get the point over that I don't agree with you blaming the victim for being stupid for carrying her money, purely in that it is not her who has done wrong in doing so.
Yes, there are criminals in the world, but should we live every waking moment restricting what we do for fear of being a victim.
There are levels of common sense, in that we all lock our car, houses etc - but things like this, I just don't see it. She took her money out, put it in her bag before leaving the bank and went on her way. What is wrong with someone doing that?
I may do that if I went to buy a car privately instead of a dealerfor example, take out a large sum of cash. However, if someone steals it from me that does NOT make me an idiot - it makes me a victim of some sneaky, scumbag thief who decides they have a right to take what is not theirs.

You may or may not agree, you may or may not see my point - doesn't matter.
I think I have made it as concise as I can, so will leave you to carry on with your opinion on this and hope you get a whole host of replies agreeing with you to make you feel better.

reply to post by facchino


No i understand that we should be free to walk around with our money safely and we should not just stop doing so because of people that would steal it but £5000 in your bag is a little more than that.. Carrying £10 and carrying £5000 is alot different, With £5000 you are opening yourself up to a theif but should she not carry that £5000? no she should not! or atleast not on her own, maybe have a friend or family member accompany her.

I don't want people to agree with me, I want disagreements but ones that are more logical than "just because there are theives we should not stop carrying our money" because that is a good case.. if it was £100. (besides I believe I was saying it was stupid to carry £5000 not that we should stop carrying money around)