Overnight parking

[Yorjick]

I recently parked my car at the entrance to the track to Charr. A friendly estate worker told me that he saw a policeman looking at my car. Apparently it had been reported to the police as being parked there for a week, not two nights. The gillie had put him right and told him that my car had only been there two nights and that an "old boy" had walked out to Charr. The policeman told the gillie to ask me to call into the police station at Banchory to let them know of my plans next time.

I had a similar experience in the late 90s where an ambulance crew had reported my car "abandoned" by the side of the A830 between Glenfinnan and Lochailort - I had been visiting Essan bothy for 2-3 nights. The police turned up as I was removing my boots. There, I was also asked to call into the police station (Fort Bill in this instance) to inform them of my plans.

On that occasion, I took on board this request and the next time visited the nearest police station to let them know I would be leaving my car overnight. The desk sergeant's response was "Why are you telling us?".

Have other walkhighlanders had similar experiences.

Do any of you visit or contact the police ahead of your overnighters in the hills? What is the general response?

Do any of you leave a note on your car? Do you worry about this attracting villains?

It seems to me that the police are understandably not happy about wasting their time investigating a parked car but also feel that we are wasting their time when we contact them about our plans.

Any policemen out there have anything to say?

I just want to do what's right but feel that whatever I do will be wrong!

[jmarkb]

Do any of you leave a note on your car?

Yes, sometimes even for one day walks.

Do you worry about this attracting villains?

Not in the Highlands, no.

[basscadet]

Well I have heard of people leaving a message that says that their family knows where they are and when they will be back and will contact the emergency services if you are overdue. I wouldn't put a sign saying I wont be back until next week, please steal my car. I am from a small highland community, and it is surprising how often a gang will come up from doon south to cause some havoc. One person I know had their house completely emptied when they went on holiday for a week!
If a policeman can't muster up two brain cells to rub together and think - Oh someone has left their car in a Bothy car park, they must be at the bothy - Then do they really deserve a pay packet paid for by the public purse? Honestly?

[NickyRannoch]

I had the polis at my mums door upon "discovering" my car abandoned at a car park at the Sidlaws near Dundee. I parked up at 7pm and they were there by 11!!

[Sunset tripper]

I don't bother telling anyone as long as your car is road legal and your not parked illegally you are doing nothing wrong. I don't put a note in my car either for the same reasons basscadet gave, though I've heard of very few occasions of theft from these sort of places. I suppose if you wanted you could leave a phone number on the dash that a curious cop could phone if he liked. Even if someone reports an abandoned car in a car park / layby I think the polis would only attend if they were in the vicinity and had nothing else to do.
I've left my car for several days in many places and never been contacted about it. Including a week in the asda car park in Holyhead though I probably wouldn't recommend that to anyone

Also there's still a few of the yellow no overnight parking signs knocking about the highlands, even though they have been proven to be illegal and should all have been removed (which most have been to be fair). So I wouldn't worry about leaving your car in these places either

[papa smurf]

Yorjick asked for a police officers opinion on this, I'm a recently retired one so I presume that counts. I personally don't leave a note or tell the police when I leave my car. Remember that fighting crime is only part of it and indeed Police Scotlands motto is 'keeping people safe'. Yes to some extent the officer should realise that the occupants of a car may be at a bothy but there is always the 'what if ' factor. People are quick to criticise the police (sometimes rightly) and if an officer ignores a parked car and the occupant is later found dead you can bet someone will be criticising. Sometimes you just can't win and err on the side of caution. While I was never a panicker, it may be better to politely check and get some re-assurance that the person is supposed to be at a bothy rather than lying out on a hill. Remember that Police officers are only human and many are outdoors people. The vast majority of the time they check out your car they are acting out of concern to keep you safe rather to trying to find a crime in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we should be pleased they are out on their beat checking things and not just driving past or sitting in an office. As in everything there is a balance betwen being intrusive and being a good cop. Hope that clarifies a wee bit. Matt

[StevieC]

^^ I thought Police Scotland's motto was "Always Vigilant" (Semper Vigilo)?

[papa smurf]

Oops. Probably should have used the word, objective instead of motto

[Yorjick]

Yorjick asked for a police officers opinion on this, I'm a recently retired one so I presume that counts. I personally don't leave a note or tell the police when I leave my car. Remember that fighting crime is only part of it and indeed Police Scotlands motto is 'keeping people safe'. Yes to some extent the officer should realise that the occupants of a car may be at a bothy but there is always the 'what if ' factor. People are quick to criticise the police (sometimes rightly) and if an officer ignores a parked car and the occupant is later found dead you can bet someone will be criticising. Sometimes you just can't win and err on the side of caution. While I was never a panicker, it may be better to politely check and get some re-assurance that the person is supposed to be at a bothy rather than lying out on a hill. Remember that Police officers are only human and many are outdoors people. The vast majority of the time they check out your car they are acting out of concern to keep you safe rather to trying to find a crime in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we should be pleased they are out on their beat checking things and not just driving past or sitting in an office. As in everything there is a balance between being intrusive and being a good cop. Hope that clarifies a wee bit. Matt

It was certainly not my intention that this should be a forum on which to criticise the police. I am just looking for a consensus as to the best and right thing to do. If it could be made secure, perhaps there should be some sort of facility to record one's intentions. This could be a police or SMC or alternative base. We would only be able to see our own entries. I do not think that we could rely on people to log back on and record their return but it would act as a database in terms of car registration (in the event of the car causing concern), date, name and mountains climbed (in the event of a body being found).

Once set up, it should run itself(?). It could save police time. It could save lives. I am not concerned about Big Brother watching me as long as he is taking care of me! Of,course, this would be entirely voluntary.

Are there enough people active in the outdoors to justify this? Would the police and the public welcome the idea?

[EileanB]

I text my intended route to Mr. EileanB, the problem is finding a signal when I get back to the car to send the 'safe home' text.
On one occasion he was contacted by the police about my abandoned car and he was able to identify the place he had last heard from me and the bar he confidently expected I would be in; they did come and check, and as the mobile signal was down, phoned him to confirm that I was safe.

[papa smurf]

Yorjick I never took it that it was in any way critical nor was I trying to defend, merely trying to explain what goes through an officers head when wondering what to do next. You are right that people could not be relied upon to report their return on a database and panic bells could ring. I cannot speak for police anymore but not sure they'd want another database and I suppose they would need to quantify the nature of the problem; if they perceive it to be one. A quick thought as I read your response was a section on here, where we could post a rough itenary and where car will be parked. This could be then be backed up with some kind of sticker on the car directing police enquiries to this website. Problem then comes you want police to know the info but not troublemakers but I'm sure if there was a will a way could be found. Perhaps entries could be locked only for police but then I'm sure our moderators dont want to be phoned everynight either. I thought of this in 5 minutes so I'm sure if someone looked closely a solution could be found cheers Matt

[Sgurr]

Often there is no signal when we get to a parking place, and we have decided NOT to park somewhere we had originally thought to park because forestry is going on, have even landed up the other side of a hill sometimes. So if we registered a route, it might be wrong. ....but that is so with routes left with family members. They, poor things, are usually only left with the info that we are somewhere in South Wales or Lewis bagging Marilyns and will be back in a fortnight. I am now extra careful if by myself as I would hate them to be embarrassed by the sort of online comments that would happen when a 77 year old female takes herself off to walk ("wandered off") somewhere solo, and maybe, after this winter's events, it is not wise to assume that walking together, at least one of you will make it back to the car.

[Yoke]

I use a tracker (distress beacon availiable) and my family/friends can track my whereabouts with no problem, if the police are worried about my car then my address is traceable from the cars registration and subsequent enquiries should be relatively simple I would have thought.

[jamesjones]

An interesting issue.
I'm a serving police Sgt who now works in a semi rural location and quite often have to deal with members of the public reporting cars left for several days in these rural locations. The person at the front desk who questioned your decision to call in and alert police was wrong to do this. It should have been a simple task for them to either make a note for the parade file or even create an incident log, that option is far simpler and less time consuming then cops trying to trace the owner of a reported abandoned vehicle. In a risk averse job as it is these days we can't simply ignore that member of the public's concern and would need to trace the vehicles keeper in order to be 100% sure that they haven't come to any harm. (Sorry, can't speak for Police Scotland, may have different policy)
My personnel choice is to leave my wife's phone number on the dashboard. She always gets left details of where i'm walking, start point etc and the police shouldn't have an issue getting a signal on her phone, unlike mine.


Jimmy .

[Mal Grey]

If I'm away for a few days, I try to park near a hotel or something with their permission, and in the more remote areas this has never been a problem. Where there is no hotel in the properly remote areas, I have once or twice left a note, but I must admit I often haven't. I have also once told the local police, but this was more coincidental than planned! I've also occasionally mentioned it to any ghillies etc we've come across, who have almost always said "I'll keep an eye on it for ya" or similar.

Somebody always knows where I am & when I'm due, but thinking about it, its not those who would be contacted from the car registration, as its a company car!!!

I need to rethink my approach I guess...