Caroline Farrow, a mother of five, despairs of the petty crime and anti-social behaviour afflicting her Surrey village. Youths vandalising the bus stop, shoplifting, taking pot shots at windows with catapults, keying cars.
But try getting the police to act, says Mrs Farrow, a 48-year-old priest’s wife and Catholic commentator, and your entreaty will invariably fall on deaf ears. When teenagers refused to climb down from the roof of a convenience store, police said it was a ‘civil matter’, refusing to get involved.
Still, there was a rare sighting of a patrol car in the village at around 4.45pm last Monday. Blue lights flashing, it sped not towards the latest vandalism scene but the Farrow household. Officers hammered on the door, barged inside and told Mrs Farrow she was under arrest.
