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1960's CIGARETTES. I RECOGNIZE CRAVEN A AND THE PLAYERS WHICH I FOUND OFTEN IN THE FIRST FEW MONTHS OF THE CLEAN UP.
I was thinking about my old job in the UK the other day and how some roles are just perfect for your character. Obviously you outgrow them, but this one was perfect for me for that time of my life. From what I had been used to and the areas I had been working in South Africa a petty crime riddled East London was a breeze.
After I had transferred from the South African part of the cigarette company to the English side with a few hoops to jump on the way. It wasn't as straight forward until I told the recruiting company I was only being polite and following procedure and that the job was already mine, did it become easier. They were total plonkers and getting paid for a position that had already been given to me. I was just following the red tape and knew one phone call would resolve it.
The day arrived and I went through to their head office to be offered the position. It had taken a little longer than it should have but I was finally there. The position they offered me was a job that had been vacant for nearly a year as they thought it was too dangerous for anyone with no experience. The other competitor companies weren't working the area either at this point as one of their representatives and a manager had been beaten up and thrown into the boot of the car.
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THE AREA NO ONE WANTED AND VACANT JUST FOR ME.
The sales director looked at me and said I was perfect as being 6 ft 5 and weighing at 120 kg's I wouldn't have any problems. They told me how bad the area was and what to expect and I was only allowed to wear smart casual clothing. Honestly I couldn't stop smiling as I was concerned about wearing a suit and tie every day'as that isn't me. The only occasions had been weddings and funerals for my only suit I owned and was happy to leave it at just that.
The work suited me down to the ground having no targets and just being left alone. In my eyes I was doing a clean up of the area for them and all the information that they had on their systems was all wrong anyway.I knew it would take a good year to sort this mess out and make it safe again for others to start working it after some on the job training.
I found out that another area had become vacant needing the same type of clean up that I was busy doing in East London. I found the work slow going as the shops were filthy and badly managed. I don't think they knew any better as most of them were owned by Indian immigrants with ropey English and this is how they made their money. The shops must have been cheap when they bought them as they were in the very poor areas of London. They had spent no money on refurbishments and they were just old and dated.
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TYPICAL AREA IN HACKNEY.
I knew how old as some of the cigarettes I found were collector items and there were some packets from the 1960's .I had to clean up any stock that was substandard and a threat to new stock. Cigarettes are an a agricultural product that are affected by various bugs and the one main threat is the weevil. I was burning stock virtually at every shop I was visiting and replacing it with new stock. It must have been a sight to most as I used to burn it in the gutters on the edge of the road.
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THE WEEVIL USED TO BURROW INTO THE BOXES OF CIGARETTES AND USED TO ONLY LEAVE THE FILTERS BEHIND.
I never experienced any trouble in East London bar the occasional car break in as I learned what to look out for. I was always conscious of who was around me and looking for anything that didn't look right. I am very good with faces and was raised in a society where you had to be always vigilant. This caught the wannabee crooks out as I prevented many break-ins by not sticking to schedules. Every now and then I would leave what I was doing and go and check on the car so they knew I was waiting for them. In most cases I would only leave the car if I had my eyes on it at all times. I think the gang gave up on me and had moved to the South East area as that was now where the hot bed of break ins was happening.
I suggested training a replacement for my area and to give me the South East as I knew what the gang members looked like. I wanted the new area as it saved me about 15-20 minutes travel every day. I used to laugh as the opposition vehicles were getting robbed every other day and had no idea by whom. I used to dress accordingly and used to wear my stretchy cargo pants and truck tire boots on days where I thought there could be a chance of capturing them. I was out hunting them these days and was part of how I was cleaning the area up for the company.
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A DEPRESSING AREA WITH HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT AND A HIGH CRIME RATE DUE TO DRUGS.
On certain days that the car was broken in I got the stock back more often than not after some chases. The one chase I have mentioned before when I stalked the one crook who thought he was safe until he was within meters of me and screamed and threw the stock at me in a black bag. I honestly thought about running him down, but he was not part of the gang I was after so let him go with just a scare.
I have mentioned the permission to ram phone call before in a previous post so will just say it was declined by head office and they escaped. They were fortunate for my bad decision as the right call was to ram them and then phone the head office.