My year could have started better...

[Paper Kosmonaut]

After a nice cozy night in with my GF I awoke to a phone call by a neighbour that my car has been set on fire and burnt out last night.
I just had spent about 2000 euros getting her fixed up again. I am really really sad now.

[Vinalssergio155]

Oh, I don't know what to tell you PK, nothing can ease your sadness. I know what it feels like, in 2001 my car was stolen just to burn it about twelve streets from my house, it's a horrible moment. PK strength.

[FRD]

Wow! what a tragedy! a terrible way to start the year..

[whulsey]

Oh, it would be bad enough for an electrical fire or such; but for some scumbag to torch it. That's just too bad.

[Butelczynski]

I read just this morning about a whole lot of car torchings in Italy,Sweden and France but they didn't mention NL.I know those regular occurrence in France,my friends traveling there had their 2 rented cars torched.

Sorry to hear that.Does NL car insurance cover vandalism?

[THE DC]

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

After a nice cozy night in with my GF I awoke to a phone call by a neighbour that my car has been set on fire and burnt out last night.
I just had spent about 2000 euros getting her fixed up again. I am really really sad now.

So sorry fella.

2019 was rough on me. Parental demise, house flooded (2x), moved out to my first home and had heart failure during the move, then the water heater burst and destroyed most of my paper model collection, dating back to the 30s.

I grok, fella...I grok...

[Wyvern]

Dang, what kind of neighborhood do you live in? I’m really sorry to hear that; makes me want to go vigilante on the persons who would take away your property.

Wyvern

[southwestforests]

A bit of searching finds it to apparently be a treasured European tradition:

Cars on fire

Never seen a car be set on fire? Well, you just might see that in the Netherlands, especially in the more southern of eastern parts of the country. In those regions, it is ‘tradition’ to set a car on fire. You might also come to see that the local phone booth was set on fire of the local mailbox was bombed. It does not seem very logical, but hey, it’s tradition.

https://kamernet.nl/tips/internation...rs-eve-edition

And

Why are hundreds of cars burned in France on New Year's Eve?
31 December 2019
09:00 CET+01:00

Burning cars is something of a tradition in France, albeit a much hated one by authorities and car owners, and it appears to be on the rise again.

Every New Year’s Eve nervous car owners across France cross their fingers in the hope they can start the New Year with their vehicle intact.

That’s because of a longstanding French tradition that sees youths in certain parts of cities torching scores of cars.

The number of vehicles set alight on the night of December 31st 2018 climbed to 1,031 compared to 935 the previous New Year's Eve, while arrests rose from 456 to 510, the interior ministry said on Monday.

Nevertheless stats released last year by France’s official crime data agency ONDRP reveal that the number of cars burned each year has fallen by 20 percent since 2010.

That was the good news for car owners and insurance firms.

The bad news is that tens of thousands of vehicles are still burned across the country.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20191231/is-...cars-dying-out

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Thanks for all your replies.

@The DC: I really feel for you, man. I hope 2020 will bring you lots of luck!

I live in a relatively calm part of town, in the north of the Netherlands. Overall, it is a working-class neighbourhood but quite tolerant and peaceful. But around New Year's Eve, there are a lot of those normally peaceful but pea-brained individuals with the IQ of a brussel sprout, that drink themselves into a delirium and fire off NATO-strength fireworks and bombs they illegally obtained across the border with Germany. They have no idea what responsibility is and lack any grasp of cause and effect, they just roam the streets in search of things to destroy.

My car was just insured for the most basic liability. So there was no chance I could get anything back. Even if I had insured the car for fire damage, I would have been given just the actual day-value of the car, which would be just a couple of hundred euros at most.
Today I reported the crime to the police but they too doubt they will find the people who did it. There was a very thick fog with just a few meters of visibility and no security cam in the surrounding has picked up any image of the crime.

[Vinalssergio155]

I mean that there is the same as here, something that should be a party ends in a disaster for a couple of misfits. Here even though my neighborhood is quiet at 0 o'clock they start with pyrotechnics regardless of the damage they can cause others even to themselves.From a few years ago I had to make the decision to spend the holidays in my house for fear of something bad happening and calming the pets.I hate pyrotechnics, and every year is the same, you have to be attentive in case something that causes a fire falls, with your pets on top of sheltering from the noise, and not to mention if you have an autistic person or child. And the issue of lost bullets, many unconscious people have no better idea than throwing shots in the air, there is always someone dead or hurt by this stupidity, and unfortunately this misfortune happens to who was enjoying quietly in family. Damn way to party.