There’ve been a rash of “theft from
car”s in my neighborhood lately, particularly ones in which the windows were not broken but the door simply opened.
NextDoor is abuzz with incredulity.
NextDoor is abuzz with incredulity.
Imagine.
Thefts! From cars!
“They got my laptop, my wallet, and my good umbrella!”
“Someone took the jar of change I keep in the backseat.”
And here it is where we stop – hammer time – and reflect
on all the things I will not say in response.
Things like:
Was the car locked?
And of course
They took your UMBRELLA?! That’s IT!
I’m getting my conceal and carry!
I’m not an idiot, according to my mother, and I don’t say
these things, because what do I know?
People work late, they forget, and there’s always someone waiting to
take advantage of someone else’s lapse in judgement. Me, I drive my car maybe twice a month and
therefore keep very little in it. On the
other hand, as a bus-dweller, I am known to carry both a backpack and a bag I could
smuggle small dogs in, so again, what do I know?
Grandma went into town with a lipstick and car keys and did just fine. We now carry things with us that cost hundreds of dollars.
"I didn't know it was that kind of neighborhood," writes one young, newly disillusioned neighbor. "Guess I'll have to start locking my doors."
And I feel for her; not because she sees her neighborhood differently, but because she once believed she could leave a laptop in an unlocked car.
17 comments:
EVERY neighborhood is that kind of neighborhood. I live in a neighborhood where lots of folks left during phases of "white flight" and I'm always amused when bad things in happen in the "good" neighborhoods.
I guess hooligans don't know what the boundaries are. Maybe we need to build walls? ;)
believe it or not, I once lost an ice ax out of a car... along with a broken window. Did the thieves even know what they got?
www.thepulpitandthenpen.com
I suspect you're getting lots of exercise rolling your eyes :)
I've always locked my car but my husband never did as we live in a quiet residential area. Once we had a "visitor" to his vehicle during the night; he/she took nothing but left behind extremely strong alcohol fumes. My husband started locking his car right after that.
Growing up (decades and decades ago) locked doors were rare.
Since a neighbour's house was robbed while she was in her back yard hanging washing it has become second nature.
Some days eye rolling is my main form of exercise.
What I hate most is the damned Identity Theft! Happened to me a decade ago. Had to visit the sheriff, call credit card, put passwords on everything and do what the FCC told me to do. That was scary, but even scarier was looking into the bathroom mirror and wondering who I was shaving.
Someone once cut a hole in my jeep soft top plastic window and took my son's 11 pound bowling ball. That is a lot of trouble for a big paper weight.
If I was a thief, I would steal in only the best neighborhoods, that is were the good stuff is.
I used never to lock my car, until the pack of cigarettes began disappearing off the dash. I got up early one morning and "nabbed" the paper boy from an upstairs bedroom window: "Do you want me to tell your parents?"
He did not collect from me for several weeks, then he quit the route. In the meantime, I left my car unlocked. After he quit, I commenced locking it at night.
When I lived in your town someone broke the window in my van and stole the ashtray.
In this small town not many doors are locked, but with the summer tourist season that changes a bit.
Oh, the young and disillusioned . . .
Someone stole the turquoise bucket seats from our car back in 1971. They spray painted them black. Did an awful paint job, and I saw a gleam of sunbeam on a swath of turqouise seat in a car. Called the cops, they found our tools and other possessions in the trunk. The thief said he bought them from a thief on White Castle parking lot. We were SOL.
I live in a neighborhood with lots of restaurants and nightclubs nearby, and we have the same problem. One woman made the news because she went to the clubs - for six hours! - and left her computer, HER DOG, and some other things directly in front of my house with the window rolled down and... wait for it... they were gone when she came back.
There are now signs up and down my street, from the city, that read "High Prowl Area - Hide Your Valuables."
Good grief.
My eyes get plenty of exercise with all the rolling they do.
I always, without fail, make a point of locking my car when it is in the driveway; not because there is anything of particular value in there...except for the garage door opener. Leaving the car unlocked there is a veritable open invitation for some nefarious person to come into my house!
I posted a comment earlier, I KNOW it!
At any rate, my eyeballs are well exercised from all the eye rolling I do on a daily basis.
Seriously? Where are my comments disappearing to?
Here goes, *third times the charm, right?"
...and then it dawns on me..."Comment moderation has been enabled." So, Pearl please - just delete the extraneous comments. :-)
It is one thing most of us do automaticly we get out and lock the car, I have a few times return to my locked car to find a window down but nothing taken from the car.
I was taught as a child never to leave valuable items in the car more so in plain view, dad would have us lock stuff in the boot out of sight
Lock up, lock up and get a dog or two, (not in the car, obviously!) Great inhibitors of dodgy behaviour . . .
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