Spiky Bugger
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Messages
- 6,364
We went to Neighborhood Watch Meeting...free tacos, why not, right?...a couple of weeks ago. Got on the email list for weekly crime reports. Listened to tales of crime, mostly burglaries. Common approach: guy goes to door, rings bell, no answer (?), he goes to the back and breaks in while you are at work or out and about. (We ordered a home security system. It will be here Saturday.)
So, on Monday, I'm sprawled out on the sofa, reading, right under the living room windows, curtains only SLIGHTLY OPEN, that abut the front porch. Mr. Sue is gone...no car is visible...the house looks like a burglary target.
Doorbell rings. Whining, I get up--at which point I suddenly became visible from the porch through the slightly open curtains. I walk the three whole steps to the door, peek out the peep hole, and the bell ringer dude is BRISKLY walking away...off the porch, mostly past the driveway, and then...as I watch...he goes past my next door neighbor's house...the one with cars in the driveway.
So...not a salesman. A salesman would have gone to the next house. And he had nothing resembling literature--flyers, brochures, pamphlets--to use to sell his wares. No tools. He wasn't trying to sell me goods or services.
I called the cops.
Mr. Sue showed up right after that, announcing that cops were slowly driving on our street, in the direction I had given them.
I told MiniSue, who gave me a C- on my suspect description info. These days, bad guys wear layers of clothes, so the blue plaid shirt that you described to the cops morphs into a tie-dyed red and green "Dumb Ass for President" t-shirt. But they don't usually have a spare pair of shoes. Notice the shoes.
Anyway, today the Neighborhood Watch email showed up. It tells us that on Thursday and Friday, two nearby residential burglaries occurred, one between noon and 10:00 p.m., the other between 3:00 p.m. and midnight (what do you wanna bet those victims are shift workers), one a block north of here and one a block south.
(Don't tell me to move to a better area...the problem is that it is a relatively "better" area...that's why the bad guys make house calls here and not just where they live.)
I guess I need to add a security camera, too. Damn.
So, on Monday, I'm sprawled out on the sofa, reading, right under the living room windows, curtains only SLIGHTLY OPEN, that abut the front porch. Mr. Sue is gone...no car is visible...the house looks like a burglary target.
Doorbell rings. Whining, I get up--at which point I suddenly became visible from the porch through the slightly open curtains. I walk the three whole steps to the door, peek out the peep hole, and the bell ringer dude is BRISKLY walking away...off the porch, mostly past the driveway, and then...as I watch...he goes past my next door neighbor's house...the one with cars in the driveway.
So...not a salesman. A salesman would have gone to the next house. And he had nothing resembling literature--flyers, brochures, pamphlets--to use to sell his wares. No tools. He wasn't trying to sell me goods or services.
I called the cops.
Mr. Sue showed up right after that, announcing that cops were slowly driving on our street, in the direction I had given them.
I told MiniSue, who gave me a C- on my suspect description info. These days, bad guys wear layers of clothes, so the blue plaid shirt that you described to the cops morphs into a tie-dyed red and green "Dumb Ass for President" t-shirt. But they don't usually have a spare pair of shoes. Notice the shoes.
Anyway, today the Neighborhood Watch email showed up. It tells us that on Thursday and Friday, two nearby residential burglaries occurred, one between noon and 10:00 p.m., the other between 3:00 p.m. and midnight (what do you wanna bet those victims are shift workers), one a block north of here and one a block south.
(Don't tell me to move to a better area...the problem is that it is a relatively "better" area...that's why the bad guys make house calls here and not just where they live.)
I guess I need to add a security camera, too. Damn.
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