When we were living in the city of Chicago, we had a bunch of bicycles stolen and a window in my car was shot out.
Apart from that we've been pretty lucky.
Have you considered booby traps? Of course, that could cause retaliation - someone breaking into your truck getting broken glass embedded in his hand might get so ....ed off that he takes a baseball bat to all your windows. And there's always the possibility that you'll forget about the booby traps and harm yourself inadvertently.
ex70's, I'm so sorry to hear about your trucks and that it's not the first time has to be truly frustrating.
Right after I moved here my car was stolen.
I had been out partying with new friends the night before and when I went out to get in my car the next day I couldn't find it. I thought I must have had a lot more to drink the night before than I thought I did. :D--> But the more I looked, the more I knew I would not have parked my car so far away from the apartment.
Being from a very small southern town, I did not have theft insurance on my car. It was never a problem or concern. They actually found my car, though, about a week later. It smelled so bad and the steering column was busted up. I felt violated and could not drive the car at all. My daddy sold the car for me and used that money to help finance a different used car.
Other than some hard life lessons on getting screwed by friends, that's pretty much my only experience with crime.
Oh, I almost forgot. I was robbed at gunpoint when I worked at a convenience store while in college.
I thought the guy was a regular playing a joke on me at first and that seemed to really p*ss him off. When I realized he was serious, I got nervous, but as he ran out of the store I got really mad and started chasing him! I don't know what I would have done if I had caught him, but I was on his tail for a good 3 miles before stopping to call th cops.
They caught him because he dropped his coat while he was running from me. It had his ID and other information in it, so the cops called and told him to come get his coat at the station. He did. :D-->
Funny thing is, he didn't match any of the information I gave them when filing the police report. Stress does amazing things to one's memory.
Crime is getting worse here too, ex70. Our town is shrinking more than growing. We have around 86,000 population -- and despite the size, there was no gang activity or *big city* problems until about 15 or so years ago.
Now it seems like there's something new every day. Some of the main characters getting caught these days in drug busts are from really big towns hundreds of miles away. Guess they finally heard Duluth was wide open for business. :(-->
Our crime rate has gone down in CA thanks to the 3-Strikes law. It's funny but when you lock up bad guys they don't victimize people.
Last election some a-holes put a proposition on the ballot that would greatly weaken 3-Strikes. Public sentiment turned against that and it was voted down.
As for being affected, our truck was stolen from the trolley station where I park it. It was found three weeks later by a police officer who found it parked in on the street in another part of town. That was a surprise! It was in ok condition too, except that the thief took off the tail gate which had a big dent in it. He did me a favor, I was trying to get it off myself.
We were burglarized in 1989 by some guy who climbed through the kitchen window while we were gone. I prayed for justice, not our stuff. Lo and behold a print that he had left behind identified him, and as well the guy was busted doing another job. He went to prison. But he's out by now no doubt.
In 1982 when I was on "assignment" in the south, I was held up by a guy with a gun in the parking lot of the apt. where I lived. He took my purse. (Glasses were on my face, keys in my hand and new license in the mail. I lost my make-up bag and $7.00)
Later that year somebody tried to strangle me while I was laying on a blanket reading a book. I rolled around and rebuked him in the name of Jesus Christ and he ran away.
In all of these, I was a victim but God still blessed me.
But needless to say, I do not think "It can't happen to me" when it comes to crime.
Over the last thirty-five years I've lost some tools, a rear license plate, a 2-way radio and some more tools. At one place where I worked, a thief made a run through the building grabbing anything shiny in his path. I lost a shotgun microphone and a radio.
What ....ed me off more than any of that was when some prick went down the street poking holes in tires. No reason, just being a prick. Took me the afternoon to tube the tire he punctured.
I live in a very small rural town of about 200 or less...its getting less as the elderly die off.
This year we have had more crime than any other.
A man kidnapped his 2 year old son from his exwife and he was mentally unstable. We had helicopters and police cars with lights all over. Of course with all the excitement my son was going to the window waving at them. I nearly had a heart attack...
Anyways they found him in a motel room and the 2 year old was in the car...this is winter time mind you!!!!
We have a bar here (just about the only business besides the post office) and there are fights that go on there. Someone got knived there and went running. Dropped the knife so the police was going door to door to find out if any of us had seen it.
Some kid was breaking into cars and taking stereos and he was caught breaking into the bar.
Did a restraining order on a kid because she had threatened my son's life and was into withcraft/satanism.
Other than all that we live in a very quiet town and of course nothing ever happens around here.... -->
Hmm. we don't lock our cars. I have never had a vehicle stolen from me. When we lived in Southern California [Atwater, Ca] we kept the keys in the vehicles, and our house did not have a lock on the doors.
Italy had a very high crime rate where we lived; shootings, stabbings, muggings, rapes everyday. And every little neghiborhood was the same, they all had it.
Here in Norwich we have a population of: 36,177. One block away from our home is a city park w/ gangs and drugs, and since we have been stateside one drive-by shooting happened there. I read our local newspaper 'police log' daily, the number and types of arrests I see, amaze me. Some kind of robbery, theft, or larceny at least 10 a week. And from watching the storys we have a dozen murders a year.
Does that make it a big city? To me it is a lot of crime. It is too big for me.
While teaching in an inner city school, a kid swiped my wallet. He pulled it out of my purse while I was busy elsewhere. Far be it from the powers that be to give lowly teachers even a locker. I didn't even have a closet for my coat so I stuffed it in a filing cabinet assigned to me.
My car was seriously keyed while I worked there. But I would never drive a really good new car near the place...something would be missing from it if I did.
Now around this area, I never go anywhere alone at night. That is just as much a function of disability as it is prudence. I carry a small purse with a limited amount of cash and 1 credit card. My driver's license and registration and my bank ATM card are carried in a different Wallet type folder.
Someone tried to mug me in an elevator in a high rise when I was younger. I grabbed the family jewels and yanked down very hard....and he was still on the elevator floor when the police came.
Around ten years ago, somebody stole about two dozen cassette tapes out of my car when it was parked in my driveway. One of the few times I didn't lock it, of course.
I was sure it was some kid who was probably disappointed when he found out he'd stolen John Denver, Simon & Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, the Beach Boys, Peter Paul & Mary and like that. I thought whoever took them might just dump them somewhere, but they never turned up.
Some of them were irreplacable, including a "History of Motown" tape that I had recorded off the radio and really wish I had back.
Darn punk kids.
Its illegal here to leave the keys in a car if nobody's in it, even if its running in your own driveway to warm up.
Oh, I forgot. My wallet was stolen at ROA. Really. Was working in a drink stand and it was left out in view. It was the Rock after all.....
Oh yeah, a waitress I worked with in a restaurant stole $10 out of my wallet. I couldn't prove it was her though but I'm quite sure it was.
When I was in Fellow Laborers, a guy I was hanging out with stole our family fund out of the hall closet. Couldn't prove that either but I'm sure it was him.
Oh but you can't "punish" these people... the thiefs, the rapists, muggers... NO NO NO...
They MUST be rehabilitated....!!!!!!!
Somewhere Somehow, when everyone else learned that you don't take things that don't belong to you... THEY didn't learn that!!! So now we have to have a government program to teach teenagers and other grown people NOT to take things that don't belong to them!!!
I have a few ideas about crime: I live in a small town in north STL county. I estimate that 70% of the kids in my kids' schools are black. Yet we have had no real problems. Police here openly racially profile, though.
Actually, we did have a scare maybe a year ago. My wife was driving to work, stopped at a light, when a man opened the way back door (van) and climbed in and said "Drive!" He had her take him 5 miles or so and told her to stop at a certain intersection and got out and ran. It was 5 below zero that day and the guy only scared the crap out of her so nothing much happened. We told police but heard nothing.
I second whoever said...Abigail! Yes, big dogs are good at "warding off evil" all right; we have a black lab chou(sp) mix.
I've been fortunate over all. Once I lived for a time in downtown San Franciso (corner of Geary and Larkin for you natives). I was into taking walks late at night. Two nights in a row I missed a murder by a block and a half hour.
I know I could be a victim of just about anything, but nothing has affected me to the point that I worry.
When I lived in Maryland a few years ago (this happened in 1989) my brand new battery was stolen from my pick-up truck, and replaced with this dead-celled, swollen, dirty old dud battery.
I called the police, and when I mentioned that the thief had left the dud in it's place, they said that they could not do much more than take a statement because the thief had left a like replacement. I asked, "what do you mean?" They said that there is (was?) an old law on the books that allowed someone to trade a horse for a horse, lantern for a lantern, a carriage for a carriage, an etcetera for an etcetera, from back in the 1800's sometime. This way, if a traveler had a tired horse, he could just swap it with one that a farmer or other person had and without their consent - but ONLY if he left the old one in its place. Apparently, this law applies to all kinds of things, including car batteries - working or not! This is one of those OLD outdated laws still on the books that worked in the thief's favor. Whether they ever got around to repealing that law since then, I don't know.
We had a couple of scares in the old neighborhood, but never any direct problems.
So far it has been the same here. However, it really disturbs me to be driving home from school with the kids and see groups of three or four men sitting out front near the corner store drinking booze out of paper bags. :(-->
And I wouldn't be suprised if a numer of the kids who live in this neighborhood grow up to be criminals.
When we were in Twi we lived in a large city. Our neighborhood was a nice middle class one, starter homes built in the 50s, with lots of retired people and young families. But about 2 miles away was a large apartment community that had a bad reputation--meth etc. Once one of my elderly neighbors found a bag of drug parafenalia on the ground not far from our house.
We also had a break in while we were home sleeping. Very scary. The boy ran away when he realized there were people in the house. We got a large dog then. He was part pit bull but not aggressive, a lovely animal, my next door neighbor had him but she had two other large dogs, so she gave him to us. He slept in the house at night and I had no further worries.
Pets were not very well thought of in TWI, but we weren't corps or HFC so we squeaked by. Plus I don't think our HFC knew that Prince was part pit bull. Whenever he came over we just put the dog in the back yard.
Now we live in a small town. We have had no problems here in 4 years except for loose dogs. And we have a neighbor that quit taking meds and busted out his own windows, but that didn't really affect us. His dad got him back into treatment.
We still have a large dog (not Prince, he is gone)that sleeps in the house. I don't know if I'll ever be without one.
Abigail: Good point. In Grand Rapids, MI where I lived, it just seemed like there were headlines all the time. A female Burger King late nite worker got punched in the face HARD through the drive thru window. A 35 yr old late nite 7-11 worker was shot to death by 2 black guys who robbed the place. A woman was shot while sitting on her porch. A Jordanian store owner was gunned down during a robbery. The word was it was all gang related...that you'd be allowed to join a gang if you had a murder on your "resume". But this kind of stuff seemed to happen all the time in GR. Not so in STL.
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Steve!
When we were living in the city of Chicago, we had a bunch of bicycles stolen and a window in my car was shot out.
Apart from that we've been pretty lucky.
Have you considered booby traps? Of course, that could cause retaliation - someone breaking into your truck getting broken glass embedded in his hand might get so ....ed off that he takes a baseball bat to all your windows. And there's always the possibility that you'll forget about the booby traps and harm yourself inadvertently.
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Belle
ex70's, I'm so sorry to hear about your trucks and that it's not the first time has to be truly frustrating.
Right after I moved here my car was stolen.
I had been out partying with new friends the night before and when I went out to get in my car the next day I couldn't find it. I thought I must have had a lot more to drink the night before than I thought I did.
:D--> But the more I looked, the more I knew I would not have parked my car so far away from the apartment.
Being from a very small southern town, I did not have theft insurance on my car. It was never a problem or concern. They actually found my car, though, about a week later. It smelled so bad and the steering column was busted up. I felt violated and could not drive the car at all. My daddy sold the car for me and used that money to help finance a different used car.
Other than some hard life lessons on getting screwed by friends, that's pretty much my only experience with crime.
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Belle
Oh, I almost forgot. I was robbed at gunpoint when I worked at a convenience store while in college.
I thought the guy was a regular playing a joke on me at first and that seemed to really p*ss him off. When I realized he was serious, I got nervous, but as he ran out of the store I got really mad and started chasing him! I don't know what I would have done if I had caught him, but I was on his tail for a good 3 miles before stopping to call th cops.
They caught him because he dropped his coat while he was running from me. It had his ID and other information in it, so the cops called and told him to come get his coat at the station. He did.
:D-->
Funny thing is, he didn't match any of the information I gave them when filing the police report. Stress does amazing things to one's memory.
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Abigail
I've found having large dogs can be a great deterent, especially the husky who likes to sleep outdoors at night.
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dmiller
Crime is getting worse here too, ex70. Our town is shrinking more than growing. We have around 86,000 population -- and despite the size, there was no gang activity or *big city* problems until about 15 or so years ago.
Now it seems like there's something new every day. Some of the main characters getting caught these days in drug busts are from really big towns hundreds of miles away. Guess they finally heard Duluth was wide open for business.
:(-->
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outandabout
Our crime rate has gone down in CA thanks to the 3-Strikes law. It's funny but when you lock up bad guys they don't victimize people.
Last election some a-holes put a proposition on the ballot that would greatly weaken 3-Strikes. Public sentiment turned against that and it was voted down.
As for being affected, our truck was stolen from the trolley station where I park it. It was found three weeks later by a police officer who found it parked in on the street in another part of town. That was a surprise! It was in ok condition too, except that the thief took off the tail gate which had a big dent in it. He did me a favor, I was trying to get it off myself.
We were burglarized in 1989 by some guy who climbed through the kitchen window while we were gone. I prayed for justice, not our stuff. Lo and behold a print that he had left behind identified him, and as well the guy was busted doing another job. He went to prison. But he's out by now no doubt.
In 1982 when I was on "assignment" in the south, I was held up by a guy with a gun in the parking lot of the apt. where I lived. He took my purse. (Glasses were on my face, keys in my hand and new license in the mail. I lost my make-up bag and $7.00)
Later that year somebody tried to strangle me while I was laying on a blanket reading a book. I rolled around and rebuked him in the name of Jesus Christ and he ran away.
In all of these, I was a victim but God still blessed me.
But needless to say, I do not think "It can't happen to me" when it comes to crime.
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Jim
Over the last thirty-five years I've lost some tools, a rear license plate, a 2-way radio and some more tools. At one place where I worked, a thief made a run through the building grabbing anything shiny in his path. I lost a shotgun microphone and a radio.
What ....ed me off more than any of that was when some prick went down the street poking holes in tires. No reason, just being a prick. Took me the afternoon to tube the tire he punctured.
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vickles
I live in a very small rural town of about 200 or less...its getting less as the elderly die off.
This year we have had more crime than any other.
A man kidnapped his 2 year old son from his exwife and he was mentally unstable. We had helicopters and police cars with lights all over. Of course with all the excitement my son was going to the window waving at them. I nearly had a heart attack...
Anyways they found him in a motel room and the 2 year old was in the car...this is winter time mind you!!!!
We have a bar here (just about the only business besides the post office) and there are fights that go on there. Someone got knived there and went running. Dropped the knife so the police was going door to door to find out if any of us had seen it.
Some kid was breaking into cars and taking stereos and he was caught breaking into the bar.
Did a restraining order on a kid because she had threatened my son's life and was into withcraft/satanism.
Other than all that we live in a very quiet town and of course nothing ever happens around here....
-->
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Galen
Hmm. we don't lock our cars. I have never had a vehicle stolen from me. When we lived in Southern California [Atwater, Ca] we kept the keys in the vehicles, and our house did not have a lock on the doors.
Italy had a very high crime rate where we lived; shootings, stabbings, muggings, rapes everyday. And every little neghiborhood was the same, they all had it.
Here in Norwich we have a population of: 36,177. One block away from our home is a city park w/ gangs and drugs, and since we have been stateside one drive-by shooting happened there. I read our local newspaper 'police log' daily, the number and types of arrests I see, amaze me. Some kind of robbery, theft, or larceny at least 10 a week. And from watching the storys we have a dozen murders a year.
Does that make it a big city? To me it is a lot of crime. It is too big for me.
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krys
It has affected me in some subtle ways.
While teaching in an inner city school, a kid swiped my wallet. He pulled it out of my purse while I was busy elsewhere. Far be it from the powers that be to give lowly teachers even a locker. I didn't even have a closet for my coat so I stuffed it in a filing cabinet assigned to me.
My car was seriously keyed while I worked there. But I would never drive a really good new car near the place...something would be missing from it if I did.
Now around this area, I never go anywhere alone at night. That is just as much a function of disability as it is prudence. I carry a small purse with a limited amount of cash and 1 credit card. My driver's license and registration and my bank ATM card are carried in a different Wallet type folder.
Someone tried to mug me in an elevator in a high rise when I was younger. I grabbed the family jewels and yanked down very hard....and he was still on the elevator floor when the police came.
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Pirate1974
Around ten years ago, somebody stole about two dozen cassette tapes out of my car when it was parked in my driveway. One of the few times I didn't lock it, of course.
I was sure it was some kid who was probably disappointed when he found out he'd stolen John Denver, Simon & Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, the Beach Boys, Peter Paul & Mary and like that. I thought whoever took them might just dump them somewhere, but they never turned up.
Some of them were irreplacable, including a "History of Motown" tape that I had recorded off the radio and really wish I had back.
Darn punk kids.
Its illegal here to leave the keys in a car if nobody's in it, even if its running in your own driveway to warm up.
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outandabout
Oh, I forgot. My wallet was stolen at ROA. Really. Was working in a drink stand and it was left out in view. It was the Rock after all.....
Oh yeah, a waitress I worked with in a restaurant stole $10 out of my wallet. I couldn't prove it was her though but I'm quite sure it was.
When I was in Fellow Laborers, a guy I was hanging out with stole our family fund out of the hall closet. Couldn't prove that either but I'm sure it was him.
Lots of thieves out there.
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Al Poole
Oh but you can't "punish" these people... the thiefs, the rapists, muggers... NO NO NO...
They MUST be rehabilitated....!!!!!!!
Somewhere Somehow, when everyone else learned that you don't take things that don't belong to you... THEY didn't learn that!!! So now we have to have a government program to teach teenagers and other grown people NOT to take things that don't belong to them!!!
Go figure!!!!!!! makes you go Hmmmmmmmmmm???
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ex70sHouston
I think we need to do it the way Islam does it. Cut off a hand a few times and watch crime drop.
We could always do with a public hanging.
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Jim
We caught someone stealing from the horn-of-plenty after twig. He was suitably reproved.
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johniam
I have a few ideas about crime: I live in a small town in north STL county. I estimate that 70% of the kids in my kids' schools are black. Yet we have had no real problems. Police here openly racially profile, though.
Actually, we did have a scare maybe a year ago. My wife was driving to work, stopped at a light, when a man opened the way back door (van) and climbed in and said "Drive!" He had her take him 5 miles or so and told her to stop at a certain intersection and got out and ran. It was 5 below zero that day and the guy only scared the crap out of her so nothing much happened. We told police but heard nothing.
I second whoever said...Abigail! Yes, big dogs are good at "warding off evil" all right; we have a black lab chou(sp) mix.
I've been fortunate over all. Once I lived for a time in downtown San Franciso (corner of Geary and Larkin for you natives). I was into taking walks late at night. Two nights in a row I missed a murder by a block and a half hour.
I know I could be a victim of just about anything, but nothing has affected me to the point that I worry.
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Shellon
John: "I estimate that 70% of the kids in my kids' schools are black. Yet we have had no real problems."
I don't understand what the color of the children has to do with anything.
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krys
I think what he meant to say was that there is racial profiling in an area where there are no real problems. At least that's the way I read it.
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Steve Swenton
When I lived in Maryland a few years ago (this happened in 1989) my brand new battery was stolen from my pick-up truck, and replaced with this dead-celled, swollen, dirty old dud battery.
I called the police, and when I mentioned that the thief had left the dud in it's place, they said that they could not do much more than take a statement because the thief had left a like replacement. I asked, "what do you mean?" They said that there is (was?) an old law on the books that allowed someone to trade a horse for a horse, lantern for a lantern, a carriage for a carriage, an etcetera for an etcetera, from back in the 1800's sometime. This way, if a traveler had a tired horse, he could just swap it with one that a farmer or other person had and without their consent - but ONLY if he left the old one in its place. Apparently, this law applies to all kinds of things, including car batteries - working or not! This is one of those OLD outdated laws still on the books that worked in the thief's favor. Whether they ever got around to repealing that law since then, I don't know.
Just a thought...
Steve.
¥
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Abigail
We had a couple of scares in the old neighborhood, but never any direct problems.
So far it has been the same here. However, it really disturbs me to be driving home from school with the kids and see groups of three or four men sitting out front near the corner store drinking booze out of paper bags.
:(-->
And I wouldn't be suprised if a numer of the kids who live in this neighborhood grow up to be criminals.
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johniam
Shellon:
quote: I don't understand what the color of the children has to do with anything.
I don't know what parallel universe you've been living in, but in the world I live in, black people are more likely to commit crime than white people.
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Abigail
or get arrested for a crime
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Bramble
When we were in Twi we lived in a large city. Our neighborhood was a nice middle class one, starter homes built in the 50s, with lots of retired people and young families. But about 2 miles away was a large apartment community that had a bad reputation--meth etc. Once one of my elderly neighbors found a bag of drug parafenalia on the ground not far from our house.
We also had a break in while we were home sleeping. Very scary. The boy ran away when he realized there were people in the house. We got a large dog then. He was part pit bull but not aggressive, a lovely animal, my next door neighbor had him but she had two other large dogs, so she gave him to us. He slept in the house at night and I had no further worries.
Pets were not very well thought of in TWI, but we weren't corps or HFC so we squeaked by. Plus I don't think our HFC knew that Prince was part pit bull. Whenever he came over we just put the dog in the back yard.
Now we live in a small town. We have had no problems here in 4 years except for loose dogs. And we have a neighbor that quit taking meds and busted out his own windows, but that didn't really affect us. His dad got him back into treatment.
We still have a large dog (not Prince, he is gone)that sleeps in the house. I don't know if I'll ever be without one.
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johniam
Abigail: Good point. In Grand Rapids, MI where I lived, it just seemed like there were headlines all the time. A female Burger King late nite worker got punched in the face HARD through the drive thru window. A 35 yr old late nite 7-11 worker was shot to death by 2 black guys who robbed the place. A woman was shot while sitting on her porch. A Jordanian store owner was gunned down during a robbery. The word was it was all gang related...that you'd be allowed to join a gang if you had a murder on your "resume". But this kind of stuff seemed to happen all the time in GR. Not so in STL.
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