When I go out in the morning to fetch the newspaper I check all of the car windows. I haven’t been doing that for very long, just the past few days. We’ve had a rash of burglaries in our neighborhood. At first it was someone rifling through unlocked cars. We lost about $800 worth of Ipods, DVD players, a Nintendo DS and a bunch of games. A couple of neighborhoods were hit we were told.
Well, now someone is not satisfied with the unlocked cars because a window was smashed the other night. So now we’re all paranoid. The neighborhood watch has been resurrected, and every stranger is suspect.
There are only 59 homes in the neighborhood, and the homeowners’ association is quite active. So we pretty much know everyone else.
I challenged a college-aged kid selling magazines the other day. Yes, it was a little extreme, but I admitted to him that we’re all at a heightened state of alert. We’ve had more than a couple of scam artists “selling” magazines in the past. They case the neighborhood for a while noting who walks their dog, who lives in the green house, who’s always watering their garden. Then they ring your bell and say “Hi, my name’s Doug. I’m Mrs. Henderson’s grandson. You know, the lady who walks her pugs every evening? I’m selling these magazines to help with my college tuition…”
The subscriptions are over-priced, but no matter, because if you buy one you’ll never receive the magazine anyway. Most folks don’t even buy the subscription but will make a donation toward their college costs. Nice people, the one’s who give money; nasty robbers, those who take.
Don’t think the burglars and robbers are related, but at this point we don’t care. They’re both taking something from us, and we really don’t want them to.
It’s hard taking inventory every morning. Even if nothing’s missing it’s still a tough reminder that bad things happen. So, glass is intact, that’s one check mark on the list. I’ll probably put the list down before too soon but never my guard.
Categories: What was I thinking?
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