- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Messages
- 39,793
This is getting annoying
Now we don't lock our cars. We live in an older, but very decent, neighborhood. Our city has a very passive underclass element ..one or two murders a year ..typically drug related ..the #1 crime is bike theft ..yes, bike theft ..usually employed as transportation when some low lifes are caught at one end of town and have to get home. They even employ a semi- "pony express" at times ..ditching one stolen bike when a more suitable ride is discovered enroute home. These are typically discarded in the low life's neighborhood and are frequently recovered if the cops have a report on the theft in a timely manner. There are also several bike theft rings in the area. They steal bikes and mix and match various components to mask the original ownership. Upon my fist bike theft ..I purchased an engraver and marked each sub component with my name, address, phone # and (pre-identity theft era) my SS#. The next bike that was stolen ....I got a call from two townships away saying that they found it abandoned on the side of the road. Someone had apparently figured that it wasn't worth "chopping". Anyway ..that will index our "criminal element" in our city. Oh ..we have drugs and this and that ..but for the most part ...nada.
From time to time all the residents on the street will find all their doors ajar on cars that have not been locked. No vandalism ...just open glove boxes and riffled through interiors. Since we own jeeps with soft tops ..we don't lock them up. Although it is very easy to just unzip the rear quarter windows for access, we don't want to risk some jerk using a knife and having that hassle. We don't leave anything inside that's worth stealing ..or if it is ...who cares
.
Anyway, one time, the thief didn't just go through my jeep ...he/she stole the ashtray. We both tend to throw our loose change in it. Okay ..so I go to the ebay jeep store and get a new one ..$19. No problem ..I just figured that they either stole it for another jeep ...or took it as a unit and threw it away somewhere else to save time.
Well two nights ago ...BOTH our jeeps had their ashtrays stolen. The contents, minus the change, was deposited on the floor. Among them were prepaid fundraising sandwich tickets. At first we didn't see the tickets ..and were hoping to catch the kid using them (they're numbered for who sold them and this was a limited event).
Anyway, as near as we can figure, this is a neighbors kid that we know and who has his/her fingerprints on file somewhere and figures that they (the police) would actually go to the trouble of running them to determine who stole an auto ashtray ...so instead of wearing gloves ..they just steal the ashtray.
We've decided to not replace them ..or at least install any replacements that I buy.
Go figure
This is such a strange occurance ..I had to share it with you.
Now we don't lock our cars. We live in an older, but very decent, neighborhood. Our city has a very passive underclass element ..one or two murders a year ..typically drug related ..the #1 crime is bike theft ..yes, bike theft ..usually employed as transportation when some low lifes are caught at one end of town and have to get home. They even employ a semi- "pony express" at times ..ditching one stolen bike when a more suitable ride is discovered enroute home. These are typically discarded in the low life's neighborhood and are frequently recovered if the cops have a report on the theft in a timely manner. There are also several bike theft rings in the area. They steal bikes and mix and match various components to mask the original ownership. Upon my fist bike theft ..I purchased an engraver and marked each sub component with my name, address, phone # and (pre-identity theft era) my SS#. The next bike that was stolen ....I got a call from two townships away saying that they found it abandoned on the side of the road. Someone had apparently figured that it wasn't worth "chopping". Anyway ..that will index our "criminal element" in our city. Oh ..we have drugs and this and that ..but for the most part ...nada.
From time to time all the residents on the street will find all their doors ajar on cars that have not been locked. No vandalism ...just open glove boxes and riffled through interiors. Since we own jeeps with soft tops ..we don't lock them up. Although it is very easy to just unzip the rear quarter windows for access, we don't want to risk some jerk using a knife and having that hassle. We don't leave anything inside that's worth stealing ..or if it is ...who cares
Anyway, one time, the thief didn't just go through my jeep ...he/she stole the ashtray. We both tend to throw our loose change in it. Okay ..so I go to the ebay jeep store and get a new one ..$19. No problem ..I just figured that they either stole it for another jeep ...or took it as a unit and threw it away somewhere else to save time.
Well two nights ago ...BOTH our jeeps had their ashtrays stolen. The contents, minus the change, was deposited on the floor. Among them were prepaid fundraising sandwich tickets. At first we didn't see the tickets ..and were hoping to catch the kid using them (they're numbered for who sold them and this was a limited event).
Anyway, as near as we can figure, this is a neighbors kid that we know and who has his/her fingerprints on file somewhere and figures that they (the police) would actually go to the trouble of running them to determine who stole an auto ashtray ...so instead of wearing gloves ..they just steal the ashtray.
We've decided to not replace them ..or at least install any replacements that I buy.
Go figure
This is such a strange occurance ..I had to share it with you.
