Methy Mike and the Sketchy Bunch

As we've discussed previously, the downtown cores of many cities are now filled with the homeless and addicted and my city is no exception. When my kids were younger we had numerous bicycles stolen off our deck. My son's 4-wheeler front wheels were stolen from my driveway.

With the return of the nice weather, we have the return of what are called "Car Hoppers" locally, which are the degenerates that go around checking door handles and sometimes breaking car windows when there's something of value visible.

My wife's truck is still in the body shop, so she has been driving my Jeep since she ran out of rental coverage last Monday, while I've been driving my parent's new GC-L. We have a music festival that happens downtown and she drove my Jeep down to take our daughter and her friend to the show.

Next day, she goes out and finds the passenger mirror on the Jeep pushed in, which means one of these "down on their luck" individuals made their way up my driveway and checked the vehicles. She pushed the mirror out and was on her way.

Well, later that afternoon, when she comes out of work, she actually takes a second to look at the vehicle and there are scuffs on it. She feels just sick and doesn't want to tell me, but she does when she gets home and I go out and take a look. There's a scratch on the rear passenger-side door that leads into a smear-like scuff, then a break, then another on the passenger door, then another on the fender, come around to the driver's side, there's another on the fender and another on the driver's door.

These are all at the same height. This is from a bicycle. It's not uncommon for hoppers, which regularly get around on bikes, to not get off the bikes, and just slide off the seat and walk the bike around the vehicle as they try the doors, which, as one would expect, means the handlebars are contacting the vehicle, hence the smear-like scuffs, these are from the handle grips.

I was not pleased by this discovery.

Got out the Meguiars polish, all of the rubber smear came off thankfully, but the scratch is well into the clear and probably needs professional correction, but worse, there's now a small dent in the fender that was in the middle of the smear:
View attachment 288402

But it gets better!

I assume this happened at the music festival, since it would have been difficult to go around the vehicle on a bicycle in my driveway given its proximity to my dad's Jeep, and there were no similar marks on it.

However, on the side where the mirror was pushed in? There's a dent on the window trim and it's pulled out about 1/4" and won't go back to where it's supposed to. So, that's a trip to the body shop to replace a piece that was recently replaced due to hail damage 🤬

I don't want to fence my front yard, it would look a bit silly IMHO in this neighbourhood, but it's extremely frustrating to know that millions of tax dollars are being poured into not solving this crisis, but effectively perpetuating it, while the city mostly ignores their inability or unwillingness to actually do something effective and instead hand waves and blows millions on bizarre "rejuvenation" projects in areas that get little traffic from the people paying for them because they are crawling with prostitutes, addicts and homeless, many with MAJOR mental health issues and several that are walking biohazards with multiple strains of hepatitis and other infectious diseases.
Yep, had an apartment in St John’s for a year - 100% sure I only forgot to lock my rental car once bcs I unloaded perishable food and then settled in …
Really missed not having my jacket (and other stuff) in the am … 🥶
 
@OVERKILL I agree with you that mandated rehabilitation and confinement to asylums, and not enabling, is our best course of action (if we can get politicians on board) to deal with this current scourge of ne’er-do-wells.

I think as a society we’ve lost the knowledge that our great-grandfathers had, with regard to this.

A very, very wise man who lived a long time ago said “there’s nothing new under the Sun”.

Problem individuals like you’re talking about have always existed, maybe not exactly like today, but they’ve always been around.

I also agree with you that a big source of energy for this crisis is the so-called “bleeding hearts” whose own need for some sort of emotional fulfillment is fueling this problem through enabling.

In Memphis, Tennessee, where I’m from, there’s a large tract of land on what used to be the eastern edge of town. Today it’s called Shelby Farms, but it used to be called the “Penal Farm”, because there’s a prison complex out there, and, once upon a time, prior to the “bleeding hearts” gaining control in Shelby County, it was self-sufficient.

Crops were grown and processed, and there were cattle, pigs, chickens, etc, there was a dairy, and all work was done by the inmates, under supervision. It’s my understanding that there were even surpluses, which were sold to offset costs and pay salaries.

Heck, when I was a kid back in the ‘80s, my dad took me out to the public shooting range at the Penal Farm, and they had inmate “trustees” working at the firing range (yes, inmates, within easy reach of guns!). (Would that be done today? I don’t think so. What has changed?)

That kind of setup has several benefits. First, it makes the operation virtually independent of taxpayer input. And secondly, giving people who have screwed up, the chance to learn to work, possibly learn a trade, and earn a “path back” to redemption and to rejoin productive society if they want to.

But, again, certain people didn’t like it, and when they got into decision making roles, they put a stop to it.

Now the prison is payed for by tax dollars. 🙄 And instead of working the fields and the dairy, etc, and being rehabilitated and readied to re-enter society, the inmates sit inside the prison, getting a higher education in a life of crime. 🤦🏼‍♂️

It’s hard to talk about the solutions to the problems of modern society without getting into P.

I’ll just say that the events of late last year through today, here in the USA, have given me some hope that things can turn around.
 
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We have a facility in Toronto, CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) which offers a full range of treatment options meant to align with the level of care required and this is everything from a full lockdown wing to outpatient with everything in between. It's a sprawling facility broken up by care type and has a history of success. Ultimately, I think some considerable (mandatory) time in a place like this, with staff trained in actually dealing with addiction and mental health issues offers a far greater probability for success than jail, particularly given the nature of the offences that most of these people end up charged for.

I think a large portion of them, with proper inpatient treatment and a gradual reintroduction to society and actually being followed by a healthcare worker could once again be productive members of society, able to pay their own way, isn't that what we really want? It should be. This idea that we are being compassionate by endlessly giving them free drugs until their brains are tapioca and they end up dead or permanently living in some zombie state in a hospital is pure delusion cooked up by people who love the idea of making themselves feel good that they are "doing something", while they are ultimately helping put the noose around their necks.

Unfortunately, nobody seems willing to invest in facilities like CAMH. We scrapped all the mental health asylums, taking the problem out of the institution and inflicting it on the population, one that is ill equipped to handle it and the result has, predictably, been a disaster.

I'm not saying it is the case in your city, but for some cities, it's a cash cow. LA is a great example. Sure, they are doing so many good things, but overall, the expenditures are insanely high for very little result. Lots of political favors, $$$ jobs, and money. It's counterproductive, and there is no real desire to address the issue(s) because if successful, the money will cease to flow.
 
I'd have to move into the country, which has some disadvantages in terms of conveniences we presently enjoy, but I have considered it. Presently, we are a few blocks from my (aging) parents, which is something kept in mind due to health (and other) emergencies. I aided my dad with installing cameras around their generous triple-lot for the same reason, they've had things stolen out of their driveway (my son had his tools stolen out of the back of the Ranger when it was stored at their place), this is truly a universal problem no matter where you reside.

Moving to the country doesn't eliminate it completely either...

When I first moved into my house early 2022, which is semi rural, some un-usual things started appearing...

I worked 2nd shift at the time so I could come home around 11:30pm. I was in the process of converting my carport into a garage. I didn't have any expensive tools out, but just hand tools. I go to pull in the driveway one night a little hot (tires made a little noise) since there was a sudden oncoming car. All of a sudden a character dressed in all black runs out of the to be garage. I jump out of the truck and chase him a little bit, but coming home from work I was un-armed so I just yelled some profanities at him and went inside. Turns out guy lives in an adjoining neighborhood and is a well known tweaker.

Found the same guy standing in the middle of the road one night on a bender completely void of any clothes. Yea, that was a weird one.

Then I had a guy across from me who lived in a rental trailer behind a business. He too was a well known thief and user. Neighbor behind me set out some old window AC units for the power company to pick up for some kind of credit. Their daughter called me the next morning and said sorry about the mess, but the truck the power company was using was broken down and was going to be late. I told her what AC units? I did some detective work and sure enough they were over at that trailer under the porch.

Same guy one day went on a bender and was seriously messed up. He thought he was a rockstar, air guitar, throwing hands up at cars, etc. I actually have video of this, but don't think I need to share here (no language, but just principle).

Both are now gone from this earth and peace has been restored for a while.


So yea, there's going to be excitement no matter where you live! :ROFLMAO:
 
@OVERKILL, I am sorry to hear of that. It IS all over the place these days unless one wants to move into the middle of no where.
We ourselves stay living where we do not want to because we must be close to attend to elderly family members. I am certainly glad at least that we all have double garages to keep the vehicles in locked up tight at night.
I know from the experience of others down the streets that calling the police accomplishes very little. It is NOT the L.E.O.'s faults either. They are out there 24x7 risking their health and safety doing their jobs.
The main problem is the enablers. The easy Judges and Politicians who accomplished all of what we are dealing with as a result of their proud (misplaced) virtue signaling by taking up for criminals at every chance they get. All simply for them to seek media attention they feel makes them look good to the public. If there was an easy answer we would not all have to be putting up with some form of just what you are having to. Good luck man. Hope it gets better..... Maybe they will find another section of town they like in time?
Yep, the police are just as frustrated as we are, sometimes they are arresting the same people multiple times in a single day! They get arrested and, even if they were already out on probation for previous crimes, they get let right back out again, where they promptly head off to reoffend.

C-75 is one of the big drivers of this up here, though it was already problematic before that, but C-75 really "supercharged" the problem, forcing everything to be viewed through the lens of ethnicity, social status and other parameters and giving the lightest possible sentence. We have locations where the prison population is disproportionately indigenous and this (C-75) was the "solution" to that, to basically pussy foot around the actual issue, with a good helping of hand waving, not trying to deal with the root causes, but instead, just put them in jail less frequently; just let them right back onto the street, which reduces the incarceration rate 🤪

Really good article on this by Tristin Hopper in the National Post:
https://nationalpost.com/feature/canadas-catch-and-release-justice-system
 
I have a camera on my deck (I have most of the bike thefts recorded, as well as other incidents) and I ordered one for my driveway on Friday which will be 4K. Not sure where I would mount a motion light, but that's an option (though my neighbour probably would not be thrilled).

We have some advocates (bleeding hearts) nearby that totally downplay the inconvenience, frustration and loss of security that this scourge brings with it. A hug, some free drugs and a clean needle solves everything dontcha know? I'm firmly of the belief that until it punches them in the face, that they will continue to be blinded by their own arrogant virtue.
I have hope that the pendulum is swinging back to law and order. Sad story your post and one that is also all over the USA too.

Door pullers are common everywhere. Even teenagers now. Here most will pull a handle and move on vs breaking a window if the door is locked. I have video of my wife's door handle being pulled a couple years back where we used to live. Only 2 times in 16 years... but

I feel compelled that if you can set up motion lights it will help. Cameras are great but when someone walks up your driveway and the lights turn on, all of a sudden they are lit up. Still might pull the door handle or not but wont stay around to break anything.

Recently I was clearing out my I-cloud videos and not sure if I deleted the door puller. If I find it I'll post something.
It was cool to watch, being I used to be in industry and for fun I had a total of 5 discreet cameras outside my home. Mostly wildlife and to know if a package arrived. We live in mostly rural areas, meaning not near a city, so door pullers would normally be local kids and maybe a junky. With all this said, there is nothing like two 110 volt spotlights lighting up your driveway when someone walks up to your cars. I used "spots" not floods to contain as much as possible light on the driveway and not other homes.
 
@OVERKILL
Got it. I saved it these are stills from the video. I would post video in here if I could.
He walked up the driveway, as soon as he got to my wife's car door. I had the motions so well set up that they turned on at that point. He may have still pulled the handle I dont know. But then turned around and left. Im unsure if he checked my truck, if so, motion didnt trigger at that point. Also in the second video you will see he had a friend working the other side of the street.
Im the also one that installed motions on the house across the street for my friend. His lights triggered too and you can see the person walking away from his house. (the figure near the mailbox across the street.

The newer cameras are better then these but as you can see they had hoodies on too. Must get at least a 2k, 4k better but still not sure how much better at seeing a face at night. Night vision on all these cameras are far advanced form years ago. Still hit and miss as far as consumer items.

Our new home, crime doesnt exist. Private roads, security and electronic gates, mostly older homeowners too. Not many teenagers at all. With that said for fun, I installed for the first time two outdoor EUFY cameras. Amazing in the ability to identify humans and vehicles to keep false recordings to a minimum. I have the E30's (night vision not the greatest but ok) the S340s look appealing too and have some built in lighting. I havent researched as much just felt like doing something for fun. However if you have motion lights with a camera. it will help the camera A LOT.

The photos are from our old home with E-Z viz cameras. Division of HikVision (yes I know)
Both cars were covered with two separate motions, the one on my SUV didnt trigger so unsure if he pulled my handle. He may have but didnt trigger that motion. I set them "close in" so people walking down the sidewalk dont trigger them. It's possible I didnt pull my truck up far enough that day.

Screenshot 2025-07-08 at 9.50.02 AM.webp


Screenshot 2025-07-08 at 9.50.43 AM.webp


For fun after that I did add a higher resolution camera that faced from another angle being newer it would have been more clear.

Across street you can see the other person.
Screenshot 2025-07-08 at 10.13.39 AM.webp


At the time I HAD THE IR's o the cameras turned off. the older cameras used to be annoying as they would pick up bugs I guess attracted to the heat of the IR's so I relied on the motion lights to come on, then the cameras would have enough light. With the new Eufys and those spots in the above photos, the video would have been in full living color. Still if mounting cameras high up (two story home) you would have to remember most cameras are wide angle so might have to zoom in a bit more.
The new Eufy's are amazing in that respect very little to no bug clip recordings taking place.
 
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I'm very rural but still the S.O. won't do anything about theft or burglary.

So, it's nice to have cameras just to know what happened but law enforcement won't do anything with it. And no, they're not overworked or understaffed here.
 
I think the fundamental problem is that we have more people that feel society has abandoned them, and they can see no path or have no belief that they can become a functioning member. So they take control of their lives and do petty crimes, maybe to feed an addiction or their stomach that day.
I think part of the problem is that now the barriers to finding a paying job and a place to live are quite high. There's not a lot of jobs for laborers anymore, and it's expensive to get housing as well.
Part of the reasons the large residential mental health institutions and prison/labor camps got shut down was abuse in them, and it was hidden from the public. But today they could/should be run with full transparency.

Short term solution, is lights, fence and lights, or move. Even in town, the places that are a further from downtown get less of this stuff. Out in the country, you need to be off the road a bit and then you can implement your theft deterrence system. We use the long one way in and out driveway with big barking dogs running loose 24/7. So far so good, as its just a bit more risk than anyone seems to want to take.
 
I think the fundamental problem is that we have more people that feel society has abandoned them, and they can see no path or have no belief that they can become a functioning member. So they take control of their lives and do petty crimes, maybe to feed an addiction or their stomach that day.
I think part of the problem is that now the barriers to finding a paying job and a place to live are quite high. There's not a lot of jobs for laborers anymore, and it's expensive to get housing as well.
Part of the reasons the large residential mental health institutions and prison/labor camps got shut down was abuse in them, and it was hidden from the public. But today they could/should be run with full transparency.

Short term solution, is lights, fence and lights, or move. Even in town, the places that are a further from downtown get less of this stuff. Out in the country, you need to be off the road a bit and then you can implement your theft deterrence system. We use the long one way in and out driveway with big barking dogs running loose 24/7. So far so good, as its just a bit more risk than anyone seems to want to take.
All of that would be great except the crimes are committed by mostly a specific group that is being “imported” into Canada it record numbers. And they are given very generous taxpayer help to get them “acclimated”.

All the car thefts, shootings etc. are mostly committed by these people.
But the climate is such that nobody can specifically point at them, your post is a prime example of that.
 
Lots of political favors, $$$ jobs, and money. It's counterproductive, and there is no real desire to address the issue(s) because if successful, the money will cease to flow.
💯
Somewhere there's someone making piles of money off of the current setup.
That's all anyone needs to know.
It’s sad to see Canada and the especially the province of Ontario go into such poor state of decay, both economically and morally.
Hsa been happening for years.
Only since COVID has it become rampant.
 
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I'm not saying it is the case in your city, but for some cities, it's a cash cow. LA is a great example. Sure, they are doing so many good things, but overall, the expenditures are insanely high for very little result. Lots of political favors, $$$ jobs, and money. It's counterproductive, and there is no real desire to address the issue(s) because if successful, the money will cease to flow.
Hey! That's just so unhelpful. Brother-in-laws need consulting contracts, too!
 
As we've discussed previously, the downtown cores of many cities are now filled with the homeless and addicted and my city is no exception. When my kids were younger we had numerous bicycles stolen off our deck. My son's 4-wheeler front wheels were stolen from my driveway.

With the return of the nice weather, we have the return of what are called "Car Hoppers" locally, which are the degenerates that go around checking door handles and sometimes breaking car windows when there's something of value visible.

My wife's truck is still in the body shop, so she has been driving my Jeep since she ran out of rental coverage last Monday, while I've been driving my parent's new GC-L. We have a music festival that happens downtown and she drove my Jeep down to take our daughter and her friend to the show.

Next day, she goes out and finds the passenger mirror on the Jeep pushed in, which means one of these "down on their luck" individuals made their way up my driveway and checked the vehicles. She pushed the mirror out and was on her way.

Well, later that afternoon, when she comes out of work, she actually takes a second to look at the vehicle and there are scuffs on it. She feels just sick and doesn't want to tell me, but she does when she gets home and I go out and take a look. There's a scratch on the rear passenger-side door that leads into a smear-like scuff, then a break, then another on the passenger door, then another on the fender, come around to the driver's side, there's another on the fender and another on the driver's door.

These are all at the same height. This is from a bicycle. It's not uncommon for hoppers, which regularly get around on bikes, to not get off the bikes, and just slide off the seat and walk the bike around the vehicle as they try the doors, which, as one would expect, means the handlebars are contacting the vehicle, hence the smear-like scuffs, these are from the handle grips.

I was not pleased by this discovery.

Got out the Meguiars polish, all of the rubber smear came off thankfully, but the scratch is well into the clear and probably needs professional correction, but worse, there's now a small dent in the fender that was in the middle of the smear:
View attachment 288402

But it gets better!

I assume this happened at the music festival, since it would have been difficult to go around the vehicle on a bicycle in my driveway given its proximity to my dad's Jeep, and there were no similar marks on it.

However, on the side where the mirror was pushed in? There's a dent on the window trim and it's pulled out about 1/4" and won't go back to where it's supposed to. So, that's a trip to the body shop to replace a piece that was recently replaced due to hail damage 🤬

I don't want to fence my front yard, it would look a bit silly IMHO in this neighbourhood, but it's extremely frustrating to know that millions of tax dollars are being poured into not solving this crisis, but effectively perpetuating it, while the city mostly ignores their inability or unwillingness to actually do something effective and instead hand waves and blows millions on bizarre "rejuvenation" projects in areas that get little traffic from the people paying for them because they are crawling with prostitutes, addicts and homeless, many with MAJOR mental health issues and several that are walking biohazards with multiple strains of hepatitis and other infectious diseases.
How about the South African flame thrower security system? World class automotive security system
 
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