Lock Your Car
We hear it all the
time "lock your car" but people do not seem to heed the advice. Almost everyday, if you check your local paper,
you will find reports that cars have been robbed and the doors were unlocked.
Now locked doors
will not stop those who are determined to break into vehicles but locked doors are a deterrent. I was listening to a report,
from the owner of a funeral home and he said that, on his lot in one night, there were over twenty cars broken into in a two
hour period. There was only one window smashed so it leads you to believe that most of the cars were unlocked. Apparently
University parking lots are one of the prime locations for break ins.
My sister told me that recently, there were over 20 cars broken into in her neighborhood. In most cases the doors
were unlocked. We live in a small town and we were the victims of car break ins. We had not locked our doors. This was unusual
for me as I always lock my car doors at night. There was no visible damage and the only thing taken from my car was some coins.
My daughter and her husband lost a double dvd player that they had bought for the children. This was purchased as entertainment
and to keep them occupied as one of them has to go to a sick kids hospital twice a year. The drive is over five hours each
way.
My mother had her car stolen from a driveway. They lived in a
quiet residential neighborhood. I don't know if the car doors were locked but whoever stole the car tried to burn it.
How do you prevent break ins, especially in residential neighborhoods? Does
neighborhood watch work? Personally, I believe it's time to take back our neighborhoods from those petty thieves. In many
cases. the people in the neighborhood have a good ideal of who the culprits are but it is such a low scale crime, the police
do not have the manpower, the time or resources to do very much.
The other problem is that some of those break ins are drug related. People are afraid to speak up. I spoke to someone
and they said that they were afraid to say anything because they were concerned for themselves and their property.
The people who are breaking into cars, especially in residential neighborhoods, target unlocked cars. It is my understanding
that they just walk around checking doors. They are not going to make a noise, by breaking a window, unless they see something
that appears to be valuable.
A few years ago, a lady was sitting in a restaurant
and noticed someone breaking into her car. She ran out but the thief got away. He stole a shopping bag, from the back seat
of the unlocked car. It contained a dirty child's diaper.
I was at a men's meeting
and had left some groceries in the car. This was in a church parking lot. When I left to go home, we found that my car and
others had been battered with eggs. Someone had gotten into my car, took the eggs and threw them at the cars. Now I figured
that whoever did it was somewhere watching to see how we would react. I drove up the road and turned around. Sure enough,
there was a young man, whom I recognized, peering over a fence looking at the parking lot. I stopped and told him that I had
called the police and that they would be stopping by to see him. He knew he had been caught. I hadn't called the police
but hopefully he learned a lesson.
I better go and see if my car is locked.
