I think that much depends on the location. We have about 6,000 people in our town, with a very low incidence of crime. It seems that the higher the population density, the higher the crime rate.
“We have about 6,000 people in our town”.
Obviously hard to catch the thieves there but in MY town, which is much much smaller, we would know rather quickly who was the thief, dog doo doo is pretty smelly.
1. I had a neighboring apartment dweller who would steal my newspaper from the hallway in front of my door. One Sunday, I got there first and loaded the rolled-up paper with talcum powder. Never got it stolen again.
2. In New York City, that’s how you get rid of your garbage. Put it in a bag, leave it on the sidewalk, and someone will steal it.
3. Expecting mercy from thieves doesn’t work, either. For a while, Blaupunkt car radios in BMW’s were a hot item for thieves. If you locked up your car, they’d bust out your windshield to get at the radio. After being the victim of this, one sufferer replaced the windshield and put up a note in his car that said the car had no radio in it. A would-be thief busted out his window anyway, and wrote on his note, “Get one.”