Posted on 01/04/2009 7:43:18 AM PST by NCjim
Tempted to leave that new GPS system in your car? Think you can get away with stashing your laptop behind the seat or your iPod in the glove box?
...
You might as well just leave them on the hood of your car with a "For Free" sign attached. At least you'd save yourself the cost of replacing a shattered car-door window, according to police, insurance agents, glass-repair experts and the legions of folks who've found themselves victims of Seattle's most oft-reported crime the car prowl.
A two-week snapshot of criminal incidents reported to the Seattle Police Department shows that car prowls, in which windows are smashed and valuables grabbed, are by far the city's most frequently reported crime and that no neighborhood is immune.
In the last two weeks of November, for example, more than 370 car prowls were reported within the city limits, according to SPD statistics.
Experts agree, however, that those numbers represent just the tip of the iceberg, as most people especially those who have been victimized more than once don't report the damage and thefts to police or their insurance company.
Why bother, they say.
"There's nothing they can do about it," said David Gill, who lives in the Maple Leaf neighborhood and said his car has been broken into and plundered so many times he's lost count.
...
A man who lives in a big house on Federal Avenue East near Volunteer Park and has been a car-prowl victim several times said he tries to remember to bring everything he values inside with him at the end of the day.
Nevertheless, he's philosophical about the thefts he can't prevent.
"There are a lot of people around here who need help," he said. "Sometimes, my car is where they find it."
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Rudy locked up the criminals, and it stopped.
Seattle should try it.
It's probable that many of them still do. Remember that the media don't report the average opinion. They report their own opinion, cherry-picking quotes that conform.
Read this whole piece as nothing but a shrill demand for bailout money on the (obviously shaky) grounds that it's needed to help those poor victims who are reduced to breaking car windows for a few coins.
The man who tempts the sinner is worse than the sinner.
Because of the terrible Bush/Cheney Economy, the price of meth and crack has been going up. What else are these unfortunate people who are falling into the cracks of despair (through no fault of their own) because of the Bush Depression supposed to do - get a job when there are none available? /s/
My reaction too...”prowl” — just a bunch of guys out for a night on the town, right? How about “felony”?
First time I have heard the term, “Prowl.” Sure make the act of B&E sound less severe.
How does bringing your valuables in the house, prevent them from breaking your car window to see if there’s anything hidden in your glovebox?
In Seattle it’s chic to be disrespectful of authority, convention, whatever represents behavior that most of us consider to be normal. Last time I was there, I took my 81 year old mother out in a wheel chair, for lunch. It is a real treat for her to get out of her apartment. The three block trek to the burger joint + back was a nightmare. Twenty-something punks (not young kids) were riding up and down the sidewalks on bicycles, taking great joy in cutting us off, or playing “chicken”, only to peel off, at the last possible second. I seriously considered going back out the next day, with a crowbar under my jacket.
At any rate, society up there (in general, some folks are decent) consider anti social behavior something to be celebrated. Un rucking feal!
Yep. Disproportionate wealth. Easier to steal your stuff than to work for their own.
It's OK, they are just "redistributing the wealth" to save the new pres. the overhead of doing it at the national level.
It's more efficient their way...:^)
Liberals only recognize two types of people. Liberals will not be satisfied until everyone is either a criminal or a victim.
One could try a trunk monkey but as you say, it may be illegal.
Let me guess. Capitol Hill?
Would that trap take their fingers off or just break them?
No, although I did have a negative experience with my late Dad in Capitol Hill (”in your face queers”), when we were trying to rent tuxes for my brother’s wedding. It was our first visit, after my brother and his girlfriend moved there, we had no idea what we were in for. After my Dad passed away, my Sister moved to Ballard, and my Mom followed shortly thereafter, to be closer to family. I go up there once a year, this particular incident happened between the Ballard Post Office and NW Market St. I hadn’t considered it to be a problem area, because for some “strange” reason, when I walked the area by myself (6’ 210 lbs.), none of the “bicycle boys” came anywhere near me. Bass Turds.
That's the whole concept behind Obambi's campaign. Or any democRAT (and some republicans) for that matter. Why buy the cow when you can steal the milk from its rightful owner for free?
The new advanced model might be the best defense, although the standard model with the pry bar might be funner to watch.
.......People ordain governments for one reason and that is to protect their society. You are just waisting your taxes if they aren't protecting the law abiding citizens and their property
Not true in modern times-- People ordain governments to take from A and give to B.
Al
But they jump all over themselves to ticket you if you fail to fasten your seat belt.
I used to live on Oahu. A neighbor ran off a guy trying to steal my motocross bike out of my pickup one day. Guess he didn’t notice the massive chain that was locked to both the bike and the truck’s frame. That’s pretty much how it was out there. If it wasn’t bolted down, it was gone.
And speaking of the cops, I was once stopped by a cop in Waikiki for walking across an empty street against the light seconds after being offered drugs and solicited by a few prostitutes within sight of the same cop. He let me off with a warning after I asked why he wasn’t doing anything about what he obviously saw and heard happen to me.
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