Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Neighborhood Theft

Usually I lower my steel door around 9:00 pm and sometimes well before, just like most of my other neighbors in this agricultural village. Last night, because I got home later, I didn’t lower it until well afer 12.

Unknown to me,  directly across the street at approximately 11:00 pm, a crime took place. My neighbor’s truck, filled with stereo and electronics equipment which he uses for his job every week, was hot-wired and vanished. Another neighbor noticed the truck was gone around 2:00 am when he got up to go to the bathroom. Although my door was still up, I wasn’t on the first floor to have noticed the crook, as I’m sure he or they were careful to check out ahead of time.

A little over two years ago during the noon siesta I saw a stranger across the street just sort of standing there. I found out 2 hours later that a neighbor behind me had been robbed. The guy I saw must have been the watchman.

I didn’t find out about today’s heist until this evening, when I had a chance to listen and console my saddened neighbor, who spent the whole night driving around western Yunlin county hoping he might come across his truck. Sure hope he finds his stuff, as I’m sure this is a huge unexpected loss he cannot afford. I’ve gotten lax the last few months in not locking the cars I’m watching over with their steering wheel locks in addition to the regular alarms… they’re back on and secured tonight!

4 comments:

Amrita said...

Oh dear that 's too bad.


Here robberies are very common an d one has to be very vigilant an d turn one 's house into a virtual fortre4ss.

Anonymous said...

When you say "lower my steel door" I assume your talking about the first floor steel rollups such as you would find at a store. These are very easy to break into - my brother-in-law had a break in at his shop this way.

It's best to have a back up system inside this door - even if it's just a simple bell that rings when the door is opened.

Mark said...

I lock my glass doors inside the steel rollup. Thankfully, I've never had a break-in. But last month when I checked on my coworkers' house, their neighbor had had someone break in through their side steel door. Yes, they are evidently easy to pry up.

Mark said...

Miraculously, my neighbor found his truck with 99% of his stuff intact day before yesterday! A friend of his in the next township spotted him and called to alert him.