"Safe" Neighborhoods

PISSED sent me this story about a rash of break-ins in towns nearby (PISSED lives a couple towns over from me, interestingly enough). Now, I've lived in my town all of my life, and worked in one of the towns mentioned in the article and had friends in both towns. One is a small city that brought itself back from the edge of oblivion about 30 years ago with a "gentrification" program; the other is a small town in northeast MA, unremarkable for the most part except, perhaps, for being what folks would consider a "safe" area, a "good" town where the harsh realities of goblins and such don't intrude.

Except, of course, that they do.

PISSED covers the story well, and even includes a Google Earth shot of downtown Newburyport that identifies two of the affected businesses in relation to the police station. The further of the two businesses is maybe a five minute walk - and a leisurely walk at that - from the police station, and both businesses are smack in the downtown area that is busy during daylight and evening hours. There are police officers both on bicycles and on foot in the area at "peak" tourist times - such as the Fourth of July when they have a fireworks display - and yet thieves hit two businesses during daylight hours.

The other area, the small town, appear to be break-ins of opportunity (i.e. looking for unlocked doors) or just grabbing unattended items. These types of crimes are simple to thwart - don't leave valuables in your car, lock your car and house doors, secure outside items, etc. Your town being "good" or "safe" doesn't mean that folks from "bad" or "unsafe" towns can't come in and decide to grab what they can while they're passing through. Simple precautions that we tend to take for granted when we live out in "quiet" areas, and when these simple steps aren't taken are opportunities for the goblins to ply their trade.

So far, none of these stories have had bad endings. No one's gotten hurt, the goblins in question have run off at the slightest hint of discovery. It's possible that these are not career criminals but folks driven to extreme measures by the hard economic times (not excusing it, mind you, just theorizing at the seemingly amateurish attempted break-ins), but the one overwhelming message to take home from this is: Be smart. Make their job harder. Lock your doors. Don't leave your GPS sitting on your dash (or a big honkin' suction cup ring on the windshield). Don't leave your purse sitting in the carriage while you walk half the aisle away.

And be prepared in case the worst does happen, and have the best tools for the job at hand, namely keeping yourself safe.

That is all.