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In praise of good neighbors

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How many thieves does it take to steal a laptop? 3 or 4. One to break the glass, another to climb through and let the first one in behind him, one to drive the getaway Volvo and one to read the map. Unfortunately for these knucklehaeds, they were one shy of a full deck or none of them knew how to read a map.

It's great you got your gear back so quickly. That's amazing. Time for a block party!

It's also good they got caught. These kinds of crimes get repeated in neighborhoods until the perp's get caught or move on other more fertile ground.

We were broken into last year while we were 6 hours away in San Francisco, CA. Our neighbors were not nearly so helpful. The alarm went off for an hour before anyone called the police. Fortunately, the alarm went off and the thief left before he couuld take anything. Unfortunately, he caused $2000 worth of damage to our back door, robbed another house down the road and got away. This guy rang several doors looking for an empty house and asked for ficticious people if someone answered their door. The door is stronger now and we've had a chat with the neighbors about what to do when suspicious characters come around.
 
Stefan Kaben said:
Stefan Kaben wrote:

I got a call at work today from one of our neighbors. Our house was broken into, he told me, and the police were there. I got home 20 minutes later and, sure enough, all the camera gear was gone along with a laptop. That's the bad news.

It turns out that a different neighbor had seen the thieves come from behind the house and get into a car. She got into her car and followed just long enough to identify the car (a Volvo) get the license number. Back at our house, she was telling the police what happened and, lo and behold, that same car drove past. The thieves had gotten lost in the neighborhood and were looking for the way out!

So I turn off the main road onto our street and, right there, I see four police cars and a vehicle they had pulled over. I live another three blocks up the street and am thinking, "That's an awful lot of activity on this quiet little street for one day!" I get home and one of the first things an officer asks me is: Did you have some bags with a digital camera and some lenses? And a laptop? Yes sir, I did. He turns to a colleague and says, "That's them! We got 'em!" And they did, thanks to two diligent neighbors.

Hours later, we're still cleaning up the fingerprint dust and other stuff and thinking: How good it is to know and love your neighbors. Just another of life's little lessons.
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Fantastic outcome Stefan--Might be time to amp up the home security.

Cheers, Dharma
 
I should have done it long ago, take a pic of every camera and lens and have the serial number that goes with it, not just because of theft, but also fire, hurricane for insurance reasons, , and the Apocolypse , although the latter may be a little to late, :)

--
Brad Ross
 
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Brad Ross said:
Brad Ross wrote:

I should have done it long ago, take a pic of every camera and lens and have the serial number that goes with it, not just because of theft, but also fire, hurricane for insurance reasons, , and the Apocolypse , although the latter may be a little to late, :)
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The investigating detective returned our property today, including all of my camera gear. (Now I can take part in the current challenge on this forum. Yeah! ;-) )

Of the three thieves, two have been arrested but the third remains unidentified (the no-snitching code). I deeply hope that all three are reflecting on the course of their lives.

Yesterday, we had the neighbors over for a thank-you dinner. Also, I pulled out a stack of mounted and matted prints that have won local awards and they each picked one to take home. It was a very fun evening!

I appreciate all the nice comments that were written. Here now is one big collective "Thanks!"
 
Stefan Kaben said:
Stefan Kaben wrote:

The investigating detective returned our property today, including all of my camera gear. (Now I can take part in the current challenge on this forum. Yeah! ;-) )

Of the three thieves, two have been arrested but the third remains unidentified (the no-snitching code). I deeply hope that all three are reflecting on the course of their lives.

Yesterday, we had the neighbors over for a thank-you dinner. Also, I pulled out a stack of mounted and matted prints that have won local awards and they each picked one to take home. It was a very fun evening!

I appreciate all the nice comments that were written. Here now is one big collective "Thanks!"
Click to expand...
 
Stefan Kaben said:
Stefan Kaben wrote:

The investigating detective returned our property today, including all of my camera gear. (Now I can take part in the current challenge on this forum. Yeah! ;-) )

Of the three thieves, two have been arrested but the third remains unidentified (the no-snitching code). I deeply hope that all three are reflecting on the course of their lives.

Yesterday, we had the neighbors over for a thank-you dinner. Also, I pulled out a stack of mounted and matted prints that have won local awards and they each picked one to take home. It was a very fun evening!

I appreciate all the nice comments that were written. Here now is one big collective "Thanks!"
Click to expand...
 
Glad to hear you'll get your gear back in a few days...didn't know if they'd have to hang on to it for awhile.

Good luck with all this...quite the bummer but definitely nice to have good neighbors.

Dan
 
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