Tis the season to be cheerful, jolly and in the holiday spirit but it’s hard to be cheerful when you come home and find your home burglarized. Drawers emptied, missing electronics, jewelry, money, all your belongings gone and your house ransacked.

The poor economy has resulted in an increase of burglaries. Not a day goes by where we don’t have at least 5 or more victims calling in to report a burglary at their home. Sometimes we get dispatched to a burglary in progress but for every burglar we catch there are hundreds more roaming neighborhoods looking for a target. If you read the crime stats burglaries are on the rise and are a problem everywhere.

How they decide on a particular home is each burglar’s decision but most of the time they are not alone. One of them will ring a doorbell and if someone answers, they ask for a fictitious person or say they have the wrong house. If no one answers, they go into the yard looking for an open or unlocked window. Sometimes they will break a window to gain access but most of the time they find a window or door unlocked. Once inside they ransack your home looking for money, jewelry, laptops, guns and other easily concealable items. Sometimes they will take a pillowslip off your bed to carry their haul. If they find keys to a car in the garage they may help themselves to your televisions, computers and other larger items and simply drive off with their loot.

You come home to relax after a hard day at work only to find your home ransacked with your belongings scattered throughout the house and your personal property missing, some of it probably irreplaceable. Not a fun evening cleaning up the mess, trying to do an inventory of what’s missing for the police, and trying to get over the feeling of being violated knowing someone was roaming free in your home going through all your belongings.

There are a few things you can do to lessen your chances of becoming the victim of a burglary:

1) Get an alarm system. There are several companies that offer free or low cost installation of an alarm system by signing a 2-3 year contract for alarm monitoring. If an alarm activates, the monitoring service calls you or a designated person and then the police. You can get door and window sensors, motion detectors, smoke detectors, whatever you want. Alarm systems are great because a burglar won’t stick around long with loud alarms blaring drawing attention to your home. If you have an alarm system, USE IT! I’ve gone to alarm calls where a home was burglarized and when I ask about the alarm panel on the wall, the victim said they were only leaving for a short time and didn’t use it. It only takes the push of a button to arm the system, if you have it, use it!

2) Get a camera system. These are great! The cost has come way down on these systems. You can put small motion activated cameras inside or outside your home and when they sense movement they began recording to your PC or hard drive. They can even send pictures to your cell phone of what is being recorded. We’ve caught burglars in the act after homeowners called the police and gave a description of the suspects after their camera system sent pictures to their cell phone. Even if a burglar gets away, they are recorded and we know who to look for.

3) Dogs are great. Very few burglars will break into a home where a dog is going ballistic on the other side of the door. A timid miniature Chihuahua probably won’t deter a burglar but a larger dog certainly will.

4) Alert neighbors. If you have neighbors that are home during the day, ask them to keep an eye on things and to call you if they see something unusual. If a burglar sees someone watching them they are less likely to stick around.

5) Most importantly; DON’T leave windows or doors unlocked. If you must leave a window open for ventilation, get a window lock that will let you lock the window ajar a few inches. Burglars can squeeze through even small bathroom windows, don’t leave them open. If a burglar sees an open window it makes you a target. Lock the door leading from the garage into the house; if it has a lock, use it. If a door has a cheap lock on it get a good one with a deadbolt. It’s not a guarantee to prevent a burglary but make it as difficult as possible for a burglar to gain entry. It could make the difference between them getting into your home or giving up to find an easier target.

6) Lights. If you will be gone in the evening or during the night, light up your home. Leave porch lights on and a light or two inside. Burglars hate lights. You can get motion spotlights that come on when they sense movement. Get bright spotlights to light up your doors, windows or yard if someone comes on your property and when the motion stops, the lights go off. If your home is dark inside and outside, burglars can approach and get in undetected but if they walk up to a home and the night turns into day, they won’t stick around long.

7) Christmas time brings out even more thieves. Nothing looks more tempting than a ton of wrapped gifts under a Christmas tree. When you are gone, close the blinds or drapes and don’t give thieves a sneak peek of goodies inside. The same goes for your car; don’t leave bags from stores or wrapped presents in your car. We get numerous reports of gifts being stolen from cars while people are shopping or if items were left in a car overnight. Lock items in the trunk or at least cover them so they are not in view.

8 ) Report any suspicious activity. If someone unfamiliar to your neighborhood comes to your door asking for someone who doesn’t live there, make a note of their description(s) and vehicle and call the police to report a suspicious subject. You may end up preventing a burglary in your neighborhood or helping the police catch a burglar with a car full of stolen property.

There are other precautions you can take but these are some of the important ones. If you use some of the above listed tips, you will greatly reduce the chances of finding your home ransacked when you come home.

Comments(0)

At what point did Society “Cross The Line”?

I’ve been a cop for over 20 years, and I’m sure Jim will agree with me, we’ve all seen crime trends come and go. Burglaries, identity theft, drugs, weapons violations, vehicle thefts, forgery, criminals are always looking for better, faster and less detectable ways of committing crimes. But there’s a new trend that seems to be growing and it has me worried along with most other law enforcement officers. And it should worry you too. What is this trend? Guns in the hands of young people who have no regard for life. There’s always been teens and guns which occasionally mixed but in the past, guns were not used as frequently or with such disregard for life as in today’s society.

Last night there was a local shooting at a 3-yr-olds birthday party. A large family birthday party was going on with people behind a mostly closed garage door and a few scattered on the porch. Two subjects walked up, one with a red hat on, and opened fire spraying the porch and garage with gunfire. In the end, 4 people were shot including a 9-yr-old girl. When these two thugs opened fire, they had NO IDEA where those bullets were going to go. They shot through a partially closed door knowing people were behind the door. They didn’t care a 9-yr-old girl was shot. They wouldn’t have cared if a bullet went through 2 walls killing a sleeping baby in another room. They just don’t care. I’m thinking walking up to a large Hispanic party with a gun and a red hat on was an obvious sign of saying “I’m a Norteno” but hey, I’m just a cop with an opinion. Whether or not they saw someone they were targeting, it doesn’t matter. To endanger kids at a 3-yr-olds birthday party, that’s just insane.

At what point did society “cross the line” to where guns are being pulled out and used by so many young people nowadays? I believe a lot of the kids are de-sensitized by the violence in society today. The violent movies, songs, and especially the video games kids are playing today. The graphics are so realistic that these kids are shooting and stabbing real looking people on their video screens over and over and over, getting de-sensitized to death with each kill. Then they turn the game off, put a gun in their pocket and hit the streets. How do you think these kids are going to react when they get into a confrontation on the street? The same way they did playing the video game; pull a gun out and shoot.

As cops, we train until our tactics become “muscle memory”. At the range or in self defense class, we practice over and over until we react the same way automatically without having to think about it. When the whistle blows at the range, we draw out guns and shoot the target without even thinking about it, we train so much the action becomes automatic, muscle memory. Unfortunately, the youths of today are playing so many violent video games, killing people over and over, they are developing “muscle memory” on how they handle street conflicts; they pull out a gun and shoot.

But in real life there is no re-set button, no on-off switch, no extra lives. It seems the youths of today are confusing video game life with real life. How else can you explain teens opening fire at a kid’s birthday party just because they spotted a possible “rival” gang banger at the house? How do you explain the disregard for human life, for the carnage those bullets cause. This wasn’t a loser parolee pulling a gun to commit a robbery; these were young punks with guns and no sense. They don’t think about what happens if they get caught, the years they’ll have to spend in jail. Or if someone at the party recognized them and later sprays their house with gunfire killing their family or young siblings. Video games don’t have that reality check built in so these young kids don’t think about that.

I sound angry because I am. Why should a 9-yr-old girl have to experience a gunshot wound because someone wants to play gang banger? It’s a miracle no one was killed, that a baby or toddler at the party wasn’t zipped up in a coroner’s bag that night.

There have been several recent high profile incidents of innocent children being shot or killed by stray bullets from idiots shooting at each other. They usually miss each other and hit innocent people, including children. When did society “cross the line” to where people are so de-sensitized that they shoot at each other in front of children or innocent people? De-sensitized to the point where these criminals and young thugs just don’t care if an innocent child gets struck by gunfire? Don’t these people have little brothers or sisters? Trouble is they don’t think of the consequences of their actions and they don’t have a conscience, two very dangerous things for someone with a gun in their hand.

Crime statistics rise and fall with the economy but I’ve seen a seen a huge increase in the number of guns carried by teens and young adults, and the number of shootings. Youths are shooting at each other for wearing the “wrong color”, for looking at each other “the wrong way”, for “disrespecting” them or their family, basically for nothing. It still shocks me to see these people gunned downed in the street because they had a red or blue hat on, or because they looked at someone and it was taken as a “mug”. Not only are today’s kids killing each other, but they are also wounding and killing innocent people.

When did society “cross the line” where the youths of today feel this is the norm, the way to respond to being disrespected, that this is the way to settle differences, that it’s OK to open fire at a kid’s birthday party. Each fired bullet doesn’t have a joystick control, no re-do, each fired bullet is on an unstoppable route with the potential to maim or kill. When did this become OK to today’s kids? Is it the way society presents itself today? Is it piss-poor parenting or lack of parenting? When did society “cross the line” to where this is happening so frequently. We really need to reverse this trend before it happens to you. But it probably won’t be a party at your house bringing the bullets; it will be the large youth party across the street or next door.

It’s a shame in today’s society where youths can’t have a large party without some kind of violence breaking out. When I was young we’d hunt down parties to go have fun at, sneak a beer, not to look for trouble. But most large youth parties nowadays more often than not end up with fights, stabbings or shootings. Neighbors houses struck by gunfire. Violent fights, stabbings, parents asking themselves “what went wrong”. Society is what went wrong. At some point, society gave these kids the idea that violence is cool, killing someone is OK, shooting into a crowded kids birthday party is the norm.

I’m all for gun rights and legal possession of guns, but parolees and kids carrying stolen guns don’t quite fit the term legal. And why do we have laws such as carrying brass knuckles is a felony but carrying a loaded concealed firearm is a misdemeanor? Which weapon really has the potential for more damage? We need to fix things, change laws, make the youths of today fear punishment or consequences.

If we don’t change something fast, this will soon be coming to a neighborhood near you!

Comments(1)