To Lock or not to Lock

In an neighboring town there has been a rash of robberies.
At least 7 in the past 5 weeks.. Houses and garages.

Guns, check books, engine hoist, engine stands, tool, television

jewelry… the usual stuff we hear about..

But so many of them, we don’t normally hear about. But with a

new Facebook site there is one called North Idaho Community Awareness. And on there is about these robberies.  The last one being Friday.

We had some in our neighborhood last summer. But it was kind of small stuff and they did find the people involved.  So far no one has in Sagle.

In our town of Kootenai, it was a computer, gas from trucks, and some vandalism and other small stuff.. That lead us to think about our own things.. As one of the robberies (computer in a trailer) was next door to us.. and one other was two doors down and sometime last early spring someone stole my bike. I couldn’t put in a complain about the bike, because it was a non-descript bike…. Black 3 speed.. older than the hills. No clue what brand. But someone wanted it worse than I did.. I guess. It was between two buildings so wasn’t in the opening.  We started locking our sheds, put up fences with locks on them.. stop foot traffic thru.

 The cars was a quandary as I jumped back and forth between do I lock it or not?  See there is nothing of value in there.  Dog bed with blanket, a map book in the back seat with a sweater and a couple bottles of water.  So I figure that if I leave it unlocked the thief can open the door and see there is nothing worth stealing…. Rather than locking it.. and have the thief break the window to see if there is something worth locking the car over…..and then I have a $500 deductible to pay to get the window fixed.  It is a toss up.

Well, now I will lock it because the car I have now has a car alarm on it. So does the truck..

 

Now what about the house.. well if they want my tv that bad, they can have it, but they better bring 3 men and a boy to carry it out, as it is heavy.. and it is OLD.  So figure they will leave that. My jewelry is yard sale and Avon type.. Sure isn’t of gold or silver…  Anything even remotely worthy is on my fingers. And if they are that close they will be dying of lead poison.. as I believe that

shot gun is a good gun of choice.. you don’t have to aim it much and it covers a lot of ground.  

 

 If they come when the house is empty.. then they won’t be impressed.  So now we are looking in to more motion lights.. we already have them in the yard and around the garages… but how much more should we go? Cameras? Safes? Alarms? I don’t know.. but it is getting scary… when those who don’t want to work for things, want what you have worked hard for.. and the trouble is.. 99% of our stuff is only worth something to us.. because of who gave it to us. Or where we got it. But hock shops would laugh at the thief for bring it in..

Sad, because I am from the generation that left their house and car unlocked.. and now I lock the front door when I am in the yard.