My friends who live just below the canal right off North Central report their garage was broken into. Even though they’d closed the garage door that evening, someone managed to get it to open. (Around here, what they do is drive up and down streets with a door opener, clicking at every house — eventually it will hit someone’s code and up will come the door.)
Weirdly, the only things the guy stole were food, a few small tools, and a cosmetics case whose contents he dumped out and left behind. He didn’t hotwire either car; didn’t get into the car trunks; didn’t take any of the other stuff in the garage.
He emptied out their freezer, which held a stash of Costco meats and things the wife cooks and stores for future use. Because their relatives are about to descend on them for the holidays, my friends had stocked up, so the guy got a good haul of things to eat.
Because of some problems with a mentally ill neighbor, they have security cameras trained on the front of the house. So…they (and the cops) were able to see that the door quietly rolled open along about 10 p.m. There’s a walking path along Central one house to the west of theirs, and so probably the guy was just strolling up and down there pointing his door opener.
He had enough sense not to dart right in — the vics might have caught him had they heard the door opening and come out to check. Instead, he came back about midnight and just carried out the loot, unmolested.
Isn’t that something? We’re living in a society now where people have to steal to eat. Now there’s a point of pride…
And speaking of weird thefts, my neighbor across the street reports that someone walked into their backyard and stole their swimming pool cleaner, right out of their pool!
I think I saw that guy. He was parked in front of my next-door neighbor’s in a pickup filled with pool gear, looking like a pool serviceman. Since Terri does use a pool service, I just assumed he was her guy. Wrong, apparently.
He saw me, too, so that’s probably why he didn’t come into my yard and grab Harvey. That, and the fact that the gates are locked.
Some time back, Terri told me that her pool service dude was supposed to repair her Hayward pool cleaner. She comes home from work, looks in the pool, and realizes he hasn’t fixed it — he’s REPLACED it with an old, scruffy-looking unit! She was furious. When she confronted him, he tried to deny it.
Thought she’d fired the jerk, but maybe she’s still using him. If that’s the case, evidently he gets his replacement parts from the neighbors’ backyards!
And the do-gooders wonder why we don’t care to part with our Smith & Wessons? LOL! Well, okay, it would be hard to shoot some wretch who needed food, unless he tried to brain you with a frozen roast. And I suppose ripping off a $300 pool cleaner doesn’t quite merit the death penalty. But you never know with these characters — most of them are high on meth and other drugs, and they’re just as likely as the law-abiding homeowner to be armed.
Another weird theft – a friend of mine took her car in for service, and her expensive reusable air filter was stolen and replaced with a cheap disposable one. She also paid for “new” parts, and the old ones were simply cleaned and replaced.
Why do people do stuff like this? I guess because most of the time they get away with it…
Exactly so. It is AMAZING what you can get away with!
Man, that guy has to be not well off if he’s stealing food. So tragic.
Did you hear about Boeing selling used parts to the US Government??? scammers everywhere.
If I ever hit rock bottom like this, I don’t know if I would resort to something like stealing food. Then again, you never know what you might do in desperate times.
Yeah, who knows?
It’s worth noting that in Sunnyslope, where a large meth-fueled gang has taken up residence just north of Dunlap (just a few blocks north of my friends’ home), there are a number of food banks and free pantries. So the truth is, he probably doesn’t have to steal for food.
Consider, though: All that Costco meat! Costco steaks are very nice cuts of meat. The pork is excellent, too, as is the salmon.
What if the guy were selling it for, say, 50 cents on the dollar? It’s a brilliant idea, thief-wise: all the evidence goes away, because it gets eaten! 😀
While stealing is wrong, I feel sad to think maybe the guy was stealing the food to feed for his hungry family.
Maybe. Or, if in fact the plan was to sell the meats, to feed his meth habit…
There are eight food banks within walking distance of my friends’ house. None of them require referrals from social service agencies. If you have a car, ten food banks serve that area code and another twelve serve the area code directly adjacent to it.
Many of them require a photo ID, making it difficult for undocumented immigrants to obtain food. Difficult, but not impossible: fake ID’s are very easy to come by in these parts. Some of the food banks, though, require nothing more than that you come on in the door.