I woke up Monday morning from an extremely strange dream. It involved me pulled a deformed fish out of a fast moving river with a homemade fishing pole. The fish’s face was melted like the Toxic Avenger and it was covered with leeches. Just as my revulsion was peaking, I looked back into the river and saw an enormous creature that looked sort of like an amoeba with one big eye. The dream ended with that thing jumping out of the river and splattering on my back. I woke up about a half hour earlier than usual and couldn’t go back to sleep. I felt that monster still clinging to my back and wondered if I would carry around the unpleasantness for the rest of the day. I actually wondered (unusually) if the dream were some sort of omen about what was in store for me.
So I took the dog out back so she could urinate and noticed that my car’s gas cap door was open. I then noticed that my glove compartment door was open. I then noticed that the very expensive camera that had been in the back seat was gone. I then noticed that the binder of 500 compact discs that had been in the trunk was also gone. No more pics from the recent Atlanta trip. No more old Cure CDs.
Fortunately, the stereo was still intact. No gas had been siphoned off. No damage to the car. Perhaps leaving it unlocked even saved me a window. The worrisome thing is that it was pulled all the way up my driveway and parked behind my house, which means that the thief got a good look into the windows of the house and could have noticed the TV, Wii, and other valuables. They may well have made a mental note to come back and try to get into the house next time they see that the car is gone.
The police were summoned, not because they are likely to solve the crime nor because they were likely in any way to really make the situation better, but because we needed a police report to file an insurance claim. The officer was confident that the perpetrator(s) were certain to return, given the ease with which they made a score. When asked what I should do if they did come back for more, he honestly encouraged me to confront them at gunpoint. Barring that, he said, I should follow them in my car while providing directions about their path to police. Sounds like solid plans.
Before I come off as a rube, I have lived in fairly high crime areas before. But it has been interesting today to think about how dismissive I was when I moved to Montgomery and was confronted with the scorn of random folks. Friends and strangers alike acted like I was moving to Detroit or South Central or (gasp) Birmingham, Alabama. I waved my hand at those doubters, who had not seen my first apartment in Austin, Texas, which was burglarized, or the neighborhoods in New York City where I had stayed.
Sure, maybe I haven’t spent nights in some of the toughest projects in the world, I reasoned, but I know a good bit about crime and at least have good concepts of community and desperation and risk and common sense. I’ve been to crackhouses. I’ve walked in sketchy D.C. neighborhoods at night. I’ve been to Bogota. I’m sheltered, but at least semi-savvy; privileged, but not oblivious. Besides, those Montgomery bashers were likely using concerns about crime as a code for their racism. Right? My enlightened views on race and class and criminal defense-honed sympathies for the masses would clearly trump the statistics-driven fears of the White Flight set, right?
Well, I have to admit: Montgomery is no New Orleans, but it’s damn bleak. Even a simple drive around town will reveal the all-too-familiar signs of brutalized urban life. I’ve been to enough major urban centers to know that Montgomery has more “hurting sections” than most on this continent. The naysayers and skeptics about Montgomery’s future certainly have plenty of ammo (pun in poor taste). And, no, I’m not hoping to use my car burglary as a chance to begin to dissect all of the various sociological causes of Montgomery’s (or Alabama’s) poverty and/or crime rates.
But honesty requires that I at least reflect on how cavalier I was that our neighborhood wasn’t one that required me to lock my car doors in my own driveway or remove my car stereo while parked at home. I have never felt insulated from crime due to my general lack of malice towards folks who steal, but losing more than a thousand dollars worth of stuff out of your car in your own driveway (with the police promising that there will most certainly be a return visit in the near future) is quite a reminder that complacency is vulnerability, no matter how many books you have read, no matter what kind of detachment from the material world you espouse, and no matter how many raw hip-hop songs about crime you listen to while cruising through decimated neighborhoods en route to your anti-poverty activism.
The challenge now, I think, is not to over-militarize in response to being victimized. Even if high tech alarm systems and guns are deployed as measures designed to deter future thefts, living in a climate of fear and suspicion of fellow humans is straight up carcinogenic. Times are tough all over and Alabama has never been among the most prosperous places in the world. People here are hurting, meaning more crime is probably likely.
Surely row upon row of punji sticks is both karmically appropriate and within the realm of proper proportionality, right?
Stephen,
I am completely worried about you now. I doubt that you would get a gun but you should definitely get an alarm system. How about a taser? They don’t kill people but it could offer some level of non-lethal protection. Regardless of the cause of crime, you have to protect yourself.
Sorry to hear about the theft, that sucks. A similar thing happened to us after we first moved into our house, but all that was taken was the car stereo since I don’t keep any valuables in it. And actually, the thief must’ve been quite green because he never actually got it out of the dashboard, the casing proved too much for his abilities. Sure effed up the dashboard though.
But anyway, because I know you can’t wait to hear it my advice to you is 1) always remove your valuables from the car; 2) get a home alarm system, they aren’t that expensive and can give some piece of mind; 3) if you don’t have one get a privacy fence around your yard and across the driveway, at least 6′, it will be inconvenient to open it and pull the car in every time you get home but will be a pretty good deterrent to thieves ambling by who are looking for a quick and easy score; 4) motion sensing outdoor lights.
You’re right, you can’t live in a climate of fear, but you have to protect yourselves and that good-for-nothing guard dog that didn’t even bark at the perp
.
Really sorry to hear about that Stephen. Nothing’s worse than losing something valuable, especially something as emotionally valuable as a CD collection or photographs. I’ve been there, and it really sucks.
can i burn you some cds?
David, the RIAA doesn’t look kindly upon your offer to send me some CDs to which I don’t own the copyright. Which is to say, yes please.
Thanks to everyone else for your kind thoughts. We have avoided subsequent robberies thus far. I hope this won’t make folks too scared to come and visit. It’s really pretty safe, honestly. Come see the new house!
Well, that sucks!
I got my motorcycle stolen from my driveway just a couple of months ago, so I know the feeling. Fortunately for you, it sounds like the people who jacked your stuff just needed some $$$.
The irony is that you and I have enough financial security to where the insurance money won’t really be that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things, but the money gained from the theft of our stuff may mean a lot more to the people who stole it than it means to us. Well, there is my philosophical rambling for the day. . . .
Turns out my insurance policy won’t cover the stolen CDs. It’s always nice to file the claim and then find out that the policy doesn’t cover something. That way, I get to have the higher rates that will result from filing a claim and yet don’t get any money back because the digital camera alone isn’t enough to reach the deductible. Being an adult is fun!
Good point though, Dave, about how it’s a drop in the bucket to us but a pretty big deal to someone who is at the point that they are risking their lives by committing home invasions and thefts. Sorry to hear about your bike though! Hope you’ll get another one.
Dave and Stephen, you know the $ went straight to crack rock, not to feed the burglar’s hungry kids or to fund a church soup kitchen. I mean come on.
I’ve looked at the household budget of the person who stole from me and it’s really surprising how much money goes to digital cable. Those pay-per-view movies are expensive! The kids do get some of the money, but only by fishing the money gotten from the sale of my stolen goods out of the couch cushions. They spend their discovered portions of the illicit funds on candy and high risk treasury bonds.
sorry about the theft- i had a car that i always left unlocked for the same reason.
and you might be right about montgomery- the last time i was there working, they busted a prostitution ring & the corner shown on the news was directly across the street from where i was staying.
and i can honestly say that it’s the only city i’ve ever stayed in where people have actually called the room offering to sell drugs.
however, it’s possible that has more to do with staying at the Diplomat Inn (classy, I know) than montgomery. in fact, that sounds about right.
Random question: how in the world will a claim make your rates go up if you didn’t have anything to do with the break-in? And who in the world won’t cover personal property stolen out of your car?!?!?!?! Insane!!!
I hope your rates are amazing, because that service sounds craptastic.
I don’t think it matters if it is Montgomery, AL or Plano, Texas. Having your car or home/apt. broken into and having your stuff stolen plain sucks!!! I lived in Plano for 8 years and was the victim of several crimes: my house was broken into and thousands of dollars of electronics, tools, etc. were stolen, stuff was stolen out of my car parked in my driveway (just like yours I accidentally forgot to lock it), one morning I discovered my driver’s side door handle was yanked off my car and another time someone busted in a window. I have no sympathy for people who steal from other people in this way whether they need it more than me or not. In my case, they just messed up my car several times. I mean, seriously, the door handle? I was grabbing for air. It wasn’t funny to spend $250 to have a new door handle installed. So, I’ve stopped asking the “Why me?” question and still ponder “Why?”. I installed an alarm system, put extra kickass locks on the gates, updated the motion sensor lights and cleaned out the garage enough to park the car inside. I don’t know if I like to think about it as a vulnerability when being a victim. It’s not my fault nor was it yours. Sure, take these precautions, but these idiots have to live with their actions. Karma is a bitch and I hope it bites them in the ass.