Time to Build a Moat? No.

On Thursday morning I got a call from my wife telling me that our house alarm had gone off and that she was en route to see what had happened. I left the office and showed up a short while later where I met her and 3 police officers, one of whom was already dusting for prints. From what we can reconstruct, it looks like would-be burglar(s)

• attempted to twist the lock off of my garage-side gate, then
• walked around to the other side of the house and popped the electric meter off, shutting off the electricity, then
• climbed our 8' privacy fence,
  
• looked around and decided the best method of break-in would be to break out a pane in the living room window,
• picked up a large metal shepherd's hook we use for hanging plants and broke the window pane, reached in, opened the window hasp and opened the window, and then
• fled the scene in confusion as the alarm sounded.

A couple of years ago we decided to add a cell phone-based backup to our alarm system, owing to reports that burglars were shutting house electric services to prevent alarms from sounding. Needless to say, our decision just paid for itself. In the for-what-its-worth category, Ellendale Electric installed and monitors our alarm service.

Over the last few years the Memphis Police department has taken a few knocks, but I'll say this: they have always responded quickly whenever I've called, and they have always been courteous and professional. The fact that my wife works with many of them on a daily basis might have something to do with it, but I don't think you learn to be good at your job in 5 minutes, so I'm inclined to believe that every one of the local guys in blue that I've dealt with are simply good officers, and that I'm certainly getting my tax dollars worth.

A short while after the officers finished most of their work, a revenue protection officer from MLG&W showed up to investigate the meter. He restored service and placed a heavy duty security collar around the meter, showing me how substantially stronger the newer style collars are than the old models. He also ordered a replacement meter just in case our old one was damaged by the burglar.

A couple of hours later a glazier came by from Joyner Glass to replace the broken windowpane.

All in all our experience has been about as good as you can expect. Since then I've been thinking about two questions:

• Why did we get broken into?, and
• What can we do to try to prevent being broken into?

As for the first, the MLG&W RP officer gave me as good an explanation as any when he said, "Your house looks like it has stuff." While we are working on changing that (see last post), I don't think the burglars intended to steal our books - even my signed, uncorrected proof of Milosz' The Unattainable Earth isn't that valuable and would be difficult to sell/pawn. I imagine they were intending to take our electronics and that they would have been sadly disappointed to learn that we do not have a giant flat-screen TV in our living room, nor do we have game consoles, or even a surround-sound stereo system of recent vintage. We have an 'L' grand piano - not exactly pawnable. We have a few of computers; it might be funny to see them react to Linux on my desktop, and even funnier to see them fire up my old Nec APC IV, though pound-for-pound it simple wouldn't be worth the hernia of getting it down the stairs.

I've decided upon 3 courses of action to try to prevent a future re-occurrence. First, I'm contacting my alarm company to get some stickers and signs, with the intention of making sure that potential burglars know the house is alarmed. Obviously this time that didn't prevent an effort, but this time we were dealing with a repeat-offenders - in effect, professional thieves - and I want to persuade lesser theives to move along. Second, I'm posting flyers in my neighbors' door-handles letting them know what happened and to be on the lookout for anything suspicious in our neighborhood. Third, I'm talking to the folks at work: you'd be amazed at the highly inventive suggestions you get from a bunch of enigineers who are handed a problem. Cameras? Easy. Wireless cameras? Easy. Wireless cameras that automatically email me alerts when they sense motion? Better. Machine-gun turrets that automatically shoot intruders? Okay, I probably won't go for the last one.

The other question I've been asking myself is why someone wanted to steal in the first place. I've never viewed thieves as particularly stupid, but I have always assumed they are lazy. Implicit in that reasoning, I suppose, is that thieves have a choice: they could be law-abiding citizens who work, or they could be lazy good-for-nothings who would rather steal. Our last would-be burglar turned out to be a crack addict who was stealing to support his drug habit; the blood he left at the scene matched a DNA sample taken when he was processed for a later crime, and that additional charge increased his jail time. All of that to say: I wonder what his actual choices were regarding stealing and working, really. Now at this point this may be starting to sound like an apologia for thieves, but that's not my intent. I do hope I'm never in a situation where stealing starts to look like an attractive alternative to being a responsible, productive citizen, though. Thieves are still lazy and irresponsible in my book, but they may be desperate, too. Getting arrested is a kind of treatment, because it takes them out of that immediate situation of desperation. It may not be preferable to them, but that's not really what's important. What is important is that they see and live an immediate consequence of their decisions, so they can re-evaluate how they can live.

Some folks have asked me when I'm going to sell my house and move. I'm not, certainly not yet. My wife deals with criminals of all kinds every day, so I have a fair appreciation, probably a better understanding than 95% of you, as to the level and type of crime in this city. [ I'll add that it is the rare, rare exception when the local media accurately quotes my wife regarding criminal cases, and that their coverage of cases she is involved in seems to be more ratings-driven than anything else. ] Like the thieves, we have made a decision and that decision is based on us having more reasons to stay than leave.