I'll take this as something that happened to you personally, or perhaps someone you know? I’ll speak from my own personal experiences - sounds like the classic tweaker burglary to me – I wouldn’t expect any of those to be caught dragging your entertainment center down the street, but lacking other means of carry, would certainly have your property that is concealable stuffed in his pockets and down his pants, though they commonly prowl with backpacks or if female, large over-the-shoulder purses if not with backpacks too. They may have a bicycle with them or nearby that not only broadens their range of prowling, facilitates quick getaways but also helps carry larger items, or larger amounts of items if they feel they can risk it. You really don’t want any of them to make it off your property if you can help it or if it can’t be helped, don’t lose sight of them in the process or chances of you ever getting your stuff back drop dramatically. Some may say let the insurance take care of it, but is every little nick-knack on your insurance to begin with, is it provable that it IS yours, what kind of deductible is involved, and also there are things that just cannot be replaced at any price. So, the cops show, they get the goon to empty out pockets, purses, backpacks, whatever and the squalling starts as to what belongs to who – yeah, they’ll protest how various things are “theirs”, which depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances involved at the time, may make things dicey. You may recover your loot right then and there. It could turn out that all the cops can do is spread the stuff out, take photos of it for later reference and release them. Or if there is an arrest your stuff could end up as locked away as evidence for who knows how long. Or something somewhere in between. Meanwhile, you have something like a broken up window or kicked-in door & doorframe to deal with. An alternative to gunplay, clubs or whatever can be simply talking – it’s possible – though not 100% probable – that depending on what state of mind a tweaker (if that’s what he/she is) is in at that time, you could get them hung up in a loop of explaining and talking about who they are, what they’re doing, how’s the weather and so forth, so that they’re still standing there trying to babble out an elaborate yarn to please you with when the cops finally roll up.thetexan wrote:As you pull into your driveway during the day you notice a person coming out of your garage. You stop and get out and pull gun and tell him to freeze which he does. You call the police and they are on their way.
The intruder then decides to casually start to walk away disputed the fact that you are pointing the gun at him and telling him don't move.
What do you do?
tex
If you detect scroungy strangers with hoodies, backpacks and the sort who are making it a habit of messing around in your area and at odd times, it's best to be proactive and put some pressure on them to find somewhere else to lurk. Get law enforcement to drive by and have a word with them - you might not only prevent a new crime but solve some old ones in the process.
The next minute and a half or so of this vid (from the 10 minute mark to 11:35) demonstrates quite well as to some of the kind of prowlers I’m talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6LaDJYOTvg&t=10m0s
Welcome to tweakertown, yo.