TexasCHLforum.com

VMI77 wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:That was the first time that it ever occurred to me that burglary is not [strike]really[/strike] necessarily a "ghetto" type of crime. OTHER types of crime certainly are, but there is little percentage for a burglar in breaking into a home that doesn't have much to begin with, and which may be therefore more fiercely defended by its occupants to protect what little they have.

OTOH, my in-laws lived in a very poor neighborhood and had their house broken into several times --once within two weeks of a previous break-in, when they still hadn't had an opportunity to replace much of anything that had been stolen. I think just about every house in that particular neighborhood had been broken into at least once. The local newspaper published a map of burglaries and while they occurred in every neighborhood, they were much more prevalent in lower income neighborhoods. My assumption is that most of these criminals simply target the easiest and most familiar locations instead of the highest value locations.

There, I fixed my comment for you.

Keith B wrote:

Crossfire wrote:

VMI77 wrote:One thing the article shows is how most people are oblivious to reality and unprepared to defend themselves. One neighbor is quoted as being surprised that someone would burglarize a home in a "good neighborhood."

Duh.... Because the folks in bad neighborhoods don't have stuff worth stealing!

I live in a supposed good neighborhood, but have never been broken into. However, we had a rash of home burglaries about 3 months ago with two of them just a few houses down and across the street. Maybe I haven't been hit 'cause I don't have anything worth stealing.

Many years ago, an old girlfriend of mine lived in one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Pasadena California. Their house got robbed twice....in two weeks. The first time, my girlfriend actually walked into the house while it was being robbed, and fortunately, the thieves heard her and fled out the back without a confrontation. She found the covers pulled off her bed with a pile of the family's possessions piled on it.

Soon afterwards, her dad's rare model of Porsche, which had an alarm on it, had the custom wheels stolen off of it during the night and was left on jacks. A couple of weeks later it was stolen during the night, while they were home, from inside of a locked garage with an alarm on the car. The thieves actually backed a truck or trailer across the lawn, broke open the garage, disabled the car alarm, and rolled it onto the bed of the transporter and left — all without ever being heard by anyone in my girlfriend's family.

Later, a police detective told them that their neighborhood had the highest burglary rate in the city......because local residents own stuff. That was the first time that it ever occurred to me that burglary is not really a "ghetto" type of crime. OTHER types of crime certainly are, but there is little percentage for a burglar in breaking into a home that doesn't have much to begin with, and which may be therefore more fiercely defended by its occupants to protect what little they have.