Rachael sent us this note on Sunday:
My husband and I were at a movie last night and came home to find that our house had been broken into. We called the police and the officers told us we were the fourth call of the night and all were the same: broke in through the backyard (because it’s dark back there) and didn’t take anything accept cash. They went through our drawers and were clearly looking for drugs and cash. That’s it. Our computers, TVs, and jewelry were all left behind.
Just a reminder to keep backyards well lit and make sure you replace window locks.
And where is this???
Man, I wish one someone would shoot one of these a**holes while they are in the act. It’d be nice to hear some good news for a change.
What part of Ballard……please share.
A guy was shot dead in Georgetown last week while breaking into an equipment rental business.
A guy was shot dead in Georgetown last week while breaking into an equipment rental business.
Motion sensor lights work well for this type of thing. It’s a psychological deterrent to a lot of burglars and it draws your neighbors attention to the activity if you’re not home.
Of course, getting a dog is also a good deterrent.
accept?
Where is the general vicinity? What side of 15th do you live on?
This is a nice heads up on crime in the neighborhood, but without general location details, somewhat unhelpful. The advice is good but not really specific to Ballard or Seattle for that matter. OK…I’ll bite, where in Ballard were these alleged crimes?
Where did this take place?
Good news!
Quite the crime wave ’round there:
From city’s crime map of recent reports
04/16 7700 block of 9th NW
04/14 7500 block of 17th NW
04/16 7300 block of 18th NW
04/17 6700 block of 18th NW
All listed as burglaries.
I know, right! Great news!
Well, unless you are that guy I guess. Or his family. Or his friends. Or his girlfriend or wife. Or god forbid any of his now-fatherless children. Or the guy who shot him. Or the guy who shot him’s friends and family.
But who cares about them? Clearly the potential theft of a post-hole digger or a portable electric generator warrants death without trial or jury. If you think about it, I mean, why do we even need the criminal justice system? I say fetch the pitchforks and torches!
I live in Ballard on 21st near 73rd and our house was broken into March 25th. They came in through the back door, forced it open, looked through everything….drawers, cabinets etc. They got some cash, two lap tops and a sony playstation w games. Scary and super annpying. Keep your lights on!
I wonder what movie they saw? Hopefully it was good.
Problem is, these are burglaries, not robberies. These folks check to make sure no one is home before breaking in. The last thing we want is for there to be guns in these homes. All that happens then is that the criminals steal the cash, prescription medicines, AND guns.
Someone breaks into your house or business, the last thing I am asking them is what their intensions are & if they are going to hurt my family or me. I would presume the worst & protect my family & home/business.To bad someone lost their life over stealing something but I guess thats the chance you take being a thief.
If burglary and robbery weren’t high risk occupations, more people would be doing it. Sympathy for his family? Nope. Sympathy for the poor man defending himself legally? Yes.
Break into a home or business, you have no more rights. Luckily WA state law agrees and let’s us defend ourselves and out families.
Keep your gun in a fast opening safe and it’s no problem. However, anyone caught with a gun and no licenses should get an automatic 5 year sentence. But just watch the ACLU turn that into a ‘social justice’ issue.
I completely disagree with the idea of leaving your backyard lights on.
In fact, a community police officer told me this at a meeting on my block a few years ago: by illuminating your backyard, criminals can see what you might have back there.
not to mention the friggin’ light polution. my neighbors already have way too many lights for the backyard that shines right into my house. I probably got breast cancer already from it.
this is a really bad idea.
I’m sorry, someone breaks into my home or business and I’m supposed to worry about THEIR family?
Good to see the hug-a-thug crowd offer up themselves on the altar of stupidity.
Breast cancer? No, maybe a few points knocked off your IQ. Motion lights work. If they don’t, a Glock is a handy back up.
I don’t know. Our neighbors have a motion sensor light that shines into our bedroom at night. Only thing it draws my attention to (other than my annoyance to it waking me up) are the branches that set it off in the wind, or the neighborhood cats and racoons.
Get a dog instead of a gun. The number of successfully thwarted burglaries because the owner had a gun are very very low compared to the number of guns stolen in burglaries.
I don’t think it’s possible to tally the number of burglaries avoided because there was a dog in the house while the owners weren’t home, but my guess would be that it would be much higher than the number of times a homeowner has pulled a gun on a burglar and infinitely higher than the number of burglaries prevented because there was a gun in the home while the owners were away.
Yeah, but you don’t have to walk a gun or clean up when it takes a dump. Plus, everyone knows, happiness is a warm gun.
Ever thought about simply asking them to adjust the angle on the light and set the sensitivity lower?
Crime is really expensive. The impacts are far reaching and are a huge drain on the economy and society. The economic costs of a crime are between 10 to 100 times what the criminal gets in the commission of the crime. If you steal a $100 car stereo but cause $500 in damage, then a police response, then lost work time for the victim to deal with the damage, it adds up. When the criminal is caught the justice system then generates even more expenses.
It’s also an extremely dangerous undertaking. This case could just as easily have wound up with the store owner lying dead in his store over a post hole digger and some petty cash. How does that balance out? Still horribly, but in the eyes of society the burglar is the one who initiated the situation and is responsible for the death, in this case his own. I’ll admit that I’m not happy that somebody died for a few bucks, but I’d be even less happy if it was the store employee who died since he wasn’t the one to initiate this whole sequence of events.
I don’t think that most burglars genuinely recognize the risk that they’re taking and don’t do the math that they may die in exchange for a few hundred dollars while costing everyone else thousands.
Your fast opening safe is only good if you’re there to open it. These burglaries were all in unoccupied homes.
I don’t know what the ACLU has to do with this when the real acronym we should be talking about is the NRA which has flooded the streets with tons of guns.
If you heard some crashing glass after being woken up by it, then it would prove that it works!
Seriously, you should talk to your neighbor about replacing it with a modern one that works properly, or adjusting it so that it doesn’t go off when it’s not supposed to.
I agree, the NRA is wrong on many gun issues. However, law-abiding citizens should always be allowed to own a hand gun and anyone caught with one without a permit should get an automatic 5 year sentence.
actually my iq is fine.
I’m just botheres by chicken-shits like you that either need a gun or to have every light on in and outside the house to feel safe.
afraid to sleep in the dark, kimmy?
Well my wife was violently raped in the past by a stranger who broke into her home, why don’t you ask her?
liar
yes, let’s shoot people and kill them for taking some trivial material possessions.
really good idea. let’s just kill everyone–then no one will steal my precious stuff.
loser.
I wish I was.
Interesting point. Though, do you have a link to the data for this?
That’s wonderful, and I’m not really anti gun, but just a realist. Far too many of these guns bought with the best intentions of heroic self defense wind up in the hands of the criminals or accidentally killing family members.
Exactly! There is absolutely nothing a gun can do to prevent a burglary. People who think differently are too stupid to know the difference between burglary and robbery.
How do you plan to open you safe when you’re not home?
While we’re at it there should be a jail sentence handed out to any idiot gun owner who leaves a gun unsecured in their home and allows it to be stolen. Vast majority of criminals use illegally acquired stolen guns and the main supplier of those guns are irresponsible gun owners who leave weapons sitting out in their homes. If some store clerk gets shot during a robbery and the police trace the gun back to a homeowner who had it stolen then that homeowner IS partly responsible since they failed to keep the gun secure. Ditto if your kid finds your unsecured gun and ends up shooting someone with it.
I’m fine with people owning guns – heck I don’t care if someone owns a M-60 machine gun. Everyone needs a hobby and so long as your hobby doesn’t present a risk to others than why not? However, I do think it’s reasonable that gun owners be required to keep their weapons securely stored and that they also be required to show they know how to safely operate the weapon. Of course the NRA would be dead set against such a plan though it always amazes me that you’re not allowed to drive a car without passing a very basic competency test but you are allowed to own high powered weapons without passing any sort of basic competency test. No wonder so many homeowners end up accidentally shooting themselves (more than wind up shooting criminals).
Can you give a single scenario in which a gun could be used to stop a burglary?
I’ll still take the choice of picking up some poop with a plastic bag every day over just one occasion of scrubbing blood and brain matter off the walls.
I live on 12th Ave NW, near 67th , and my house was broken into on March 19th. They came through a backyard facing window (no light back there) and went through all the drawers in the house. Fortunately they only took 2 bottles of champagne and change out of our change jar. All of our electronics remained untouched.