Octania

I noticed a couple of times this year that the shed door was left open. Sometimes maybe the kids accessing play equipment, sometimes not. Nothing of interest in there, really, some decrepit bicycles and a minibike, yard tools. Old shed, repaired doors, must be kept closed by placing a heavy old milk can in front of them.

Wife observes the door open and can moved this morning.

Evidently the nieves are rummaging the backyard whenever they like? Fully fenced in. Neighbor's wooden fence is broken off and lying flat for 3 or 4 10' sections- maybe the yutes were climing over it?

I have a motion detector just inside the unlocked garage door. I guess it's time for one to cover the backyard as well. I did have the "driveway alert" MD set up in the crusty van last night, to catch anyone that may open the door to rummage that. Maybe put the game camera up out back too. At this point I am thinking motion detector hooked to house alarm so as to only alert the residents of the house, not set the screamer. Then I can "let the dog out to pee" and watch as the hijinks ensue.

m371961

Maybe set then up? What are they looking for? Leave a old gas can you can lose full of the worst excuse for gas you can find. The dog will be fun.

coppercutlass

Ehhh if you fear the ghetto the ghetto will get you. I grew up in a rough part of town. I always left my doors unlocked and i used to leave my cutlass in the garage unlocked with the garage door unlocked because it didn't work. My theory is it's insured it can be replaced atleast im still here. Setting them up will only push them further if you don't catch em.

Octania

Neighbor's fence problem was due to the windstorm last Sunday I guess.

I moved the 'driveway alert' to the shed anyhow.

The dog knows that when that sound occurs it's time to dash outdoors.

I have gas cans outdoors, the various bicycles, etc.

They must have figured a chainsaw or something might be in the shed?

I just don't want the yutes in my fenced in yard at all. They might get hurt, ya know. Dog bites or whatnot. Alert the LPD when prowlers are out and about, in case they aren't real busy. Maybe lots of stuff disappears that night, and if they patrol the area, they can chat with the yutes.

Koda

This is why God made rock salt shot shells.

Tedd Thompson

In my area intruders or thieves are found duct taped to a tree in the morning, or worse. Everyone, I mean everyone in my area is armed, misfits and malcontents or others do know it....Lost in Dodge City and enjoying it....Tedd

oldcutlass

That's how I handle it, plus I cornered one of the deliquents and explained that if anything happens to my stuff it was him I went after. He said that wasn't fair, I explained to him life was not fair and if I was him I'd make sure no 1 messes with my property.

tru-blue 442

+1. And 12 gauge to boot.

69ishHoliday

Really...

Probably Kids playing and the testosterone gun talk comes out. As kids, didn't many of you get into places you shouldn't have. You never point a gun at anything you don't intend to kill and a shotgun shell loaded with rock salt would permanently blind a kid. I live in one of those neighborhoods where they occasionally get out the ghetto bird, but it is very seldom rape or murder, I can replace anything else.

tru-blue 442

Well, I Would give a warning blast.
That is usually enough to scare them
off and they won't come back.

If they tried to come in my house
that would be a different story.

coppercutlass

A thing my mom used to tell me is " If you play wit fire you better be prepared to get burnt sooner or later " . Now if someone is in my garage you better belive i'll come out and scare the bejesus out of them but If it's my house they better hope my dogs get them first before I do.

Tedd Thompson

I have NO tolerance for thieves, NONE. And when we start letting people(no matter there age) off without suffering for there actions we deserve what we get later. A gas thief turns into a car thief to a break and inter gang banger and so on....Don't tread on me or else....Tedd

tru-blue 442

Thank you Tedd.
We all work hard for what we have.
Mess with the bull, you get the horns.

coppercutlass

Have you seen grand torino. I think people make mistakes . All my stuff in the garage is insured and it can be replaced. I'm pretty sure if you had to steal bread to feed your family you wouldn't feel to let people justify shooting someone for it. Although I'm not saying being a theif is ok chances are the people getting in your garage are doingit for a stupid reason not worth taking a life. Now if that theif has a gun then yeah I'll blast his *** but materialistic stuff is not worth a life unless one is at risk or one has been taken.

tru-blue 442

I don't keep bread in my garage.
If someone was that hungry that
they had to steal, I'm sorry it is still wrong.
Bow your head and ASK for help.

We as Americans are a very giving people.
I for one am very thankful to live in an area
of the country where crime is not rampant.

I don't know how some can stand it, 'Ron'
for one. I mean really, the Murder Capitol?
That would just SUCK! I would have to pull
the bird plug out of my shotgun and have to reload
if there was a power outage I'd wager.

Too much?

Killian_Mörder

Something just doesn't come from nothing. When the insurer has to pay for theft, everybody's premium gets raised. If every insurer's garage got looted, each one would have to pay his own loss through skyrocketting premium hikes. In essence, this would somehow boil down to communist economics

coppercutlass

Life's a bitch in general. I live right outside chicago and I live I an area with a very diverse community. Some areas are rough . I'm not saying you guys are over reacting. I'm just saying people make some crappy choices I'm sure someone as given many of us a second chance. So just aim for the knees . What I meant by stealing bread is theft is theft no matter which way you put it. We are helping people but shame of begging will push a man to do what he has to do specially for his family.

coppercutlass

Trust me the way insurance companies works they can afford to replace your stuff. They take your money invest it profit from it etc etc. In order for everything to get out of control is if everyone was running rampant stealing letf and right and the insurance companies where loosing money.which I'm pretty sure they make their money hand over fist.

Tedd Thompson

I'm not saying to kill someone for stealing my hub cap( duct tape to a tree maybe) and if their family is hungry come to the front door and ask, we have extra bread, but mess around my place in the dark and bad things will happen!.

We Have the Mexican cartel to contend with. The illegal marijuana fields planted on BLM. ground are within a short distance of my house and on their off time the illegals like to supplement their income by stealing stuff any stuff, took my neighbors largest anvil(175 lb) used my garden cart to haul it off, Cops could care less.

As far as using insurance to cover your loses that just spreads the loss among all of us, we all pay in the end. Much of my stuff is not replaceable and is to expensive to insure so maybe this has hit a sore spot on me but this philosophy of let everyone else pay for what thieves steal has come back to haunt us all......Last rant....Tedd

Killian_Mörder

If drugs in their basic form were to be legalized, there would be no profit for the cartels. This, in turn, would dry them out, since they wouldn't be able to make a living from this kind of prohibition

oldcutlass

To be honest, if I pull the trigger it's not going to be to wound. I reserve the right to protect my stuff and my family in anyway I see fit. If someone is in my home uninvited they will leave in a bag, period. Sorry if I offend anyone.

coppercutlass

In my house yeah i'll blast any one who comes in uninvited . The garage is not worth the fight the lives in my house are a different story.

Killian_Mörder

I often thought likewise, when some of my wife's select friends and relatives suddenly show up

oldcutlass

My garage is attached to the house.

coppercutlass

Touché sir . Mine is detached but everyone on my block has dogs. It even a raccoon is on the prowl you can hear all the dogs go nuts. I also live on a busy street so that tends to not be the best place for a theif to hit. I think the only robber in my block was at my house before I bought it. it sat vacant for a year and someone stole all the copper plumbing. Other than that no theft I think in 10 years. The projects are not even a mile away.

I may add my neighbors said those guys where pro's came in like a landscaping outfit actually landscaping and the broke into the basement and cut all the pipes out while the landscaping was going on to cover up the noise.

Octania

WTH? They don't wait for unoccupied anymore to ****** the copper?
Do they at least shut your water off?
Wow

In the city, pretty sure I can't even fire the shotgun, and, yeah, over a Chinese minibike, no.

The yutes have been pestering us in the driveway for years though. One kid's brand new bike stolen out of the fenced back yard. Neighbor caught a yute on game camera then 2 days later, 10pm, his driveway motion detector alerted him to a yute rummaging under his awning again. He came out and "warned" the kid. It's mostly 14-17 y.o. yutes.

A couple yrs ago I found my truck door panel hanging loose. Family denies any knowledge of it, sure. Later I find the Jr High kid's ID in the seat. Called the cops and the parents. OF course he had NO IDEA how that got in my truck.

How many times they snatched the coinage I can never know, and to an extent, I don't care, a dollar or two here or there, you know.... but when they leave the console open and take the COIN HOLDER which costs me 2 hrs at the boneyard to replace 'cause they all look alike but don't all fit alike... that's when I bought the motion detector.

Now, the last kid, caught by the Motion Detector rummaging my truck, he escaped because the pit bull did not know what to DO with him when she caught him at the road.... but he tripped and lost my money, my coin holder, and HIS PHONE. Oh man did I have fun with that. I never did turn him in to the police and fill out a report for that incident. Maybe I should. I see he quit using THAT number to fence his stolen stuff on CL and whatnot. "D-Money" he calls himself.

Funny, you can't shoot the yutes for "just thievin'"- they aren't killing you, they are "just" taking the stuff... that you traded your time [your life] for. It's just a little thing or 2, right? Couple of items. By extrapolation, then, they can line uparound the block and as long as each one only takes a LITTLE of your stuff, once or twice a week, that you don't have IN your house... it's all OK. Nothing you can do about it. Let the dog out to pee.

coppercutlass

Octania the house was empty when this happen. The house I bought almost sat on the market 375 days. It worked out great for me because I got all new plumbing in the deal and the plumber the bank hired happened to love his trade and did a great job , usually they do a crap job for bank owned homes.

69ishHoliday

I support anyone doing what is necessary to protect themselves or their family. Usually I don't say anything when people break-out the gun talk though they usually are people that haven't killed much during their lives. Being an avid hunter of forty years, I would never for a moment consider pointing a gun at another human being unless there was no other choice and it was life or death.

oldcutlass

The choice was made when they came into the house.

69ishHoliday

Too many innocents with keys to my house. Different people have different situations.

coppercutlass

Wasn't there an incident where a father shot his son not too long ago.

oldspackrat

Hey, who hasn't wanted to shoot their kids once in awhile right?

MDchanic

I don't discuss the circumstances under which I might or might not do something to someone, especially on line, except to say that I will always be sure to act within the laws of my local jurisdiction, which allow discharge of a firearm only in an emergency, and only in the event that I reasonably believe that my life or that of another is in immediate danger. You never know what information someone might dig up later.

I am lucky enough to live in an area with no homeless people, no "underclass," and local cops who keep an eye on things. Most people don't lock their doors around here, and most people have guns. Crime, fortunately, is not really "on the radar" for most people.

I grew up in NYC, where you generally get in trouble for shooting people, and where you don't turn your back on your tools, and learned that everything stays locked up and out of sight at all times, and it's nice to be somewhere where I can get a little sloppy about that from time to time and not have to worry.

- Eric

1970cs

Octania, what part of Lansing do you live in, from prior posts, just a wild guess you must be around the south side possibly holmes rd/cedar and pennsylvania?

I know it's drastic, but maybe it's time to get into the better side of town.
I know it's not fair to you to move because of the crime, but instead of a lawsuit or jail time on your end for taking matters into your own hands!

I do believe you are correct to defend your property, but when it comes to kids the courts will side with the kid if they get hurt on your property.

Stupid court system a 12 year kid shoots, stabs or any other adult act will be tried as an adult! Any thing else, well that's a kid being a kid!

Pat

wcourt3010

I live in Toronto. My Mayor smokes crack. Perhaps you've heard.

MDchanic

Rob Ford is Da Man!

I haven't laughed so hard watching the news in years. And it keeps going on!

Whatever you do, keep voting for this guy - he's put Toronto on the map, and is providing hours of entertainment to the entire continent.

As Jimmy Durante used to sing: "Ummmmmmbriago! Could be the mayor of New York or of Chicago!..."

- Eric

m371961

Well said, and I was fortunate to do the same.

Professur

Say what you like about Ford, at least he's not under any suspicion of corruption. I think the last 6 mayors of Chicago have either been investigated or are doing time. Montreal, on the other hand .... is going to give Chicago a run for it's money on that one.

Professur

Here's the problem with that. When good people move away, the problem doesn't go away.

MDchanic

True, but this is inevitable. Who wants to live in a place where your stuff tends to "walk" and your kids get beaten up?

Same thing happened on Staten Island, NY around the late-'70s into the '80s.
The City put up a whole bunch of housing projects in all of the boroughs in the late forties and through the fifties and sixties. The idea came from the housing shortage that emerged when all of the GIs came home after WWII and needed their own places for their own new families (drafted out of their mothers' houses, but returned independent and married or engaged). They built these simple but clean places where a working class family could live and pay low rent, while saving for something better.

The City initially kept control of the projects within each borough, and each maintained its own waiting list once apartments had filled up. In most places, as entire neighborhoods were bulldozed for "slum clearance" or to build new highways, the City put the people evicted at the top of the list for project apartments, and families were given apartments throughout their respective boroughs *****-nilly, without regard for who was going where. This completely messed up the original neighborhood relations that tended to keep people looking out for one another, and for one another's kids, and led to steadily increasing levels of juvenile crime.

On Staten Island, though, there were no slums at the time, no slum clearance, minimal highway condemnations, and plentiful housing, so this process did not occur there.

In the rest of the city, the decent, hardworking people who had saved up money began to get tired of having to pass young punks in the hallways and smell urine in the elevators, and started to move out, which made way for... more of the unfortunates from the waiting list, and so the cycle continued.

On Staten Island, however, the projects remained filled with working families and the elderly, and surrounded by pleasant middle class neighborhoods. They never received the tamperproof doors and elevators that buildings in the rest of the city got, because they didn't need them, and their grounds were always neatly mowed, with planted flowers in the gardens.

Now, somewhere in the late '70s or early '80s, someone somewhere in City government discovered that there was a major difference in the lengths of the waiting lists for the different boroughs, the policy was changed, and a single citywide list was created - first come first served. This meant that people who were homeless because their houses had been burned down in the South Bronx would be sent to live on Staten Island, in the middle of a well-established, safe community.
You can see how after a few rounds of this, the folks in the projects who could leave did, leaving spaces for more people from bad neighborhoods to move in, and motivating the next group to flea. As that progressed, the folks in the neat little suburban houses across the streets noticed things begin to go missing from their yards, and their car windows being broken, and local shopkeepers began to get tired of looking at the wrong ends of shakily held guns. Over a period of only a few years, these nice apartments and their surrounding nice neighborhoods were turned into complete slums with smashed windows, trash all around, and dangerous streets.

So, yes, if you leave it will get worse, but what can you really do? Stay and wait for the end?

[/rant]

- Eric