thefts

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

It's a little far afield, but still relevant I think. My apartment near Dilboy Stadium was broken into yesterday. They took a laptop, digital camera, some medicine, and a bottle of wine (and left the good scotch).

I just moved here 3 months ago, so I'm not sure if this is normal, or there's been a rash of this, or I just got unlucky...

Comments

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Bummer. Did you have the electronics registered?

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

No, but I have renter's insurance that should help some...

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Hopefully. Next time, get it registered and look into anti-theft programs. Laptops can have software installed that, once activated, both trace the laptop and render it unusuable unless you're familiar with the program.

Also, even at home, get a lock and keep your laptop locked down when you leave. Thieves are generally opportunists, not planners, and the harder you make it for them to find and remove objects, the less likely they are to steal them.

[ron_newman]

I'm going to use this post as yet another opportunity to plug the Somerville police WRAP program - a way to register portable electronic devices online.

[bex77]

So sorry to hear you got burgled! That sucks...

My impression is that this happens, but is relatively rare. Don't know about any patterns...you called the police, right? They might know.

I found a neat web page with 2003 crime figures for Somerville and some neat bar charts comparing the city figures to the national averages:

http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Somerville&state=MA

I found it surprising how low our city crime rate is compared to the national averages, on everything except car theft.

[ron_newman]

Yesterday was very warm -- did you have windows open that could be easily reached from the ground? That includes windows that lead to fire escapes.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

No, but I'm the 1st floor of a duplex... they busted in the front door, which is in an enclosure...

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

Four apartments in my building on Highland Ave. have been broken into over the past several weeks. Fortunately, I was not involved (HOORAY for my noisy dog!) My Landlord seems to think that it is the work of a shady contractor who got their hands on the keys to the building and is in the process of changing all of the locks.

I've been in this building for 14 months and this is the first trouble I've heard about.

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the shady contractor theory does sound very likely. The chances that one or several people off the street would break into the same building four times in a few weeks is pretty astronomical.

Hopefully changing the locks will stop that.

[20-phone-calls.livejournal.com]

202???

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

That's the place!

[20-phone-calls.livejournal.com]

I thought there was only two! So that's like, 1/5 of our building that was stolen from. That sucks! Hopefully the lock change will fix the problem, though!

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

We got a letter telling us about the original two. Then I came home after going to the movies Monday night to find Johanna, a locksmith and a cruiser parked in front of the house. I happened to be going in at the same time as Johanna and she told me that there had been two more.

[avjudge]

It doesn't help those who *are* broken into, but in late 2007 there was an article in one of Somerville's newspapers to the effect that household break-ins were down that year, while car break-ins are WAY up. If I remember correctly, the police thought this might be related, as the increase of valuables in cars, often obvious (like my husband's GPS!), made that a much more reliable, simple source of ready cash.

Anne

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Well, that makes me feel better about not paniccing...

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Don't forget iPods! It's insane how many people just leave the iPod in the car!

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I live over on School St and last year, there were some break-in on my street, including one that happened while a neighbor was in the shower. She got out to find that someone had been in her apartment and taken a bunch of stuff.

Pretty scary.

And yeah, excellent advice given about hiding all valuables in cars and leaving nothing in plain sight. One other hint given in a Globe article is that if you have a GPS, be sure to clean off the windshield/dash where the suction cup goes, as thiefs are now looking for those tell-tale circles that indicate there might be a GPS stashed in the glove box.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

What time of day did it happen?

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

sometime between 9:00 am and 8:00 pm...

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

I was broken into last may, I posted about it here - same thing, electronics and wine, but not my scotch or even some jewelry I had in the house - there was a rash of break ins near Dover/Orchard etc - a bunch of attempted ones too - the cop said the wine was the thing that stood out in all the break ins.

Sorry this happened to you, I was freaked out they would come back and didn't like how my landlord handled it and wound up moving.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

It's funny how they seem to know which houses have laptops, digital cameras, etc.

Anyway ask your neighbors, especially retired persons who are home in the middle of the day, if there's been any questionable door-to-door canvassing, or cars that don't belong there.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Isn't Davis an affluent enough neighborhood/area that most houses have at least one laptop? Not to mention enough students/young professionals that have multiple people in one apartment therefore multiple laptops, etc?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

It wasn't in the immediate Davis area. It was just as likely they could have broken into some old lady's house who might have had jewelry, etc, but no portable electronics.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

Somerville is usually extremely safe, however, there have been reports in recent years that with so many more affluent people moving into neighborhoods of less-affluent people, there has been a rash of housebreaks taking things like laptops and digital cameras. However, I think the bigger reason is a drug problem which is worsening by the day and is not being addressed by anyone in the administration, including the police. Most breakins that I've heard of are little things....Ipods, digital cameras, laptops....things you can easily walk away with. Also, I hear the newest reason for breaking into cars is to steal the air bag! Yep, I said air bag...apparently they're valuable, and before being deployed are small and easy to transport.