robbyk
I am so dismayed at all of this, this illicit behavior, what has happened to our country?

Have you been to WalMart lately? People these days wear their PJs to town. No self respect! We were by there earlier today. There was a woman, looked to be maybe 67ish.. wearing thin, skin tight, yoga type pants but thinner material... she was well over 200 pounds too. I guess in another 10 years people will be going to town in their underwear.
That is a telling symptom of what has happened to our country... no self respect. no personal honor, and without that you can be sure they have no respect for you, me, this country, or anything else.
Our government, both sides, all parts is the biggest problem, the way they create problems then make solutions. Sometimes come up with solutions looking for a problem. 40% of tax returns last year, maybe this last tax season... were under 25k. Still everyone thinks they deserve this and deserve that. It is breeding what we have now. It is the reason Sharke posted a few months ago about no longer considering any potential employee under 30yo. It is going to get worse. There is no more money for the piper either.
So they come for Beagle's stuff, they come for Dave's stuff, they look for anything because they deserve it, you didn't earn what you have, you were lucky.
Sorry....
 
J

Beagle, it's good the police seem to be taking things seriously. Hopefully they will catch them and you can get your stuff back. That hasn't been my experience with the Dallas police.

Don't mess with Texas!
 
J

DrLumen
Beagle, it's good the police seem to be taking things seriously. Hopefully they will catch them and you can get your stuff back. That hasn't been my experience with the Dallas police.

I had a conversation with a couple of friends who used to live in Dallas and now live near me in Ft. Worth and they had a similar experience.  Said the police wouldn't even send a car until the property owner (a 20-something woman who was 8 months pregnant at the time) had arrived at the property!  Then they didn't do any investigation at all.  just filed a report.  "see ya later, ma'am.  have a nice day."

The sad fact is that property crimes are rampant, with reports coming in too fast for the police to keep up. They told me that here they get 20 reports per day. And I live in a small city of only 100,000 people. Extrapolate that to a city the size of Dallas/Ft. Worth and it's probably hundreds per day. Now imagine what it's like in less-wealthy cities such as Detroit or Washington, D.C. (in Detroit your odds of being a property crime victim are 1 in 5).
 
Here's a list of the cities with the highest rate of property crimes, which you may find surprising. Some of the worst cities are places with a pretty good reputation for being a nice place to live (Seattle, Portland, Orlando, San Francisco) while contrary to their portrayals in the movies, New York City and Las Vegas are actually very low on the list.
 

I don't know the situation in the US but the UK Home Secretary is quoted as saying in a speach on reform "Dealing with a simple burglary can require 1,000 process steps and 70 forms to be completed as a case goes through the Criminal Justice System. That can't be right."
 
Clearly modern societies build huge bureaucratic systems, ostensibly to serve justice but end up having the opposite effect. The system is weighted in favour of the criminals. You may depend a simple error on one of those forms or process steps would result in the case being thrown out.
 
I have also seen it noted that while crime rates can be high the actual number of criminals is low because most commit many offences, but lack (or waste) of resources stops then from being caught. 
 

Hmm...  I may have been robbed too!  I can't seem to find any becan in the fridge...  

"God created man. Samuel Colt made them equal."
 
If you want your property or life defended... you have to do it yourself and do it right so the consequences are not bad. Just sayin'..
 
J 

Guys
Can I offer a little advice - I own a Security Company in South Africa where we have high levels of crime (50 murders a day, 200 rapes a day - I could go on)  and believe me if you think the Police in the US are either useless or overwhelmed, you ought to see the SA Police - in many instances its THEM doing the breaking in!!
On a previous post I mentioned what I have on my house. I have that as I can and its free to me,  sort of thing.
But in most instances if someone REALLY wants to break into your place, not much will stop them.
 
HOWEVER an enormously high percentage of break-ins in particular, are opportunist crimes.
SO Visible deterrents (which are there to be seen) work best.
Window bars - can be the latest see through unbreakable plastic type work really well - as do door security trelli slam shut door gates  - also on patio doors. These are pretty cheap and highly effective.
Dummy cameras work really well and sometimes, particularly if your Police Force is not up to much, work as good as standard static CCTV - well unless you want and sit and watch the monitors all day - even if you get good pictures of the criminals, the police normally say that its no good for a prosecution (way too much work and anyway might be their cousin or something here in SA!!)
And of course a standard pretty simple  alarm with a VERY loud horn / bell etc - that normally stops any burglars staying too long.
Dogs with loud barks work great.
We also do cameras that detect movement etc night and day and send pictures straight to your mobile phone, no matter wherever you are in the World - these are the ones we pioneered to help stop Rhino Poaching and they work brilliantly. 
One of the best deterrents is of course instant response - here in Cape Town we have guaranteed 2 minute armed response - not sure if available in US - I know the armed bit is not available in the UK. They MUST be armed in Cape Town or they would soon probably be dead, but TIA as we say (This is Africa!!)
Also simple things like decent perimeter wall / fence - a gate if you can - all these things the potential burglar will see, think twice and then look round for a softer target...unfortunately in many instances its your neighbor, but well,  they should have boosted their security as well. It sometimes is a good thing to just remind them they might be a little vulnerable and they should look at their own security situation.
Neighbors who all think a little about security and all have some kind of visible deterrent, REALLY are safer - the actual area where I live, we all (bar the odd house) have improved our security over the years and because of that, so far, we have a very very low incident of crime - stronger together sort of thing. 
Hope some of this is helpful 
Cheers
Nigel