View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > December > 26
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Crooks aren’t taking a holiday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It is the day after Christmas Day and soon the highways will be lined with discarded Christmas trees left by people too lazy to drop them off at the recycling places. Just take a minute or two and you’ll find a spot, usually at a shopping center or church, or school, where they’ll take them and give you some seeds or something to plant.
Based on the activity at work, most of the crooks didn’t take too much time off. There were plenty of thefts, especially from cars. Same old thing-new products. Garmin and Tom-Tom GPS units are the popular items. Use the suction cups holders for the windshield and then take them down when you get out of the car. They’re not big so stash them in your purse or Hugo Boss man bags or something with big pockets. Be careful you don’t get mistaken for a shoplifter. Just think ahead some.
Retail stores will start getting those scams where the bad guys pick up a receipt from the parking lot or garbage just outside the store and then walk in, find the item, match it to the receipt, and then try to return it for cash. Most of the store security people have as much after-Christmas duty as before-Christmas duty, manning the cameras and locking up thieves.
For those of you with really big cardboard boxes at the curbside waiting for the garbage dudes to come by, try and conceal the descriptions and nice photos of the new computers, laptops, PS3, X-Box 360, and all that other stuff that is now in your house and will be in your house when you eventually leave. Some burglars like to troll, right about now, looking for them. Use those box-cutters and then slice and dice—hopefully not your fingers.
