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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > December > 26 > Entry
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.
Comments
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By Kimi
December 27, 2007 10:52 AM | Link to this
Thanks so much for those tips! I didn’t buy any of these items but it’s good to know not just for Christmas/holiday time but year round!
By Excessive Use
December 27, 2007 11:30 AM | Link to this
My mom called me and frantically told me that she had walked in the house, set her purse down, walked away from it and that someone came in the house and took it. It would have been the most brazen act of day-time house breaking I’ve heard of in a long time, except for the fact that she had actually set the purse down in a bedroom somewhere and forgotten about it.
By p
December 27, 2007 3:30 PM | Link to this
If i remember the article in the boston paper, simply taking the GPS out of the holder and hiding it did’t work - thieves just broke in and found the hidden GPS.
taking the HOLDER and the GPS out of the car didn’t work. thives spotted the suction cup marks on the windshield and broke into the car! OK, they didn’t get the GPS, but getting your window fixed is still a huge pain.
keep some small window wipes in you glovebox.
By Mari Forquer
December 27, 2007 9:20 PM | Link to this
Older but wiser, I remember the year I went to visit a friend in a hospital. Had purchases in the back seat, and was too lazy to switch them to the trunk. Yep, all gone when I returned. So, even in a guarded/patrolled lot the thievery still goes on. Takes the oomph out of your holiday spirit, but definitely makes an impression for future Christmases! I try not to get a bah-humbug attitude about it. Like the saying goes: Let the buyer beware! Happy New Year everyone!