View from the cop: Crime & punishment
View from the Cop is moving to a new site on Wordpress. Blogger Steve Rose of the Sandy Springs Police Department gives his take on crime, offers safety tips and give his weekly picks from the police blotter. Follow Steve Rose to the new blog site.
AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2008 > December
December 2008
Don’t help the crooks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Crooks aren’t smart but they do take advantage of opportunities. You and I would question (hopefully) the morality of stealing something but these guys and girls don’t hesitate. Sometimes that is exactly how they get away with it.
We get a number of reports, especially for items stolen from a retail area or office area where the victim saw the item, turned away, and moments later turned back and the item was gone. A good example of that is the purse-hanging-on-the-chair theft. If the thief is quick and calm, he can grab the purse and be in the car and gone before the victim notices it. This is especially true in the drinking establishments where the reaction time is sometimes measured in minutes rather than seconds.
If you went through our recent theft-from-auto reports, you’d see not one owas a case where the thief smashed the window and THEN looked around. What he wanted was there to be seen. Look at how many targets are out there. Your car and a hundred others. Why would he break into yours to look around when moving along and finding another car with something in view is right next to you? Make it hard for these crooks!
Some Quick Tips for GPS Security:
• Consider using a friction mount instead of the suction-cup windshield mount most GPS devices ship with. Friction mounts rest on the dashboard instead being attached to the glass, and can be easily hidden under the seat when the car is parked. Plus, there’s no revealing ring on the windshield to tip off thieves.
• If you do use a windshield mount, remove it when parking the car and wipe off the suction cup smudge.
• Write down the serial number of your GPS and register it with the manufacturer. That way, if it ever goes missing you can prove the unit was yours. If your GPS includes a lock/password feature, use it. These simple passwords / PIN combinations are easily cracked within a day or two, but you might as well make things as difficult as possible for the criminals!
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Why we act like morons at 4-way stops
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Folks, we can put a man on the moon—or at least a convincible sound stage looking like the lunar surface, but take any four American motorists and put them at a four-way stop and suddenly they regress to moronic levels of intelligence.
First to arrive and first to go. It doesn’t sound hard—or so it seems.
Something, some weird Bermuda-Triangle like thing, somehow affects the ability of drivers to make a decision as to who got there first and then what to do about it. Interestingly, four-way stops allow us to see what type of personalities we have.
For instance, Type A drivers arrive at the stop sign and immediately take it that they arrived first and after a brief California Stop* continue through the sign at about 2-5 MPH. If they feel that they have arrived just a mini-second too late, they pull about one-third the way into the intersection and immediately place their hand up next to the windshield and begin waving back and forth, rapidly, not allowing, but ordering the other driver to immediately continue. It’s not a courteous gesture but more of a demand. Type-A drivers get a lot of tickets.
Type B drivers ease up to the stop sign but allow everyone and anyone to go before they do. This is also very aggravating because it causes the whole numerical rotation to go off-kilter. Once someone screws up the natural order at the four-way stop sign and what you believe to be the proper rotation, it’s every person to him or herself. The result is catastrophic. Once one person goes off, the rest fall into a sort of Type A and Type B funk.
The Type A’s begin waving feverishly first with their right hand up against the windshield and then out the window, first with all fingers waving and then just one. At the same time they’re throwing the other hand in the air as if to say: “What the (#$&%^) are you thinking??!!”
Type B’s, obviously more passive, don’t know what the hell to do and, with a death grip on the steering wheel, slowly try to ease through the intersection—at exactly the same time Type-A’s are trying to bully their way through. Ultimately both cars will pull out at the same time, pause, make hand gestures, shrug shoulders, then start forward again at the same time, and then repeat the last paragraph.
There is a third category which is the driver on his or her cell phone and who approaches and then just sits there like a (^$(#&)ing putz, enthusiastically babbling incoherently into the (%#*&$^)ing cell phone!!
Quite simply, these people should be beaten.
At some point, we need to realize that regardless of how smart we are individually, or how stupid for that matter, four-way stops are the great equalizers. We are conditioned to respond to them that way. We can’t, or at least we’re not supposed to run them but make no mistake, once we approach them, it’s a race.
What to Do?
Why not put a set of random lights, blue, red, yellow, and green, at each stop sign. As you approach, the automatic sensor picks up which car broke the super scientific laser beam thing and triggers green. The others cannot be the same color. If by chance two cars hit the beam at the same time, the winner is determined by answering a multiple-choice question from the driver’s manual, displayed on an electronic sign, or if the two driver’s agree, rock, paper and scissors.
Whether you’re Type-A or Type-B, don’t dread your approach to the four-way stop. Have fun with it. Celebrate it. Instead of waving the other driver on, do the Robot or perhaps a short rendition of your favorite interpretive dance.
*California Stop
Popular but illegal. From the folks who first introduced Right-on-Red at traffic lights took it a step further by trying to introduce slowing but not stopping based on the fact the driver didn’t see any real threat by oncoming traffic. Although reviewed, all fifty states rejected the California Stop, not because they were afraid of being labeled as “liberal,” but more because there were too many wrecks. Go figure.
Anyway, four way stops are among the most complained on. The traffic unit usually receives complaints on speeding first and then stop signs second. Neighborhood stop signs are the most complained on. Most people think that since it’s relatively remote and there is not much traffic, it’s okay to run the sign. It’ isn’t. A stop is more or less an absence of movement. Ultimately rolling through the stop sign, even at ½ miles per hour, is still moving and not a stop. So, why not just stop? You can be back on your way in 2.5 seconds! What are you missing?
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Crime & punishment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Notes from the Sandy Springs police blotter:
Robbery
The manager of the Radio Shack in the 6200 block of Roswell Road said a man came into the store and asked to buy two GPS units. When one of the employees returned to the counter with the units, the man pulled a black semi-auto pistol and demanded money. He was given an undetermined amount of money as well as three laptops. He left in a four-door light gold Toyota.
Burglary
The Mexi-Cali Grille in the 6000 block of Roswell Road reported a burglary. According to employees, the rear door was pried open. Missing items include a Margarita machine and two televisions.
5000 block of South Trimble Road 30342 12/17 A man who rents a garage apartment in the 5000 block of South Trimble Road. He was asleep about 1:20 a.m. when he heard noises. He got up and saw flashlight lights and then saw two men, who then fled from the apartment. The victim said they both wore dark clothing and possibly hoods. They got into a dark pickup truck and left. The victim turned out the lights and watched as the truck drove back to the location and parked at the end of the driveway. The two suspects got out of the truck. The victim flicked the interior lights and they again fled the area. These guys are either really stupid or knew what they wanted. The two suspects did drop some paperwork that provided a good lead for the detectives.
Thefts
A building contractor reported his tools were stolen from a storage area n the 1300 block of West Garmon Road.
A woman said she left her handbag in her desk on the 12th floor of an office building while she attended a meeting. When she got back she noticed the purse was gone. She called to cancel her credit card and was told the card had been used at Macy’s and the MARTA station. It does not take long to use those cards. If you are unfortunate enough to have your credit cards stolen, report them stolen as soon as possible to minimize the reward for the crook. They don’t waste time using the cards because they know it only takes a call to the 800 number for the card to cancel them.
A woman reported that while she was paying for her groceries at a food mart, she placed her Nokia phone on the counter. During that time someone snatched it up and left.
Assault
A painter said he was contracted to paint an apartment in the 200 block of Franklin Road. He said he knocked several times and got no answer. As he entered the apartment he said he was assaulted by a man who was angry for being awakened.
Arrests
A patrol officer, patrolling the area of the 300 block of Hammond Drive, found a man asleep in his car parked in an area where we’ve had previous thefts from cars. The cops checked the man out. According to the report it took five times, hitting on the window to awaken the man. Officers found that he apparently was near a hotel where his girlfriend was staying but retreated to the car to smoke some pot. He passed out before he could stash the pot. He was charged with possessing said pot.
At the Kroger Store on Sandy Springs Place, a man came in the store with empty grocery-store bags in his pockets. He filled the bags with groceries and beer and then left like he had checked out and had the items placed in bags for him. He was questioned by the store employees but ran when they determined he stole the groceries. Cops picked up the man on Cliftwood Drive. He had the items and a change of clothing stashed in the bags. He was arrested.
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Brian Nichols: Was justice served?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you watched the coverage of the Nichol’s sentencing, and with the help of a calculator, you know how many years this guy is going to get.
They were somewhere in the 6th or 7th life sentence when the stations all broke away for a digital TV test. Couldn’t happen during a lull or commercial and it certainly wasn’t good timing but I’m guessing the stations didn’t have much of a choice on the timing.
Brian Nichols was spared the death penalty. My opinion: too bad. You know, the guy won’t see another free day in his life but the fact remains that he’ll be alive and we’ll be supporting him for the next however many years until he passes away or falls victim to the shank or escapes.
Honestly, I don’t think he will have the opportunity to escape but the quality of his life is going to be a hell of a lot better than his victims who have no life and their families who have to live with the tragic results of what this guy did.
I don’t believe that Nichols will have sit in prison, suffering for the murders he committed. His quality of life won’t be that bad because he is one of them, not us. He’s a thug and a murderer. He’ll be among his own and he’ll adapt to that lifestyle and he’ll be in his element. His adaptation to that environment will make his quality of life, for lack of better words, livable. He shouldn’t have it that good.
Folks, you can boo-hoo all you want about his instabilities and his mental interpretation of what he was doing when he began to murder those people but the fact is he showed complete disregard for human life over and over again. He indicated no remorse and probably would have added to the casualty list if he had been given the chance.
In his little world, in prison, Nichols will probably adapt and his day-to-day life will be bearable for him. That’s too much quality of life for someone who did what he did. He doesn’t deserve it.
Maybe he should have a cell decorated with photos of his victims and their families and let him look at all the people, the sons, daughters, wives, even friends during their good times in life.
Make him look at those photos every day of his life and then maybe he won’t have the luxury of forgetting them.
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Crime & punishment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Notes from the police blotter:
Robbery
A woman in the 6000 block of Roswell Road reported that she cashed a check for $280 at the bank. She was approached by two males in the parking lot. One suspect asked her for directions and she was in the process of telling him she was not familiar with the location when the second male came up and grabbed her purse. The victim yanked the purse back but the suspect was able to hold onto the envelope containing the money. The two men got into a gray sedan and fled towards Boylston Road.
A man in the 1000 block of Hammond Drive said he met a girl on Craigslist and agreed to meet her—well, let’s cut to the chase. He got ripped off by a hooker.
Burglary
The NAPA store in the 6500 block of Roswell Road was burglarized. The store alarm activated and when officers arrived, they found forced entry had been made. Missing is a snap-on scanner. Store personnel told police they suspected a former employee.
Someone entered a home on Ascot Manor Lane, possibly by using a spare key that was meant to be hidden on the patio. The burglar got several silver items. Places NOT to hide the spare key are: • Under the mat. • On top of the door frame. • Anywhere within reach of the door. • Under the ceramic frog. • On the BBQ grill rack. • Anywhere it would take about thirty seconds to find it. Be more creative and remember to remember where it is.
Someone entered a home in the 8600 block of Roberts Drive by (what we think) was taking advantage of a sliding door not properly installed. The door appeared to have been installed in a way that left a gap which was enough to allow someone to slip a wire (perhaps) and loosen the sliding door bar that keeps the doors from opening. The victim had a PS3, laptop, and other items including over $900 cash taken. Apartment residents-Check your doors and windows and put in a request for maintenance to come out and repair or tweak anything that needs repairing or tweaking! Windows and doors that don’t close properly are easy targets. DON’T keep large amounts of cash at home but if you have to, stash it somewhere VERY hard to find.
Someone did a smash-and-grab on a television at the Radio Shack on Roswell Road. The alarm tripped and when officers arrived, they found the front door broken open and the TV had been ripped from the wall.
Theft
A man went into a convenience store in the 7800 block of Roswell Road and took an 18-pack of beer with him to the bathroom. He stuffed six of them in his pockets and then left the rest in the bathroom. He came out of the bathroom and ran out the door.
A man reported that he purchased a money order for $880 to pay his rent. He left it in the drop box at the leasing office. Later, he was told that his rent for the month had not been paid and his money order was later presented somewhere in Cobb County for cashing. Handle your rent business in person if you can. Stop by the office during business hours and remember who you gave the check to. Don’t use drop boxes.
A woman reported that her wallet was taken from her purse that was located in the shopping car seat (steal-me position.) A man came up and asked her for her cereal recommendation. During that time, a second man came by and reached in and took the wallet.
An employee of McDonald’s said someone tapped the till at the drive-thru window. The register alarm sounded and when they looked, the cash drawer was open. They are not sure if the theft was a reach-in theft from the drive-thru window or if someone inside took the undetermined amount of money.
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Prevent crime during the holidays
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Christmas time means robberies are up and thefts from cars are up.
Right now we have a trio of bad guys doing street-level robberies mostly in the southern area. Victims are usually caught off guard getting in or out of a car and it’s normally at night.
Some of the robberies were for money and one was a carjacking. At night, be very careful and look around before getting out of the car. These are quick hits and if you get caught in the worst-case scenario and are approached for money, don’t fight. Give up the money and get a good description of the perps.
Other things:
You know those “Secret Shopper” offers? Be aware, some are phony. Check them out. Most legit Secret Shopper deals don’t involve you putting money up front. Look into these offers closely and ask questions.
Thefts from gym lockers are expected to rise slightly. The most common scenario is a popped locker and either a credit card removed from a wallet or, if the wallet isn’t in the locker, thieves will sometimes take the keys, walk outside and hit the buttons until they find the car. Most of the time they ransack the car then leave.
Thefts from cars are up a bit. Just quit leaving all that stuff in them.
I’ve gotten some e-mails telling of stories of people who slash the victim’s tires then approach them offering to fix them, then robbing them. I hear about it but haven’t seen any of it here.
Apartment burglaries are quick. Kick the door, grab what they can from the front room and scoot. Most common item taken: PS3 and Xbox game systems. Aside from the door kickers, the second most common entry point is the sliding door. You can’t do much about the front door frame unless your apartment complex is very accommodating but you can buy or even make a door stop for the sliding door. You can buy a wooden dowel at the hardware store. Cap the ends with rubber stoppers and place it on the sliding door thus restricting it from opening. Most crooks won’t take the chance of shattering the big sliding door.
It’s a good idea to write down serial and model numbers of your valuables, especially electronics. Make the rounds with your digital camera and create a visual inventory of your items.
Believe me, it will pay off if you are a victim of a burglary.
Here’s more holiday news and tips
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On holiday eating and shopping
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I went to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving.
I had a nice dinner and then complained about how much I ate—then had another piece of pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin pie at 3 a.m. when it’s ice cold. I never had a taste for the pecan pie as much as pumpkin.
We go to Cincinnati at least once a year. Detective Sandy requires this for her Gold Star Chili fix. She is obsessed to the point of being scary. I like it too but she’s in her own weird Gold Star Chili zone. Going up I-75, the first Gold Star is in Lexington at Man O’ War Boulevard. I know this because I’m required to stop here, not two exits down the road, but here, regardless of time of day.
After a small ceremony where she chants to the chili gods, we eat a four-way (onions) and thank the staff, take some photos, and we’re on the way. Cincinnati is less than two hours north—just about time for me to make it before nature says hello to Cincinnati Chili.
My worst fears were realized. Detective Sandy convinced her dad that we needed to get out and shop on Friday—early on Friday. How could this man do this to me? I don’t mind getting out and don’t really mind that much shopping when there’s something in it for me but I don’t like to mix it up with veteran shoppers who live for this day. It’s not even remotely fun.
Want to know how much fun it wasn’t? I had a stare-down with a tiny Samoan woman over a pair of Spiderman boxers. I caved. She was mentally prepared to do things I wasn’t. What fun is that?
I hate getting up early. To do this to shop is ridiculous. What’s wrong with these people? Even with the early morning crush of shoppers, the late afternoons were quiet. Why not even it out and open the doors at 10 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m.
Now that the shopping season is here and we can’t do anything about it, know that the bottom dwellers are out too. Thefts from cars will go up. It’s the simplest crime to prevent but it will spike again if people continue to ignore common sense. Don’t leave packages in the back seat in full view. If you’re going to do the all-day marathon shopping, take a break and carry the first load home and then return. This will also give you a chance to drop your husband or boyfriend, or worse, fiancé off.
Guys, If you’re engaged, then you don’t have a prayer. Want proof? Do this: Go to the mega-mall and look at the faces of the men. Look for the “thousand-yard” stare. Those are the fiancés. They’re in deep enough and don’t have experience enough to get out of the shopping trips.
When they’re still in “boyfriend-girlfriend” phase, men still have a chance. They’re not yet on record as “fiancé.” Once there, however, all hope is lost and you might as well get your little green earth-friendly shopping bag and join the legion of doom as you accompany your lovely wife-to-be as you look for cute things for people you don’t even know that well. Why don’t you just go ahead and get matching sweatshirts to wear while you shop while you’re at it!
I’m sorry but I just hate to shop—especially when it doesn’t directly benefit me.
My kids are in the “gift-certificate” ages. I don’t give cash. They’ll blow it. I go for gasoline, grocery-store, or tattoo parlor certificates. Thoughtful, yet practical.
At some point this was going to be about preventing crime during the holiday shopping. I’ll follow up on that next. Funny how things work out.
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