It all happened last Monday. It is not usual for me to receive calls at 7:30 am in the morning. This allows me to spend some extra time in bed in the mornings. But on this day, I received a call from my friend who was out of town at that moment. The news he gave was not good. His house had been burgled and he wanted me to go and check what was stolen and take up damage control measures. Such kind of event happening to a good friend obviously upsets you. Especially if you put yourself in the shoes of the victim. You feel like extending as much help as you can.
However, having faced such a difficult situation earlier, I also found it to be an excellent opportunity to exercise my grey cells. I've mentioned somewhere earlier in this blog that I am a big fan of detective fiction. And now an opportunity presented itself to test the ‘skills’ I might have unwittingly developed in all these years of reading this form of fiction. Yea, shameless of me to say so but I felt that I had to do my bit to make sure that my pal got at least some of his stuff back.
So I put on my virtual deerstalker hat, lighted my virtual clay pipe, checked my virtual silhouette and ventured out to the scene of crime. Actually there were three SoCs. Apart from my friend’s apartment, the thieves had hit two other houses in the same neighborhood. It had been a free run for them and it was surprising that they had not been caught or at the least observed. Needless to say, every house the burglars had hit that day was empty as the residents were away for some reason or the other. So they knew which houses to hit. Such daredevilry! The thieves had broken into these apartments by breaking the latch. They had also known where to search and what to search. It was as if they knew what they were looking for. They had first broken into the main bedroom’s cupboard where they literally hit paydirt in the form of gold and cash. Next they searched packed cases and other stuff but made sure that they left the rooms where they assumed nothing much of value would be found untouched. Overall, it was a professional job. At least more professional than my bumbling through the SoC. The cops came, registered a complaint and went. I was still searching for clues but it was apparent that I would not find anything that would help me catch a thief. But it was not the time to give up. I tried to figure out how the thieves had come and gone. I tried to figure out if it was an inside job by someone who knew when my friend and his neighbors would be out and so I cast a suspicious glance on the night watchman who had promptly gone to sleep locking his quarters by 10:00 pm that night (turns out that it is his usual time to go to sleep which the thieves might have know already) but nothing much came out of it. In short, it was an exercise in futility. It was clear that I would not be able to achieve what the cops could not. Disappointing. I realized that all these years of reading detective fiction had not trained a single neuron inside my brain to see something that others didn’t see. Unfortunate.
But whatever said and done, I did learn something. There are parasites among us who like to feed off our hard-earned fortune. Beware of them. If only my friend had taken a few simple precautions it would have helped him save such a loss. Few precautions such as:
However, having faced such a difficult situation earlier, I also found it to be an excellent opportunity to exercise my grey cells. I've mentioned somewhere earlier in this blog that I am a big fan of detective fiction. And now an opportunity presented itself to test the ‘skills’ I might have unwittingly developed in all these years of reading this form of fiction. Yea, shameless of me to say so but I felt that I had to do my bit to make sure that my pal got at least some of his stuff back.
So I put on my virtual deerstalker hat, lighted my virtual clay pipe, checked my virtual silhouette and ventured out to the scene of crime. Actually there were three SoCs. Apart from my friend’s apartment, the thieves had hit two other houses in the same neighborhood. It had been a free run for them and it was surprising that they had not been caught or at the least observed. Needless to say, every house the burglars had hit that day was empty as the residents were away for some reason or the other. So they knew which houses to hit. Such daredevilry! The thieves had broken into these apartments by breaking the latch. They had also known where to search and what to search. It was as if they knew what they were looking for. They had first broken into the main bedroom’s cupboard where they literally hit paydirt in the form of gold and cash. Next they searched packed cases and other stuff but made sure that they left the rooms where they assumed nothing much of value would be found untouched. Overall, it was a professional job. At least more professional than my bumbling through the SoC. The cops came, registered a complaint and went. I was still searching for clues but it was apparent that I would not find anything that would help me catch a thief. But it was not the time to give up. I tried to figure out how the thieves had come and gone. I tried to figure out if it was an inside job by someone who knew when my friend and his neighbors would be out and so I cast a suspicious glance on the night watchman who had promptly gone to sleep locking his quarters by 10:00 pm that night (turns out that it is his usual time to go to sleep which the thieves might have know already) but nothing much came out of it. In short, it was an exercise in futility. It was clear that I would not be able to achieve what the cops could not. Disappointing. I realized that all these years of reading detective fiction had not trained a single neuron inside my brain to see something that others didn’t see. Unfortunate.
But whatever said and done, I did learn something. There are parasites among us who like to feed off our hard-earned fortune. Beware of them. If only my friend had taken a few simple precautions it would have helped him save such a loss. Few precautions such as:
- Put the jewelry in the apartment in a bank locker for safekeeping while traveling
- Install a good lock to the door so that the burglars cannot break or would have to make a big racket while trying to break in (I got it installed for them that day itself but it was obviously a case of locking the stable after the horses had bolted)
- Insure precious stuff
- Do not keep too much cash
- If you still want to keep precious stuff in the house keep it in a place where the these parasites will not think of searching (as I said these guys only searched the areas where they knew they’d find stuff but did not touch other areas) so that at least it frustrates them. Or install a very strong safe which would be unbreakable by simple tools such as a crowbar.
- Let your neighbors know about your travel plan (if you trust them enough) so that they can check out and report any suspicious activity in your house during your absence
- Be aware of whom you let into your house.
- Employ professional security people for round-the-clock security. If you cannot afford one exclusively, then try to involve the colony people to hire one for the entire colony
Lessons well learnt. After spending half a day trying to figure out how to help my friend have a safer home till the time he returned, I returned humbled with my own experience. Since my detective skills are now out for everyone there to see, I might as well be cautious and protect what little I treasure using the afore-mentioned tips. If you guys have anything to add to the list, you’re welcome do so.
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