[Summit] Another break in. & a little advice

[Bresler E]

Hello Neighbors,
Some friends of ours went away for a few days and when they returned Monday
evening they discovered their house had been robbed.
They live on Fourth just up from Miriam Hospital.
Entry was apparently gained by violently smashing some heavy sliding glass
doors. The glass broke into a million pieces like a car windshield but, with
out the film coating the glass- it went EVERYWHERE.  And the place was up
ended by the thieves searching. It's an awful feeling being invaded this
way.
But at least our friends are not popular consumer types, so there was no
ipod, TV or stereo to take; the computer was apparently too old for the
thieves's tastes.
However, besides the invasion,  there are things gone, and they are afraid
of what they haven't missed yet, a phenomenon they unfortunately discovered
when their car was robbed on a trip to Newport, just a few months back.
*
Focusing on Prevention* (Our neighborhood currently HAS a problem.) This is
NOT about blame but Information.  Their house was dark.  Another friend of
ours was thoroughly robbed last month- also had no lights left on.  While we
certainly SHOULD be able to safely leave our houses dark & unattended, a
little light goes a long way to make thieves hesitate.

The best method is a light timer, or two or three.  For those not familiar-
Home Depot sells them for ten bucks or less.  It's a a small boxy thing you
plug into an out let or power strip. Then you plug a lamp into it.  You set
the time of day on it's clock, and then you set what hours you want the lamp
to come on & go off.  There is an over ride on the side, so you can leave
the thing operative, but temporarily turn the lamp on or off contrary to the
program.  (Although frequent over-riding sometimes knocks the clock off
schedule- So big deal, reset it once or twice a month) A friend also puts a
radio on low on one of these timers when going out of town.

 Put one timer in some front room with curtained windows easily seen from
the street, one in another first floor room, and a just night light in a
bathroom somewhere-- and the house looks occupied-- anytime you are out,
with nothing to arrange as you go.
(But be sure your drapes or whatever are closed so they can't see in and
tell that no one is there)

These timers are also available for wall-switch operated over-heads, but
need to be installed by an electrician.  (Be careful what kind you get-
after we had one installed we discovered ours will not operate with energy
saver bulbs used in our five bulb fixture!!)

Of course an alarm system works but it is expensive and you have to remember
to use it.  But until we catch these guys, we have to do what we can to
discourage them.

Elianna

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