I can't believe this...

[TopazRaven]

[font="Century Gothic"]So I woke up about 6:00 this morning because I heard my dog barking. I go into the bathroom and look out the window and I see a police car in front of my house. My initial reaction was of course to freak out considering I didn't know why he was there. Then I heard someone let my dog out and I went downstairs only to find out someone had stolen my father's truck right out of our driveway and so he'd called the cops. Why does stuff like this happen to my family? Lol. Though he didn't lock the doors and he leaves a spare key along with the keys to all his other trucks in there along with all of his information. Another truck of his has been robbed at our house before so I thought he would have been smart enough to lock the doors. I thought my neighborhood was better then this, but apparantly now. Now I'm all paranoid they are going to come back...[/font]

[ChristianKitsune]

Oh, gosh, Topaz! That's really scary...*hugs* Praying for you and your family!

[TopazRaven]

Thank you! Lol, I was so mad. xD My poor dad.

[Atria35]

I'm sorry to hear about that, Topaz.

The thing is, when robbers think that they've found a good target, they're likely to come back because they know that the place is easy pickings. We had a spate of bike robberies in my area, and even though my dad KNEW that they were happening, didn't lock the door to the garage. My brother's bike was stolen. And then it happened a month later with my brothers new bike. Why? The robbers figured out that my dad wasn't likely to lock the door since people tend to believe that robbers don't hit the same place twice.

It's not that your neighborhood is bad- we live in a very nice, fairly affluent neighborhood, and two bikes got stolen from us. It's that they hit up places where they've already had luck stealing stuff because habits like not locking the door are hard to break.

[TopazRaven]

That's true. I'm just afraid they might try and break into the house or something because I'm paranoid and I'm home alone pretty much all day. I only have a fat little beagle, so it's not like even my dog barking would scare them away. Luckily my mom locks her car's doors. I originally thought the robbers must have hot-wired the truck, but it seems my dad keeps a spare key in the truck along with all his other keys so they probably figured it out and used that. I had to resist the urge to facepalm, my dad should have known better. He was robbed before in our driveway. Someone stole tools out of his truck that time.

My mother was carjacked a few years ago at a Wal-Mart and the guy took the car and sold it and all my mother's stuff for drug money. Some people who found one of my mom's cards called our house and threatened that if we didn't give them a reward for finding it that they would come to our home and kill us basically. I just really don't want to go through that again. It's probably part of where my anexity and paranoia comes from.

[KougaHane]

For what it's worth, a lot of burglars won't break in if they think someone is home. So if they hear a dog of any size barking a lot of them won't even try to break in. I've been robbed before, but the robber only broke into our garage and stole a chainsaw. What's worse though is that we were borrowing the chainsaw from my grandparents. My parents got really paranoid about that though and installed new locks and deadbolts on all the doors. A lot of robbers won't try to break in if you have deadbolts on your doors either, because they make it so hard for them to get in. Alarm systems scare them off too. No, I don't know this from experience, I'm just paraphrasing a newspaper article written by two former burglars.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I don't understand why people are amazed their vehicles are stolen when they don't lock them and leave the keys/or spare keys within arms reach. I just have to shake my head.

But I'm really sorry to hear about your mum being carjacked. That's awful! I hope she's okay and that some justice can be done.

[ShiroiHikari]

Yeaaaaaah...definitely don't leave keys lying around like that.

[TopazRaven]

I don't understand why people are amazed their vehicles are stolen when they don't lock them and leave the keys/or spare keys within arms reach. I just have to shake my head.

But I'm really sorry to hear about your mum being carjacked. That's awful! I hope she's okay and that some justice can be done.

My dad isn't the sharpest end of the stick sadly. I know who I get it from. xD Thanks! My mom was carjacked a few years ago and the guy did go to jail for it, he's out now, but he hasn't bothered us. I think he was sorry about what he did, so all is well.

[steenajack]

Oh gosh! I'm so sorry! I'll be praying for you and your family.

[That Dude]

I hope that they are able to find out who did it.

My advice against robbery, own a shotgun and let it be known you have one. You don't even need to ever shoot somebody, just the sound of you pumping the gun will scare pretty much anybody off.

[MomentOfInertia]

I hope that they are able to find out who did it.

My advice against robbery, own a shotgun and let it be known you have one. You don't even need to ever shoot somebody, just the sound of you pumping the gun will scare pretty much anybody off.

Seconded.

[Rusty Claymore]

Thirdeded.
A sword in the sheath is more powerful than one in the hand. The latter can only end conflicts, the former ends them before they even begin.

[K. Ayato]

4thed (is that even a word?). Hubby and I live in a fairly safe neighborhood, but we're still planning on getting a handgun. Recreation and safety.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

If you live in Australia, you're stuffed. Fire-arms aren't allowed here unless you below to a sports club or are a farmer and even then you need expensive licences.

[Dante]

My advice against robbery, own a shotgun and let it be known you have one. You don't even need to ever shoot somebody, just the sound of you pumping the gun will scare pretty much anybody off.

I actually prefer this. This, however, might be a bit extreme (OK, so are both probably extreme). There are other nice systems too, such as one that will fill the car with pepper spray.

[TopazRaven]

Chances of me getting a gun while I still live at home with my mom is pretty much a zero. Lol. I've expressed wanting to have one for safty and perhaps learning how to use it because I don't believe you should own such a powerful weopen and not know how to use it, but she's agianst the idea.

[Atria35]

I know that in my area, it seems like every month we get a new story about a kid who manages to get their hands on a gun that wasn't as well put-away as their parents thought. I couldn't entertain the thought of getting one because I sometimes have kids over at my place- and kids are smarter than their parents give credit for. I know that they'd get to it somehow.

[TopazRaven]

We're a sad family. We don't know any kids. xD Well, not any whose parents who still talk to us. My two half-sisters seem to have forgotten my existance.

[Rusty Claymore]

I know that in my area, it seems like every month we get a new story about a kid who manages to get their hands on a gun that wasn't as well put-away as their parents thought. I couldn't entertain the thought of getting one because I sometimes have kids over at my place- and kids are smarter than their parents give credit for. I know that they'd get to it somehow.

An unfortuneate circumstance brought on by ignorance. Kids are more than capable of understanding that deadly weapons are not toys, and can learn proper gun handling. Also, gun locks do a lot better job security wise than sock drawers, no matter how stinky they might be. XP

[Shao Feng-Li]

So far, we have a few rifles, an m1 garand and a few muzzle loaders. We need something a bit more practice for home...

Heck Topaz, you're 21. I'd go and get one. Even one of those tiny handguns that you can hide in a purse. Or get some red pepper spray. (The red pepper is supposed to be more effective than mace.) That stuff is awesome.

I imagine it takes a bit more guts to actually brake into a person's home as opposed to taking an easy target car. The villain can get into even worse trouble.