WTF is wrong with people!?

[sushi]

It's such a shame that this sort of thing is no surprise anymore. When I was younger we never locked doors, car or house, and never had any problems. I remember going on holiday with my family for 5weeks in the summer holidays, and on our return the postman had neatly stacked the mail on the bottom step of the stairs as the letter box had got full, but the front door wasn’t locked. I remember more than once coming down stairs in the morning to find friends of mine sat at the breakfast table with a bowel of cereal ‘casue they’d got puckish on the way home from a club and known they could walk straight in. My mother used to always park in the same car park in town, as a teen if I went to town after school or had shopping I’d just dump my bags in her unlocked car rather than lug them home myself.

Now-a-days if the door was left unlocked, some low-life would probably either steal everything, murder everybody, claim squatters rights or all of the above. People just assume they don't have to work for anything anymore, they just take it, leeching off society and ruining everybodys enjoyment of freedom.

Yes, by not locking you door you made it easy for the thief, but you haven’t done anything wrong. The f*** of a thief shouldn’t just help himself to every opportunity.

So don’t be angry at yourself, be angry with that nasty little sh*t, and learn your lesson.

I hear ya. It was the same were I lived.

How about this. I'd be out on a date and we would decide to go flying. So I went to the local airport and parked in front of the terminal building. When to the back in the unlocked door. Picked the key for the plane that I wanted to fly. Went to the hanger. Opened it as it was unlocked. Moved out the airplanes to get to the one that I wanted to fly. Preflight. Write down the Hobbs meeter time in a day planner that stayed with the aircraft. Take off. File in the air. Return. Close flight plan on short final. Record hobbs meter time. Do the time calculation. Put my name. Circle it. Put all the planes into the building. Put the key away. And then go on with my date.

Received a bill at the end of the month for my flight time.

Did this all the time.

It was so nice and simple back then.

 

[MrSmith]

I could always take my dates to heaven and back in the sack. Much more fun.

 

[sushi]

I could always take my dates to heaven and back in the sack. Much more fun.

 

[semperfimarine2]

I am very pissed today. I neglected to lock the car last night and someone got in and stole my TV (don't ask why my TV is in the car, it's a long story), some clothes my mom was going to return to the store, a biking backpack my mom was going to have fixed for her friend, and a leather coat she just had washed for $40.

The TV is ancient, so I don't know why anybody would steal it, but people who steal are messed up anyway.

Anyway, I want to do something, I can't just sit back and do nothing. But is there anything I can do? I feel so helpless, and angry!

doesnt it suck when people steal things from you?? it does, and its even worse when you want to do something about but can't, becuase you dont know who did it. i feel for you ghall. i had my phone stolen from me and there was nothing i could do about it.

the only thing i could do was move on, hopefully you will to.

good luck

 

[Don't panic]

Look on the bright side. If you had locked your car you would have no TV and busted window!

probably.

when i was a student i would leave my apartment door open so my friends could just come in, but it was more of a phylosophical choice: it felt good to be willing to "trust the world".
it was ok for some (long) time, but eventually someone stole some stuff, so I started locking the door. a sad development.
Then a few months later 'they' forced the door open and stole additional items. the cost of fixing the door was easily superior than that of replacing the crap they stole. i went back to leaving the door open, with no further problems.

 

[maestro55]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

What I do not understand is all these people that are talking about how great thier neighborhoods are so they just leave everything open. Why leave a car door unlocked and anything of value in plain site over night. Most stereos have faceplates that can be removed over night and leaving expensive clothes and electronics is just dumb. How hard is it to lock a door or unlock a door on a car or house? I hate to hear that the OP had valuble items stolen and I am not going to side with the thief but the OP needs to take this as a lesson and remember that theft can happen anywhere at anytime.

 

[Cloudane]

My father used to say, "locks are made for honest people."
Which means that a determined pro is going to take it no matter what, but even a cursory lock deters casual pilfery.

Cute phrase Though not sure I'd call even a casual pilferer "honest".

Modern day, I'd say it's similar to Activation... it does help to prevent casual piracy, at the expense of some convenience on the user's part, but if someone wants to crack it they will.

 

[saltyzoo]

If you left a tv on your porch and someone took it is that stealing?

What if it were on the sidewalk on the front of the house?

The curb?

I'm not in any way insinuating that it's honest to take a tv out of a car, even unlocked, but there is a portion of responsibility that falls to the owner to make it clear to others that they value the item. Leaving it in an unlocked car all night is pushing it. Again, it's obviously stealing and dishonest, but simply carrying the tv into the house, or perhaps even locking the car could easily have prevented the situation by making it more obvious that the item was of value to you.

I mean who among us hasn't swiped a candy as a kid, or something similar. I doubt any can honestly say they haven't taken something along the line that they knew didn't really belong to them.

Leaving a tv in an unlocked car would just be irresistible to someone who was in any sort of dire straits whatsoever.

 

[Cloudane]

If you left a tv on your porch and someone took it is that stealing?

What if it were on the sidewalk on the front of the house?

The curb?

I'm not in any way insinuating that it's honest to take a tv out of a car, even unlocked, but there is a portion of responsibility that falls to the owner to make it clear to others that they value the item. Leaving it in an unlocked car all night is pushing it. Again, it's obviously stealing and dishonest, but simply carrying the tv into the house, or perhaps even locking the car could easily have prevented the situation by making it more obvious that the item was of value to you.

I mean who among us hasn't swiped a candy as a kid, or something similar. I doubt any can honestly say they haven't taken something along the line that they knew didn't really belong to them.

Leaving a tv in an unlocked car would just be irresistible to someone who was in any sort of dire straits whatsoever.

The answer to your questions is yes (in the UK at least), it's still stealing, because it's still your property. Even if it's in your trash, it's still your property until it transfers ownership by your agreement for the council to pick up the trash and take it away.

Is it dumb to leave your TV lying around in those places? Of course. Because there are still thieves out there. But it's still stealing.

If you're trying to justify stealing TVs by saying "well who hasn't swiped candy as a kid" then you want locking up

 

[sushi]

If you left a tv on your porch and someone took it is that stealing?

What if it were on the sidewalk on the front of the house?

The curb?

I'm not in any way insinuating that it's honest to take a tv out of a car, even unlocked, but there is a portion of responsibility that falls to the owner to make it clear to others that they value the item. Leaving it in an unlocked car all night is pushing it. Again, it's obviously stealing and dishonest, but simply carrying the tv into the house, or perhaps even locking the car could easily have prevented the situation by making it more obvious that the item was of value to you.

I mean who among us hasn't swiped a candy as a kid, or something similar. I doubt any can honestly say they haven't taken something along the line that they knew didn't really belong to them.

Leaving a tv in an unlocked car would just be irresistible to someone who was in any sort of dire straits whatsoever.

My how the world and perceptions have changed.

 

[saltyzoo]

The answer to your questions is yes (in the UK at least), it's still stealing, because it's still your property. Even if it's in your trash, it's still your property until it transfers ownership by your agreement for the council to pick up the trash and take it away.

Is it dumb to leave your TV lying around in those places? Of course. Because there are still thieves out there. But it's still stealing.

If you're trying to justify stealing TVs by saying "well who hasn't swiped candy as a kid" then you want locking up

My how the world and perceptions have changed.

Yes, they have changed. I remember when people actually would read what someone said before responding.

I'm not in any way insinuating that it's honest to take a tv out of a car, even unlocked

Again, it's obviously stealing and dishonest

I guess saying it twice in three paragraphs isn't enough.

 

[Cloudane]

You said those lines, and then you compared it to swiping candy as a kid. That's why I called you on it... you kind of contradicted yourself.

However if you're taking the "stealing is dishonest" opinion then fair enough. Just pick one

 

[saltyzoo]

What I said was: Stealing is dishonest. But I'd wager we've all done something dishonest in our lives

So, don't leave a tv in your unlocked car so that in case someone happens to be at that point in their life that it provides irresistible temptation.

The moral lapse it takes to take a tv out of an unlocked car is much smaller than that required to physically rob someone or even break into the car. The person might have even done it without taking the time to think about the morality. Had the door been locked, it would require a great deal more moral lapse.

Yes it's wrong. And yes it sucks that we have to lock our cars. But it's still stupid to leave something valuable in an unsecured place.

 

[eric55lv]

why not hide anything valueable when you leave your car

 

[ErikCLDR]

That sucks, but honestly you need to lock your doors. It's not that hard to do. I am sure that's not what you want to hear right now but its the truth.

 

[sushi]

Yes, they have changed. I remember when people actually would read what someone said before responding.

But it's still stupid to leave something valuable in an unsecured place.

Some time ago, you could leave something valuable in plain sight in an unsecured place such as an unlocked car, and it would still be there.

why not hide anything valueable when you leave your car

Unfortunately, that's a sign of our times. Too bad.

 

[0098386]

So is it a culture thing? I'm hearing a lot of Americans saying (and not just in this thread) that they don't lock their car doors. Everyone here locks their car door. Even on our private driveway with the gates we still lock. It's only a push of a button or a twist of a key and you're (a lot more at least) safe.

No offence, but the OP just sounds like "I fell asleep on a train track and now I'm annoyed I got split in half".

 

[mpw]

...No offence, but the OP just sounds like "I fell asleep on a train track and now I'm annoyed I got split in half".

Great analogy.

How annoyed would you be if I drove a train across your bed tonight as you slept and cut you in half? It'd be your fault for falling asleep where I drove the train right?

 

[saltyzoo]

Great analogy.

How annoyed would you be if I drove a train across your bed tonight as you slept and cut you in half? It'd be your fault for falling asleep where I drove the train right?

Only if I was dumb enough to build my house across railroad tracks.

 

[mpw]

Only if I was dumb enough to build my house across railroad tracks.

You didn't. But you didn't stop me putting them down after you'd fallen asleep, so you can't complain. Right?

 

[saltyzoo]

You didn't. But you didn't stop me putting them down after you'd fallen asleep, so you can't complain. Right?

Your analogy might work for armed robbery, but hardly for leaving a HIGHLY VISIBLE valuable in an unlocked car.

 

[mpw]

Your analogy might work for armed robbery, but hardly for leaving a HIGHLY VISIBLE valuable in an unlocked car.

Of course you're right in that he sleeping on train tracks analogy is total bollocks, but I can't claim ownership as it was raggedjimmi who brought it to the thread.

 

[ghall]

Of course you're right in that he sleeping on train tracks analogy is total bollocks, but I can't claim ownership as it was raggedjimmi who brought it to the thread.

Wow, you guys took that analogy too far.
Thanks a lot raggedjimmi.

We just discovered my mom's digital camera was also in the car, and stolen.

 

[xodonniedarko]

While your story is depressing, I'm sure there are one or two people on this forum reading this and going "What an idiot, if I saw that car unlocked I'd probably steal it all, too!"


:/ losers.

 

[Digital Skunk]

It's not so nice around here too. It's an expensive and nice area and all that, but on the outskirts lie some bad areas, they come here to steal.

If I were living in poverty I would to. Let's face it, I can make a living doing a minimum wage job for some guy who gets paid ten times as much as I do, or I can do that and steal some material things that the rich person can afford anyway and maybe buy some clothes for my children and some food for my starving wife....

Seriously though I got my first iBook stolen from me and I wanted to rip the guys head off.