BREAK-IN PROOF OF NEED FOR HARM REDUCTION

What can I say? I guess it's starting to feel a bit like Miami around here
these days.

I was out when my partner left the house at 3:30 Saturday afternoon to do a
bit of shopping. I got home from a meeting exactly 30 minutes later. When I
drove into the carport, I saw that our back door was open. I called out and
headed for the back deck.

One pane of glass was broken right next to the back door lock and glass was
scattered across the kitchen floor, surrounding a rock the size of a
potato. One of our cats was asleep on a chair.

I quickly moved through the house, first to the top floor, where our
bedroom drawers were pulled out and stuff was scattered around. The same
was true in my partner's small office. On the main floor, the only
disturbance was in my office, where business cards and an old wallet were
lying on the floor. At first, it was hard to figure out what was missing.

Then I saw my computer hard drive was gone. But the screen was still there
and so was a 10-inch carving knife the thief had taken from the kitchen,
presumably to cut the cable holding it down to the desk. Thanks to Dell's
design, there was no way to secure the hard drive.

I called 911 and asked for the cops. They were very polite. They told me to
start making a list of everything I figured was missing. Touch nothing.
Write down serial numbers, descriptions. I reached my partner on her cell.
She was just two blocks away. By the time she got home, I had checked the
basement. Nothing gone there. I noticed the front door was unlocked.

I figured I may have interrupted them and they headed out that way while I
came in the back. After a closer check of the house, we discovered my
partner's lap top was gone, along with the case, a small purse and a new
wool sweater. Worn once. I also noticed my new leather jacket was gone from
where it was hanging by the front door. A bonus.

While the break-in and robbery were going on, my neighbours were at home.
She was in the kitchen, a few feet from our back door. He was on the
street, washing his car. They saw and heard nothing.

An hour later, the cops called. I gave them some details. They wanted to
pick up the knife for prints. Fine. They gave me a case number to hand over
to the insurance company. First claim in 30 years. Bet my rates go up.

I patched the broken window pane in the door and called it a day.

The next morning, two cops turned up for the knife. All very pleasant. One
actually lived in the neighbourhood. I told them our next door neighbours
had a break-in three weeks ago. Thieves busted the glass, reached in and
turned the lock. Stole computers.

They told me that just one hour before our break-in, there was another
attempt at a house across the road and a few doors down. Same thing. A rock
through the glass in the door. But they failed. The door had a lock that
needed a key from the inside. Double dead bolt.

As I write this, two guys from the local lock company are installing those
on all our doors.

I thought about getting an alarm system installed. I'm not sure that would
have helped. A cop turned up at one of my neighbours' this morning. He
asked me if I heard their alarm go off about 20 minutes earlier. Nope. But
I figure the bad guys know it takes at least 20 minutes to get the cops
there after the alarm sounds. That's more than enough time to get in and out.

I also figure more cops aren't the answer. This is a problem about drugs,
addiction and criminals profiting. What happened to me and my neighbours is
just part of the harm it causes.

In the long run, we're better off putting money into rehabilitation and
taking the profit out of drug dealing. Meanwhile, I've got more locks and
I'm giving my cats assertiveness training.