Published: May 12, 2008 03:25 pm            

To lock or not to lock, that is the question

We learn best by our mistakes. While living in Texas, I left some items in my unlocked car parked overnight in the driveway in front of our house. Between dusk and sunrise, someone stole my stuff.

A door-to-door survey of the neighborhood proved enlightening.

Me, to my neighbor(s): I live down the block from you. Someone entered my unlocked car last night and stole some things. I was wondering if the same thing happened to you.

My Neighbor(s): We never leave our car unlocked.

Me: Oh.

From this I discerned the following Valuable Take Home Lesson: Always lock an unattended vehicle.

Following a visit to a shopping mall I returned to my parking spot to find a pile of glass, and only a pile of glass, where my (locked) car had been. Someone had broken out the driver’s side window and stolen not just its contents, but the whole car.

After this experience it occurred to me to amend the original Valuable Take Home Lesson, as follows: Never lock an unattended vehicle - because doing so won’t keep it from being stolen. Just be smart enough leave nothing in it you can’t do without.

This “locked/unlocked vehicle” subject came up again last Wednesday night due to converging factors.

First, a rumbling thunderstorm cut off our home’s electricity, leaving us in the dark. Then, just to add additional suspense to an already eerie situation, we began to hear the muffled sound of a booming voice outside that, for a startling second, sounded as if it might be the Lord heralding His return.

Instead, it turned out to be concerned law enforcement officials announcing over our neighborhood loudspeaker the last thing one wants to hear on a night when one is sitting around in the pitch dark – a potentially violent prisoner had escaped from jail who was potentially armed and dangerous and who might potentially be peering into our living room windows at that very moment.

To say this information created a stir is to not give it its full due. At that point I became a “Hyper-Concerned Citizen” brandishing an industrial-strength flashlight with an ever watchful eye and attentive ear to any unusual sounds.

But my angst did not compare with that of “Mrs. Hyper-Concerned Citizen” who marched around the house with her flashlight like a soldier on guard duty, resolving not to sleep till the villain was apprehended.

Then another thought occurred. We had left our home for over an hour before learning of the escaped prisoner. Could it be he already entered our house and, like a bad movie plot, was hiding there in the dark? A quick check allayed that fear. But then something else occurred to Mrs. Hyper-Concerned Citizen.

“Shouldn’t you lock your car in case he tries to spend the night in it?” she said.

“Nope,” said I, “I much prefer he spend the night in our driveway than our house.”

The next day we heard he’d stolen someone’s motorcycle. Good luck locking one of those.

        

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