Based on the above (summertime) photo, would you have the
cojones to attempt to steal the right front tire from the green van during the
dark of night? What the picture does not
show is how painfully close my driveway is to my west-side neighbor’s living
room window, the fact that the cul-de-sac is extraordinarily well lit by a
municipal streetlight, and that the outside lights are on dusk-until-dawn at my
house and at the houses on either side of me.
My interior lights are always on during the night and the neighbors and
I keep irregular hours; day or night, it seems someone in our locale is always
coming or going.
One night during the week before last I stayed up reading
until 3:00 AM. Before hitting the sack,
I double-checked all doors as usual, which does involve me opening the front
door for one last peek outside. At 10:30
AM I went outside and found the hubcap and all of the lug nut covers had been
removed from the right front tire of the van and were lying in the
driveway. Further, the cover to the
outside keypad for the garage-door-opener had been flipped open. The lug nuts were all still tight, so either
the thief was ill prepared for the task or something caused him to lose his
nerve. If I had to guess on only one
possibility, it was that my buddy Igor, the west-side neighbor’s Neapolitan
Mastiff, started raising a ruckus.
Regardless of how close our houses are on the cul-de-sac,
and how much light we have as a deterrent, the car being parked next to the van
did provide some cover for the attempt.
I now stagger the vehicles in the driveway to do away with the
sheltering “blind spot.” I informed the
neighbors about the incident but did not bother our overworked police with what
they would consider a non-event.
I am considering installing exterior security cameras and
some heavier deadbolt-locks to the doors.
The outside keypad for the garage-door-opener may be removed; I believe
it is a secure system but that the keypad may be an attraction to those prone
to misadventures.