For 30 years I lived in big urban areas (NYC, Jersey City and most recently San Francisco of course). In all that time I was only once a property crime victim, when my bike got stolen while locked in front of Barnes and noble 25 years ago. Even parking my car on the street for 3 years in San Francisco didn’t result in anything happening despite car break-ins being a routine thing for many people there.
Now we live in the suburbs and the only crime I’ve heard about from the various neighbors I talk to is the kid down the street who was killing wildlife up the hill behind our houses with an air gun from his bedroom window.
But last night, two years into our suburban lifestyle, we became property crime victims. Someone came onto our front porch and stole a potted fern plant. (Of all the absurd things to steal…. Our next door neighbor has much prettier plants and pots for them.). I’ve got video of the woman from the security camera. I’m strongly tempted to make a sign with a picture of her that says ‘return my plant or I’ll share the video of this with the police’ and post it on the group mailboxes of our development and the neighboring ones. I’m also going to join our hoa’s monthly zoom meeting next week and bring this up. She had tattoos all over her legs so someone probably knows who she is and after the call I’m sure the neighborhood gossip mill will be all over this.