- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
Cape Burglars Strike Close To Home
My home phone rang last Friday night just after 8.
I dislike phone calls at this time of evening because they're usually indicative of a crisis of some type. When I was younger and in my 20s, I didn't mind calls at this time of night. Back then the "evening" was just getting started about 9 pm.
But now that I'm older and considering my profession, phone calls after 6pm more often have to do with something not operating as expected at work that might keep our staff from producing a paper on deadline.
However, this was not one of those calls.
Instead, it was from a good friend needing help.
He and his fiancée -- also a good friend -- had gone out for dinner, only to return to find that their home had been broken into. Thieves are not known for their tidiness and this one was no exception. He -- I'm assuming the thief was a he -- had gained entry by throwing a large rock through a rear, sliding glass door.
My friend knew if anyone had the plywood and tools on hand to board up the gaping hole on a blustery winter night, it would be me.
He knows me too well.
I threw on some clothes, assembled a small cache of tools, grabbed an old sheet of plywood that I had been squirreling away in my garage and headed to their house.
The police were still swarming the scene and gathering evidence when I got there.
Apparently, this was another break-in by the thief or thieves who have been targeting Cape homes during the evening hours and only stealing jewelry. This has been going on for several months.
In this case, the thug's glass-and-mud-covered footprints could be followed through the busted glass door and to the master bedroom where he -- again, I am assuming that it was a man -- cherry-picked my friend's fiancées jewelry box.
And then he vanished, leaving the shattered door and bits of safety glass strewn throughout their living room.
Having someone steal something you own is such a violation. It's like diving down an incline on a rollercoaster that seems to have no bottom. It just makes you sick. While, I've never personally had my house broken into, I have had two lawnmowers stolen during my life.
The first time occurred when I lived in St. Louis. One weekend night, thieves cut the padlock on the side door to my detached garage and made off with my 1 year old lawnmower.
The second time occurred right after my wife and I moved into our home in Cape 15 years ago. That mower was less than a month old. Little did I know at the time that I had a parolee living next door to me, not that he was ever found to be my burglar.
However, the police did catch him a few weeks later with someone else's mower in the middle of the night. He was sent him back to Jeff City to finish serving his sentence.
It makes you angry when something like this occurs to you or to someone you know. Everyone I know works hard for what they have, and to have an opportunistic SOB take something that is not theirs, just makes me livid.
My feelings on this topic mirror the very succinct headline used by the San Francisco Examiner newspaper in their first edition following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"Bastards!"
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For those of you curious, below is a link to a map I created from reported burglaries going back to January 2, 2009. I culled these addresses from the police reports published by the Southeast Missourian and this website. Some reports specified jewelry being stolen and I marked those with a separate color.
Burglaries in Cape Girardeau Since January 2, 2009
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My Google Search Update for this week mirrored my 401k. I plunged from 399 last week to 346 this week.
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