Tag Archives: crime

The crime scene - No weasels were harmed in the taking of this photo...

We’ve been very lucky as a family. None of the houses we’ve lived in have been burgled (or, if you’re North American or read tabloids “burglarised”. Sheesh.) In our last few months at the Wonkey House some drunk muppet ran off with a garden ornament that Mrs Dim had bought me for our Anniversary. It was a shame it was stolen (it was ceramic pig with wings, called Clothilde, since you asked) but at least we didn’t find the shattered pieces strewn across the road. Maybe it has a happy new home in someone else’s garden somewhere. A little later I neglected to lock the car one night and someone (maybe even the same person) took my phone charger and the road atlas. The atlas was two years old, which is probably why I found it thrown into the garden three houses down the road. The phone charger was so obscure that I found it almost impossible to buy another one. The salesman in the phone shop actually laughed when I told him what model phone I had. I’m not a trend setter with mobile technology.

  Anyway, this came to mind this morning when a neighbour knocked on our door and said my car door was open. Someone had rifled through the contents of the car and left the door ajar. I checked through the inside, and only the parking change was missing – maybe three dollars in total. They had left my bluetooth earpiece, all the cds, the ownership and insurance documents (including the very transferable and expensive sticker that goes on your license plates to show you’re insured. That’s a bit like someone breaking into a UK car that has a brand new Tax Disc without the car details filled in and not taking it. We are not talking about a criminal mastermind here.) But whoever it was had also gotten to at least two other cars along the street, and talking to the neighbours, there are suggestions that this may not have been the first time this particular opportunist has been down our way. But still, it’s only a little more aggressive than the guys on the street asking for your spare change. Considering what could have been taken (up to and including the car itself!) we got offpretty lightly. Almost a polite crime. Very Canadian.

Stil, it’s made me a little more nervous about going away for a week, but everyone is going to be vigilant now, and we did call the RCMP in to have a look round. I’m taking backups of all my important files away with me just in case. Our friends across the street were saying that this was their first ‘first hand’ experience of any type of crime since moving in here three years ago. That’s not a bad record, considering the reputation Vancouver in general has for Cannabis production and usage. I can’t help thinking that last night’s thief could’ve made more cash by going through the bins and handing in the recyclables to Return-It, but maybe he didn’t fancy the walk there.

It’ll be a shame if one of our final memories of living here is a sour one, so I’m hoping our last couple of days will include some neighbourly fun and beer drinking amongst the frantic packing. In fact, we might have to arrange it, just to make sure.