Crack Heads Steal Tool Boxes Next Door

Flickr.com photo

I saw good ol' Phil Kleindl next door, and he had the garage open. I went over there to find out what was up...

Kleindl informed me the garage had been broken into and two tool boxes had been stolen. They'd apparently climbed in a window in the back. (I strongly suspect the folks who used to live at 416, who strung their electrical tap right behind that garage and, from what I can see, are pretty good at getting in to second story windows)

He pointed out some lengths of copper pipe that were in the garage which didn't get stolen. That confused him.

"They must have climbed in here without a flashlight," he said.

"Maybe they just didn't see it," I offered. "I mean, it's easy to miss something like that."

We were mystified why they didn't take some valuable halogen light bulbs for security lights. We concurred crack heads were stupid and didn't know the value of things. "Pawn shops like tool boxes, therefore I can get money to buy crack." That's the extent of their thinking.

Last I saw, Kleindl was moving stuff around and planning to re-secure the garage. He pointed out the tools in the box were "just junk." They hadn't gotten away with much. He took some comfort in that.

I asked if maybe one of his workmen or somebody else had moved the tool box for some reason but, no, he was positive. They'd gotten in the back and gotten the tool box.

Later, I found out from communication through an unpublished comment on this blog about a crime alert which went out to residents, as follows:

Between April 14 and April 17 there have been 4 garage burglaries in the Victory neighborhood [this is just North]. There is no apparent pattern to these crimes and no suspect information at this time.

43xx Penn Ave. N, Between the hours of 9 pm and 6:30 am. Overhead door open. Scooter missing.

43xx Penn Ave. N, (same hours) Overhead door open and car missing.

42xx Sheridan Ave. N. Between the hours of 2:30 am and 8:45 am. Nothing missing.

39xx Russell Ave. N. Between the hours of 8:00 pm and 7:00 am. No loss reported. Suspect attempted to take the vehicle.

I guess garage thefts are the new thing, and this one next door at 3010 6th Ave. N. sort of fits the pattern.