Re: [OT] Toronto police urge car owners to make things easy for car thieves

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 23:16:11 -0700
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

In article <20240313234633.00004310@example.com>,
 Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
 

Car theft is rampant in Toronto these days. It's gotten so bad that
thieves are using crowbars and similar tools to break into people's
homes so that they can access the keys to the vehicles they are
trying to steal. 

 
Oh, that would be sweet. My only conundrum would be whether to use
the 9mm or the .357. (The shotgun would make too much of a mess.) 

 
The TPS (Toronto Police Service) is on the job! After due
consideration, they've come up with a plan: make it easy for
thieves to get your keys so that you don't get hurt by
home-invading thieves!! They're literally giving out this advice
at public meetings. And Torontonians are following this advice by
putting up signs at their doors telling thieves that their house
doors are unlocked and the keys are right by the door!!!
 
https://www.blogto.com/city/2024/03/toronto-police-car-theft/ 

 
That's a society that has given up. It no longer actually *is* a
society anymore.
 

 
50 years ago, in his “known space“ series, author Larry Niven wrote
that pickpocketing became legal when it became impossible to enforce
when the population of earth went over 1 trillion. Everybody just
carried special wallets that had their address and a stamp so after
the pickpocket took your money, they could just drop it into the
nearest mail slot. We all thought it was silly until a couple years
ago when it started to look plausible…
 

Once again, science fiction has proven to be an excellent predictor of
things that *will* happen in due course.

I never thought I would see Canadian police fall so far short of doing
their jobs. Mind you, the handwriting was on the wall if you only
bothered to look for it. When I was a kid and you had something of
value stolen, the police would actually come out and investigate in a
very cursory manner. (I once had a motorcycle stolen from where it was
parked beside the car port, called the police, and a couple of plain
clothes guys showed up - and drove right past my house, very slowly. I
thought they had just missed the street number but I *think* they were
seeing if they could see anyone pushing or riding my bike away. Or
maybe they really did fail to see the house number given that the
street lights weren't particularly bright. Anyway, they doubled back
and we had a chat and they took some details. I finally heard from
them a few weeks later when the bike turned up - minus engine and gas
tank - at the wrecking yard owned by the father of two kids at my
school who had a bike just like mine. Coincidence? Yeah, I'll bet.)
Later, when I was at university, somebody had their bicycle stolen and
called the cops. He was given an incident number: investigation
complete! Cops used to come to motor vehicle accidents; nowadays they
only come if someone was injured. The rest of the time, the affected
parties bring themselves to Collision Reporting Centres and do the
paper work there.

The police, of course, will tell you they are concentrating on major
crimes and not wasting their time on the petty stuff. Somehow, someone
breaking into your house, stealing your keys and then your car isn't a
major crime any more - perhaps because it is so commonplace - so I
suppose it's only a matter of time until they only investigate murders
and nothing else occupies their time. Not that they are particularly
good at catching murderers either.

--
Rhino