Well, to sum up today as frustrating would be a gross understatement. It started off, as I was headed out the door to show some homes to some out-of-town clients, with a frantic phone call from my beautiful wife. Her car had been broken into and her purse stolen.
While Edmond is ranked as one of the FBI’s safest cities, anyone who’s paying attention knows that smash and grabs have become an almost epidemic problem around here lately, which is why it’s so surprising that my wife would leave her purse in the car in the first place. But here’s what I’ve come to realize; these thieves are smarter than we give them credit for. They’re striking at the perfect time.
If you’re a parent who regularly drops the kids off at school, you know what it’s like. Mornings often don’t go as planned. Add kids to the mix and they rarely go as planned. As one hurdle after another gets in your way, you’re running later and later, and becoming more and more frantic, stressed about getting the kids to school on time, with everything they need, while also hoping to get yourself to the office before the boss realizes you’re late, right?
You arrive at the kids’ school, already frantic many days, and you’re rushing to get them inside, again with everything they need, while also keeping them out of harms way in the parking lot. Your arms are probably full of kids and their stuff, so how easy is it to forget to get your purse, or your smartphone, or your laptop? Better yet, how inconvenient is it to pick up your purse (or any of the other items mentioned), when you already have so much more to carry?
At this point, are you paying any attention to the other cars or people in that parking lot? HECK NO! And these scumbags know it. That’s why what they’re doing is so easy. They’re striking while confusion and frustration may be mostly what’s on your mind, and they’re doing it quickly.
After reviewing surveillance footage at our little guys’ school, we got a glimpse of how easy it really is for the low-life scum-sucking losers of the world to do what they do. We watched on video as a (possibly) brand new Cadillac SRXpulled into the busy parking lot of the school at about 8:48am. They took one pass through the front of the parking lot and then backed into a parking space on the back, outer edge of the lot, presumably watching the hurried Moms and Dads rush their kiddos inside, scoping out their next victim. After approximately three minutes, they spotted a Mom (my wife) with two small boys heading inside without a purse in tow and new they had a few minutes to take what wasn’t theirs. They looped back around the lot, the opposite direction that they had pulled in, right up behind my wife’s car (parked at the front of the building, right in front of the window of one of the rooms full of kids and teachers), one loser jumped out of the passenger side, walked around, smashed the car’s window and grabbed the purse, then they were gone. It literally took them less than 10 seconds to get what they came for.
Typically, when I see these stories on the news, I’m the guy that’s screaming at the TV, “don’t leave your purse in the car if you don’t want it stolen,” but today was an eye-opener. My wife knows better. My wife rarely even has her purse with her, and almost never when she’s just running the boys up to the school. She only takes it with her when she’s gong somewhere that she’ll need it, so of course she doesn’t leave it in the car on those occasions. For whatever reason, in her frantic state of mind this morning, after fighting with the boys to get out the door on time, she grabbed her purse on the way out and, as described above, didn’t give it a second thought as she was unloading the boys at the school, and in the blink of an eye, it was gone.
So, what could we or other people around have done differently?
- Slow down and take a look around as you’re pulling into the parking lots and unloading your kids.
- Don’t EVER think “It’s not going to happen to me.”
- DON’T leave ANYTHING of value in your car, EVER! Not even “just to run inside real quick.”
- (business-owners) Make sure you have surveillance equipment (and employees) watching your parking lot.
In ONE instance, my wife leaves her purse in the car and it has affected us in ways I wouldn’t have even imagined (in just the first day). I had to cancel my showings with my clients (potential lost income), to deal with a distressed wife, police reports, window repair companies, news reporters, banks, credit card companies, etc. My wife was a basketcase all day long, so a full day of her productivity went down the drain. We may potentially have to deal with identity theft as a result of this. Imagine the time-suck that would be, and how it would devastate our financial lives. The list goes on and on, so please, just don’t risk it.
Here’s maybe the worst part; as my wife was sitting in the front of the school, waiting for the police, she asked every single Mom who came in the door if they had left their purse in their car. You want to guess how many hadn’t?
NOT. A. SINGLE. ONE!
Yep, that’s right, every single one of those women, who had probably all seen the same news stories we have over the past couple of months, and been warned of the risk, were taking the exact same risk of losing it in a matter of seconds.
OK, enough of my lecturing, here’s how you can help. First, SHARE this post with everyone you know who lives in the area (see the little share button in the upper right corner? Click it now!). It’s my understanding that the majority of these smash & grabs have occurred at childcare centers, fitness centers, and parks; places where they know women are likely to leave their purses in the car because they don’t want to carry them, so be on uber-alert around these types of businesses and if you see anyone sitting in a car, don’t hesitate to write down the tag number and call the police. Heck, take pictures if you can!
If everyone in our community were on heightened alert and really paying attention, these sorry pieces of trash would be behind bars in a matter of days because, as well-thought as their little plan is, the ridiculous thing is that they’re doing it over and over in the same communities, and often even at the same businesses multiple times. Let’s help the police catch these b@$(@>0s!
Be safe out there, and be aware. Here’s the piece that KFOR ran tonight:
About Ryan Hukill
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