As a home, business or property owner, there’s many ways that people can take from you. People take your property, they take your money and they take your time. One clear way to understand what motivates and deters burglars is to simply ask them. So researchers at UNC Charlotte did just that. They interviewed more than 400 convicted offenders that resulted in an unprecedented look into the minds of burglars. Below are some insights.
• First, it is clear that many that were surveyed were seasoned offenders. The overall sample of respondents reported being arrested from 1 to over 100 times in the past.
• Close proximity of other people, lack of escape routes, and indicators of increased security (alarms, dogs, and outdoor cameras or other surveillance equipment) were considered by most burglars when selecting a target.
• Within a broad set of potential target deterrents, alarms and outdoor cameras and other surveillance equipment were considered by a majority of burglars.
• About 60% of the burglars indicated that the presence of an alarm or security camera would cause them to seek an alternative target altogether. This was particularly true among the subset of burglars that were more likely to spend time deliberately and carefully planning a burglary.
• Most burglars would try to determine if an alarm or surveillance system was present before attempting a burglary. Among those that determined that an alarm was present after initiating a burglary, about half would discontinue the attempt.
• Among those who discovered the presence of an alarm while attempting a burglary, half reported they would discontinue the attempt, while another 31 percent said they would sometimes retreat. Only 13 percent said they would always continue with the burglary attempt.
• Just over a fourth of burglars typically worked alone and approximately the same proportion reported never burglarizing alone. Among those who worked with others, most committed burglaries with friends and/or spouses/significant others, although nearly one in eight reported working with other family members.
With a Surveillance system you’re well on your way to securing both your home and your safety from the threat of a home invader. The study “Understanding Decisions to Burglarize from the Offender’s Perspective, was conducted by UNC Charlotte researcher Joseph Kuhns from the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology)

On Sunday 21 December I received the following e-mail from one of our neighbors:

Thanks for your email on mail tampering. It appears that someone went through all the Sunrise Terrace additions after Saturday’s mail delivery. Today, My husband and I were out walking and found mail from 5 households. Most of the mail had already been opened and tossed in the street,
We found mail along Military that belonged to a house just below 138th St. We also found mail scattered along the streets in the 5th addition (south side of 122nd) that belonged to 3 houses near the intersection of 136th and 122nd. We also found mail on Shawnee Rd that belonged to a house on 136th Ave.
We returned everything we found and noticed that the homes did not have locking boxes, with the exception of one. Thanks for getting the word out. My hope is that the more locking boxes we have the less tempting our neighborhood will be.

This morning Val Okazaki wrote me to say that she had found mail addressed to the Dalys (11711) on the ground in front of the Helmers (11701) on 136^th Ave. E. .  Further south on 136^th she found more mail addressed to 11739 and 11712.  She is getting it to its intended recipients.  She said there were additional signs of mail tampering but she did not go north of 117^th on 136^th, so there may be more.

If you suspect that your mail has been tampered with please send me an e-mail to kahalljr@comcast.net. If your house is in range of any of our cameras I will attempt to check for strange cars/people stopping at your mailboxes.

I was informed today that outgoing mail had apparently been stolen from several boxes on 136th Ave. E.

The mailman told one of the homeowners that there had been several mail thefts lately.  If you have had mail stolen please contact Kirk Hall at  kahalljr@comcast.net or leave a comment.

On 15 Dec 2014 at 2:04 PM our cameras captured dangerous activity on 136th Ave. E.

The danger to the girl is great and notice in the last pictures she is edging into the oncoming lane just at the curve.  A driver coming the other way would not see her until he was on her.  She might be killed or the oncoming car wrecked when they tried to avoid her.  Bad business all around.