Protect your new stuff!!!

[+Razor]

I just chased off a burglar from my front yard in my fuzzy house slippers at 1:30am, on Christmas morning! These jokers don't ever stop working; they even work on the holidays. He was in my driveway checking my door handles on my truck. He was a black male, dressed all in black with a black hoodie on. He was carrying a black and white backpack. I am lucky enough to have a radio with me at all times so I called the on duty officers out to flood the area in my neighborhood.

Just a few tips that will keep you and your family safe and your new stuff protected:

>Make sure you all lock your car doors because that was what he was checking.

>Don't leave anything of value inside the car where it can be seen.

>Leave your porch lights and driveway lights on overnight so officers can see shadows of people wondering around at night.

>Don't put empty boxes of big ticket items out on the curb trash day. Burglars see you have a new 50" plasma television and they know there is something in your house worth taking when you're not home.

>If you have family visiting, tell them to take out their valuable items and lock their car doors too.

Last thing, remember that a lock is only there to keep an honest man honest! Don't leave things inside your car over night and while you're out shopping. This will heighten your chances of not becoming a victim this holiday season.

Everyone have a safe and happy Christmas.

[Eel Keeper]

I just chased off a burglar from my front yard in my fuzzy house slippers at 1:30am, on Christmas morning! These jokers don't ever stop working; they even work on the holidays. He was in my driveway checking my door handles on my truck. He was a black male, dressed all in black with a black hoodie on. He was carrying a black and white backpack. I am lucky enough to have a radio with me at all times so I called the on duty officers out to flood the area in my neighborhood.

Just a few tips that will keep you and your family safe and your new stuff protected:

>Make sure you all lock your car doors because that was what he was checking.

>Don't leave anything of value inside the car where it can be seen.

>Leave your porch lights and driveway lights on overnight so officers can see shadows of people wondering around at night.

>Don't put empty boxes of big ticket items out on the curb trash day. Burglars see you have a new 50" plasma television and they know there is something in your house worth taking when you're not home.

>If you have family visiting, tell them to take out their valuable items and lock their car doors too.

Last thing, remember that a lock is only there to keep an honest man honest! Don't leave things inside your car over night and while you're out shopping. This will heighten your chances of not becoming a victim this holiday season.

Everyone have a safe and happy Christmas.

Thanks Shawn! So did the police catch him?

[caferacermike]

You left out a handful of new internet savvy tips.

Keep in mind that many of us invite fellow "reefers" over from time to time to view our tanks, buy stuff from us or other such. There are times (I realize that you feel immune to this and that this could never happen) that when you invite someone over for that $5 GSP, they may actually be there to case your house. Chances are that those of us in this hobby have some money. Of course there are a handful of "shoestring" reefers, and I like yourself invite them over to help get them started as well, just the same about 90% of the reefers I've met live in gorgeous homes. It takes some big money to set up a 100g+ reef tank. Thieves know what hobbies cost money and troll around looking for a score. Honestly I hate to think this way but it's the truth, if you can PROVE me wrong please do. Once you invite someone over to look at your tank they know where you live, know your username, know where your valuables may be, and know your security measures.

If you ever have someone over that seems sketchy, write down their name, license plate number, phone number, etc.. right after they leave. Believe it or not it may be useful when you get robbed a week later. This happens all the time in Austin and surrounding areas at your local gym. People sit in parking lots, watch you get out of your car and follow you into the locker room. When you change into your gym clothes they steal your keys. They know which car is yours and steal your car. Inside your car is all kinds of information about you. They head straight to your home and rob you while you are working out. It's a perfect double whammy. Please feel free to check Statesman.com if you doubt me. Same goes for having a repairman at your home. They have been known to come back and rob the house they were just in.

Be careful about what you post online since it is so easy to track us down by our username and locations. Think about what you post. If in a few days someone asks to see your tank, golf clubs, boat, etc it may just be an excuse to come and scope out your previous post/brag.

>In the golden age of the internet do not log onto your favorite forum/chat and brag/list all of your new awesome gifts. Don't announce to the world that you got 8 Troy ounces of gold bullion or that new 3D LED big screen for Xmas. You are just asking to be robbed.

>Ok so you did get that badass TV/Playstation 3/Blue Ray/Home entertainment center for Christmas, do not go to an online forum and ask for advice about why the HDMI cable is not working between all the components. Doing so airs a laundry list of all your brand new awesome toys. The person giving you advice maybe tracking your IP or whatever to try and find you. Be especially aware of someone you don't know offering to drop by and help you get it working. They may do so, a week later you may not have that TV anymore either.

>Never video your family opening prezzies and then post them to an online host/server such as Photobucket. This is advice is headed straight to all of you that got yourself a FLIP or new Iphone whatever for Christmas. I mean you might as well just write a list of valuables that you own and staple them to your mailbox. Thieves can use visual clues from your home to figure out where you live, they may see what type of locks are on your doors, see if you have a dog or not, how many people may live there etc..

>And certainly do not go on to your Facebook/Myspace/Twitter or whatever and update your status saying that you love the weather in some other far off place and how you are dreading the return in 2 weeks. Don't post that you are going on some vacation in advance of the vacation. If you get robbed because you announced to the world the fact that your home was unoccupied for an extended amount of time I do not feel sorry for you. Keep this in mind as well, many would never consider this, when an event is being planned online, such as a MAAST Port A trip, and you are asked to register online-you might consider quietly letting the coordinator know rather than a post saying "I'll be there for that weekend with my entire family". Think of how wonderful that list is to a group or thieves that have been able to visit under friendly terms and then an outing is posted that says 40 members and there families will be gone for 4 days and nights to a location approximately 300 miles away. Bonanza! I've made that mistake in the past and after thinking about have decided against it ever again. If the forum is keeping an online list of names you might consider not attending as they are not thinking about your safety. A list of usernames stating who has paid or who has reserved what rooms has announced to the entire world that your home is ready to be robbed.

>It has been reported a handful of times that people that have chosen to run a live stream video of their home to a website have been preyed upon by thieves as well. Generally a thief can watch your daily coming and goings, can determine what valuables are in the home, decide if you are worthy of an attack etc.. based upon what they see in the video. A reefer on another forum was told by police, after he was robbed, that the thief was able to watch almost everything that happened in the house at a certain time of the evening because the lighting allowed the room to be reflected off the tank glass and onto the video feed.

A lot of people are hip to the idea that they have locks, shouldn't leave doors unlocked, hide your valuables, etc.. but in this day and age there are a whole lot of new methods to set yourself up to the crooks.

[+Razor]

Mike, you are absolutely right about all of that. Most of the burglars I have caught know the victim and have been inside their home. Usually teens are bad about getting mom and dads house broken into because they bring over friends and friends of a friend.... ect, and the next thing you know your back door is kicked in and your stuff is gone.

Also, most of you know I am a police officer here in Killeen. I cannot tell you how many burglars I have caught over the past 9 years only because a neighbor saw someone that looked suspicious roaming around before they broke in. Keep an eye out for your neighbor and call the police if something doesn't seem right. You don't have to meet with the officer if you don't want to and at best, in the end if there is nothing wrong, at least yocu got a police car to drive through your neighborhood for that moment.

[caferacermike]

Yeah Razor I've been burglarized 3 times over the years. It's never fun. It's just amazing how fast it happens.

Once was because I had a giant stereo system in my old car that you could hear for blocks around. Well someone heard it and followed me to a park. It's one of those parks you have to hike down to get to the water. Thief realized it was 30 minutes just to the park and 30 minutes back. At the bare minimum he had an hour and a half to grab everything. He couldn't get the stereo eqpt out due to the way I had installed it. He was able to get the deck but not the amps or speakers. Out of frustration he broke every window, and used a crowbar to remove the stereo effectively ruining my dash and A/C system. The cops that came out told me that this happened everyday at that park. He said I "advertised" myself and he knew the area and how long he had.

Second time was a "friend of a friend" as you said. I had a large motorcycle collection under chain and lock at a previous residence. A neighbor came over one night and asked if I could help work on his bike. I did. He brought me a "parts bike" a friend had given him. We swapped a few bits around and got him up and running. At that time I was dating a girl up North and I would spend the night a couple times a week. Well the neighbor threw a party one night and had his friend that gave him the "parts bike" come over. He thought it would be cool to show him all my bikes. I did not know this happened. Sure enough a couple days later I come home to a cut chain and 3 missing bikes. When the cops arrived they wanted to arrest me. Turns out cops in Austin don't like you owning 15 motorcycles even if you have titles for them all. They think you are running a chop shop. Even more so when it turns out that the "parts bike" was stolen. It was extremely obvious what had happened and it took less than a week to round up the neighbor and his friends. I got some of my property back and a couple of them got 10 years Federal, but it still sucked. At least I had an idea of what happened.

Last was when my neighbor in East Austin was having his 3 houses renovated. One guy owned all of them and was yuppiefying them when the values skyrocketed. He hired some unsavory day laborers from the area. All of our houses backed up to a small alley. At lunch they would case all of our yards. One day Miss Victoria comes home and sees a couple of guys in the yard. They took off when she pulled in the driveway. She called me and told me our barn had been robbed and all of my pipe fitting tools for work, yard eqpt, hand tools, etcc were missing. About $5k. After canvassing the neighbors I found out they had all gotten a few things taken. I found the home owner behind us and asked when the last time he had seen those guys was, it turns out it was the same day we got robbed. That day was rainy and he had told them that due to the rain he had no work for them that day and in fact he probably would not need them to come back again. When I told this to the Detective he sent some guys out to look for them. They were easy to find since they lived a block away. The Detective called me and told me it was a good thing I'm "white cause I probably have insurance on the stuff". Well yeah he was right. Most everything had been sold off and they recovered enough to prosecute but I got nothing back.

Really it's amazing how fast it happens and how almost every time it was so obvious how or why it happened. Typically it was people that just saw an opportunity and went for it.

[+Razor]

See, I hate those stupid arrogant comments some officers make when they have to do their job, which is take the report. It makes the rest of us look bad too. I really try hard not to let my person biases show when I am working with a victim. The stolen bike, I could see where the officers were..... hmmm in the beginning, but after you explained how you got the bike it would make sense and I would continue to follow up like they did. But the comment about you having insurance because you're white?! Come on man. Sad thing is I know officers that do say stupid ignorant remarks like that to people. You should have told him,"no, I have insurance because I am educated, and I realize some thimngs are beyond my control, oh and color has nothing to do with it." That would've fixed him.

[Elizzy]

If you ever have someone over that seems sketchy, write down their name, license plate number, phone number, etc.. right after they leave. Believe it or not it may be useful when you get robbed a week later. This happens all the time in Austin and surrounding areas at your local gym. People sit in parking lots, watch you get out of your car and follow you into the locker room. When you change into your gym clothes they steal your keys. They know which car is yours and steal your car. Inside your car is all kinds of information about you. They head straight to your home and rob you while you are working out. It's a perfect double whammy. Please feel free to check Statesman.com if you doubt me. Same goes for having a repairman at your home. They have been known to come back and rob the house they were just in.

Truth!!! The gym thing happened to a friend of mine in South Austin - but instead of going to their house, they took their wallet/truck to several stores and went shopping...eventually they were identified from surveillance.