So I Was Going To Write About A Music Venue Today
And then Atlanta’s “perceived” crime problem helped themselves to my 20″ iMac computer. That’s right, my house in East Atlanta was robbed.
I’ve been a resident of East Atlanta for ten years now; ten mostly good years. About this time five years ago I was robbed, relieved of all of my bodily possessions as well as my automobile at gunpoint (two, but who’s counting), in my driveway.
Now I can add house theft to the list.
I considered myself lucky, because in order to be lucky one must be prepared. I don’t have my head in the sand, even without being robbed five years ago I knew that crime in Atlanta is real. So it was with this knowledge that I prepared my house for the day that the asshats would arrive.
My house has an active alarm system which is set every time I leave the house. I also belong to the East Atlanta Security Patrol. Both of these are advertised on my front lawn.
I have been diligent to make sure irreplaceable itmes are never left out, in fact they are usually with me when I leave the house. Ridiculously, items are chained/locked in order to make it harder to be taken. Hell, the computer which was stolen was “secured” to my desk with a (now obviously useless) Kensington lock.
Do I own a nice flat-screen television? Not in this neighborhood I don’t. In fact, I was hoping that on the day someone broke in that he would give himself a hernia trying to move the boat anchor that is my 32″ tube television.
All in all the feeling I have right now sucks ass. In the end all I lost was a computer and a little more of the happiness I once had in calling myself an Atlanta resident. I know people who have suffered way more than I have today.
There is little one can do to ensure that crime will never occur, but there are things you can do to be prepared in case it does. Think about your house. Yours may be next.