Haste beckons thieves

How many more cars are the bad guys going to steal? How may more homes are thieves going to add to their roster of conquests? How many more headaches are we going to suffer before we finally realize that we do have a choice - a choice that may mean shifting from reverse to drive in the common sense department.

It bothers me to see the thief get the upper hand over logic, mainly due to our hurried lifestyle. We need to slow down and think about what we're doing if we want to be successful at beating the crooks at their own game.

Living in a world of thievery is a hard pill to swallow, especially when it affects our pocketbook - a pocketbook that thins with the constant increase in vehicle and house insurance premiums. There is no doubt that we are the victims of these painstaking crimes, however we tend to fall into a complacent mode of acceptance over the continual barrage of theft. If the police won't drive over and comfort you when your purse is stolen from the front seat of your vehicle, what can you do?

The answer is quite simple, "Don't leave your purse on the front seat of your vehicle". We as individuals must take a pro-active approach to crime. We know the games that thieves play and yet we still have this mindset that it will never happen to us. Playing Russian roulette with thieves is dangerous business and almost always has us looking down the loaded end of the barrel.

Because most of us live in a fast-paced world with a high trust factor, we get caught doing things we later regret. Things like leaving your laptop on the front seat of your vehicle while grabbing a quick coffee at the convenience store. Or leaving your office door unlocked while attending a boardroom meeting.

It's time to quit getting smoked by thieves. Thieves, for the most part, are individuals with an abundance of nerve. They quite often capitalize on our haste in order to satisfy their habit. It's time to quit being outsmarted by these vultures who have nothing better to do than feed off our achievements.

These achievements quite often end up at the local flea market, pawn shops or worse yet chop shops. We must slow down and give some thought to the consequences of our accelerated lifestyle. A lifestyle that gives birth to opportunists who don't have to work for a living because we are too busy to notice our own security shortcomings.

If we resurrect common sense and use it as a tool to combat thieves, we are almost certain to take an enormous bite out of crime.