by LouBelle 28 Replies latest jw friends
Always enjoy your posts, Loubelle....
I would be terrified living in your area, seriously doubt I would sleep at night. So sorry you are dealing with such..
Yes, my first husband and I were robbed twice, when we lived out in the country...turned out to be the neighbor across the road, so our things were returned. Our crime rate here is somewhat low compared to other areas.
Personally, I would get the heck out of there........ if at all possible.
Sincerely,
Cas
Many years ago, my ex-husband and I owned a certain business. Gasoline kept getting stolen out of our vans to the
tune of $200-$300 per week. One night, we stayed in the office, and about 3:00 a.m., we heard the culprits
drive into the parking lot. We watched them through the mail slit in the door as they proceeded to get their
gasoline stealing equipment out of the trunk of their car. We waited till they were all in the middle of siphoning
gas. My husband threw open the door to the office, and proceeded to shoot several rounds into the ground
near them. They left everything including their car and ran as fast as they could go down the street! Then, calm
cool and collected, my hubby took a heavy pipe and proceeded to bust out the headlights of their car, the windshield...front
and back...and bang up the doors, hood, and trunk....S-W-E-E-T. He obliterated their Trans-Am!!!
Then he put away his gun, the pipe, and calmly called the police. They looked at the car, and said "what happened here?"
My hubby just shrugged his shoulders, the cops shook their heads, made a report, and proceeded to call a wrecker to haul the car off.
We never had gasoline stolen again!
I was mugged once by a guy who waited outside a store for me, and caught me with my hands full and off my guard. He got my money, police said he targeted me because I was white and appeared vulnerable. I was lucky enough to spot him again a few days later, and I was prepared for the encounter this time. I absolutely guarantee he will never mug anyone again, for the rest of his life. His career in crime ended, once and for all, on that day.
Wow Loubelle...I think I would move!!! I didn't realize South Africa was that dangerous!!
The only thing we've had happen is, we have a garage that we keep on boat in and had some of my husbands tools in on our land we have in the neighboring county where we live. Some guys broke in and stole some of the tools and a chain saw. Thankfully we had our boat with us on that day. Currently we don't keep anything on the land now. The cops know who took it, drug addicts, but we would have had to go through all kinds of bs to get it back, and didn't think it was worth it.
Hey Lou...
Lets do the good old South African Crime Story Swap...
My husband was mugged once and held up in an armed robbery at his work once. My house has been broken into. My Mom in Law has had her house broken into twice, while she was sleeping. My cousin is now a quadraplegic as a result of a gunshot in a hijacking. Another cousin was murdered in a robbery at a restaurant he owned! My best friend's husband was hijacked and held captive at gunpoint and eventually left in the middle of a veld in Soweto to find his way home. Other close friends were tied up in an armed robbery and held captive for hours while their house was ransacked... I am forgetting other stories...! And I believe that me and my family are of the lucky ones!
The thing is where do we go and how do we start over somewhere else? My husband has a senior management position at a large insurance company - we own a house and two cars. If we were to immigrate, we would basically have to start from scratch. I wouldn't mind taking the risk, but my hubby is not willing to. And besides, we would have to probably leave behind hubby and my parents - and that would be hard!
It is sad, really sad!
I am stunned by the amount of crime in SA! How can you bear it?
Here in the lovely green Pacific Northwest, I've had shoplifters steal from a store I owned. I also had two or three breakins, both times causing more damage then merchandise stolen.
A couple of times I've had scary looking men aproach me when I was alone in a large parking area, I dunno, maybe they were just looking for a handout, but they scared me so I didn't wait to see what they wanted. I started screaming at them to get the fuck away from me. They both seemed startled, and slooowly backed away from me.
If your not up to no-good then you should know better then to approach a lone woman in a deserted area.
We really don't have that much crime here.
I think you all South Africans need to move here. Theres plenty of ex-dubs here, we'll help you get set up!
I was mugged once by a guy who waited outside a store for me, and caught me with my hands full and off my guard. He got my money, police said he targeted me because I was white and appeared vulnerable. I was lucky enough to spot him again a few days later, and I was prepared for the encounter this time. I absolutely guarantee he will never mug anyone again, for the rest of his life. His career in crime ended, once and for all, on that day.ummm...ok then. Girl, you are bad!! I don't even want to know what you did. loubelle....I didn't know crime was that bad in SA. I know how hard it is just to pick up and leave a place you used to love. But, sometimes you have to do the hardest things to make sure you survive in this world. One of the reasons I left the south..literally picked up my babies and moved everything 1000 miles away...was because I was raped by two guys who were sentenced to life plus 45 years. One stayed in prison. But, one got out for a while on a technicality, and started coming to my house, even though he was ordered to never come near me. (big joke) He came to my house on Christmas eve while I was having family party, (that's how bold the bastard was) and I decided right then I was leaving. I was not going to become a "statistic" and be the leading story in the newspaper. He terrified me, and by the time the cops got there, he was always gone. He eventually went back to prison, but leaving was the best thing I did. Besides that, I've been robbed at gunpoint in Chicago. Walking home from work, this woman and a guy had been stalking me since I'd left Jackson Hewitt. They thought I'd cashed my income tax check. Thank goodness the bank was closed. They got the check, but I stopped payment. They got all my house keys too. My ID. I sat up all night with a baseball bat waiting for them to come to my house. I got the locks changed the next day, My best friend and her family were murdered in SC. My car window was smashed out in WI while we were at the movies watching Passion of the Christ. They stole the stereo system. Crazy thing was it was broad daylight, and my car alarm was going off like crazy!! We called the cops who came and checked the cameras. We sat in the office and watched this guy on videotape pull up in a car, smash the window with a crowbar, and rip out the stereo. All the time people were walking all around. A car even pulled up and parked right beside him. I wrote a letter to the paper asking why in the world with all the camera phones around, even if no one wanted to get involved, they could have come inside and told someone, or snapped a quick pic. Because he was never arrested. The license plate was dirty. Alarm systems are a joke. My two teenaged sons were robbed at gunpoint at a park. Some thugs walked up and put a gun to my 13 yo sons head. All they had was $5. Even with a description, the cops never found them. My daughter was robbed at a bus stop. But two strangers ran across the street to help her.
Well I guess I have lived a very fortunate life considering some of the stuff I've read here. I've never been a victim of any violent crime personally, unless you count school boy fights. And I don't know that any of my immediate family has experienced it either. I have a cousin who was jumped for his shoes. My grandfather was mugged for his money as well. My cousin lived with his mother and my grandparents in a rough neighborhood. I grew up in a rural area.
My car did get broken into once in their neighborhood, and I lost a bookbag full of expensive school books and a nice calculator (I left too much temptation in plain sight for that neighborhood). But my car was also broken into once in the rural area where I grew up, and someone ripped out the radio. Both times they were "nice" enough to just smash the rear side quarter window. I've had shoes stolen from a room I thought was locked when I was in school. My parents tell me a burglar broke into the house and took a music player I liked when I was 2 or 3. My dad had a battery stolen from his truck. My ex-wife had her car stolen three times (probably by joy-riding teenagers) here in DC, but it was an easy target as she never did get a club or anything to make it harder for them.
I've always told myself that it's just a matter of time before I get mugged at some point living in a city and walking the streets. But it hasn't happened yet. No one has ever tried to take anything off my person. Maybe it is an advantage of being an average-to-large size black guy. But then if the thug has a gun, that doesn't matter. Or maybe I don't appear to have anything, which is partially true. I never carry much cash, and if my wallet was taken, it would mostly be just a big inconvenience because the cards would be deactivated ASAP and I'd be on the lookout for identity theft. The one thing that would worry me is the cell phone with all the contacts and pictures. Maybe I need to go delete some of those pictures now and make sure to backup my contacts.
He is now on ARVs because 1 in 4 South Africans is HIV positve.
I moved to a quiet rural area 10 years ago to get away from the crime in Atlanta. Well, guess what? When all of the people that the criminals rob leave a city, apparently the criminals have to follow their prey. It used to be that the biggest "crimes" around here were committed by a couple of rednecks beating the crap out of each other at the local beer joint on a Friday night. Some call that crime; I call that quality entertainment. Crime is increasing in my once small, quiet town. The house I was renting a few years ago was broken into by some kids. I hate to say it, but sadly most of the crime in my town is being committed by our illustrious immigrant population. Hey! Mexican dudes! If you're gonna rob me at gunpoint, can you at least learn how to do it in English?? We also have the added benefit of being the new home of a couple of New Orleans gangs displaced by Hurricane Katrina. I saw one of these suspected gang members getting arrested for breaking into cars at the local Wal-Mart on Monday. 10 years ago, you could've left your door unlocked in my town. Now, even locks don't help. If the door's locked, they'll kick it in! I guess no matter where you are, if there are more than one person in a given location, there's gonna be crime. My advice? Learn how to kick ass and carry a gun. It works for me.
