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Open Poetry #47
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Quack Quack
| Open Poetry #47 |
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Quack Quack |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa 
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QUACK QUACK 17 October 2011 Fourth burglary this year, “Quack quack” I said as I sat contemplating that I have had so many many more that were so much worse. Owl |
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| © Copyright 2011 Diana van den Berg - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
Not only is this scary, but it gets old, too, doesn't it, Diana? You think you can come back to a safe refuge...only to see it broken into.  I'm very glad you are okay. |
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Gunslinger Senior Member
since 1999-10-09
Posts 901TX, USA |
So sorry to hear of your misfortune. A burglary, or theft seems to leave you feeling 'violated". Keep well. |
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suthern
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723Louisiana |
I am so sorry... and hope you, Benji and Cleo are okay. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you for your concern, Karilea. When I come home after dark, I almost always enter escorted by an officer from the security company which is just as well. When I came home late last evening after my regular Sunday night supper at my son’s house, I didn’t notice a huge very heavy burglar guard gate that had been leaning up against the L-shaped alcove in front of my back door for years, had gone, but I think it had already gone then because I had I realised, in retrospect, a feeling that there was more space in the alcove. The next morning, I noticed that it had gone. Benji and I hear every unusual sound and I check out windows and he barks his head off (fortunately safely inside the house) if it is a “suspicious” sound. I don’t think either of us heard any “suspicious” sounds after I got home, so it was probably somebody who had been watching the house to establish my regular movements (that is what “they” do here) and took it while I was out. No one man could have carried it alone and even with two men, it would have been a mission to get it through two internal gates and what I would have thought an impossible task to get it over the very high strongly spiked palisade gate or fence. They may have lifted my outside electronic gate off its tracks and opened it, but if they did, they put the gate back again (which they don’t usually do), and the gate was closed when I came home last night. I always have it completely in my vision before I press the remote, so that I can see if it is completely closed, partially open or completely open. Fortunately this last burglary didn’t cost me anything this time. However, while I was typing this, I heard another strange noise outside, and as I got up to check out the window, my burglar alarm went off which meant that either it was a gecko or a moth which set it off, or somebody was in the house. After the above scare, I didn’t phone the security company and tell them not to come because it turned out that it must have been a gecko or a moth because nobody was in the house except me and Benji and Cleo, and when the officer turned up a couple of minutes later, there was nobody on the property either. Scary, nevertheless. Thank you for your concern, John. Yes, the violation is awful, especially with all the security precautions I have in place. Thank you for your concern, Ruth. Yes, Benji, Cleo and I are fine. Benji must have gone crazy when it was taking place before I got home, and both Benji and Cleo must have been very frightened. Fortunately all of my 4 burglaries this year were outside the house – the first 3 were of copper pipes and were costly, inconvenient, scary, and made me feel violated as John mentioned above. After most of my previous many, many, many burglaries, I put another security measure in place as and when I could afford to. The position of my house right on the border of the suburb and next to several escape routes over a railway line, makes me a sitting duck. Owl |
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ice Member Elite
since 2003-05-17
Posts 3404Pennsylvania |
ah..."sitting duck" "Quak Quak" now I get it. But don't get how a burgler could have the ability to get through all that security..? Perhaps one of those tasers that sting from a distance might be appropriate for you to have..and use if the occasion arises. I know you are not a violent person, but even Gandhi said it was ok to protect yourself... I speak out of fear for you, Diana |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Giggles, Ford. Glad you got it! As regards getting through the security, on this particular occasion, all they needed to do to get INTO the property (because it wasn't inside the house) was to climb either my palisade fence that is either 6ft high (or nearly) with vicious spikes on the top - or the gate which is made of exactly the same palisades as the fence, and that has been accomplished with surprising ease by many criminals – and also the security company when they haven’t had the remote for some reason – and my son!. The other 2 internal gates they would have needed to come through just have a latch. The mystery to me is how they got the burglar guard gate OUT of the property because it was so huge and heavy and cumbersome, no matter how many people they had with them to do the job. Without a doubt, they would have had to have a vehicle to carry it away. If they lifted my gate off the rails, they could have driven the vehicle on to the driveway, but then that means they put the gate back on the rails and closed it (which they don’t usually do). Either way, they risked passing vehicles seeing them, including the security vehicle. Even though the little crescent I live in doesn’t have much traffic, the road below is most easily accessed by the road I am in so it does have some. If criminals really want to get on to my property and into my house they will, and although I have many security measures in place, there are some weak points. Thanks for your sweet and kind concern, Ford, but I wouldn’t be able to use a taser, so it would be useless to me - and thus a criminal would be able to get it away from me and use it on me! I am very cautious and take lots of precautions and don’t live in permanent fear, but sometimes those precautions aren’t enough, I know. However, so far, I have come through unscathed physically, except for a few bruises a couple of times and mostly (except for temporarily) mentally unscathed. I am trying to revive the apathy in the local neighbourhood watch of which I am chairman, and if I succeed, we should be able to get the crime rate down quite a bit again. Smiles. Thanks again for your concern. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
I got off lightly this time. I have just got an SMS message on one of our networks that a man with a knife was discovered in the garden of a house about 1 kilometre away from me. Fortunately he ran away when confronted (though confronting is a stupid thing to do - but perhaps summarising the message on the SMS misrepresented a more responsible action). Last Friday, in a house about 2 kilometres away from me, a man answered the door to fake Census workers who tied him up with electrical wire and ransacked his house stealing all his furniture and his car. He was still tied up 3 hours later when his wife returned home. He is lucky they didn't kill him. "They" kill for less - sometimes just a cellphone. Owl |
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EmmaRose Senior Member
since 2011-03-02
Posts 1376Midwest |
Wasnt sure what the quacking commotion was all about until I read in more. Sorry you were a victim of someone's desperation. You manage to bring us diamonds in this pretty gritty world Stay safe  |
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Krawdad Member Elite
since 2001-01-03
Posts 2597 |
Tough neighborhood! I have a police officer living in the next block. Still, the vandals trash the park across the street from his home. There always seems to be another thief just around the corner though I haven't had a break-in for several years. Lately, I have lost only my garden produce. Yesterday it was my last head of cauliflower. Another sitting duck I guess. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Emma Rose. Thank you, Krawdad. Actually, no, Yellowwood Park is a gentle suburb of Durban. Most of the rest of the country is much worse. My house is badly placed, though for safety. The 5 neighbourhood watches of the area just got slack when we got the crime rate right down, and so of course it is rising again. I am trying to inspire the one I am chairman of to get off their butts and do their little bits, but it is a slow and arduous task. Thank you for your kind concern. I don’t understand people very well – and how people can trash anywhere, especially a park! I, too, haven’t had anyone breaking into the actual house since 2007 (and that was 3 times), - touch very good quality wood she says as she touches her head - but I have had people on my property (over a nearly 6 foot strongly spiked palisade fence all the way round the outside boundary (and spikes and razor wire on the inner boundaries) on numerous occasions. It is the invasion of one’s privacy and the various things that could have happened – stabbings, shootings, murder and rape are common here. I am glad you haven’t had your home broken into in a while, but I am sorry to hear that you are also a sitting duck with regard to your vegetables. It must make you very angry to have your garden produce stolen and to have also had your privacy invaded. I would find it absolutely exciting to eat the produce that I had taken so much care and knowledge to have grown. I have a paw-paw tree that grew by itself (the seeds probably planted by monkeys) and last year was only small and produced 2 paw-paws, both of which I lost to monkeys – but that is entirely different, as firstly they probably planted it and secondly they are my friends and I love having them here. This year there are 6 or 8 pawpaws on the tree – still green. I am hoping the monkeys will let me have at least one of them. Owl |
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