Goldilocks

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Shaun wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/34419>:

<< My heart stopped because in there was my laptop. With all the
school reports I've spent 19 hours writing over the last three days on
it. And which are due on Tuesday. (snip) But it's 5.30pm, now, and I
haven't done any of the other stuff I needed to do for tomorrow. Like
lesson plans for a week of lesson hell (this week looked daunting when
I heard about it - now it looks so, so much worse). >>

First thing, I give you my very best wishes that you surmount that
school stuff despite this (very horrible) obstacle. (I wouldn't -- I
would just cry and have hysterics all day.)

<< I went over, opened the door, and was confronted by a 24 year old
girl. I slammed the door, and called the cops. She went out the
window.I caught her at the fence and grabbed her. And a fight began.
She bit me. Kicked me. Repeatedly. >>  

Is that why << I am taking tomorrow off work, because I can barely
walk >> ? Some girl junkie hurt you worse than playing rugby? Or is it
because << It's been eight hours cleaning >> ? (Ouch, I don't mean
this to sound unsympathetic!)

<< I looked across at the bungalow and realised the lock was forced.>>

New locks for the bungalow's door and windows. Possibly a stronger
door and/or decorative burglar bars.

<< And I checked my bungalow. She had completely trashed the place.
Ransacked it.But had got away with virtually nothing. The only thing
that seems to be missing is my wallet - and associated ID.

But she made so much mess. In the bungalow was my briefcase. A
suitcase. A laptop bag. A cooler full of soft drinks used for my D&D
games.These were emptied out - the cooler had been full of ice on
Friday, and was full of water last night - that was dumped on the
floor. I'll need to replace the carpet. >>

Here's hoping that the laptop wasn't damaged by being dumped out,
hopefully not into the water.

<< And she basically started loading them up with anything valuable.
And then crap. She broke a whole bunch of my CDs. She broke a whole
bunch of my D&D miniatures. (snip) I doubt she cares about anything
except her next fix. >>

Dumping water to use the cooler to carry loot is a very messy thing
(she *could* have dumped the water out the door) but at least one
understands the motive. Just breaking stuff at random, or because she
could figure that it was stuff a person would be fond of, doesn't get
her any money or anything.

As Steve bboy_minn wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/34424>:

<< I'm amazed at how STUPID the average criminal is. If she was really
smart she would have sneaked in grabbed the things of most obvious
value and been gone. But Nooooooo, she had to waste time trashing the
place, stopping for lunch and a nap. >>

Lunch and a nap might perhaps make sense. She was a junkie (albeit one
sane enough to lie: << She told me, she'd hidden in there, because she
was being attacked. >> How well can junkies control their other
cravings? Maybe she saw the cheezles (same as Cheez-Its?) and that
reminded her that she hadn't eaten for a long time and she was as
unable to resist the urge to eat as I sometimes am to resist nearby
chocolate. And maybe eating put her messed-up metabolism to sleep.

But why did she even want to trash the place?

Maybe just that she hates everyone. If that's the reason, then even if
she had all the money and drugs and food and fashion she could want,
she might still break into strangers' home *just* to trash them

Or I have read psychologists saying that many burglars eat from the
refrigerator and defecate on the living room carpet motivated by the
same instinct that many animals have to mark their territory. (If it
was a thought rather than an instinct, the way humans mark their
territory is to change the locks, not to defecate on the rug. The
animal who had dug that burrow, encountering the dropping of a bigger,
meaner animal, would run away. A human would call in even bigger,
meaner humans: the police or a private security company.) 

<< I guess people who are smart enough to commit smart crimes are
smart enough to know that crime doesn't pay. >>

Maybe we don't know about the people who commit smart crimes because
they're smart enough not to get caught. Or maybe stealing hundreds of
millions of dollars (by embezzlement or fraud) and living a lavish
lifestyle for years and then being able to leave a good chunk of that
money to one's family while spending one's declining years in a
white-collar federal prison IS a smart crime, not only in the sense
that it took brains to think up the fraud, but also in the sense that
the cost of being sentenced to a less-pleasant old-age home (federal
prison, but not one of the violent ones) is worth the benefit.