[StBernard] The looters and intruders

[Westley Annis]

At this point, investing in "bear traps" would be the order of the day since
NO ONE (at this point) needs to go into the home without your permission. If
you planned on being there to snap the coon-buzzard traps, then it can be
done at your memory of where you placed the traps. Place a warning sign on
all doors claiming, "Enter at your own risk" Mine-field or other
endangerments are present inside" as a disclaimer/warning as posted! 

Chuckle... One way to get rid of trash. Without having the parish pick it up
<G>.. 

Jer.

-----Original Message-----

  For those with two story homes, like me, every time I go back to the
house, another set of would be looters have gone upstairs in the hopes of
finding something to steal. This is happening every few days.  Like they are
going to find jewelry, guns, and televisions four months after the storm.
They are so brazen that they leave the attic doors open and leave the
drawers open for the little furniture that is left.  
Fortunately, they don't take my cleaning supplies, which is all that I have
left in the house. We now leave the drawers open so they can see we have
nothing to take.

I feel fortunate though, because many who have left anything, including
their children's toys, have had it stolen. There are reports that cars are
riding around all hours of night and there is no police protection to stop
it.  Until I have doors and windows, electricity, and a telephone for a
burglar alarm, I hesitate to do anything but tear out the downstairs.  While
we are concerned about levees, drainage, and debris removal, in my opinion,
until we get the looting under control, how can we invest money to bring in
construction materials and equipment to rebuild?  How do we bring in
trailers and then leave the trailer unprotected while we do errands or go to
work,  or worse  yet sleep there and worry about encountering these scumbags
on one of their midnight home tours?

I don't think the message is going out that St. Bernard has a zero tolerance
policy on trespassers.  Do we need to take up arms ourselves 
and start our own armed-citizen patrols to protect one another?   This 
problem may be with the two-story homes for now, but as the one-stories are
rebuilding, it will affect them, too.

  Don't put anything, no matter how little value, in a box that used to hold
electronics, liquor, etc. People who have done that come back to find that
the scumbags have open these boxes and dumped the contents creating a mess.
Do they really think people are storing cases of Jack Daniels and Sony TVs
in garage? They can't figure out that the old boxes are just holding
household items of no value.

If anyone from the Sheriff's Office or Council wants to advise us, please
do. Maybe we need to do a "Spend a night in your house with a gun" to send
our own message. Maybe it will take a resident or a looter being shot during
a midnight encounter to bring this issue to the forefront.  I really hope
not. This is not worth dying for. If we don't have the police resources,
maybe we need military protection during a dusk to dawn curfew. I don't know
the answers, just the problem.

Corinne is being hit hard by the looters, but I suspect so are other areas
with two-story homes.

Deborah Keller
3608 Corinne Avenue (so the world knows there is nothing there to take)