Local

An Angry “Victim”


      

                     

         

Hey, I’ve found something to blog about that really hits home. I went out this morning and found that someone broke into my car. These geniuses managed a haul of about $5.00 in change out of my car, but in their efforts to make their fortune they managed to rip apart my roof (I have a ragtop, so they had no problem using a screwdriver to penetrate the roof to get into the locked vehicle) and my back bumper as well as busting up my dashboard in their feeble attempt to get my CD player out of the car.

Reading the "police blotter" reports that this newsletter puts out on a weekly basis is one thing, but to have it affect you directly is quite another. Due to the efforts of these amateurs, I’m not only out change for the Mickey D’s drive-thru but I’m probably going to be a few bills short from my checking account. I like a retractable roof in baseball stadiums, but not on my car, so I’m going to have to spend probably 4 figures getting my car fixed to where it’s not an embarrassment.

When people I know say things like, "Park Forest? Why are you living there? That town is going down the tubes", normally I say that while it has its blemishes, Park Forest has some real positives. It’s fairly safe to the point where you can walk unmolested, it’s got nice people, blah blah blah. But right now I’m not feeling Park Forest as a nice town. Right now I think of PF as a town where little punks are walking about at 3 AM breaking into vehicles for no good reason, where parents aren’t keeping track of their kids, and where the police force is unable (despite their best efforts) to keep up with an increasingly criminal populace.

What is there left in Park Forest, anyway? There are no grocery stores, no industry of note, an onerous property tax burden, and an increasing likelihood that your home or your vehicle will fall prey to reckless and impudent youth. And can you blame a grocery store for not locating here? Anyone who spent any time in Sterk’s, particularly in the evening, soon realized that the store had to worry more about people stealing off its shelves than they did keeping them stocked with product. I know if I had a business, I wouldn’t be anxious to locate in a town where if the "customers" weren’t stealing from you on one side, the village would seize large amounts of profits through high taxes.

Am I overreacting? Perhaps I am. Or maybe I’m guilty of under-reacting in the past because it didn’t directly affect me and now I’m catching up because the chickens have come home to roost. One thing I do know, however- while I’m not a violent person, if I knew who those little punks were who have cost me my hard-earned money through their criminality there’d be a couple of "kids" who would be learning the virtues of a liquid diet right now.

 


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