Sunday, May 16, 2021

Newsletter February 2021

 THE SECURITY OF SECURITY CAMERAS

Car break-ins are happening all over the North Pacific Beach according to NextDoor.com and Pacific Tower is no exception. Speed freaks AKA tweakers are all over the beach neighborhoods, stealing anything they can find to sell to fuel their nasty habits. 

 Q. Dear Boardie, my car got broken into. What can be done about it?

              A. I need more details. Q. Did they break a window?    

A. No. I might have forgotten to lock the doors just this one time! Was that dumb?

              A. Yes. What was stolen?

A.  Just a gym bag with dirty socks in it! Q. Why would they take that?

              A. They’ll take anything in sight with the hopes there’s diamonds inside. Did you just                           learn not to leave ANYTHING on your car seats?

Q. Yup. What about our Security Cameras? I’d like to get my gym socks back. I’m sentimentally              attached to them.

A. Our building manager Joseph can check the playback on the Security camera to see if we                           can see the criminal perpetrating the crime. BUT…

A WORD ABOUT SECUTITY CAMERAS

Security cameras have to be pointing in just the exactly right direction to catch even a glimpse of a bad guy. If it’s at night, there’s almost never enough light to get a clear view. We’re all spoiled watching TV dramas that show a thousand angles of every scene. But movies have thousand moveable cameras and almost as many lights pointing in the direction of the person they’re taping. We don’t. Why don’t we have more cameras? We already have lots of cameras.

Q.  Why not have a camera in the alley that would read a license plate?

A. The camera would have to be positioned directly behind the car – which would put that camera in the middle of the alley, plus spotlights. Let’s say we have a clear, perfect picture of the crime being committed in our upper garage. We would forward that video to the Northern Division PD. 

Q. Will there be manhunt for the perp?

 A. Not likely. Pacific Beach police are understaffed and do not pursue crimes of theft –  even grand theft ($950) is a stretch. Just remember lock your car, never to leave anything on your car seats. If you park in the lower garage, always take your automatic gate opener with you.