Move it and lose it
We have seen two cases of late where people were acting stupid in the smart zone while moving from one residence to another.
In the first case someone who was moving left a gun unattended in an unlocked bag. He went in and out many times during the day, and finally noticed that the bag had apparently been inadvertently packed with everything else. Since there were an awful lot of cartons in the moving van, he chose to ignore the missing bag, assuming he would find it when he finally unpacked at this new home.
Eventually the cartons all arrived in his new home. Eventually plus a week or so he started unpacking the cartons. He did find the box in which the bag was packed. The gun, sadly, was not in the bag.
The good news is that the gun has not been reported as having been used in a crime. Yet.
In the second case, someone who was moving had taken money – about $9,000 – out of the bank. He used a thousand of it to pay various debts, and left the rest in his briefcase. His unlocked briefcase. As with the previous case, he was in and out while movers were in and out, while cable guys were in and out, and while a host of others were in and out.
Eventually the packing was done, and all of his possessions – save his briefcase – were gone from the apartment. When he bothered to look inside the briefcase, he discovered that the remaining $8,000 was missing.
Now, we would certainly not make a case that movers, or cable repair guys, or anyone else as a class are any more dishonest than, say, CEOs. Indeed, we might even suppose that the chance of your being robbed was not much greater than being struck by lightning while playing golf. That said, the prudent golfer does not walk across the fairway during a thunderstorm while holding his nine iron above his head.
Crimes of opportunity happen because there is opportunity. Just as CEOs rob because they have the opportunity, even so do petty thieves steal because they have the opportunity. If you make the minor effort to reduce the opportunity, you will reduce the likelihood of acting stupid in the smart zone.
