News Article Prompt

Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Weekly Prompt

Tomorrow morning, when you open your newspaper, find a headline that particularly strikes you. Using the headline and article, write a story or poem. You can either explore the situation as one of the key characters detailed in the article itself, or you can simply begin as a witness to the crime or protest or marriage profiled. Real events can have a powerful effect on the imagination, so over your morning coffee, think about the news as your segway into inspiration.

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Thieves hit 16 vehicles in Littletown

     Even if you live in a small community it won’t ensure that thieves aren’t present, in such safe places.  Of all the precautionary measures one should take to exclude themselves from falling into the easy prey category, is to keep thieves from getting what they want too quickly, simply by locking your doors.  In all instances of this robbery the victims failed to lock their car doors.  What was inside can be replaced easily, if you have theft insurance.  The main items stolen were dvds, cds, and hand held games.  One might ask why this would happen in such a small town where crime is rare? 

     It doesn’t matter where you live, there will always be dishonest thieves somewhere in the community just as there are pedophiles we never imagined could exist.  Let’s face it crime can happen anywhere at any time.  This comes down to a cold fact…. some people will stoop too all time low levels if motivated to do so.  Having come from a small community, I have seen my fair share of ways people will take advantage of others, if the opportunity is staring them right in the face. 

     In the sticks, back woods, or the middle of nowhere ville, it is common practice to leave things unlocked, because as gullible humans we are prone to think the best of others before thinking the worst.  For what ever reason small towns feel a sense of invisibility until they are victimized.  When I had moved away from my home town, where if you blinked your eyes you’d miss it, a series of break ins started taking place.  Of course, they weren’t homes where people resided.  The thieves were cowardly breaking into homes of out of state residents, who used the property for the weekends, or vacations.  Criminals having this type of knowledge found their targets very easy to get away with.  In most cases the individual or individuals would break in, take their sweet time ransacking, steal what ever was of value, and then set it up so that the place would burn to the ground. 

     Here is the real kicker, in these situations the out of state owners wouldn’t even know this happened until weeks after the fact.  Simply because their camps were hidden far back into the wooded areas instead of right tight to the road side.  Naturally they would be surprised when they came to their camp hoping to relax and get away from the busy city life, only to find they had been victims in a town they felt was the safest place on planet Earth. 

     As a child and teenager in my small town we never locked up anything including the gun cabinets.  Times have changed!  I am reminiscent of my childhood when being gone all day from home playing with the neighborhood children, was something parents didn’t have to worry so much about.  There was always the worry that someone would get hurt, but never about being kidnapped.  Although, we did have fingerprinting when I was in elementary school.  Our area was small, with a population of 378 last calculated in the 2000 census, I imagine it’s about the same as in my youthful days.  My mother just never thought we were in any real danger, from any of the criminal element.  The area is still a very safe place to live and raise children, but the world is far from secure.

     I am sure after having gone through this ordeal in Littletown, they will be vigilant and lock their cars from now on. Oh, and I hope they lock their front doors too.  Seems simple, really!  I wonder how much their insurance is going to increase after this, or if they had high deductibles?  Personally, I go with a higher deductible so if someone broke in and stole a couple of cds, dvds, and games… I would be stuck with replacing the items out of pocket again.  Having said that, it might be better for the thieves if the police catch them first.  A vigilante is not going to be nice and give Miranda Rights, they will just kick butt and call it even.