Burglary crime rates go up during the Christmas Holiday season.  Folks love to leave their drapes open to display their tree sparkling with lights and tinsel, not to mention displaying all the gifts under the tree.  “It’s Christmas eve, you ready for Christmas,” I asked my partner who was writing and documenting our activity log.  “I just finished yesterday,” he replied not even looking up.

“Any unit, see the man and respond to a burglary investigation located on Wall Street,” said the dispatcher over our Police radio.  We took the call and drove to the location.  It was a very poor neighborhood with lots of rundown apartment buildings, duplexes and broken down cars on the street.  A man was standing in the front yard flagging us down as we arrived in front of the house; it was obvious he was very distraught.  There was a slight language barrier but we managed to understand that someone had broken into his house.

The man explained that he and his family went to Church and that they were gone for about an hour.   When they returned home, they saw that the side door had been broken open and all of their food, Christmas presents and even the Christmas tree were gone.

My partner was taking the report and listing all things the buglers took.  “Damn, they ever took the Christmas tree,” I mumbled.  I looked around and felt so sad at such humble living conditions.  Then I saw five small children, ages ranging from about six to thirteen standing in the doorway of the only bedroom.  “Oh my,” I thought to myself, “what a tragedy…a man works hard to provide for his family, tries to make a nice Christmas and some thief comes and takes it all away.”  Pretty heartless if you ask me. 

My partner finished the report and we expressed our heartfelt sadness for their misfortune.  We left the house and walked down the driveway, got into our Police car and drove away.  “I cannot believe how sad that was,” I said, “Yeah, pretty sad,” my partner scowled, “criminals are scum.”  “Let’s get to the station to see if any toys are left over from the toy drive, maybe we can bring them some things,” I said.