I was very happy receive a call from the local police's burglary prevention unit earlier today to say that they had caught the little swine who robbed us last week. He is a heroin addict who, together with three friends, has been roaming the local neighbourhood for the last couple of months during the early hours and carrying out opportunistic thefts to fund their habit. He had coughed up all his TIAs - presumably so he gets a more lenient sentence - but apart from a ladies watch - none of the property he has stolen has been recovered.
Although I had insurance I am more than the £50 excess out of pocket - for example, the new laptop I have received only has 'trial' software loaded on it which will cost me well over £100 to re-purchase in a couple of months. And then there is the loss of about five years-worth of family photos that were stored on that CD which has not been recovered.
As he sits in his cell on remand, receiving his regular doses of methadone, I wonder if he contemplates the irony of his incarceration? He has had to work hard to fund his habit but now his whole existence will be funded by the taxpayer without any effort on his part. No doubt when he starts his sentence at Her Majesty's pleasure he will have ready access to copious supplies of heroin and any other drugs he fancies. He will also be able to develop his skills as a thief by way of the master classes run by his fellow criminal masterminds. In a relatively short time he will be out on the streets again and no doubt putting his new found thieving skills into practice.
It also seems that there is a remarkably efficient black market industry that allows these thieves to turn their ill-gotten gains into hard cash (or drugs) almost immediately they have stolen them. What does this say about British society when so many people appear to be prepared to buy obviously stolen goods?
