On Mar 14, 8:03 am, "Eisboch" wrote:

Our house was broken into back in the mid-80's while we were at work and the
kids were in school.

When the cops arrived and were dusting for prints and taking our statement,
one of them asked me how it felt. I told him I was bull**** and wished I
had been at home when they broke in. He told me if it ever happened again
to use a baseball bat or a 2x4 cut in half on them (but not a gun) before I
called the police. He said they wouldn't ask any questions.

A British friend told me about his break-in, about a year ago. Same
sort of losses, and the same sort of investigation. But his local
constable told him to shoot the burglar if he caught one! It seems
that many Britons have replaced their rifles with "pellet guns," and
that was the weapon the officer was talking about. The officer said
shoot the bad guy, then put a pellet in the ceiling, and then call
999.

One of the problems in my corner of reality is grafitti. The
consensus is that the only way to stop it is to smash the skull of one
of them and leave the vandal's body, holding the can of spray paint
and laying under the half-finished vandalism, to rot for a day or so.