07-29-2017, 09:05 AM
Our neighbors live nearby and are building a house even closer. Somebody ripped the steel roofing off after it was already installed. That took trucks, ladders, tools, time, several people... all kinds of stuff. If they couldn't stop the theft from a few blocks away, there is no way you are going to be able to do that from Chicago. The Paradise Tax takes many forms, dealing with an overwhelmed police department and an underwhelming prosecutor are two of them.
I remember a friend of mine did missionary work in Costa Rica, and she said the theft was so bad that when a business was installing an iron fence, they had to hire security guards to guard the fence posts until the concrete had set, otherwise they would have been stolen. When I was living in Alaska that really surprised me. Now it just seems like common sense.
I lived in a high-crime area in an inner city, literally next door to a crack house, hopefully your experiences in Chicago are better, but the crimes there made more sense. They would steal things from your house or car they could quickly convert to cash to get their next fix. Usually stuff they could run away with. We have that here too, but also people steal from your house....things they need to build and furnish a house. They will steal a tow truck, so that they can steal cars, so that they can use the stolen cars to smash gates in and steal from houses. (All of these have actually happened lately). The unattended lot with all those tempting building supplies (being stored or nailed together is irrelevant) is the lowest hanging fruit.
Maybe things will be better here in 3 years, but until then, wait before you spend any money on building your dream home. Until then, check out the Big Island Thieves facebook group so you can read the hysteria.
I remember a friend of mine did missionary work in Costa Rica, and she said the theft was so bad that when a business was installing an iron fence, they had to hire security guards to guard the fence posts until the concrete had set, otherwise they would have been stolen. When I was living in Alaska that really surprised me. Now it just seems like common sense.
I lived in a high-crime area in an inner city, literally next door to a crack house, hopefully your experiences in Chicago are better, but the crimes there made more sense. They would steal things from your house or car they could quickly convert to cash to get their next fix. Usually stuff they could run away with. We have that here too, but also people steal from your house....things they need to build and furnish a house. They will steal a tow truck, so that they can steal cars, so that they can use the stolen cars to smash gates in and steal from houses. (All of these have actually happened lately). The unattended lot with all those tempting building supplies (being stored or nailed together is irrelevant) is the lowest hanging fruit.
Maybe things will be better here in 3 years, but until then, wait before you spend any money on building your dream home. Until then, check out the Big Island Thieves facebook group so you can read the hysteria.