My first, and so far only, experience with Island crime was having my briefcase stolen from my unlocked Nissan Sentra while it was parked in the lot at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and I was inside visiting an ailing friend.

Dealing with the police on this issue was somewhat comical: because this was pre-amalgamation days, the hospital wasn't actually in Charlottetown, it was in Sherwood. Which I learned when I reported the crime to the City Police and was redirected out to the Sherwood RCMP.

My experiences with the RCMP in Sherwood are memorable for two reasons: first, the officer who took my statement had to leave mid-way through to have what I think is the longest-running pee I have ever heard (he left the door open; it went on for minutes). And, second, for the dressing down I was given for foolishly leaving my doors unlocked, a dressing down that was amplified when he learned that I wasn't from around these parts.

Fortunately my briefcase only contained papers, and nothing of value other than my pay cheque, which was cancelled and quickly re-issued.

The briefcase was never found. I remember people telling me at the time that the hospital was a rich feeding ground for the amateur underworld, and they would target cars with briefcases based on the assumption that briefcase = rich person.

I can't remember if I wanted to punch anyone in the face. I was pretty mad, though.

i lived in a sketchball area for a while. My jeep got broken into and things were stolen. favorite things. so, rather than fix the broken glass, i just kept the jeep empty. I figured that there wasn't anything left to be stolen. Somebody one night ripped out the tape player. yeah, great for them. so i left the wires hanging from the dash in a sad state, reds and greens spilling from the dash. I thought, "ok now there is nothing to steal". I leave my jeep on campus, windows down, wires out, and come back to find a parking ticket on the jeep. Somebody had scraped the parking pass from my window. humans are lame. locks only keep honest people out anyway.

I think the best anti-theft device might be to drive a slightly rusted, old junker of a car. Anyone that thinks it might have anything valuable in it is just kidding themselves :P

Returning to Oklahoma City on a business trip to Naples, Florida in 1989, we touched down briefly in Sarasota-Bradenton. Nobody was changing planes; some got off, some got on. I entered the small terminal to stretch my legs, leaving a Walkman on my seat near the rear of the plane. I'd bought it in Grand Central Station a few months before. It was inexpensive.

I returned to my seat a few minutes later and, after take-off, realized the Walkman was gone. Worse, whomever had taken it was still on the plane, probably seated near me. I enlisted a stewardess to help look for it (under adjoining seats, etc.), making a visible fuss, then repaired to the restroom in hopes that conscience would return the Walkman.

It didn't. It galled me all the way to DFW that I could see the theif but couldn't identify him.

Dammit, I'm the best speller you know. The number of words I misspell is tiny and they have narrow, idiomatic characteristics that this one doesn't conform to. Not sure what to make of it. In an odd way it might be age. Bears watching. Shit.

I too will join your punch in the face tour Steven. Top of my list is the moron who stole the quick-release seat cuff off of my bike. This is a specific sized part that will only fit a very specific sized seat post collar. Anyhow, it also meant I couldn't sit down biking all the way to the bike shop where I spent $15 replacing it.

I'd be first to agree that bare-naked ladies bear watching, but that's as far as I'll go.

"Bares watching" implies exposure somehow. Perhaps the object begs to be scrutinized, but that doesn't mean it's showing itself. Maybe the observer would lay the object bare in the course of analyzing it, but that's a future event. For now, we're just watching.

The decision to keep an eye on the thing is made by the observer, not the object. The object is just sitting there, baring nothing.

"Bears watching" springs from the "carry or support" sense of "bear," stretched to "call for" or "warrant." The action or behavior of the thing — in concert with prudence — support the premise that it should be monitored.

So we can decide whether to punch it in the face or not.

Companies offer rebates because most people fail to return them. Sales increase because people feel they are getting a good deal and then neglect to send in the rebate form. A well-known maker of name-brand CD burners has an average of 11% of their rebate forms returned.

And of those returned, many of them are incorrectly filled out or are missing the required documentation. The company obviously doesn't send rebates to those people.

From UK

It figures that it was the only day that I didn't come in straight away and lock it up. I decided to grab a bite to eat at the cafe and was only gone 30 mins. I think it was an inside job since a bunch of other things were stolen around the department around the same time.

Why can't people just leave things that aren't their's alone. Is it so hard?