Fighting crime on a little Soi
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CCTV and barking dogs are just two of the measures being taken to thwart would-be thieves
MY LITTLE soi is absolutely bustling, as much as one soi can bustle. The residents are striking back at a problem that affects almost every Bangkok area – thieves who come in the night.
We’ve suffered break-ins for years, usually houses that don’t keep dogs. These unlucky people have various reasons for not having a dog in their home. Some people are allergic, others don’t have the time to take care of a pet, and still others simply don’t like dogs.
They are the ones, unfortunately, who also wake up in the morning and find that their water meters have been stolen, their gates have been dismantled, their homes broken into, and their belongings stolen.
At first, the rest of us just smiled. We who have dogs, even little ones like my tiny poodle Wan-Wan, thought we were reasonably safe. No robber would break into a house where at least one inhabitant would know immediately that a stranger was on the premises and raise an alert.
My next-door neighbour, Khun J, has been especially relaxed about potential burglaries. After all, she has Mee, a part-chow, who has become increasingly territorial as she’s grown older.
Besides, Mee barks. “I’ll know if anyone is breaking in,” J says, “if Mee hasn’t already killed them.”
The problem is that Mee barks a lot. A dog who barks only at intruders is certainly a fine burglar alarm, but a dog who barks at everyone is not so useful.
Mee barks at everyone: the young man a few houses down who likes to party and who comes home late at night; the family in another house with a new baby who cries day and night; the man in yet another house who travels a lot and leaves or returns at all hours of the night.
As an example of the other end of the barking spectrum, I once received an email from a reader who had two Labrador retrievers who were real barkers. She trained them not to bark at birds or cats, but, alas, the training was so successful that they stopped barking entirely.
“They won’t even bark at intruders,” she complained.
What a problem. Teach your dog to stop barking, and he’ll stop barking entirely. Teach your dog to bark, and you’ll have to deal with another Mee.
Once, I did meet a dog who knew an intruder when he saw one. This dog needed no training. He just knew. No stranger could enter his compound. His owner named him “Einstein”.
J has yet another problem. She’s become so used to Mee’s barking that she no longer hears her dog. An intruder could break in, and J wouldn’t be aware.
Now, however, the break-ins on our soi have been increasing, and slowly, the burglars are moving closer to homes with dogs.
Just how much of a deterrent is a barking dog if a burglar is desperate? Even J has become worried, as are the other residents of the soi. A dog cannot provide complete protection.
Through meetings, everyone finally agrees that closed-circuit TV is a good solution. Our soi is very small, after all, and it would be fairly easy to place cameras in strategic locations to cover every house.
Money is collected, and after a few more meetings, the locations of the cameras are chosen, as well as the person who will provide computer monitoring.
It seems to me that such an approach won’t discourage a determined burglar. “Never mind,” says one of my neighbours. “We’ll have a record of anyone who breaks in.”
She smiles. “Then we’ll get him.”
Another neighbour standing nearby adds, “Besides, we still have the dogs.”
I guess you’d call this solution a “before-and-after approach.”
