Don’t Go Stealing My Part…

There is an old adage, I think, that states that our perceptions and beliefs around human behaviour are largely based on the outcome of local events and their influence on the behaviour of others. For example, residents in a particular region may be very wary of being alone outdoors at night if neighbours or other residents have had unpleasant or dangerous experiences, as might have been the case when Jack The Ripper was active in the impoverished areas around the Whitechapel district of London.

Early this morning some time before any of the regular businesses had opened,  I happened to stop outside one of the local motor repair centres (a ‘garage’) in Waikanae. Nothing abnormal about that. Outside the office door on the street frontage in full view of any passer-by stood a large cardboard carton, obviously the result of a courier delivery during the night or very early morning, quite likely containing an order of motor parts from a wholesaler of spare parts.

In a number of places I can think of, there would be something a bit abnormal about that – there is no night watchman, no security cameras, no fences, simply a large carton full of valuables waiting for the garage owner/operator to take inside and use when he arrives for work a bit later in the morning.

Here in Waikanae, the town isn’t overrun with policemen. In fact, there isn’t a police station, merely a community ‘office’ in one of the little shopping centres where one might enquire about police things, I expect. In the last eleven months, I can honestly report that I have never seen a policeman in Waikanae, with the exception of one, driving around in his highly visible police-car.

Whilst it is oversimplification and generalisation to believe that there is no crime in the area at all, the level of thievery in the commercial area is most likely very low, hopefully non-existent, to the extent that people are willing to leave goods of high value unattended. This is one of the things that makes one feel at ease and safe in Waikanae. It is based on a preconception, I know, probably a completely false preconception at that, but, having come from a Third World environment where everything must be locked down with double-locks to prevent a certain loss, it is a refreshing consolation that there are places in this nasty world where people can still trust each other, and that others will not steal possessions which do not belong to them.

Dear reader, can you say the same about the neighbourhood you live in? Love thy neighbour.