brittney’s Neighborhood

Unrobbed

Anil
Jun 8, 2009
5 comments

Yesterday and early this morning, while talking about our impending move to a new apartment a few blocks away in a much bigger building (and no longer on the ground floor), Alaina and I talked about how being in a larger complex essentially acts as a fairly effective form of security through obscurity. Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case, the conversation was prescient.

I was at home this morning in the bedroom of our tiny apartment when someone just walked right into our place. At first I thought it might be my wife and then a guy's voice said "real estate agent" to quiet my dog's barking. That explanation seemed plausible because we're about to move and our place is up for rent, so a ton of agents have been by to show the place.

Then I realized the agents don't have a key to our place. How did this motherfucker get in my house?

I pulled on some pants and came out to the living room, but the guy was already gone. I grabbed my keys and went outside after him, barefoot. "Hey, what are you doing?"

He was about 30 feet in front of me and didn't turn around, just said, "It's cool, I'm with the real estate agency." I found out later he'd even nodded at our building supervisor on his way out to say hello. I said "what agency?" (the sort of silly question that always stands out in retrospect) and he just repeated his line about how he was with a real estate agency. I shouted "STOP" and then he took off running. At that point, I had just noticed he had both my wife's and my MacBooks under his right arm. Despite being in my bare feet, I gave chase.

We sprinted down to the end of our block, and then around the corner onto 1st Ave, and I started screaming "STOP THAT THIEF! CALL THE COPS!" over and over. We covered one block downtown pretty quickly, and one friendly guy at the end of the block joined in the case as well. The three of us rounded the corner onto the next street. Halfway down the block, the thief cut in to a skate park that is next to the neighborhood high school. The samaritan saw that the thief had tossed the laptops into a plastic trash can in the park and peeled off to (as I later found out) tell the cops down the street what had happened. I had just caught up to what was going on and saw the laptops sitting undamaged in the trash can. Absurdly, he'd even taken the time to unplug the power cord and take it with him, which I had noticed at the start of the chase, and the cord was sitting on the ground next to the trash can. As it turned out, his pausing to get the power cord probably made up for the time it took me to get my pants on, and is what ended up making the difference of me getting our stuff back.

The samaritan disappeared without me being able to thank him; I did thank the little kid that tried to follow the thief through the skate park though. I came back home with our laptops under my own arm, and found nothing else missing, and realized that the kid had probably done the math -- two guys chasing him, and him carrying 10 or 12 pounds of gear, he wasn't likely to get away scott free. And I got an interesting taste of that uniquely male, testosterone-fueled rush that comes from scaring away the intruder who comes into your cave. That was an adrenaline buzz that lasted most of the morning.

Our super changed the lock on the door, and the young cops whose patrolcar had been flagged by the samaritan came by to take my report. One of the cops was just shakng her head. "That thief, " she said, "Was pretty ballsy. I'm glad you got your stuff back." It seems, upon reflection, that this was probably at least partially an inside job, with the rental office for our current building loaning keys to agents, one of whom probably tips off this kid about where to go. (The escape path the kid used to run away reveals that he knows the neighborhood well.)

So, that was today's adventure. We're moving out of here in a little over two weeks, just a few blocks away. Because this post is public and I know people might share the link, some important points: New York City is safe. Safer than ever. I've never had a single other issue of getting anything taken from me for any reason in the dozen years I've lived in this city. I'm still gonna live in the same neighborhood, and hope to do so indefinitely. Had any guns been introduced into the mix of what happened today, the situation would only have been worse. NYPD's new generation of young, multiethnic and increasingly gender-balanced recruits are professional, thoughtful and truly representative of our great city.

Finally, Finally

Anil
Apr 28, 2009
4 comments

Maxwell's "Pretty Wings". I've been waiting 8 years for him to put out a new record, and two years since I first heard a snippet of this track. Worth the wait.

YOU SHOULD CHECK THIS SHOW OUT

umrain
Apr 9, 2009
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Hey have you heard of the television show Free Radio? It is pretty funny! Thursday nights (tonight!) on VH1 (seriously!) at 11pm, 10 central. I will be watching it too, so feel free to use the comment section on this post to discuss!

(PS. I WAS NOT PAID TO POST THIS. I ACTUALLY LIKE THE SHOW. ALSO MY INTERNET FRIEND LANCE KRALL IS ON IT AND HE IS A FUNNY GUY AND ALSO HE ASKED ME TO POST THIS.)

Time keeps on slipping by

Kretta
Mar 23, 2009
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It's been over 3 months since I moved to my new house. Where has the time gone? I feel like I just moved in but I also feel like I have lived in this house forever. I have finally sold my old house and am waiting for the closing date to get here.So much has happened in the 3 months I have been here and some of it has not been good. Take for instance, the water line to the house had a leak and was costly to repair. The city house sold quickly but the buyer broke his neck in a car accident 1 week before we were to close and I had to put the house back on the market. Then it sold again real quick but the vent stack for the sewer developed a leak around it and has ruined my bathroom ceiling and will need painting along with stopping the leak before we can close the deal. It has been much more expensive having 2 house than I imagined and budgeted for. Of course having to replace a water line wasn't in the planning either. I want to so some landscaping at the new house but have to wait until I have the money from the city house.Maybe that time will slip on by real fast too.

My bald spot is famous!

Anil
Mar 12, 2009
5 comments

Oddly, I was on air on the Jimmy Fallon show for about 10 seconds last night.

On the plus side, I got to meet Questlove! Squee!

Kanye!

Anil
Mar 4, 2009
1 comment

I love this guy. The ending might be the best part.

Say You Will

Dwindling Commodities

infernauta
Feb 25, 2009
1 comment

Nearing peak privacy crisis forces Dot-Coms into harvesting intimacy.
Social networks manifest as herpes-like peer validation.

Spam Subject

infernauta
Feb 25, 2009
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"To the stars your manhood flies"
Reminds of Chandan Goswami. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are sending flies to the stars.

Headlines

infernauta
Feb 13, 2009
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