Yesterday my neighbor, Tony, came home from a scuba diving class at the York YMCA with his son, obviously shaken. While at their lesson, someone smashed the window of their car and stole his wallet.

When Tony called his bank to close off any more transactions on his debit card, he found that the burglar tried more than five times to get $500 out of the account in less than 20 minutes (thankfully he didn't guess the pin number correctly, and the ATM machine was able to get a picture of him since it was a suspicious transaction).

This morning between 8:00-10:00, the same thing happened to my mom when she went to the YMCA for my brother's swim practice. Thankfully, she remembered Tony's story and removed her wallet, but her planner with basically my whole family's life in it, as it contained our appointments and meetings and work schedules, was taken.

We lucked out as far as robberies go, but it was still a bad experience for my mom and brother. Honestly, who breaks into a car at 8 in the morning?

My workplace used to have a plasma screen TV to play a slideshow of the different pools we sell and their features. Not anymore. When we had a spa show at a fair and brought it along, someone just snatched it when no one was looking, plain and simple. I thoroughly enjoy teasing my boss for this. Who brings a plasma screen TV to a fair?

Burglaries aren't just affecting local families and businesses; big businesses are suffering as well. A family friend, Peg, works in the administrative something-or-other of Giant, and she tells my family constantly of the thousands of dollars in merchandise that are stolen daily.

Customers will steal pharmaceuticals and sell them back to the companies from which Giant buys them in the first place. So any over-the-counter drug you might buy at Giant has already been on the shelf before, but Giant has paid for it to be there twice.

People will grab baskets, act like they're shopping, and run out of the store. Once, a not too bright shoplifter ran through the store and grabbed random expensive items at random. (Helloooo, you're obviously not just in a rush if you're cutting open DVD containers and running away with the discs.)

The cashiers tried to chase the running man, but he threw a drink on the ground and they all slipped and fell. Peg really wanted to get that guy, so she threw the nearest barcode scanning device at his ankles to no avail. While that must have been annoying to have missed, I really wish I could have seen Peg whip that scanner at him.

What about security, you ask? Apparently most of the criminals at Giant aren't of the scrawny easily tackled variety. One security guard calls the police on such occasions, slightly intimidated by the no-neck, bodybuilder-like shoplifters he encounters.

Needless to say, this is ridiculous. Sure, crime has always existed, but these situations I've described are happening dozens of times per day in just one store in the county. Sure, we have some protective measures in place that reduce robberies. Sure, we can usually catch a couple of the thieves. But when will the more reckless, daytime crimes end? And if an end does come, how much damage will have been done by then?