a newspaper man adjusts his pen

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Welcome home thief junkie


The birth of a crack house in America’s Rust Belt in southwestern Pennsylvania, in the following order:

1. Grandma dies and none of the kinfolk want her house in an urban area in decline with darned few jobs on the table

2. No one else wants to buy the place either

3. In short order, a junkie armed with a hacksaw breaks in and steals the copper water pipes to redeems them – no questions asked – for cash at a scrap yard

4. The door is open for said junkie to return, get stupid on newly-purchased crack, sleep off a high and start the process over tomorrow at an abandoned house down the road

2 comments:

LJSilicon said...

You mist one big point, the local police are too busy catching speeders to worry about who is breaking into these houses.

Scott said...

Police departments are short staffed, too, because of the shrinking tax base. So is the building code enforcement office. It's a perfect storm.