Monday, March 5, 2007

The Glassman Cometh



“Shall I give you a hand?”

“Just watch the end as I go down the corridor. You feel a bit insecure without a window I guess?”

“A little. But I believe in fixing broken windows quickly."

“You do?”

“There is a theory about urban decay, called broken window theory, that if you let small things remain broken or untreated in an environment then it’s all downhill from there. It got a lot of attention when Giuliani appeared to have fixed big issues like robbery and murder in New York by stomping hard on people who jaywalked or littered or didn’t pay subway fares.”

“Yeah, I read about that too. Some have questioned the conclusions though. There we are. All fixed.”

“Very briskly done. A cup of tea?”

“Thanks but no time. Three more jobs before five.”

Break-ins?”

“Been a spate this past week. Police say it’s the same guy. Hanes.”

“Hanes? They know his name and still haven’t caught him?”

Left his footprints at all the jobs. See, there’s the mark on your balcony. A Hanes bootprint. Same print at all the other places. Police call him MISTER Hanes.”

“They know anything else about him?”

“He comes by train. Breaks in using a minus screwdriver on windows on first floors. Doesn’t work upstairs. He’s done something like 200 burglaries since last autumn near a string of stations on the Chuo Line. Police are a bit embarrassed they can’t catch him.”


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