Last night, one of my friends posted on Facebook that his expensive watch was stolen from the gym. He wrote, “Listen to your premonition/Spiderman senses. Lost my Rolex at Equinox while taking a Friday night class. Lock removed and watch taken from inside my shoe. I felt the negative energy of being watched as I was changing before class, and unfortunately ignored the sensory alert.”
There are a couple of things to learn from this unfortunate incident:
1. Leave the expensive stuff at home
Never bring expensive watches, jewelry, accessories to the gym and if you do, don’t leave them in a locker – even if you use your own lock. It takes the bad guys just seconds to remove or unlock most locks. I also caution people against bringing expensive or flashy watches, jewelry and accessories when you travel as it just makes you a target.
2. Trust your instincts
As my friend said in his post, he felt like someone was watching him and he ignored the feeling. If you ever feel like something just isn’t quite right, there’s a good chance it isn’t. Trust those instincts. They could save you from calamity.
Interestingly, just a few hours before I saw my friend’s post, I read of a similar thing happening at a different gym in our local crime report. Here’s what the Manhattan Beach Police Department (MBPD) wrote: “On 10/31/24 between 1:00 p.m., and 2:00 p.m., a commercial burglary occurred in the 1500 block of Rosecrans Avenue (24 hour fitness). The victim placed their personal belongings including their wallet inside of a locker in the locker room and locked it. When they returned from working out, the victim discovered their lock was removed and all of his personal belongings were stolen. The victim later discovered several fraudulent charges to their credit card.”
It’s possible that the perpetrator is the same person who stole my friend’s watch, who just hangs out in gyms, observes customers and targets those with expensive items. There are people who hang out in or outside high-end stores and follow shoppers to their car or worse, their homes. Thieves also follow people on social media to see what they’re wearing and where they are to either steal their accessories on them or at their house. Remember the high-profile shooting of rapper PnB Rock? He was eating lunch at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles in South L.A. and was shot and killed over, you guessed it … his jewelry.
My buddy is lucky he didn’t get hurt. The MBPD offers the tips below to prevent people from becoming the victim of residential burglaries but these tips can be applied to anywhere in the world:
-Lock your residences and double check you have locked your residences before leaving.
-If you are only leaving for a short time, do not leave your garages or doors open/unlocked to your residence.
-Install a video surveillance system you can use and are familiar with.
-If you will be leaving for an extended vacation, please have your neighbors collect any mail or packages.
-Do not advertise on social media before or while you are on vacation.
-You can notify the MBPD [or any police department] if you will be on vacation so the officers are aware of residences that will remain vacant for extended periods of time.
-Do not leave ladders or lawn furniture that is easy to manipulate and used to climb onto second story ledges or balconies.
-Lock all side gates.
KEEP READING:
–WARNING: If this can happen at Trader Joe’s, it can happen anywhere; here’s how to protect yourself
–More details emerge about pro golfer being robbed in London: Here’s how to prevent it from happening to you
–Shocking burglary in Manhattan Beach: $1 million in cardboard box stolen from inside parked vehicle
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