Popular electronics

I spotted a news story in Omaha over the weekend that piqued my interest. The Omaha Police Department is opening drop off sites for Christmas gift packaging. The purpose is to provide citizens with a place to take all those boxes that would ordinarily be sitting curbside on December 26th, advertising the fact that someone in the house just scored something nice like an LED TV,  an iMac, or a WiiU from the Big Guy.

Trying to find a link to the story for this post, I also found this article, from the Omaha World Herald, reporting that residential burglaries in Omaha peak in November and December. Not so in Lincoln, where July and August are way out in front, and December ranks near the bottom.

On the subject of stuff being stolen, consumer electronics are near the top of the list for Christmas wish lists, and that applies to criminals, too. Electronics tend to score pretty high on the CRAVED scale. I recall in the 1970's the hot ticket for theft was CB radios. In the 1980's cassette players were big. In the 1990's CDs, amplifiers, and speakers were huge. Personal electronics such as MP3 players, tablets, and smartphones are a hot commodity today.

Here's some interesting data, year to date, from burglaries and thefts in Lincoln so far in 2013. You can click on each map for a larger view:

CB radios taken in thefts and burglaries this year

Amplifiers taken in thefts and burglaries this year

iPods taken in thefts and burglaries this year