Magic Anti-Crime Trick!

Suppose I told you I had a magic personal protection device you could carry that would make any potential assailant have to stop twenty feet away from you and announce themselves and give you thirty seconds to a minute to prepare yourself for any possible bad intentions they may have, would you cary it?

Suppose further that it weighed nothing, didn't take up any space on your belt, in your pocket or purse, and it was free, would that make you more likely to carry it?

While a portable gizmo like this is beyond our current technological capabilities, you already have one of these devices for home invaders and other intruders! Yet a surprising number of people act like it's a huge imposition to lock their frickin' doors even when they're at home.

Ask any big city police detective and they'll tell you that the vast majority of citizen encounters with criminals in their home, especially in daytime hours, are "meeting engagements" where a burglar has entered a house they assumed to be unoccupied and ran into a homeowner who had been asleep or in the back yard or whatever. In these cases it's often a big surprise for both because the criminal had been able to stroll in rather than make a noisy forced entry.

"Force the bad guy to announce himself with this one weird trick!"

People who are willing to drag around all manner of "EDC gear" for all kinds of improbable events get all bent out of shape when told that maybe they should be keeping their doors locked, even when they're at home. It's the same puzzling reaction you get when you suggest maybe they shouldn't leave guns in their car.

It's like they acknowledge that crime exists, but only care about the kind they can solve by blazing away, rather than the kind they can prevent from happening in the first place..