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Bookjackers destroy a car while steal-
ing Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen
Hawking
Jacking for Books
Philadelphia, PA - With the wide-spread proliferation of car CD
stereo players it seemed inevitable that one day the once lucrative
career of stereo theft would become meaningless. CD players are
standard options in newer cars and opting for cassette vs CD can,
in fact, cost you more. The idea of getting a nice deal on a stolen
stereo, while exciting in perhaps 1991, is now a yawner for most
Americans.
Furthermore, the burned cd market has skyrocketed leaving potential
thieves with no incentive to smash open a window to take someones
CD carrying case. Many people copy albums onto CDR's and write the
album name on magic marker on the top of the cd. The record store
will only pay them for original compact discs with cover art.
But the deviant ones always stay one step ahead. Such is the nature
of crime - historically antes are always upped but the truly creative
and ingenious prevail by creating new illicit revenues. The top
percentile of these black market entrepeneurs can create a trend
that can sweep coast to coast. One such trend that started in the
community around Harvard University has spread to neighboring states
and appears on the threshhold of expanding to all corners of the
U.S.
"I had parked 2 blocks down from my friend's house 'cause parking
is a bitch where he lives. My car was demolished when I went to
go drive home. I freaked - thought for sure my stereo was gone also."
Harvard freshman Timothy Hillerman recalls. "I don't get it. I had
my Sony ES CDX-C90 CD stereo plugged into my Rockford Fosgate multi-channel
amp. Those two components in themselves are more than $2000. We're
not even talking about the speakers. That shit was all untouched
though. The ONLY things they took were two books on the passenger
side floor; Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, and Camus's The Stranger. I had Kurupt's
latest and C-Murder's C-P-3.Com CD still in the shrink wrap on my
front seat and they appeared to not even have been touched."
Indeed, more then 300 separate police reports have been filed in
Massacheusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, New york and Washingington
DC involving brutal book thefts. Smashed in windows are commonplace
as they allow easy access to the literary treasures that are most
often carelessly left sitting on the passenger side seat. Local
law officials in Pennsylvania are encouraging citizens to hide novels
under their seat or to take them with them much like the detachable
faceplate of some car stereos.
Popular amongst bookjackers
The thieves appear to place a much greater weight on well-respected
literary works in determining which car they strike. NYC police
set up a book sting last month in which they planted six cars in
separate trouble spots with targeted books. Works by Derrida, Kafka,
Nietzche, and Robert Pirsig; the author of Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance were seized in the most violent
of ways including an almost feeding frenzy-like destruction of the
vechicle that housed the volumes. A car in which copies of Jemima
J by Jane Green and Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
(an Oprah book club selection) were stashed in were passed on by
quickly and without disturbance after the thieves briefly shone
a flashlight thru the window onto the seat.
Recently, in what is hoped to be an isolated incident as opposed
to an escalation in the trend, a man in Augusta, Maine was pulled
from his car by two men, beaten with a tire iron and kicked in the
head until presumed dead. When the thugs were apprehended 30 minutes
later the only thing they had in their possession was the victim's
copy of Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. The Augusta
Chronicle carried the headline: Throwing the Book at BookJacking
the following day while describing the atrocity.
Booksafety.com, a site started by recent victim Jeff Hanoi,
is dedicated to promoting safe literary transportation and awareness
tips. The site is due to launch in February.
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