I do want to comment on your "Randolph Losers" article. I serve on the Fairlee Selectboard and hear of things that happen quickly.

There might be some normalcy in this and I am disturbed to have friends who have experienced the results of a series of break-ins in Fairlee. I am unable to find out the bigger picture or on how large a scale [these are] from the Vermont State Police or the Orange County Sheriff. VSP or OC Sheriff data this is happening. But I want to give you a sense of the break-ins, both private and commercial in nature.

An abandoned building in Town, a Gas storage plant, had all the copper infrastructure in the building removed. Whoever was involved thought it through, had a fair amount of time, tools and transportation to undertake this action. That was one of four in Fairlee. Another took advantage of a death and began selling tractors and other goods from the deceased person's barn. Thankfully, the Vermont State Police found out about it and pulled up to the scene, preventing an uninformed buyer from loading a stolen tractor onto his trailer!

So my point is that we as both a municipality and the State on a larger scale have to deal with the current situation and what it means to parts of our society that have had their lives turned upside down and are economically exposed, with little to do to remedy it since our government is not—at this point—one of the solutions. I am not sanctioning this behavior but trying to understand it.

We all grew up with the adage, "Crime doesn't Pay." Unfortunately, I'm sure if we begin to look at data both regionally and nationally, we'll see an increase in the number of folks who are testing that adage. It is disturbing to hear the steps that some will take to survive. I believe it is a larger problem that needs to be addressed in our region.

Just my thoughts, as in a lot of situations these days we are seeing people being forced to adapt. My hope is we see an equal and opposite reaction from our community through public safety or more individually, more vigilance through technology.

Respectfully,

Peter Berger

In response to:

"Car Wash Closed. Robbed 3X. Thanks Losers." That's the sign outside South End Auto in Randolph this week, after a vandal or vandals destroyed the coin-operated machines in its self-operated car-wash bays. "The minimal amount of quarters that have been stolen have caused thousands of dollars in damage to our machines and car wash," the business wrote on its FB page.