>
>
>> The world is full of people who cheat.
>
> there's a woman who runs a vegetable and garden furniture stand on
> dfi;  although she locks up her vegtables at night, she cannot secure
> the garden stuff

The guy with the bungalow nextdoor to the one that we rent for an office
space in downtown Mastic Beach sells sports clothes and other odd stuff.
He does not have gates on his windows or doors. He has been broken into
twice over the last two months and his most expensive items stolen. He
has become a target for the local gangs. He has taken to parking in his
car at night across the street from his shop, and ours. Last night --
best I can tell from what he was telling me when I ran in then ran out
-- there was a face off where he was parked in his truck and the 'gang'
was parked in their truck, supposedly waiting for him to give up or fall
asleep, so that they could move in and take his goods. He complains to
the police and they tell him they can do nothing unless the perps are
caught entering or leaving. The fellow is not making any money... we
live in a mixed area between working class and depressed marginal. He
sells most on the weekend after the welfare and social security checks
come out. I suppose I can tell him that he should be happy. He is always
smiling when I see him. I like the guy... he and his daughters think I
am a carpenter or something.  He is a good neighbor and I worry about
his business.

Our bungalow has gates on all openings, roll down shutters on the
windows, no signs, no lights, no markings and the front lot full of
weeds. We look vacant and abandoned.

The bungalows are historic. They were formerly troop dwellings at Camp
Upton. After the camp was decommissioned (Brookhaven Labs is on the site
now) the small buildings were put up for sale. Several people bought
them up and put them on trailers and moved them to both north and south
of the main street and thus they created downtown Mastic Beach. The
newer buildings came along later to fill in the growing needs of the
burgeoning metropolis. At each end of downtown we have a traffic light,
a deli, an empty lot and a gas station.

][<en

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