The lock was gnarled.

Janis Evans noticed the damage right away as she prepared to leave her Sunset Hills home for work that morning. It certainly ruined her day.

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Sometime that night a burglar had pried the inset lock on her garage and then somehow removed it — she never even found the lock. Luckily, not much was taken except a 100-foot extension cord, which she noticed was gone a week later when she got out her hedge clippers and needed that cord. The burglar left behind much more expensive equipment.

The Victim: Janis evans

The Crime: Criminal mischief/burglary

Date: Sunday, April 14

Time: Between 4 p.m. and 8:50 a.m.

Location: 400 block of Waverly

“It was very irritating,” she says of the incident. “I couldn’t go to work because I had my lawnmower and other things in there and I didn’t want them to get stolen. I’m so glad all they took was the extension cord.”

Dallas Police Maj. Edwin Ruiz-Diaz of the Southwest Patrol Division says a great number of burglaries and thefts are crimes of opportunity and that if a thief sees property in plain view inside a parked car or through an open window or garage door, he will seize the opportunity. In some cases it can take only a few minutes for someone to recognize the chance to steal something, act and get away with it.

“A good rule of thumb to use when dealing with theft and burglary offenses is ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ ” he says. “If a thief cannot see your property, then they will move on to another potential target. It is always best to keep property hidden from view to minimize the possibility of being the victim of an opportunistic thief.”

Ruiz-Diaz says to keep your home as secure as possible by ensuring all windows and doors are locked.

Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer and author of “Raising the Stakes”, obtainable at raisingthestakesbook.com. If you have been a recent crime victim, email crime@advocatemag.com.

Xanax pills were stolen in the April 15 burglary of a pharmacy on South Hampton 118

Valium pills were stolen in the same crime, in which the burglars used a pry bar to open the pharmacy’s front door and a sledge hammer to smash an interior door 100 milliliters of Promethazine were taken in the same burglary, which caused about $3,000 in damage to the pharmacy

Source Dallas Police Department