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Most people can’t stand a thief. We work hard for our possessions and when others take them from us, we feel violated and cheated, as well we should.

We blame law enforcement officers when we find ourselves to be the victim of a crime. Why can’t they stop crime before it happens? Why haven’t they caught the thief?

Sometimes, though, it’s ourselves we should blame. Friday’s car break-ins in the neighborhoods near Duncan Park are a prime example of us making life easy for thieves.

A number of cars and trucks — at least six — were broken into. A thief or thieves rummaged through the vehicles and absconded with purses, money and at least several guns and other valuables.

It must make our police officers weary to have to keep asking us to lock our cars. Yet, in each car burglary reported to police on Friday, not one of them showed evidence of a forced entry. They had been left unlocked.

On Memorial Day, a number of downtown residents reported break-ins to their vehicles. Those residents, too, had left their cars unlocked. In a story about those break-ins in Wednesday’s paper, Natchez Police Chief Joseph Daughtry asked Natchez residents to lock their cars and to not leave valuables in their vehicles.

It seems that message fell on deaf ears.

We all love small town life and remember the days when we could leave our homes and cars unlocked. Those days are gone, even in our small town of Natchez. Give our police officers a break, please. Lock your car or truck. And please don’t leave valuables in it. If you don’t, and your car is burglarized, you have only yourself to blame.