No Fuses Inside

There was an article in the Village Voice — or maybe it was Interview — many years ago by someone who had their car broken into repeatedly. At some point the car stereo was stolen, and the author put a sign in the dashboard window that read: “No radio.” When the car was broken into subsequently, tape cassettes were taken from the glove compartment. The author replaced the sign to, if memory serves, read: “No Kerouac, no Coltrane.”

There are electronics in plain sight all around the city, little bits of elemental public-utility infrastructure that accrue value, or at least perceived value. At some point, something becomes valuable enough that aspiring thieves apparently need to be informed what isn’t inside these municipal lock boxes.