The law of unintended consequences

Over the past few weeks there has been a spate of car break-ins and thefts in my area. I always check that I haven’t left anything worth stealing in my car, except last night, in a rush to get home, I left my jacket on the back seat and my debit card in my jacket pocket. This morning I found my car window smashed and my jacket gone. When you break procedure things go wrong.

But there is a bigger picture here than just the inconvenience of having to get a new bank card and the cost of having to replace the window. The thief used my card in two local shops early this morning so now the police have the exact time and location of the thief, and hopefully will get some CCTV footage that will allow them to identify him. So, if I hadn’t left my card in my jacket pocket the thief would have carried on breaking into cars and getting away with stealing sat navs and the like, but now maybe the police will have a chance of catching him. Smith’s invisible hand reaches out again.