St. Petersburg’s latest burglary victim: the mayor

Oh shit, did I lock my front door?

The city’s rising tide of burglaries has claimed a new and prominent victim: Mayor Rick Baker. The mayor interrupted the burglars himself, according to St. Petersburg police, when he returned to his home on 25th Avenue N about 12:20 p.m. Thursday.

Nice. I bet being tough on crime is suddenly on that dude’s radar now that it is too late. Can we get a few more cops, please? As the story points out, property crimes rose 10 percent in the first half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2008. The ‘burg is turnin’ ghetto!

According to our boy Scott Wagman the ratio of police to peeps in Tampa is 3 police officers for every 1,000 citizens while St. Pete is rockin’ a low 2.14. With the national average being 2.54 we’re sort of sucking on this front.

There are a million critical issues for our next mayor, but there’s no question crime is going to be sitting damn close to the top.