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.
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FWIW, recall reading somewhere (in a printed book) re NYC and sound system parties on the streets of the Bronx circa late 1970s, copping the AC juice required from wiring into hollow street light poles through the removed access plates at the base of the newer lamp poles. Sounds related.