EVER had your car broken into? Do you know that empty, angry feeling when getting to your car in the morning to discover some mongrel has been inside it.

Here’s a massive generalisation, but thieves tend to smell bad, and you can often still smell them in the car. Bloody mongrels.

I’ve had my car broken into four or five times over the years. The worst was in Coffs Harbour. I can remember the horror of getting to my car on a Saturday morning to find three windows smashed.

Nothing was stolen and I have never understood why. How could the cost of replacing the windows possibly equal the joy that had come from smashing them late on a Friday night. What is wrong with these people?

ACT Police have apprehended a couple of alleged offenders in the suburbs in the last few weeks, which drew a collective round of applause from the city.

The people who commit these crimes have no idea how much effect their actions have. We’ve talked a lot about this on my radio program of late. I was flooded with calls, SMS’s and emails from people who had been victims of robberies.

Many listeners were frustrated at what they believe is an inadequate justice system that fails to deter thieves of this nature.

Rachael’s car was broken into last month while parked at home.

“It was frightening,” she said. “My car is parked near my daughter’s window and I hate the thought that they were right outside.”

Stuart told me he was “gutted” after his car was broken into.

“It’s the feeling of my space being violated,” he said. “It’s got not much to do with the damage they did or the stuff they stole.”

Penny has had her car broken into, but much worse than that she was at the centre of an armed robbery. She was held up with a knife at her shop. The perpetrator was sent to jail for two years and seven months. He’s out and Penny finds herself panicking internally when people who fit a certain stereotype are in the shop.

As Penny put it, her sentence is longer than the robber’s.