New Iberia is like a lot of small towns across South Louisiana, and the United States. Neighborhoods have their ups and downs, but for the most part, most of them are safe places.

But what if something happens that makes you feel a little less safe than before in the place you should feel safest?

Last week, a neighbor had her wallet, small purse and portable CD player taken from her car outside her house. One of my children saw the shiny silver CD player in a nearby field. She had asked me why it was there, so when we investigated, I saw the small purse nearby.

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Not wanting to rummage through someone’s things, the sheriff’s office was called. When the deputy arrived, we pointed out where it was. He was able to quickly find out to whom they belonged and returned the items.

My neighbor said she had seen some “kids” in the neighborhood earlier. And while her husband was cleaning crab traps in the backyard, the hoodlums apparently slipped under the carport and went in the car. Thankfully, she was able to find her wallet when I showed her and her husband where the CD player and small purse were found. Her credit cards were left, as well as driver’s license, but our families now feel a little uneasy.

That feeling intensified when we noticed Sunday night that someone had gone under our carport and broken into a storage cabinet. Nothing that I can notice was taken; there are not a whole lot of things that are valuable stored there.

Last summer, my son’s new bicycle was stolen from our carport.

Since that time, we’ve heard from many people who have had bicycles stolen, from just about any kind of neighborhood. So, we thought that it was just a summertime thing.

However, we are hearing about more children-turned-thugs searching carports for opportunities, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Why is it that more things have to be kept under lock and key? What is it that makes young people disrespect others’ property so much that they believe that if it isn’t tied down, locked up or otherwise hidden, they have a right to it?

In the purest sense of Christianity, we could assume that anything we have is only borrowed. Our possessions are meaningless as we lay on our death beds. But there is that Eighth Commandment thing that says others’ possessions don’t belong to us.

We are fortunate that nothing of real value was taken, but if these children are getting bolder and going under carports whether or not someone’s at home, the threat of kiddy jail isn’t enough to deter their brazen acts.

So what will it take? Will it take a stronger commitment from society to build more juvenile jails and lock them away for longer periods of time? Will it take putting juvenile crimes out in the open so that delinquents can have their records made public just like adult criminal records?

Maybe they should consider juvenile torture. For example a 14-year-old caught stealing would be forced to watch “Barney” videos for eight hours a day. If they are younger, judges could sentence them to watch other programs geared to younger kids if “Barney” seems too age-appropriate.

I am all for keeping parents accountable, too. So in cases where parents refuse to correct their delinquent children, they would be forced to watch parenting shows by Fred Rogers.

Few people are naive enough to think that parenting is easy and that children will respond like robots to their commands. But if parents of these children became more involved with their children’s lives, they would be less likely to get into trouble.

This calls to mind a line from the 1989 movie “Parenthood” when a child’s goofy boyfriend puts parenting in perspective. Paraphrased, he says that even drivers need to be licensed, but anyone can become a parent.

It can be hoped that more parents will become active in their children’s lives in a postive way so that we can be more at peace in our homes.

JEFF ZERINGUE is managing editor of The Daily Iberian. He can be reached at iberianedit@bellsouth.net.