August 7, 2006 – The copper pipes under Brit Karen’s house were stolen in broad daylight and most likely sold at a scrap metal place for $3/lb.  Around the city, homeowners in the process of rebuilding find that their fresh drywall has been busted open and pipes wrenched out of the wall.  Jack and Katie’s home in the Marigny was burglarized twice in the last month (Katie quips that there’s nothing left to steal).  Their neighbor, also broken into twice, has left the parish.  Jack sadly states that it is not gangland murders or a shooting here and there that will force them out of town; it’s continual break-ins, rising utility and insurance prices and the lack of affordable housing.  At this rate, New Orleans will end up the city of the very rich and the very poor, while the in-betweens seek more reasonable pastures.