“Martha? I’m stepping out on the
balcony for a smoke. Hey, Martha, come here! What the hell is that
man doing at that window? You see right there?
He’s busting in the window? Martha, go call the police! Hey, he’s
crawling in flat….must be planning to steal…oh, my god, Martha! Tell
the police he’s carrying out a child! I’m running downstairs! Maybe
I can stop him!”
(The above is an
imagined scenario for those who are pretended to not understand
this...clearly I am just trying to make a point).
Yes,
you are looking at Apartment 5A, the very apartment the McCanns were
renting on May 3rd, 2007. The time is 10 pm on February 12, 2012.
The photo was taken from the third floor of the building across the
street. There was some shrubbery along the left wall of the parking
lot that has been removed but the view of the McCanns door and
window would not have been obscured
(I must add since I have been rightly
corrected and I have double checked the photos at that time, there
are trees also lining the back side on the street, it is difficult
to say today if one is high up looking down from one balcony or the
other, who can see the window).
My purpose of this photo was to show that the window and door of 5A
was not a location that was as hidden from view as one might think.
Predators who crawl in and out windows tend to choose windows that
look out on dark empty spaces or are nowhere near other buildings.
For example, a predator might break in on the back side of an
apartment building that has no lights and nothing but a deserted lot
behind. A predator might crawl in the back window of an isolated
house. But the 5A window was on a corner with traffic going by, on a
parking lot which people are driving in and out of, under other
apartment windows, across from other apartments and next to other
apartments. Partially obscured from some angles, the predator knows
the window is not obscured at other angles. He may not know exactly
who can see him and who can't. For example, there is a break in the
trees where the drive comes into the parking lot and through which
the window can be seen. Just knowning that there is an apartment
building looming over one's crime area for people to look down on
you
(either breaking in or out or leaving the area
with a child)
would be unnerving. Any predator would be smarter going in the back
door which is far easier to slip in and out of and not be seen.
The
lights on the buildings and in the streets turn the building into a
veritable fishbowl
(some claim massive lighting improvement since
that day but I have heard that it has not changed much).
What idiot would think breaking in the window at Apartment 5A or
carrying a child out of that window or even the door next to it
would be a terribly bright idea? One thing kidnappers know is there
are enough human fish in the sea that one doesn’t have to abduct
someone under such risky conditions.
There
are those who note the style of lamps in town have changed (from
globe-shaped to the more boxy style now seen) and there are a
couple of added lights to the McCann building. True, but this does
not mean that the location was dark and dismal and a predator would
be able to skulk around unseen. From my third floor apartment, I can
clearly see the windows in the building on the other side of the
road from the McCanns and it has no added lights at all. It is not
clear that the change of street lamp has significantly increased
lighting
(some say it has and some say it hasn't - I
haven't found statistics on this)
but, suffice it to say, if it was good enough light for Jane Tanner
to see a man carrying a little child off at a distance and be able
to describe his clothes and hers, then it is possible for many
others to see this man as well. He would know this and choosing so
public a location to abduct a child would be unusual. Finally, it
was a full moon night, so the lighting may have been even better
than normal (though not necessarily that early, but a
predator may not be thinking of that because the night before
moonrise was earlier and we don't even know if he might have not
gotten an opportunity - if he did - until two hours later.
