Everybody seems to believe bad things happen to other people, especially to those in California. Your own administration, and even you, may succumb to this very common perception , but it's dangerous. We must all realize that bad things can happen to us, especially in our property management, unless we plan ahead and remain vigilant. Do these hit close to your home?

Colorado
***** County Sheriff for nine years was named last week in a federal indictment on two felony counts of theft and embezzlement and a misdemeanor count of official misconduct, accused of stealing 14 guns that were confiscated by his office over 20 years. His undersheriff faces the same charges.

Florida
A 10-year ***** police dispatcher, in charge of evidence for two years and one of two people with keys to the police evidence locker, was charged with grand theft for allegedly taking $13,000 in cash from evidence.

Illinois
Allegations against the Police Department include that the chief protected drug dealing at a bar owned by a sergeant, officers tampered with confiscated drug money, officers ran an illegal security service from the police station for nearly 15 years, and that an officer lied about having witnesses to his destroying evidence from at least 20 drug cases.

Indiana
A town marshal was convicted of obstruction of justice because in his previous job as an evidence technician with the State Police he stuffed paper into evidence envelopes that were missing cash. $6,700 was missing, but there was insufficient evidence for a theft charge.

Kansas
The ***** Police Department is missing $6,500, and it appears that evidence in about 20 other cases was destroyed by mistake. The Chief says the items were inadvertently labeled for destruction due to an employee failing to follow proper protocol on the computer.

Kentucky
A fired police officer who served on a six county drug task force was charged with 52 counts of theft, tampering with evidence and removing over 6 pounds of cocaine from 18 pending federal and state drug cases from the department's evidence room.

Louisiana
Trusty inmates at a Parish jail broke a lock on a temporary evidence room and removed about a dozen guns and a small amount of marijuana and crack cocaine. The guns were recovered, but 19 inmates ingested the cocaine and marijuana.

Minnesota
The former director of the ***** Drug Task Force pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars of confiscated drug money, and was sentenced to prison. Investigators later learned between 12 and 15 guns also were missing from the evidence lockers of the regional task force.

Utah
Three police officers are accused of stealing property from the department evidence room. Two of the department's seven officers have resigned and another is on administrative leave .