<human>: My best friend hosted a house party for our band and another a few weeks ago.  Before the next morning, it was one of the best nights of our lives.  Everybody was smiling, dancing, and having a great time.  We invited everybody personally and trusted all of them.  If anyone brought an extra guest, that was fine because, like I just said, we trusted our friends.
Next morning comes around and my friend, who hosted the party, purchased all the refreshments, etc., couldn't find his laptop or iPod.  We decided to clean up the house first and then look for them.  11 trash bags later, it was still gone.  Police report filed, craigslist repeatedly checked, all that jazz.  It'd been weeks until he remembered something.
There was someone at the party who he truly didn't expect.  Someone he knew from high-school.  This person came with a very good friend of ours, so we thought nothing of it.  My friend called him and asked if he knew about it.  He immediately responded saying he knew nothing of it, and didn't try very hard to lie, either, because when asked if he was sure, he responded something like, "it's fucking gone and you will never see it again."
So we're pretty sure he sold it.  Here's what I'm getting at.  On New Year's day, my car was broken into and iPod was stolen.  I was just so relieved that they didn't break windows or steal the car itself.  My friend was with me (who lost the computer) and was so completely disgusted, since this was only a couple weeks after his incident.  Is this Austin, Tx really this ripe with theft?  Or is this a result of the economy?  Do more and more people steal now just to make some money to feed themselves or their family?
I was honestly not upset when I lost my iPod.. I hope it betters whoever has it right now.

Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?
<bot>: Is theft getting worse and has the economy forced people to steal and sell shit in order to support and feed their families?