It has been said that the wise man should be treated with respect, and who among us is wiser than the elderly?

The name Charles Keating kept drifting in and out of my mind last week as I was working on the story concerning numerous burglaries that have been occurring in Cape Girardeau since the beginning of summer.

Burglaries of any sort are obviously offensive and detrimental by their very nature. Fortunately, most involve a person breaking into a home whose inhabitants are not there. The burglar gets in, finds whatever he can fit in his pockets or an awaiting get-away truck, and leaves.

No one is home to threaten and no one gets hurt in these most-common types of burglaries. It's unfortunate that possessions are lost, but possessions can be replaced. Insurance, while invaluable, can't restore Daddy, Mommy or little Bobby.

These burglars are unusual in that people are home while they are being committed. This particular crook has managed to make his burglaries even more repugnant by preying on our community's older citizens.

He prowls around houses looking for one that is occupied by older folks. He waits until they go to sleep and breaks into their homes in the dead of night, when even the strongest of us are most vulnerable.

People as old as 87 report waking to find a large man wearing a ski mask standing at the foot of their beds. Using his obviously immeasurable powers of persuasion and a very sharp knife, the burglar convinces them to give him their money.

He has threatened to kill his victims and their loved ones if they don't cooperate. He isn't bluffing: In one instance, when an elderly gentleman tried to resist, the burglar cut the man's hand.

On two occasions, the burglar has cut phone lines so his victims cannot call police for help. He must realize that police tend not to be as fearful of men in ski masks wielding knives as your average 90-year-old.

Police say they have some leads, but no arrests have been made. My bosses here at the Southeast Missourian are trying to help catch this creep by offering a $500 reward.

While working on the story, the crimes reminded me of the aforementioned Charles Keating, the man behind the S&L catastrophe. For those who don't recall, Keating is the con artist who was convicted in 1991 of securities fraud. As the chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association in California, Keating persuaded over 17,000 investors to buy nearly $250 million in bonds that were not insured.

The link between the burglar and Mr. Keating is obvious. Most of the people who fell victim to Keating's line of bull were, yep, you guessed it, senior citizens. Many of those who invested, believing that there was insurance, lost their life savings.

There are differences between the burglar and Mr. Keating. They are of different races and both came from different economic backgrounds. Keating's crimes were white collar and our burglar's are not. But it is their sick similarities that we should examine and judge them by.

The most obvious likeness is that both men are predators. When tigers prey on weaker animals, it is for survival. That is called survival of the fittest.

These men are after self-gratification in the form of money. It is called cowardice and an abomination.

Like all human-type predators, men such as these get what they want at someone else's expense, and this time it's costing our mothers and fathers, our grandfathers and grandmothers. Our village elders.

And if these people are affected, so are the rest of us.

The less obvious similarity is that both men exhibit a fundamental lack of respect. As children, one of the first things we are taught is to respect our elders.

Remember when you were a kid and you'd laugh at an old person who was scratching himself in a less-than-conspicuous place and your pop would smack you on the back of the head?

"Respect your elders," he'd say dutifully. Maybe these two men didn't get that, I don't know.

Keating was eventually exposed and sent to prison. I am confident the same will happen to our burglar where maybe he will learn something about respect.

If not in regard to his elders, then maybe to his new boyfriend.

~Scott Moyers is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.