If you press the panic button, the police will come to your house in about 20 seconds. 20 seconds is too long to catch the cigarettes.
even 10 seconds is too long. they do their thing and immediately run away.
there are 4 ways that they can go to hide.
1) run to the right - they can then run up, down, or keep going (no way to catch them at this point, 4 way intersection)
2) run to the left - either go up into a church parking lot and out the back, or behind the church (cannot catch them at this point either, too many places to hide)
3) run to the left - bolt it down the street (they are long gone by the time I get outside)
4) run to the left - there is an elementary school next to my house with a HUGE field. they go in it and they can hide anywhere or run away. impossible to catch them.
I've never seen them run to the right. but usually they will either run to the school field, or behind the church. at that point, they're gone .. there just isn't enough open space to catch them. and a car can't drive through a fence into a schoolyard..