Neighborhood Watch - OOPS

[Henry]

Yesterday I was sitting in my Lazy Boy and saw a car sound like it was starting up before zooming up the road.  I got up, look out my picture window and saw a black pick-up truck with a covered utility trailer backing into my neighbor's yard.  Nobody I had seen before and didn't think my neighbor was home at the time.  Linda had given me her phone number when Maryann died last July, in case I needed to get hold of her, so I picked up the phone and called her, thinking somebody was probably going to break in and load the trailer and take off.  When she picked up the phone, I asked her if she was home and she said yes, so I told her of my suspicions, but it was just some friends of hers from Florida driving in.

Oh Well, you never know and she thanked me for calling anyhow.

[cedarman]

Great story about how a community watch should work, even if everything was fine in this case.  I'm glad to hear you had her phone number and you could check with her personally before getting law enforcement involved.

Kudos to you Henry for being a good and observant neighbor.

[Stand Alone Defense]

Awesome!! If every Neighbor was like you Henry we wouldn't have all the problems with breakins in Fairfax.  I live in a good Neighborhood to we all keep an eye out for each other it's to bad it isn't that way all over Fairfax.  It really only takes one 10 minute meeting to set up a "watch" in your Neighborhood.  Everyone swaps contact info or have someone make a list with all the contacts on it and all the Neighbors gets a copy. From there you just keep an open line of communication, it's a good idea to have your neighbors number anyway you never know when you might need it.

[Thor]

When I used to do vulnerability assessments for the Dept of Homeland Security on critical infrastructure around the country, it began to morph into what DHS calls "Soft Target Awareness Training". With that, I gave these courses to multiple facilities, schools K-12, colleges & universities, sports stadiums and arenas, malls and shopping centers, places of worship, etc... The typical dilemma that was brought up was the limited manpower and money necessary to increase the security around these different sites. Being a relatively simple man, and one who lives by my own "reasonable man theory", I mentioned that if they did a "neighborhood watch" type effort, it would simplify things and be extremely cost effective. But the downside to Neighborhood Watch is if people are "afraid" to make the call. They don't want to be the one who sounds the alarm in what might be an unnecessary situation. But once you get people past that concern, you will have yourself a totally dialed in, situationally aware, public, who is looking out for each other. And that is exactly what we need, whether we are dealing with local crime or larger threats. As Josh said, if something looks suspicious, call it in, no one will be upset for checking something out that turns out to be okay. But I can guarantee that each of us would be upset with ourselves if we DIDN"T make the call and it winds up we should've. And the more we advertise that we, in Fairfax, are looking out for each other, the better chance the dirtbags will take their efforts elsewhere. Hence, we have "hardened the target" and sent the bad buys to look for another "soft target". And that is what it is all about. So great job Henry on making the call. Keep up the good work. And perhaps the Neighborhood Watch idea, will become infectious in Fairfax.

[Stand Alone Defense]

Hoorah Thor!!

Did you work for DHS directly? do you still?

[Mike Raburn]

I do neighborhood watch too, but don't tell my wife,,, if ya know what I mean........
Winter sorta drags it down. Heavy coats and all.

[rod anode]

yea but you still use your binocs

[Stand Alone Defense]

MIKE you are to much!!LOL