While We Were Sleeping

Since summer began, we have had seven car thefts on two separate Sunday nights. Five on June 24th and two on July 29th.  We have had numerous bicycle thefts, lawn furniture, decorations, and children's toys stolen right off our front lawns while we were all sleeping.  Most of the thefts had taken place between the hours of 12:30 am and 2am.

The most recent thing that happened while we were sleeping took place on Aug. 1st, of course between the hours of 12:30 am and 2am, we had an unidentified man pull up and get out of a Ford F250 red pick up with no plates and start looking into our houses through windows and doors with small windows.  This was just two days after the last car theft incident.  

I am tired of hearing excuses from the police deptartment on why this is happening.  Tired of hearing that they are covering and answering every call and that we are not the only block this is happening on. 

It's very sad that after all that has happened in the past 5 weeks to my block, that the police didn't have enough sense to put extra patrol on my block.  I had to ask for that.  Maybe if they would have given it to me after the car thefts on Sunday Night, I would not have had a Peeping Tom in my window the very next night. 

My neighbors and I called to inquire about the Neighborhood Watch program.  We have two signs on our block, so we wanted to know what it was and how we sign up to participate in such a program.  We were informed that there is no such program, and the signs ARE the Neighborhood Watch Program.  Ha. 

The police do not have any answers for us, no programs for us to be educated in a neighborhood watch program, not a sign to be found for our windows to say "We call Police", they have nothing for us while we sleep.

I am tired, my neighbors are tired.  We are up all night.  We are chasing down peeping toms and car theives, we are protecting our kids while they sleep, we are looking out for each other instead of the police.

The police were called on the peeping tom but yet he had a conversation with my neighbor in his driveway and eventually left the scene and the police never came down the block, at least they didn't show up within 15 minutes of the call made to them.  They say they didn't come to our block because the truck was spotted elsewhere, and when the neighbor caught the kids who robbed the 5 cars, the police didn't believe the 17 year old kids committed the crime until they found the stolen property in the back of their car, not to mention that they were out way past cerfew.

Now, they failed to mention, that the police gave away the personal property that belonged to people on our block, to an unidentifed woman who asked for it.  They didn't ask to see her identification and they never bothered to take down her name. 

Police will not give us a court date for the theives because they are minors and the most that will happen is a slap on the wrist and their identity is protected.  Well, I am glad to see they are protected and I am not.  Why are they being treated as minors?  I know they knew stealing is wrong, it's not like they didn't know what they were doing.  Minors who don't know that they are breaking the law, they get a break, not car theives. 

While we were sleeping our cars, houses, and yards are being robbed.  We now choose to fight back with or without the help of the police.