Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Back Yard Intruders 1 PM

A reader writes....

"I just wanted to alert my neighbors to an incident that happened [Tuesday] afternoon at 1 PM. My neighbors were on their back deck when they witnessed someone climb over their rear 10 ft gate and open the door to let 2 other accomplices into the back yard. My neighbors whistled at them before they were barely 10 feet into the yard and they took off running out the gate and heading northbound. Fortunately, nothing was taken and there was no harm done. Unfortunately, it has shaken us all up and we will be more safety minded about first floor windows and doors.

My neighbors were well intentioned and alerted the entire building. We discussed the issue and decided that the best thing we should have done was call 911 immediately and then send out a message to neighbors. We did call the police and had an immediate response but it was a full thirty minutes after the fact. Our bad!"

Be careful out there... we've been getting a lot of reports of burglaries and attempted burglaries.  If you see a break-in, don't attempt to drive them off yourself.  If you call 911, the police can not only stop the burglary, they can arrest the perps and keep them from breaking into future victims' homes.

15 comments:

  1. Wow. Location, please? No need to provide a specific address, of course... just the general part of the world. Thanks.

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  2. East or West of the Mississippi ???

    Seriously who is this possibly helping.

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  3. The Silver Lining (hopefully) is that Uptown is becoming one of the most vigilant, aware communities in the city.

    Call 911, sign complaints, and come out to the Alderman forums and debates and communicate to ALL the candidates that safety and security and a higher quality of life are key issues here.

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  4. At least give us the block this happened on.

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  5. It came up at the Beat 2312 CAPS meeting last night and happened in Truman Square. Regardless of where this particular break-in happened... bad people can travel, y'know? Don't think your building is safe because you live a few blocks away.

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  6. I live in a pretty protected condo but for some of my Uptown friends that own homes they are always concerned. Does anyone know the max. height a fence can be on your property. Is barbed wire strung across the top or broken glass chips inserted at the top fences used as a protective measure allowed. Some of the western states I seen it used and it works great to help stop fence climbing.

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  7. Never good when you can't feel safe in your own backyard...

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  8. Well,
    its a wake up call.
    Atleast nothing bad happened
    and you can work to make your yard secure.

    I am paranoid anyways baseline
    and do what I can to keep my yard in RP secure.

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  9. @wiseguy: the trade-off with a huge fence is that nobody can see in. Thus, once someone is in, they have free rein.

    Know your neighbors, look out for each other, call the police, keep doors and windows locked, use an alarm system if you have one. All together these probably are more effective than a tall fence with razor wire, and probably don't make you feel as much like you are in prison.

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  10. You whistled at them, and then called a meeting and figured out 30 minutes later that you should have called the police? WHISTLED at them?? I'm glad you're interested in keeping your neighborhood safe, but it seems like common sense to me... take a picture with a flash of the intruders, and CALL the POLICE!! Don't whistle at them! Sheesh...

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  11. Not necessarily true, David. You can get large, iron fences that allow people to see into the yard. The bottom line is if someone wants to hop your fence, they will be able to hop your fence. The trick is getting them to reconsider hopping your particular fence.

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  12. We had the same thing happen to our yard a few weeks ago -- 4400 block of Malden -- guy hopped our fence to enter what seemed a secure backyard. We chased him out and he fled, leaping over the high fencing with ease. Cops told us he was likely looking to stash either weapons or illegal substances -- that way if they or their homes are searched, there's nothing found. So be alert.

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  13. Wiseguy-it use to be a fence could only be 6ft. high unless city changed that.I think the wire and glass are not in code.Its understandable why so many have dogs.The best alarms lol.Our faithful little friends.Fences with pointed tips on top help but does not stop them ,just slows them from entering down.

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