Friday, March 18, 2011

Proactivity! A Neighbor's Tale

Gladys Kravitz
would be proud!
A reader writes:  "Just got finished talking to the cops. It's a beautiful day so I have the back door to my apartment open and have my normal clear view of my alley.

Half hour ago or so, I saw a white heavyset bearded guy (been around the neighborhood for as long as I've lived here) and his girlfriend with a baby stroller walking through my alley behind Wilson and Sheridan behind the church. The guy was on the phone and crouched down next to the opening of the gate where there's some brush. After a few seconds, he walked away, still on the phone, looking around him with his girlfriend.

After it was long enough for him to clear the alley, I went out and took a piece of pipe to search through the brush (not wanting to accidentally poke myself with anything left). There I found a bag with 10 or so smaller sealed bags of pot. Taking it inside, I called the cops.  So they came, I brought them inside and described the incident, gave them the pot, and they met my dog.

What this teaches us? Clean up brush in your alley. Even if it's not YOUR brush, you're taking away one more place a dealer can hide a drop. Also, keeping an eye out and remembering faces in the neighborhood. I had seen this guy on and off for more than 3 years from outside the gym next to Jewel, walking my dog and casually gazing outside my back door. And it came in handy today.

Please treat this as a positive story of personal vigilance. There's so much negativity and helplessness with all the gang shootings, etc. We want people to stay in Uptown and work to make it better in every small way they can. This was my way of doing that today."

We heard back from the reader later, as the couple came back to look for their drug stash.  The man had long curly brown hair that was drawn back into a ponytail and the woman had brown hair in a ponytail with the back half of the ponytail dyed bright red.  They had a green baby stroller with them.  Further calls were made to the police, and hopefully a drug drop location was interrupted.

4 comments:

  1. Well done. Please confirm that there was not a baby actually in the baby stroller. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. OK, you got me with Gladys Kravitz, one of my childhood 'TV Idols'

    Can you imagine how better off we'd be if there was a 'Gladys' on every block!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Agree with Red. They probably could have lifted prints off the bag and caught the guy in the act upon his return...

    ReplyDelete
  4. ::rolling eyes::

    In response to the Critical Cathys...Told to me by the person involved:

    "The cops didn't take my name.
    They talked about their next move being throwing the pot into a sewer grate or giving it to the other cop whose job seems to be getting rid of the stuff. I took the stuff so they couldn't come back and get it and then I'd have nothing to show the cops. I didn't know what to do about it and just acted because I don't want that kind of crap in my backyard or alleyway. Thank for the friggin' support."

    ReplyDelete