OH, WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?

 Print This ·

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our E-mail Digest or RSS Feed. We will then send you the stories that are posted each day in an e-mail digest. We use a service called Feedburner for delivery of these emails. You will receive an e-mail from Feedburner after you subscribe and you must click on that email to activate your subscription. Thanks for visiting and enjoy all the information!

RV.Net Blog Admin

A local sheriff's deputy tells residents how they can help deter crime

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers

THIS IS PART 2 OF GETTING READY TO TRAVEL

All I said to my neighbors across the road from our cabin was, “We’re going to be on the road for almost a year.  I’d like to start a Neighborhood Watch for our street.”

It made sense, of course.  We’re in a rural setting where sheriff’s office is stretched very thin and as far as I know, there are no home security companies that do an adequate job.  So neighbor-watching-neighbor seemed like the answer.

The couple across the street thought it was a good idea … the husband then proceeded to fall off a ladder and has been staying closer to the physical therapy clinic 40 miles away.

But no big deal, right?  Get a few folks together, and let’s get it established.  The message that a Neighborhood Watch was starting up spread like a lightening bolt up and down the street and across the town.  While I was envisioning about 10 homes, we now have 92 residences qualified in the group area, with about 45 signed up so far.  That’s not bad considering that 75 percent are weekenders or who visit their cabins only once or twice a year.  It will grow.

It’s taken much more of my time than I had ever imagined, but here’s the good news.  Monique and I are leaving in a little over a month, so by then I’m confident I’ll find qualified hands in which to drop off my notebook.  I have already enlisted the help of a money-handler and a lady to make phone calls to those without email when necessary.

RVers AND NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

Are you in a Neighborhood Watch area?  While my long-time impression that it was mostly for show and didn’t seem to have “any teeth” be effective, I have changed my mind.  All we ask the neighbors to do is to be suspicious, alert, nosy and pro-active.  If anyone sees, let’s say, a black pickup truck backed up to a residence while the owner is away, he or she is asked to get all the information possible without confronting the suspicious people.  Then, using the list of phones numbers we have compiled and distributed, call the owner to see if there could be a problem.  If there is a reason to be concerned or if your travels have you in a no-cell-phone area, the next step is for the neighbor to call (in our case) the sheriff’s office or police department and report, saying, “I saw … “ and tell them what’s happening.

In an emergency, especially a crime against person, that’s when to call 9-1-1.  We ask our members to enter the non-emergency reporting number in their cell phones and keep it by their landline.

That’s what it’s all about.

Serendipity -- Neighbors got to know each other at the informal gathering

But there’s been a secondary, unexpected benefit.  Monique and I are new here and may already know as many people as the long-timers. “I’ve lived here 13 years and never knew another soul on the street before today!”  We’ve heard that over and over from neighbors.

And by the way, while my original idea was for 10 or so neighbors, the tsunami rolled down and up the street in veritable hours.  A day later, residents on three somewhat isolated side streets asked to be included and were accepted.  Then locals along highly used intersecting “Hill Street” (a fictitious name) asked to join and were turned down because they have a different traffic flow.  Then an ex-police officer a half-mile from our road asked to join – again, it doesn’t work that way, and he was politely asked to form a group on his street.

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH FOR RVers

It makes sense for your property deserted while you’re living in your residence-on-wheels, even with other forms of security (as we will have).  You get to know neighbors, gaining a personal relationship with them since you’re looking out for each other’s home when you’re gone or he is.

The cost for our group has been buying metal street signs online – I asked for a $15-$20 donation from neighbors – and getting a county/municipal permit to attach them to street-sign poles.  With our donations far exceeding expected financial needs, I’m ordering plastic yard signs for contributing residents to put up as they see fit – on a stick, a fence, a tree, etc.

Our newspaper reporter talks about a spike in crime

I’d like to add a comment I made at our most recent get-together.  I had invited to our meeting a neighbor who backs up to us on “Hill Street” and got his blood pressure up when I told the group, “With these signs in our yards, all the burglars will probably go over to Hill Street.”  He spent the next day rounding up his neighbors to get their watch group started.

Here are two websites I’ve used:  https://nextdoor.com/ an interesting website for Neighborhood Watch members to communicate, and  www.nnwi.org/ for signs and materials.

In Part 3, I’ll post what I’ll call the Repairs-Maintenance-Improvements process we’re going through in preparation for our months on the road, both in the RV and the cabin we will use as our base.

As always, I hope you’ll make any suggestions in the comments section related to today’s topic, Neighborhood Watch.

From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.

http://blog.rv.net/wp-content/icons/BarryZander64.jpg

© All photos by Barry Zander.   All rights reserved   [Faces are blurred on purpose]

Last 5 posts by Barry & Monique Zander

• A FIVE-PART BLOG
• RVING SWITCHBACKS – EAST, WEST, NORTH, SOUTH
• EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!
• D.C.
• IN THE SHADOWS OF SHENANDOAH