Tuesday, September 17, 2013

We Aren't in Mayberry Anymore. A Cautionary Tale

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Today started out like any other day.  I took Izzie to the park for a walk.  We swung around to the vacant tennis courts and hit the jackpot--3 abandoned tennis balls!  Izzie chased them until she surrendered, stretched out as a bear-rug-panting-lump on the court.  Time to head home.

I decided to stop by my neighbor's house and leave our bounty of balls in her mailbox.  Virginia's dog, Waldo, lives for tennis balls.  When I pulled into the driveway, Jim, (V's husband) was outside on his phone pacing back and forth.  He gave me the #1 index finger salute. You know, the universal sign of mothers? The finger that says, "I see you.  I'll be with you in a minute. Please wait but don't bother me just now."  I decide to play with the dogs.

As I threw a ball, I overheard Jim say, "...an intruder in our house...". Holy Moly! He was on a 911 call! Seems Jim made a random stop by home.  As he entered, he heard the screen door slam. The intruder ran out the back door and vanished like smoke in the wind.

No one was hurt.  Nothing was taken. I only write this as an alert. Monitor your neighborhood and lock your doors.  As the sheriff told me, "you think you are safe because this is a nice neighborhood--but you are not."

I am the Community Watch block captain for my end of the neighborhood (stop laughing!).  Every neighbor I contacted with the news said, "well you know, we don't lock our doors".  Times they are a changing 'round here....

We aren't in Mayberry anymore.
Bing



9 comments:

  1. Times have been changing for a long time, my friend. In the 80's, my neighbour's son broke into our home and stole some unmentionables from our bedroom. In the 90's, someone broke into the garage and took the phone from my car. Just last week, there was an alert put out that someone was breaking into cars and garages along our street (unheard of in our tiny town). And now, we lock our doors to the house, the garage and the cars. Such a shame it's come to this.

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    1. I am naive Heather! Here I am in the capitol city of NC where of course there is crime. Our small neighborhood is my refuge. My neighbors are caring, generous, always-there-for-you kind of folks. We are all locking up!

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  2. wow so scary! I was just thinking last night after waking up from a horrible dream that my crazy cousin took a butcher knife to me...that I really take my safety for granted in our little town. We rarely have crime and are on the way to nowhere...but the perfect place to get away with all kinds of bad stuff because no one would ever suspect

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    1. Now Gina that is a pretty frightening dream. You better slept with one eye open :). Kidding. I hope your small town can stay crime free. I imagine you have great security installed your beautiful home.

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  3. Scary! I'm glad no one was hurt! Linda, we always lock our doors and set the alarm when we leave. And we have 2 dogs!! Guess living in DC has its pros and cons.
    xo
    Loi

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  4. That is really scary!! So glad you're okay. Love your blog, by the way.

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  5. This very thing happened to my parents about 15 years ago. They live in a very nice area but they have been burglarized twice!!

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