FYI--
Saturday, 11/17/01 sometime between 4:30P and 5:30P a young Hispanic boy stole a CD player, an amplifier and a cell phone out of my husband's car and his bike out of our garage. Unfortunately, we left the garage door open a short while. WE WERE HOME WHEN THIS HAPPENED--my 6yo daughter was in and out on her scooter during this time (thank heavens he was only a THIEF)! We live on Glenlivet towards the exit gate and no one saw the incident. About 5:30 I closed the garage door but didn't notice anything missing.
At 5:45 my husband left to run an errand and saw this boy on Highland by the side of the road (with a bike and a sack of ''stuff'') when he checked each way before turning left onto Highland. He had no idea it was HIS property this kid was next to.
There was another witness--when we informed a few neighbors, one said he saw the same boy riding the bike towards the back exit gate.
They may not keep out determined criminals, but having those gates closed 24/7 might help keep out the amateurs. Just a little late for us.

We also saw him. . .

My wife spotted him riding up and down Xavier Court and described him as Hispanic, age 18 to 25, with blue jeans and a dark blue/black jacket. He was carrying what she described as a white plastic grocery bag with a box in it the size of a typical software box. She described the bike as a BMX bike, not a street bike or mountain bike.

We too had left our garage open since we were afraid shutting it would wake up our son. My wife saw the guy paying lots of attention to our garage as he slowly rode by up the street. Suspicious, she watched him turn around and ride back by, still scoping out our garage. Fortunately for us, and him, he decided to pass us by.

Sorry to hear about your stuff and if it helps any, your loss has reminded Liz and I to be a little more careful.

-Layne

CrimeWatch

As the Crimewatch chairperson, I can not stress the importance of keeping your garage door closed when unattended and all vehicles outside locked with the garage door opener out of sight. The police have advised me there are people that drive neighborhoods daily looking for the opportunity to steal something of value from an open unattended garage. An unattended open garage invites these criminal elements into our neighborhood and sends a message that we are easy pickings. By leaving our doors up we encourage them to continue to return again and again looking for the easy targets. Please for your safety and the safety of all neighbors, please keep your doors down unless you are in there. I might add our Covenants and Restrictions section 7.6 Parking and Prohibited Vehicles states garage doors shall remain closed except during ingress and egress or when the garage is actively being used by the Owner of occupant. I am sorry to learn you experienced this expensive loss. These crimes take less than one minute to perpetrate but the effects last for a very long time. Lets all work together to send a message by keeping our doors down that we do not make it easy for the criminal to steal from us.

Front Gate Camera

A front gate camera has been discussed in the past.

It is reletatively inexpensive to install a video based or (ideally) a computer based system to record vehicle entries to our neighborhood.

Computer based systems can be configured to record only movement or if attached to the gates, record for x seconds after the gate opens and closes.

Regards Dwayne