Marlborough Mesa

The following message was sent out today to all residents who have given me their email address:
____________

We hear about the various car/truck thefts, but we never seem to think it will happen to US.

Brandi and David Folio on Pampa had their truck and trailer stolen right out of their driveway over this past weekend -- and it was locked up tight! The trailer was found unhitched in South Phoenix, but the truck has not been seen. It happened between the hours of 1-6:00 am.

Another message came today from Jeanie Burton in the 900 block of Obispo: ''A thief has hit again. Tuesday, May 15th sometime, we don't know the time for sure. They stole Beverly Pollock's truck. She is a single lady that lives across the street from us. We thought that maybe you could send out something in the emails and see if any of our neighbors saw anything. If you have any questions you can call Debbie Albach at 730-6621 or myself at 345-9978.''

How many of these thefts have happened just during the last 3 months that no one has posted or let others know about? Perhaps we can put our heads together and come up with an idea or two to stop this before it gets completely out of hand. If you have ANY suggestions - please let us know.

David and Brandi are making up a flyer to be passed out among all neighbors, as many do not have email addresses. He will be making it up today or tomorrow. We need volunteers on every street to get the word out to your street. All of the neighbors who bring the newsletter to your door do it on a monthly basis and we cannot expect any of them to handle the ''extras''. So - please volunteer one time for your street.

Also, Naomi Mills (Posada) njm380@juno.com keeps track of all of our crime stats in Marlborough from the Police Dept. You can check out her page under the POLICE & SAFETY heading ... look for the Crime Report Page. Naomi is now beginning to pull information that is reported from the Talk About It section (or any other place she hears about) and ''collecting'' it in the crime area.

Thieves have found our little neighborhood to be an ''easy target'' - let's fight back NOW before we have to ''take back our entire neighborhood'' later. Many neighborhoods have fallen prey to that very thing and ''taking back'' your neighborhood is MUCH more difficult than fighting the battle one-thing-at-a-time.

Update from Police Department

Since May 1 there have been 3 reported stolen vehicles in your grid area.

5/2 08:12am 2855 S Alma School
5/14 07:10am 1014 W Pampa
5/14 12:34pm 943 W Obispo

For extra patrol you can call dispatch at 644-2211, explain the situation to
them and ask to have extra patrol in the area. They will then fill out a form
and the info will be sent through the computers in the patrol cars as well as to the district substation.

Depending on where the vehicles were when they were taken there are several
questions:

If in a garage was the garage door open or was it closed? If in the driveway
was the vehicle unlocked? Were any of the vehicles using an alarm or club
device? Did any of the homes have motion sensor lighting? Some issues to look at.

I will also pass your email on to Holly who is the Neighborhood Watch
Coordinator for your area. Her number is 644-2033. You may want to have her
come out and do a presentation on this subject as well.

For preventative info, all our brochures are on the website at:
www.ci.mesa.az.us/police/litrture.htm

Ones specific to auto theft are below.
I would strongly suggest that people get involved/register with the Watch Your Car program. There is a form that needs to be filled out and sent in to the Arizona Automobile Theft Authority. They will then send stickers out to place on your vehicle/s. That basically gives law enforcement permission to stop your
vehicle if it is out between the hours of 1am and 5am (when most vehicles are
stolen) without having probable cause. They will then verify that the driver is
the registered owner of the vehicle. We have the forms and brochures here if you
need copies. If you need copies of any of the info found on the Literature
Available page, let me know.

Vehicle Security (www.ci.mesa.az.us/police/vehsec.htm)

Vehicle Security Devices (www.ci.mesa.az.us/police/vehsecdv.htm)

Watch Your Car program (www.ci.mesa.az.us/police/watchyourcar.htm)
What is Suspicious (www.ci.mesa.az.us/police/whatsusp.htm)

If you want anything faxed to you, we can do that also.



By Karen Hubbard

Black SUV Casing Neighborhood

Thought you all might be interested in this tidbit I got from talking to my neighbor across the street on Portobello, John Kerpin.

He was getting ready to take his family to San Diego last week in a large van he rented for a week. The van was parked in his driveway and he was loading it up around 2:00 am. I'm not positive of the day, probably Friday/Saturday. He heard traffic noise which he thought unusual so he went out to see. He saw a black SUV driving down our street with no lights on. It was in fact casing the neighborhood. When John walked out his floodlights went on, and the car sped up but never turned their lights on. Due to the lighting John couldn't see the driver or see if there were any passengers. I found this very disturbing. I'll pass on anything else I hear.


By Robin Gipper

Businesses Affected Also

We have had a rash of break-ins at our business complex in the past couple of years. We have called the police in and asked for help repeatedly. We have talked to them more than once.

We discovered after many discussions with other businesses in our Country Club and Pantera complex that because we are located on the edge of Mesa, we could get neglected on the nightly beat ''turn around''.

We have not stopped calling the police if we see a problem of any kind. The
break-ins have been quiet for about 6 months.

We were also told by the police they did not normally see this area as problem. Wrong!!! One of the
business owners in our complex asked for a list of police incidents in our
area over a year, and it was amazing.

I am up all hours of the night and
always have on TV or radio. I never leave the house without turning on lights and a TV. It is energy wasted, but I am looking for noise or
anything that might stop a thief.

As a business owner, the police gave us these tips. Keep lights on after
closing and cut back shrubbery that might hide a crook. We also cable and
lock every large item in our showroom every night. Thieves want to get in
and get out in less that 5 minutes, we have had to make it very difficult.

By Mary Rednour