NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

Cell Phone Helpers & help for our Winter Car Problems-

Car Parts in Pawtucket- Missing a GPS?

PAWTUCKET - Bits and pieces of cars have been disappearing over the past few weeks.
GPS units, cell phones, tires and rims have all turned up missing since the new year began.
Police are hoping that two separate arrests may have slowed the loss.
A Providence man was arrested in East Greenwich on Thursday after an off-duty East Greenwich officer spotted him and knew he was a suspect in a series of thefts in that town.
Roger Hopkins, 36, is also a suspect in the theft of more than a dozen GPS units taken from cars in Pawtucket since the beginning of the year.
Hopkins was not subtle in his work, police say.
"He was caught in his girlfriend's van," Detective Kevin Santurri said. "He was using that van to do this. On several occasions, around the state, that license plate was obtained by a witness.
"We've been watching for him here in Pawtucket."
Police say East Greenwich Police stopped Hopkins after they got a call from the off-duty officer. Hopkins was arrested after police allege they found a GPS unit in the van that had been stolen in Narragansett.
Once he had Hopkins' name, Santurri went to Providence Pawn and recovered 10 of the 14 GPS units Hopkins had hocked in the past 10 days, police say.
"He made no attempt to hide his identity," Santurri said. "He used his own license for identification.
"He received a total of $3,000 for 14 GPS units. He
would pawn three or four in a day. The pawn shop was selling them on eBay. They said they went fast, they had already sold several of them."
Hopkins is being held at the ACI on the charges by Narragansett and East Greenwich. Santurri, meanwhile, is working to determine who owns the units he has.
"I have to power these things up," he said. "Once you get them running, they tell you the home address of the people who own them.
"Anyone who lost a GPS should call me with a serial number. I'll see if we have it."
Police also sent three sets of tires and rims back to their rightful owners on Friday.
A half dozen owners of Nissan Maximas discovered their tires and rims were gone and their cars were resting on black plastic milk crates when they went to start the cars in the mornings.
The break came at 1 a.m. Friday when Officer Daniel Ashworth spotted a Uhaul truck being driven by a young man he knew had only a provisional license that does not allow driving at night.
Ashworth turned to stop the Uhaul truck and it took off, racing through the streets of South Woodlawn and Fairlawn before coming to a stop on Samuel Avenue.
Two young men ran into the house. Police went to the front door, knocked and asked the adults to let them in. They were admitted and two young men were arrested. Jeremy Lopes, 18, of Samuel Avenue and a 17-year-old from Swansea, Mass., were taken into custody.
The Uhaul truck, which had two heavy-duty jacks in the back, was seized. Police also collected 60 milk crates that a paper delivery man spotted along the side of Power Road shortly afterwards. Police allege they also found a set of rims from a Nissan at that address.
Santurri was called back to work on that case and he prepared the affidavit for a search warrant at the home on Hurley Avenue where police seized a second set of tires and rims. A relative told police of a storage locker the juvenile had been using in a garage. A third set of rims was found there, police allege.
"We feel confident that these are the people responsible for the rash of thefts of car rims we've had over the past three weeks," Santurri said.
The case remains open, Santurri said.
"It appears they used multiple cars for this, so there had to be more people involved," he said.
Lopes will be charged with receiving stolen goods and will eventually face charges in Superior Court. The juvenile will be charged in Family Court.

From Kevin O'Connor of the Times

Careful with your car keys- Too cold in the am?

You are warming your car...but yet as I have walked early...I noticed some seem to be unlocked with keys in and your car ready for a cold youth or robber to steal...
Have you left your garage door open for EZ access but also ez for robbers to do their shopping of your items open for inspection!

Cell Phone Boosters- Free 411 to more Power

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELL PHONE COULD DO
There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies.Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:
FIRST Emergency #
The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.
SECOND Have you locked your keys in the car?
Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday.
Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from
having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!"
THIRD Hidden Battery Power
Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370#
Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.
FOURTH
How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.
And Finally.... FIFTH
Free Directory Service for Cells
Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now.