Hello All With the recent rash of reports of odd solicitations, vandalism, and thefts from vehicles, it appears that we are in the middle of something big. I hope this is due to an increase in activity and not an increase in reporting. We really are lucky that we dont have gun battles and murders, like some other neighborhoods do. I am not trying to belittle the recent incidents, but it has been a while since we have seen a need to have block watches throughout the entire neighborhood. And now there is increased talk about this. Everyone should know their neighbors, and who belongs on the street, and ask questions if things dont look right. That is how we can keep ourselves safe. There is crime everywhere, and we cant stop it completely, but that is a great goal to have. The HPCC has not had a very active Public Safety or Block Watch committee for a little while now. It sounds like this needs to be restarted or revived. The HPCC is an all-volunteer community group, made up of neighbors in Highland Park. So in order to have a committee, there needs to be volunteers. Is that you? If you live in, work in, own, rent, squat, or just like Highland Park, then it IS you. You can do as little as meeting the people directly next to you, or as much as organizing the entire neighborhood. The HPCC is holding their monthly meeting this evening (Thursday) at 7:00 pm, at St Andrews Church, 5801 Hampton St. Everyone is welcome. Maybe we can discuss the recent activity, and find a way to put a stop to it. Bob Below are some of the emails that were sent to the list, but were not reporting an incident, in response to other recent postings. *************** Most of these thieves are window shoppers. if you leave anything electronic in plain site then they will probably be shopping in your car. most of the time they are looking for fast, easy targets with a garanteed pay day. Make sure that you do not have any cell phones, ipods, laptops or gps devices in plane site and they will most likely move onto another victim that has these items. Nobody is going to break into an empty car unless they want the car which is ussually not the case. ******************* Hey Guys :-) another thing when you do report any incident yes, you don't have to call 911 that should be left for true blue emergencies -- But calling the police is very important and always get a CCR number that is the criminal complaint report number that proves the incident was recorded and is on file. Becareful Maribeth Lashuk ***************** I am saddened by all these horrible things that are happening in Highland Park. I live on North Saint Clair Street @ Wellsely and I myself feel afraid to put any pumpkins or decorations on my porch due to kids making a mess of them. It is ashame that you cannot put your flower pots out and have your home look nice, without the worry of someone vandalizing your property. I did see a few children on the corner yesterday, and they did look like they were just looking for trouble. I would think these kids would be at home doing homework , or getting ready for bed! In any event I don't normally respond to these happenings, but this really disgusts me. I hope this calms down, and that we may live comfortably in our homes without these worries. I do notice myself that many children of all ages are left unsupervised, I myself feel this is a travesty and bad parenting as well. I have 3 small children and I would never even at age 10 leave my children completely unsupervised. I think this is a serious problem, and that is why these children go around terrorizing innocent peoples property. My question is where are the parents!? Good luck members, I hope these problems are solved soon. Francine M. Moschella ************* Thank you to all who replied to my email. We truly have a great neighborhood consisting of wonderful and caring people! I live in the 5600 block of Hampton between Portland and Mellon. This incident happened Friday some time between 6PM and 8PM. Fortunately my husband was able to remove the paint and the flowers will recover. My neighbor and I filed a police report today. Karen *************** This is so disheartening. I love this neighborhood and don't want to start feeling fearful and like I have to constantly be on alert . . not that being on alert matters since these things always happen when you aren't looking. Such violations . .my sympathies to each person who has had to deal with this. What can we do? Is there some peaceful but effective way to respond to this? Deb ***************** We can't keep a political sign in our yard. They keep getting stolen. Once, someone was so bold as to cut one up and leave it on our door step. I don't think it is that our neighbors are not watching out for one another, I think it is that the perpetrators are very stealthy- one of our signs was stolen while the grandparents were babysitting and had the front door open (so it was rather early in the evening while people were still out and about). Now- politics aside- no one has the right to steal other people's property nor do they have the right to destroy it. I know that our neighbors watch out for us as we watch out for them. But maybe something organized would help. I don't know any stats as to whether or not these sort of neighborhood groups work or not. Does anyone else know? Camille Lurie ********************** Clearly, the Pittsburgh police do not care about our neighborhood. They do not seem to have any increased presence on the streets, they are apparently totally unresponsive to reported crimes (yes, these are crimes, not inconveniences), and the vandalism seems to be accelerating. This attitude extends to other complaints- my wife was driving on Penn Circle a couple of months ago and had rocks thrown at her car while driving with children; the policeman who responded to her call seemed "put out" to be required to deal with such a prosaic complaint. I think the next steps would be to bring this up at the next city council meeting and to create a neighborhood watch with people literally taking shifts on the streets between 11PM and 4 AM. Two person teams with cell phones and large flashlights (those long steel ones) should do the trick. I hope the police are monitoring these messages. ************** wow, what is going on in the neighborhood these days!!!??? what can we do to get an increase in police patrols? with all the break-ins, thefts amd vandalism, i just feel like a sitting duck. quack, kevin