Being a resident of Highland Park for only a couple of years, I appreciate that people are alerting neighbors of break-ins and such. 

However, when I KEPT reading that people were leaving cars unlocked and items inside (whether "valuable" or not), I pretty much began ignoring the postings altogether.  It's like nobody's paying attention. 

Understand, that I am NOT talking about home invasions. 

I've seen people suggest being "watchful neighbors" and calling the police immediately, etc.  However, what about your OWN responsibility?  Break-ins may happen, but do you have to make it easy??  Why should your neighbors be expected to keep an eye out when you don't even take reasonable precautions yourselves? 

Police time and resources are already limited and would be better used NOT having to come here and investigate something that they can virtually do nothing about, AND that could have been EASILY avoided. 

Crime exists, even in the best communities.  You don't have to live in a fortress (unless you want to), but some common sense and less naivety are also good defenses.

Alycia

> Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:55:36 -0500
> From: RobertaShope@howardhanna.com
> To: neighborhood@highlandparkpa.com
> Subject: [Highland Park] Car break-ins
>
> It really disturbs me that anyone would ever:
>
> 1) leave their car unlocked and/or
>
> 2) leave valuables inside their car
>
> I'm beginning to think that our neighborhood must have a reputation as
> an "easy target" among criminals everywhere.
>
> Being aware of suspicious behavior and promptly calling the police when
> a theft occurs should certainly help, but our number one priority should
> be to stop making it so easy for would-be thieves.
>
> If it means checking your car door when you leave to make sure that it's
> locked and doing a quick visual sweep to make sure you're not leaving
> anything behind, then that is what we should all be doing. And when this
> current crime wave ends, we can't let down our vigilance or it will
> surely return, to the detriment of ourselves and all of our neighbors.
>
> So let's help each other by doing our best to secure our neighborhood.
>
> Roberta Shope
>
>
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