package stolen on door step....

I just got an email from a resident on Santa Clara. She works from home and usually has packages delivered to her home. The package that was delivered today was stolen from her porch. Obviously the people had to walk up her driveway to her front porch to do this...

White Van Casing LFH today..

A neighbor called me today after calling 911 on an old white van that seemed to be casing the neighborhood today. He noticed the van on Santa Clara (two men, one black and one white). It was a 12 passenger van - early 90's - ratty.

The man who spotted them carefully followed them all over the neighborhood and watched them stopping at intersections while looking closely at all the houses.

IF YOU SEE THIS VAN - please call 911.
The plates are registered to a man in Grand Prairie.

Van Plates: 930GJH

The only way to get attention to this neighborhood is to call the police when something doesn't look right. We know how our neighbors are for the most part - start looking at the people that are standing out.

We called the police at 3... it's 4pm and I haven't seen a police car yet. :(

ZERO TOLERANCE.

Thanks!

Windows stolen on Monday

The house being remodeled at the corner of Santa Clara and Tavaros was burglarized on Monday. Not sure on the details except the theives took the windows. The workers had left earlier than usual and it is not sure if the windows were stolen during the day or night. It's possible the people looked like workers and removed the windows where no one noticed.

Thanks for the info - please keep letting me know when you hear about any happenings. The detectives also have access to this blog to help them with their investigations.

Top 10 Most Wanted of NE Dallas...

I recieved this link today from Susan Remele... the minute I looked at it I recognized the first man (Jose) as the person I saw in the front yard of one of our victim house's yards (when the break in occurred... on May 5th). I am not completely sure it's him but I am almost positive. There is always room for 2nd guessing in these situations.

http://www.northeastcrimewatch.org/resources/one+slide+10+most+wanted+may+14.pdf

I have talked to the NE station and to a detective to report that I thought this was the same man. Jose has a history of robbing people, not just burglarizing. Robbing, meaning - at gun point, etc.

Thanks and PLEASE call 911 on ANY activity that is questionable... don't 2nd guess yourself, just call. I have talked to muliple people on our street that have seen suspicious activity and have not called it in (people in backyards and allies).This will continue until we really are a ZERO TOLERANCE neighborhood. I talked to a good friend of mine today on the SWAT team and he said that people not calling in suspicious activity/people is their biggest frustration on their jobs. If the police don't know about it - then it continues. Do you want to continue to live in a neighborhood that is being constantly targeted?

Please talk to your neighbors... I was surprised how many people didn't want to be on our email list for this crime watch blog. Let your neighbors know about this site and have them send me their email addresses to be included in informational emails.
clayton72@mac.com

This week a neighbor and I are planning on making signs for our alley ways and our backyards that states that there is a zero tolerance policy for unauthorized people to use our alley ways. Anyone driving down our alley will be called into the police, no matter what.

If you are interested in us making one for you... contact me as soon as possible. We will put one sign at each entry to our allies (between Ocalla and Tavaros). If you want to inlcude your alley/yard - please just donate $2/sign for expenses! I will be buying poster board, etc. tomorrow. Can anyone help us with Spanish?

We are in the process of working with our City Council official and members of the community as well.

Thank you all - please contact me with any info that needs to be posted.

Clayton

Ferguson/Lakeland Incident

FYI -- this occurred along Ferguson Road. The information comes from
the Ferguson Road Initiative.

- - - - -

In case any of you missed this, please take notice and advise your
memberships as may be appropriate. If an armed robber is so brazen to
rob an armed police officer, then we all need to take extra precaution
and stay alert. This occurred in the parking lot of Dr. Cantrell's Vet
Clinic at Lakeland & Ferguson.

FAR EAST DALLAS
Off-duty deputy robbed of standard-issue gun
An off-duty sheriff's deputy was robbed of his gun at a shopping
center Thursday evening. Deputy Booker Kidd was in a parking lot in
the 8500 block of Ferguson Road about 7 p.m. when a man robbed a nail
salon. As the robber fled, he encountered the plainclothes deputy and
demanded money at gunpoint, Dallas County sheriff's spokesman Michael
Ortiz said. When Deputy Kidd opened his wallet, the robber saw his
badge and demanded his gun, Deputy Ortiz said. The robber lifted up
Deputy Kidd's shirt and stole his department-issued gun. Deputy Ortiz
did not have a detailed description of the robber but said he fled in
a black Cadillac Escalade with others inside. Anyone with information
about the robberies can call 214-671-3584.

Message from Christie Turner, LFHNA President

Hello Neighbors,

I have GOOD news and some "other" news.

First, the "other" news: We have been experiencing a general rise in
crime in LFH over the past few weeks.

Crime generally happens more in summertime months. We're actually one
of the safest neighborhoods in east Dallas. So there's no need to
fear! But be aware that there's an increase in burglaries, car
vandalism/theft, etc.

An off-duty police officer who does extra patrols for Forest Hills was
kind enough to do an analysis of crime in LFH for us. His assessment
is that there's no particular block or area where it's concentrated --
just a general rise.

The crimewatch chair in Forest Hills has also explained that home
construction sites (and the surrounding areas) also can be a bit of a
magnet for opportunistic thefts -- both from the houses being built
and from homes immediately nearby.

Here are some more specific comments passed along to me RE
construction and some things that Forest Hills has done about it:

"Construction sites bring thieves to steal from the actual sites and
our homes. like pick up a piece of copper at the site and then a tv
from a neighboring home to pawn. not all of them are construction
workers or city alley construction workers. some of them are crazed
druggies looking for quick cash to buy the next round. with
construction sites i did a flyer in English and Spanish and taped it
to port-o-lets, gave to site managers and attached to bulldozers. It
said that our neighborhood is beefing up our security and have made
arrests.....and if they see anything suspicious to use their cell
phones to call 911 and report in english or spanish. That way we were
not accusing them personally, but at the same time we are letting
everyone know we that we are watching everything."

IF YOU are interested in being part of a team of people to help do
things like this, please reply to this email!


Now for the GOOD news.

The DPD has resources to help us and has committed to taking some
immediate actions to do so.

PLEASE keep your eyes out on each other's property and for suspicious
persons/cars and call 911 ASAP.

IF YOU ARE OBSERVING threatening activities or people in your
vicinity, even if there is NOT a crime happening right that minute,
call 911 anyway! If everything's OK, it will still be OK after the
police have checked it out.

Here's just a few ways that your making these 911 calls benefits ALL
of us:

- It lets the police know where suspicious people/situations are
surfacing.
- It lets the police know what time of day things are going on.
- It gives them LICENSE NUMBERS of cars and descriptions of people/
situations/vehicles involved

If you aren't seeing immediate response to your calls, please feel
empowered to call Sgt AJ Degan at the DPD: 214-670-4415 or reply to
this email and explain your concerns.

It takes a village.

All best,
Christie
cturner1616@yahoo.com

And again!

Just letting you know that there was another break-in last week on Santa Clara last week. This time it was on the 8900 block (between Ocalla and Tavaros). The man that lives in this house just happen to come home after a funeral and pulled up behind the man's car in his driveway. (He had parked backwards and broke in through the back door). The guy acted like he was looking at the house for sale next door and then got into his car and drove through the yard to get out. It happened too fast for the victim to realize what was going on.

His neighbor told me she heard him kick the back door in but didn't know what the sound was. She looked around her own house but didn't know where it had come from.

The man (from what I have heard - 2nd hand) was a hispanic male, skinny and had a goatee. Not the same man I saw months ago breaking in near Lakeland. I don't have info on his car yet but will talk to the home owner soon.

I apologize for the late notice but I was in Brazil last week and could not get into my software with all of your email addresses on it.

PLEASE - keep an eye out. If you guys have any ideas of what we can do as a street, let me know. Stake outs? Hire someone? This has to stop and these people are right under our nose. Each house that gets hit seems to be near construction. You can see this last house from the house on Tavaros/Santa Clara that is adding on.

Call the police for ANYTHING that looks suspicious. Get serial numbers/photos of all of your valuables.

I'll write again when I get more info.