Guns in Plaza Midwood

Maybe if I was shot at Snug Harbor I might feel more like Scott Yamanashi, who is starting an armed neighborhood patrol in Plaza Midwood to battle crime. I certainly understand the frustration. Crime is a constant worry in this city, and sometimes it seems like nothing is being done. But I wonder about the setup: An armed and perhaps angry crime victim searching the mean nighttime streets for evil. No problem as long as wisdom and patience prevail.

I applaud Scott for standing up, for getting involved, for organizing. I hope lots of people follow his lead and his neighborhood and ours becomes awash in nightside eyes watching out for all of us. But I'd feel better if the guns stayed home.

From Crime Dawg

Dilworth break-ins

Note the brief item in The Observer (can't find it on the Web site) on page 2 of the Local section about a series of break-ins in nearby Dilworth. People were home during the break-ins. I think this is rare -- and I certainly hope it stays that way.

7th Street stats

Examine the November Elizabeth Crime stats and notice that 29 of 61 incidents -- almost half! -- occurred on East 7th Street. No surprise, I suppose, since 7th carries the highest traffic and the most people. It might be easy to dismiss the stats because of that. Maybe many or even most of the incidents happened to people who live elsewhere. We should avoid thinking like that. East 7th Street is the gateway to our Elizabeth and our entertainment center. We need to take care of it.

Sex offender

From a note to the Crime Dawg:

Please make sure neighbors are aware that a recently-released criminal and sex offender moved to our neighborhood (on Weddington) about a month ago. He is described as being a black male, 6'2" at 155 pounds. He has been seen walking almost daily on Greenway Avenue. in the past two-three weeks in the daytime hours. He is bald and walks with a pronounced "strut." He has been seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt that zips up.

All-American look-out

I don't post everything the Crime Dawg sends because I don't want UtWT to become a crime rant. Also I couldn't keep up. Let's face it -- Crime Dawg is awesome. But one thing is creeping me out and I wanted to make sure you heard about it. Here are excerpts from some recent CD reports from our neighbors:

26-Sept-06: I wanted to let everyone know there is a really clever and cute ‘kid’ who is NOT Nearly as Harmless as you might think. He was supposedly fundraising for his baseball team and selling books for charitys. He is probably 20-25 years old, muscular, athletic build, blue green eyes….looks like the All American College boy…. goes by the name of Casey Harmon. Anyway, he may catch you doing yard work or outside with the kids…He will say his Mom is from such and such and his Dad is from another place, both places will be where you are from and your husband is from the other. It is really freaky. Early Friday evening 5:30 or so, September 23rd on Sterling Road, my husband, the kids, and I were getting ready to go to the Freedom Park Festival …..when he appeared in our front yard. And my husband, of course, totally befriended him while he played with our kids in the front yard. He had everything in common with us and his Mom supposedly lived right down the street, Don’t we know her, she walks her golden retriever everyday and she is such a great help to his fundraising. He also happened to tell us he knew our neighbor next door and was going for a ride in his Porshe later & lots of other details about our neighbor who ended up having no idea who this guy was. But we didn’t learn all this until after we had left him alone for a minute in our foyer with 2 small children while retrieving a checkbook… He had our guards that down!!! As embarrassing as this is, I want to warn everyone about him because he is nothing like he describes himself as and appears to be. It turns out he has physically assaulted a woman in Elizabeth, and threatened others in Foxcroft and other neighborhoods around here. My husband gave him a check which we have cancelled. Fortunately, the valuable lesson came cheap for us, Thank God. But please call the police if you happen to meet him.
29-Sept-06: Yes, this is the exact same guy (and exact same phony story of Casey Harmon raising money for baseball team trip, claiming to be neighbor's son) who approached me earlier in the summer and threatened me (got in my face, backed me into my front door, held fists up, etc. when I would not buy from him). I cannot believe he is back, but the writer is correct that he is very convincing, very handsome, looks like he could baby sit your kids and live in the neighborhood -- but he is DANGEROUS. The best description I can give from memory is: White male, 5'10", athletic, tan skin with dark brown short cut hair, blue-green eyes, looks to be of Italian or Mediterranean descent, was wearing a Nike athletic outfit, backwards baseball cap, peddling a scooter...
29-Sept-06: I think the same guy knocked on our door about 6 months ago. He is a good looking, early to mid 20’s white kid. He was wearing a baseball hat, tee shirt and jeans. He was going door to door on his Razor Scooter and he had a similar rap: very fast, aggressive talker, he said his mom and dad live on Kenmore, his dad is a doctor, he grew up in this neighborhood, and he was raising money so that his elite baseball team could go to a national tournament (although he did not need the money, he was doing it for the team). When I told him I was not going to give him any money, he flipped out and started yelling at me telling me that he did not want to listen to my BS excuse, etc. We ended up going at it for a bit on the front lawn (I shared with him that his sales techniques needed some fine tuning) and I’m a little bummed that I did not call the police.

From police: Our district has been receiving calls to 911 and information from residents about this salesperson, who seems to come prepared with information about residents and neighbors. We have been told that he is cocky, aggressive, and sometimes belligerent when questioned or turned away. However, I am unaware of any reported assaults involving this individual, in Elizabeth or any other area. Since, I can’t keep track of every single incident that happens in our district, I checked for reported assaults in the Elizabeth and Chantilly neighborhoods for the previous month. I found no reported assaults where this individual was the suspect. I do encourage residents to call about aggressive behavior from any salesperson, but I do not want you to be overly alarmed and fell like this subject is waiting for an opportunity to physically harm you. Please use normal recommended precautions when someone comes to your door that you do not know. Do not open the door for them. Speak to them through the door or ignore their presence until they leave. There are still some businesses who have salespeople canvassing neighborhoods, but I personally don’t recommend buying anything from someone who approaches your home unsolicited.

Left side to curb

The other day several neighbors received $25 tickets for parking left side to curb on my block (I was not among them -- I got mine 20 years ago). I'm not trying to be belligerent, and I hate to over-simplify things. But we have a serious crime problem in our neighborhood. My car has been stolen twice in two years. My home has been burgled three times in 15 years. Drug deals go down on our streets. You've seen Crime Dawg's excellent updates. Yet we're using precious city resources to punish law-abiding citizens parking in front of their own homes? There's something wrong with this picture.

An excellent reason to attend the annual ECA dinner meeting Sept. 26 at St. John's Baptist Church. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police will be there and perhaps this subject will come up. Politicians and other government officials and ECA board members will be there also, telling us what's going on and listening to our comments and questions. This is town hall-style democracy at work, every bit as American as election day. Come get involved.

The ECA provides beverages and a main course. The rest of us bring a covered dish or, really, whatever you want to share foodwise. It's always a good feed. See you there, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Crime at Cooking

Regular readers of UtWT know that I've taken a pair of cooking classes at Cooking Uptown and I love that store, even if I don't get into it as often as I would like. So it pains me to report there's been another break-in. Here's owner Karen Cooley's report via Crime Dawg:

Cooking Uptown was broken into at 5:40AM today. Looked exactly like the break-in that occurred on 12/21/05, except the perpetrators went straight back to a locked office and apparently kicked in the door. They knew where they were going and must have cased the store in advance, as they knew what they were looking for.

There have been a couple of people in that I suspect were up to no good in the past week. A white female about 5'4" with what may have been a blonde wig, a little overweight and otherwise non descript and an older white male around 5'8" with light brown receding hair and carrying a black or dark colored backpack, he is known to hang out next door at Hawthorne's to drink.

The crime investigator did try to get some fingerprints, but the perpetrators seem to be wearing gloves. The thieves got away with cash.

Sex offender update

That's Kevin Clark Shikany on the left and Charles Edward Hinton on the right, a pair of sex offenders who live in our area. Shikany lives at 2029 E. 7th Street and Hinton at 1023 Central Ave. You can search for known sex offenders within a mile of your home here.

Common sense for master keys

This question was in the latest Elizabeth Crime Notification email (the work of Brad Miller). It was asked by an Elizabethan at a recent ECA board meeting:

I heard there is a master key available on the Internet for The Club. Is this true?
Officer Laura Nelson (the Elizabeth community police liaison): I have spoken with several officers in the district about a master key for The Club. We all agreed that if it’s possible to purchase a master key for a car, it’s probably possible to buy a master key for The Club.

Ok, it makes no sense to buy The Club if there is a readily-available master key that makes it useless. But how many of the clowns stealing cars are smart enough to get the key -- let alone use it? The jerks stealing our cars aren't shopping for master keys on the Internet. They're helping themselves to the low-hanging fruit we're leaving for them. If they want to get around The Club, they'll cut the steering wheel and remove it that way. The Club won't stop the serious thief. But if two cars are otherwise similar and one has The Club and the other doesn't -- which car gets taken?

Honda owners read this

If you drive a Honda, live in Elizabeth and don't use The Club, you are asking for your car to be stolen. Car thefts increased from 26 to 61 this year over last year according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police. Many were Hondas. I speak from experience, having my former Honda stolen not once but twice. A neighbor two doors down had hers stolen. A local mechanic showed me how easy it is to break into and start a Honda with an ordinary screwdriver. You've been warned!

True crime news

Crime is a serious issue in this neighborhood. That doesn't mean I want to turn this blog into all-crime-all-the-time. That would make it too much like prime time network TV. But I would like to mention this: Police recommend that you engrave your drivers license number on valuables. (I'm going to engrave mine on my kids.) And they have an engraving pen that they will let you borrow so you have no excuse. Contact our CMPD community liaison officer, Laura Nelson, at 704-943-2433 to borrow it. And hey, be careful out there.

Suspects

EricHouston
Originally uploaded by johnfmcbride.

Police have seen a rash of break-ins lately. Officer Rick Greene says: "People in the area have seen 2 B/Ms driving in the area in a U-haul truck over the past two days circling the block and stopping at people’s homes. Police that work in this area have advised me of three subjects that they are looking at as possible suspects. The mens names are: Daryl Walker (below), Eric Bernard Houston (above) and Timothy Houston." Call 911 if you see them on your street.

About last break-in

The last time my house was broken into the police arrested a suspect who was subsequently convicted and sent to jail (albeit for a very short time). What broke the case? I had photographs of the stolen items with serial numbers written on the back. The dim bulb burglar used his ID to pawn the stuff at a nearby pawn shop. A neighbor picked him out of a lineup. Open and shut case.

Without the serial numbers, however, this guy walks. As Sgt. Rich Stahnke of CMPD noted in a recent email to ECA members: "Pawn shops are required to keep a record of who pawned/sold them merchandise and our burglary detectives routinely search through pawn records looking for merchandise that has been reported stolen. The biggest hindrance to this system is the fact that many homeowners cannot provide us with the serial numbers for their merchandise."

Stealing from porches

Someone has been stealing FedEx and UPS packages off people's porches in Elizabeth. According to Brad Miller, the ECA's crime committe chairman, "The police caught him late last week (3/31 or 4/1) trying to grab a package off a porch. They predicted he'd be out of jail in a jiffy and back to his old tricks, despite his arrest." Brad recommends telling the FedEx/UPS people to leave packages out-of-sight.

Meet Eric Salley

According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Eric Salley likes our neighborhood almost as much as we do. Police have charged him with eight felonies, mostly breaking and entering. Officer Laura Nelson said in a recent ECA board meeting that if you see Mr. Salley in the neighborhood, call 911. That sounds extreme to me since it's a free country. But Mr. Salley has demonstrated his untrustworthiness repeatedly. Be aware.