Last Train to Clarksville

Keeping Presents Safe In Your Home!

It’s the Holidays and thief’s are already on the prowl.  Is your neighborhood safe? Is your home safe?

So far this month, there have been 2 incidents that I know of, my home being 1 of them! When you live in a neighborhood that you feel comfortable in, it becomes easy to forget to lock the door while you’re home.  You also become an easy target.

We recently had a scare at 2:30 in the morning about 3 weeks ago.  I was letting one of my dogs out to use the bathroom and when I let her back in, I couldn’t go to sleep. So, I sat at my computer and starting surfing the web.  I heard something on my back deck and thought it might be a cat jumping on the grill.  Then I heard one of the chairs dragging a little over the wood.  I got up slowly, thinking that if the person was watching I didn’t want to give it away that I heard them, so I walked slowly to my bedroom to wake my husband up to look.  When he did, he saw a man standing there on the deck, relaxed and just looking over our yard like it was his!  I didn’t see him, I was on the phone with 911.  My husband left the window to get his gun and when he came back the guy was gone.  We had a great response from the Clarksville Police Department, 3 squad cars were here looking for the guy.  He got away.  Nothing was stolen and he didn’t get in.  I shouldn’t have kept it to myself, but I did.  I didn’t let a lot of my friends who live in the neighborhood know because I didn’t want to scare anyone but I did tell the neighbors next to me and across the street.

About a week later, one of my friends was in the house with her baby in the living room.  It was around 11am in the morning.  Normally she didn’t keep her doors locked but for some reason her back and front door was locked.  All of a sudden there was a man on her back deck with his hand on the door trying to open it.  She screamed and grabbed the baby and ran to her bedroom.  Her scream scared the guy so bad that he ran over her deck furniture trying to get out of there.  She believes that he didn’t think anyone was home.  She learned alot about her actions when this happened.  She couldn’t believe she ran to her bedroom and not out the front door.  Her husband said she was running to a safe place and her bedroom feels safe to her.

The two incidents were two different men.  I believe the one that was at mine came back to the house in the daytime a couple of days later to ask us questions about a possible burglary that was reported on the 911 log in the paper. He said he was with CSI Security? Never heard of them.  We told him it wasn’t us and the man was commenting on things he was seeing in our home, he was still on the front porch! So he was scoping us out.  I called the police back and gave a description of this man’s vehicle and what he looked like and they have it on file.

My friend called 911 also when her burglar was at her back door and when the police got there, they didn’t even dust the door handle for fingerprints, which I found odd.  My husband said I watch too much CSI.  Isn’t that what they are suppose to do?  I am kind of confused about that.

So just a little advice for you to stay safe in your home:

• Keep your door locks during the day and night.  If you have a storm door, keep it locked too.  You never know when someone knocks on your door if that person is a friend or foe.
• If you have sensory flood lights on the corners of your home, keep them on at night.  It might deter the peeping tom or whatever he is from continuing on with his plan.
• Always know where your phones are and make sure they are charged.
• Be alert at all times.  Even when you are driving home. Don’t always drive home the same way every time.  Criminals love people that are predictable. I was speaking to a business owner and she has someone following her home and she didn’t pull in her drive but kept going and trying different routes to see if they would continue to follow, which they did. So she left the neighorhood and drove to the police station and parked.  They kept going.
• Keep in touch with your neighbors.  I know sometimes people just want to be left alone but when it comes to safety, you want to have someone you can call to look out their window and see if they see something.
• If you neighborhood doesn’t have a crime watch program, start one.

There is so much more that you can do.  If you know of some good tips, please comment and let us know.  We are here to help each other.  If you have had any experiences, what did you do?

It took me a good 2 weeks to start feeling somewhat safe.  I was scared to leave my home.  I even forgot to lock the doors one day and wouldn’t go home until my husband could get there and clear it (Military terms).  So, I have felt victimized but it has taught me to be even more alert.  I shouldn’t have kept it to myself, so maybe our experience might help you to maybe change some things that you are doing right now that will make you and your home safer.

Be safe and Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas and have a safe New Years!

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