Neighbor-to-Neighbor

Alert! Your Neighborhood Watch team received information from neighboring homeowners associations on various burglaries and scams recently perpetrated during November in surrounding subdivisions.

Burglary:

759 Heatherwood Drive - It appears the burglars kicked in the middle garage door, then opened the big door and backed their vehicle into the garage. They left the vehicle running while vandalizing the house.

Jewelry, cash, coin collection, lawn-care equipment and other valuables were taken. Mostly small, easily transportable items were stolen. The Shelby County Sheriff's department has been investigating the burglary.

Attempted Theft:

A male Wine Ridge homeowner noticed a white van and white truck pulled up to his neighbor’s house. He confronted them with cell phone in hand and told him he was calling the police if they did not leave. They did.

He obtained a partial tag identification.

As a reminder, the house that was robbed in Heatherwood, the first on the right as you enter from Caldwell Mill, was robbed in about 45 minutes and had a white truck backed into their garage. It is quite possible this was the same vehicle used in the Heatherwood theft.

Attempted Scams:

Girls were knocking on doors in Heatherwood, Mill Springs, and the Sanctuary at Caldwell Crossings:

Girls were knocking on doors in the Mill Springs area on Nov. 4th.

E-mails suggest they were at least in the Turnberry, Bayhill, and Masters Lane areas doing the same.

Here is the story from one resident:

One girl and another younger girl, posing as her sister, came by our house on

Nov. 4th around noon. The older girl did all the talking, saying her family had recently moved down on Bayhill from Ohio.

She was out meeting 100 neighbors and collecting donations for purchasing magazine subscriptions for our troops.

She explained cash was best because it would take 10 days for a check to clear and she had to turn in the subscriptions by 6 PM. A big red flag went up! I told her I would need to check out the program before donating.

She said her mother was out having brochures printed, so I told her to drop one by when she had them. Of course she never returned. I checked it out on the web and found it was a big scheme making its way around the country.

Other neighbors sent in similar stories with the girls often saying that they moved in close by. The younger girl was blond.

Similar occurrences have been reported to the Hoover Police concerning Sanctuary residents. A dark haired girl, approximately 5’ 6” tall, about 20 years old, described herself as a new neighbor moving into a house on Crossings Parkway.

She explained, when asked, that her name was Samantha Madden. A similar story followed like the one above, e.g., from Cincinnati, collecting donations, subscriptions, asking for cash, etc. was perpetrated.

Suggestions:

The neighborhood policy for those entering the Sanctuary to either sell or to ask for contributions is “No Solicitation!” Signs are posted at the entryway to the Sanctuary. Also, the City of Hoover requires a license to sell door-to-door.

Watch your neighbor’s home as you would your own. Dial 911 if you suspect trespass or theft potential. Hoover Police want our cooperation in crime prevention. You never have to be embarrassed to dial 911.

When in doubt, call them out! Dial 911 to report any suspicious activity, suspicious persons, or suspicious vehicles.