Caldwell Sanctuary Neighborhood Watch Emergency Information Database

From: Tom De Shazo, Neighborhood Watch Coordinator

Purpose:

For our Neighborhood Watch organization to have this invaluable resource at it fingertips for use as quick response in notifying the police and fire department in case any of our residents are victimized by crimes of vandalism, burglary, theft, assault, and kidnapping, and in case of fires or medical emergencies.

Our goal for completion of the emergency information database is January 31, 2009. At this point Block 1 (Captain Marcus Lawrence), and Block 2 (Captain Bill Painter) have completed their emergency information records and submitted it to me for incorporation into our database. We have four additional Blocks yet to complete and submit the information. If you have not yet completed your “telephone tree form” and handed it to your Block Captain, please make it point to do so as soon as possible. If you don’t have a form, just ask your Captain for one, as they have plenty available.

Your Block Captains are:

Block 1 - Marcus Lawrence Lot 401 - 417
Block 2 - Bill Panter Lot 418 - 437
Block 3 - Phillip Inman Lot 438 - 458
Block 4 - Brent Overby Lot 459 - 477
Block 5 - Henry Hager Lot 478 - 495
Block 6 - Buzz Williams Lot 496 - 513

The emergency information included in the database will be:

Ø Names of residents and their children living in The Sanctuary
Ø Street address
Ø Name and telephone number of children’s school
Ø E-mail address of each resident
Ø Place of employment and work telephone number for each resident
Ø Vehicle make, model, year, color, license number and VIN number for each vehicle
Ø Miscellaneous, medical conditions, etc.

Remember:

This is your neighborhood watch program. It will be only effective as WE make it.

Great Safety Tip

PUT YOUR CAR KEYS BESIDE YOUR BED AT NIGHT!

If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies.

This is a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it! It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until you silence it or the battery runs down. It will work whether you park in your garage or in your driveway. Odds are the intruder will not stick around and after a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see what is going on.

Also remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm will work the same way there. This is also a good idea in the case of a medical emergency.

Please share this information with neighbors, friends and family.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Mail Delivery

My neighbor happened to take something out to his mail box and saw our mail carrier coming down the street and he waited to get his mail. He asked her, the carrier, what she did when access to the mail box is blocked - her answer is they don't deliver the mail that day. Lesson -- If a car is parked in front of the mail box, then mail delivery is delayed.

Keep Watching!

We have a few people who are walkers during the day, especially in the mornings, who can keep an eye out for suspicious vehicles and people. I know that we have a few evening/night time walkers, and if you know any night time walkers here, please ask them to also keep their eyes open for suspicious vehicles and people, carry cell phones with them, and call 911 immediately if they should encounter either situation.

The same applies to any daytime walkers you know. We can use these as our crime prevention "foot patrols". The Hoover Police say to just make the call and let them worry about false alarms.

Also, anytime you are out in your vehicle at night, make it a point to make a "sweep patrol" of the entire subdivision before you put your vehicle in your garage. If you see any suspicious activity call 911 and report it.

The following are facts from a police report filed just recently on a theft in The Sanctuary:

Crossings View 5600 block, residence, November 29, 1-8am, one credit card, two debit cards, checkbook, business checks, wallet, driver's license, Social Security Administration card stolen.

Please NEVER leave anything of value inside your vehicle in plain sight. If you must leave valuables in your car, lock them in your trunk and lock the vehicle doors as well. Advise your visitors to do the same. If possible, park your vehicle inside your garage rather than on the street or in the driveway.

Deer Candy

If you are like me, you received an unpleasant surprise one morning recently when you went out to get the newspaper. About half of my beautiful pansies I just finished planting last week were gone! I had planted white ones with blue centers mixed with deep purple ones, and all the white and blue ones were gone; just the purple ones remained. I guess deer don’t like purple pansies.

Dadgum! That patch of pansies cost me around 20 bucks (no pun intended), not to mention a couple of hours on my hands and knees.

My neighbor said that wild rabbits got theirs, but after asking a friend who is a horticulturist, I was asked if I lived near a wooded area, (yes I do) and I was told that deer were the culprit. Buzz Williams’ stealth camera caught these night visitors on film around Lake Sanctuary. It seems that deer love pansies almost as well as they love honeysuckle, and pansies are “deer candy” to them.

I have seen small groups of bucks, does, and fawns on several occasions within the adjacent O’Neal property. I saw deer tracks last week on vacant lot 401 on Crossings Lake Circle

I asked my friend about a remedy to deter deer for feeding on my expensive pansies, and she said that a deer repellant spray is available in hardware stores that you can douse your annuals with that might work, and also that planting rosemary or sage around the pansies might work as well.

I believe I’ll try the method of least work first, i.e., the deer repellant spray. Tune in next week for the rest of the story.

Tom De Shazo