Two weeks ago, one of my neighbors reported on our neighborhood email list that his girlfriend’s car had been broken into and her iPod stolen. While it’s a shame her $100 car window was broken to steal her $50 iPod, what caught my attention was what the responding officer said: that this was the first motor vehicle larceny our neighborhood has suffered in months. I’m flabbergasted we went nearly the whole summer without any car break-ins.
Now, when we moved here these larcenies were more common. We had people wandering through, some of them crooks who weren’t being challenged by the neighbors. When crime began to increase we had an increased police presence here. It wasn’t unusual to find a Raleigh police officer parked in Lions Park.
Now officers don’t feel the need to hang around. The neighborhood is taking care of itself. Crime has gone way down, and every morning on my walk instead of seeing shady characters roaming the street I see my neighbors out exercising.
It’s a beautiful thing.