All posts by Kirk Hall

View Machu Picchu on your computer

Interesting Things

I received a link for a virtual tour of Machu Picchu from a family member.  It looks just like I remember it, even though it was long ago when I went there with my wife.  I sent  the link to Dav Eide for his suggestions and he thought, as I do, that I should share it with the Neighborhood.

Go to this link, and Google Earth will pop up (It takes a while to load the presentation so be patient).  When it finishes loading you can click a red balloon or one of the pictures on the list at the right. It’ll zoom in and you can click to walk around like you are really there. It’ll have little white arrow things once you zoom in (screenshot at bottom)  and you click those arrows and it will walk you that direction, plus you can look up and down just by clicking any area on the screen.  It will take several hours to explore Machu Picchu, but you can go back to it as often as you like.

https://earth.google.com/web/@-13.16070387,-72.53759399,2092.02815297a,3842.87972043d,35y,0h,59.94192371t,0r/data=Ci4SLBIgMjRiNWFhNTFlOGExMTFlNmJhN2U2ZjgxOGQ2OWE2ZTciCG92ZXJ2aWV3

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Electrical Substation Vandals

Neighborhood Events

The headline below appeared in recent news concerning attacks on local power   substations:

Detectives ask public to check surveillance footage in connection to Pierce County substation attacks

This emphasizes the fact that security cameras don’t just help their owners directly but can also help our community. Hopefully there will be enough cameras around the vandalized substations that they will have caught the vandals in action and provide clues for the police to be able to apprehend them.

Intersection of 136th & Military Rd.

Safety

One of our neighbors sent me an e-mail about the fact that many people are ignoring the stop signs in the intersection of 136th and Military Rd.  They sent me a picture of the license plate of a vehicle who as they said “Blew through the intersection without even a momentary pause”. We are not posting the picture of the license plate because it is out of context.  However if you wish to see the license plate of the car we know ran the stop sign, send me an e-mail to kahalljr@comcast.net and I will send the picture to you.

These stop signs are there for our safety. Cars coming from the valley on Military Rd are difficult to spot before they reach the intersection because of the curving, downward path of the road. Before the stop signs were installed I was almost nailed a couple of times by cars coming up from the valley.

Please don’t ignore the stop signs at the intersection of 136th and Military Rd.  The wreck you don’t have is the best kind.

The pictures below were taken from the driver’s position at the stop sign on 136th Ave E.  Notice how limited the sight line is from 136th to Military Rd E where Military Rd E is coming up from the valley (middle picture). Please note also the ALL WAY notation on the stop sign.

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Too Fast Porsche

Neighborhood Events

The information below was sent to me by one of our neighbors. If you know the individual who owns the bright blue Porsche, please let him/her know they need to slow down.

There was a bright blue Porsche that went about 60mph down 136th Ave at night on Saturday at about 630 the 15th thru the sunrise neighborhood. I watched it burn out and tear past 3 times and then just saw a car exactly like the one I saw last night  pulling out of the loop at 118th this morning at 9am. So thinking they may live in here. We went out to the road to see if it came thru again, but just heard it tearing off down Military toward 162. If they do live I here, why would they think it’s ok to go that fast in a family residential neighborhood.  Not sure if we have any communication with the Shawnee Ridge neighborhood to make them aware as well.

Also, the section of road on 136th after the 4 way stop going towards Shawnee Ridge seems to be where people are going 30-40 mph consistently. There are at least 5 small children living /visiting around this corner and many dogs, plus there are no sidewalks until farther down the road and people must walk on the street. We have no speed limit signs and not sure if we can put some in.  It is a blind corner near the intersection of 118th and 136th, and the kids run across the street all the time to play in the park. I am concerned with the amount of traffic going so fast that it will result in a bad accident.

 

Elk in the Neighborhood?

Interesting Things

Bull Elk

Bull Elk 2

I have lived in our house since 1987 and this is the first time I have seen an elk in my back yard, or for that matter anywhere around the Neighborhood. I’ve seen plenty of deer, some quail, possums, racoons, coyotes, a pheasant, squirrels, bats, a bear, and even a wayward peacock, but never before have I seen an elk.  But at 0211hrs 25 Sept 2022 a young bull elk showed up on my cameras. I was getting jealous. My daughter who lives near Bonny Lake (seven miles from me as the crow flies) sees them often on her property.

Just yesterday a mother deer with her twin fauns (from this year) bedded down on my front lawn for several hours, only moving slowly away when I had to go to the library to pick up a book.

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Home Break-In

Neighborhood Security, Safety

I received the information below from Kim and Rich Amsden who live across 122nd from our Neighborhood. It is a sorry state that we live in today when things like this happen.  The Amsdens said that the police no longer have a person who can look through video recordings for relevant pictures. One way to solve this is to print out hard copies of the pictures they need to see and burn a disk with short clips showing the bad guys.  These will help if the police do catch the bad guys.

The homeowners in our area might consider an alarm system like one offered by SimpliSafe at SimpliSafe.com.  It is a do it yourself installation which is easy to install and can be monitored by SimpliSafe. The Police report Number for the break-in is 2224601550 (Burglary).  By the  way, the homeowner did just the right thing by calling the Police and waiting outside the house, because someone might have been still inside. Since the break-in the Amsdens have added an alarm system and have cameras and sensor lights installed.

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Just wanted to let you know that yesterday, September 3rd, between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm I came home to find that our house had been broken into, and items were stolen. Our garage door that opens to let your car in had been forcibly opened (it was open about quarter way when I arrived home). Our door into the house from the garage, that was deadbolted closed, was destroyed with wood shavings all over the floor, and the baseboard around the door wrecked. Inside, a wallet, a purse, and a new laptop were taken.

I immediately called the police, and two officers came (I waited outside for them to arrive in case someone was still in the house). With my credit card, they had already charged things at Safeway, Shell gas station, Walmart, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. My bank had contacted me when an attempt for $404.00 was made. Luckily, I notified the bank saying that this was not an authorized charge and had this credit card closed. The other items that were purchased will be credited back to our account (in time).

This was a terrifying thing to go to, especially since we had spent a fun day at the WA State Fair and I was returning home alone. We have lived in this neighborhood for over 15 years now, and the only people to come down our driveway are usually the mailman or Amazon.

We don’t have any security cameras, and even if we did, the police said that they don’t even have anyone to look at footage and look into it like they used to.

So, I just wanted our neighborhood to be aware and to report any suspicious activity or people wandering around that don’t look like they live here. We think that it being Labor Day weekend that whoever did this thought there was a good chance that we may have been out of town. We even had a car parked in our driveway!

Even with doors and windows locked, the police said that if someone wants to get in, they will find a way to do so. It could have been a lot worse—-they could have destroyed the inside of the house while looking for what they got.

Stranger Casing Neighborhood ?

Neighborhood Security, Safety

There was a stranger in our Neighborhood this afternoon. He was spotted on several people’s property and approached at least one neighbor’s back door.

One of the neighbors took a photo of him and asked him his name. He said it was Darren Brewer and he appears to be in his early 20s and has been found on Facebook. He had a different story here at one neighbor’s house, another story when still another neighbor saw him between two and 3 o’clock today, and then had a third story when a third neighbor saw him.  A different story each time he was asked why he was in our Neighborhood. Apparently, he was walking around quite a bit because this was all in a period of at least 3 1/2 hours. The stranger appeared impaired.

The Police were called.  If you see this individual do not approach him. Call the Police immediately.

Picture taken in our Neighborhood

Stranger

Pictures from Facebook

 

 

 

 

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Returned Stolen Cars May Be Hazardous

Neighborhood Security, Safety

I was reading on the Internet about cars stolen in Bellingham and saw something which I thought I would pass along to all of you.

Kirk Hall

Murphy said many owners of recovered stolen cars tell police that they find large amounts of trash, including small squares of aluminum foil in their cars.

“Some of these cars are just full of the aluminum squares and little straws and pipes and needles,” Murphy said. “You have no idea if there are fentanyl crumbs in there, and we all know that fentanyl is extremely deadly. If it’s in a powder form, it can kill immediately.

“You’re going to need a company to come in and professionally clean that vehicle and very likely decontaminate it from methamphetamine fumes or fentanyl fumes. We recommend people be very careful. Don’t just hop in your car and drive it away, because you just don’t know. And if you see a bunch of drug paraphernalia in there, we would recommend getting it professionally cleaned so that stuff is thrown away properly.”

It’s also important to allow police crime scene investigators a chance to process a recovered car to look for forensic evidence, such as fingerprints, that could possibly lead to an arrest, Murphy said.

Mail Thefts and Society

Neighborhood Security

As many of you know I have a “Ring” doorbell camera (plus a lot of other stuff).  As a result of having a “Ring” I get information about all kinds of illegal activities which other “Ring” owners have suffered.

The old standard reply to mail thefts used to be “Get a locking mail box”. On 9 March someone in Manorwood posted that his locking mailbox had been pried open.  A day before that a community mailbox was broken into and ruined.

Mail theft is a Federal Crime, but the police seem helpless to deal with it as it seems to be classified very low on the enforcement scale.  Because the bad guys know this it makes them bold and more likely to continue. Perhaps we as citizens need to do more to help our local law enforcement deal with these people.  Does anyone think that writing the Postmaster General directly, our Washington State Congressional representatives, and making a formal complaint to the FBI might help?  Our Local Law Enforcement people need more manpower.  Criminals need to be held once they are caught. If our jails do not have the capacity, perhaps a stockade with tents is the answer. (For those who say it is cruel to make criminals sleep in tents in all weather, consider that our military have to serve in all weather, sometimes without even tents to shelter them from the elements.)

Vehicle thefts, break-ins and catalytic converter thefts are on the rise. If you don’t want to install a security camera system, perhaps you should invest in a really good car alarm.  One that activates when glass is broken or the vehicle is lifted and jiggled to get at the catalytic converter.

 

Video Cameras DO Work

Neighborhood Events

Below is an excerpt of a recent report of the capture of a catalytic converter thief in Everett Washington.  If the victim had not had video surveillance, he would have lost his converter and it is doubtful that the thief would ever have been identified. 

A man was arrested in Everett after he was caught on video stealing a catalytic converter Wednesday. Everett police responded after the victim reported the theft.

The victim had video surveillance footage of the theft and was able to provide a description of the suspect to officers who quickly located the suspect a block away with the stolen catalytic converter in his hands.