Just a few minutes ago I received a call from 607-233-4558. The Caller ID said Ithaca, NY. The woman on the other end a (something) Gray said that I had committed a serious Federal Crime and I was to call 607-233-4558 immediately. This was my second and last warning and if I did not comply there would be serious consequences.

It was an obvious scam and I promptly reported it to the FBI (WWW.IC3.GOV), the Pierce County Sheriff, and NOMOROBO (https://www.nomorobo.com/). If you haven’t got the NOMOROBR service, get it, it’s free and works like a charm for numbers which have been reported.

Please be aware that the scammers are targeting people in all walks of life. If someone calls you with something like this, just hang up. Legitimate government agencies don’t work this way.

One of our neighbors sent this in for the Blog.

Tis the Season

to have your packages stolen

Nowadays almost everyone gets packages from shopping online.  Costco, Amazon.com, Sears, Walmart; it seems like almost every retailer has an online presence. More frequently during the Holiday Season there are shoppers out there who are shopping for packages left at your front door.

This season let's make it harder for the bad guys and girls. When you order things, try to keep up with the tracking numbers and know when to expect them.  If you are not going to be home, ask a neighbor to keep a lookout for your package.  If the item is particularly valuable, ask for the driver to obtain a signature before leaving it.

I have cameras which record my visitors,and my deliveries.  If you don't have a camera system at your home, perhaps you might consider purchasing a wildlife camera just to record the coming and going of delivery men during the Holiday Season.  Wildlife or train cameras, as some people call them, can be purchased for prices between $50 and $200.

If you do purchase a wildlife camera, be sure to place it in a place where it will not be noticed.  Otherwise you might be missing your package and your wildlife camera.

Continue reading →

At 1345hrs on 30 Aug 2015 a group of people were observed spread across 136th Ave. E. in the blind curve.  Photos were retrieved from the Neighborhood cameras. The truck towing the “Trikes” was a blue Toyota Tacoma license number D52956K.  The Sheriff’s Office has been notified and supplied with pictures which show that these people reached the bottom of Jennifer Ct. E.. Fortunately no one was coming around the curve to meet these people. They left our Neighborhood at 1425hrs. Several of them were wearing GoPro cameras (about $400+ each).

Kirk POSTED the following alert: Recently in Seattle a burglar confronted by a doggy door sized for a small dog used a piece of wire to unlock the deadbolt and enter a residence. Moral of the story from Kirk’s perspective is – Pet Doors are not safe unless they are locked when you are not at home or are asleep.   When Kirk asked me to review his BLOG I was reminded about my own Doggy Door which is similar is size to the one shown in the URL below:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Thief-uses-doggy-door-to-burglarize-Seattle-home-313107481.html

This story serves to remind us all of the unintended security vulnerabilities we can introduce to our own residences from the best of our intentions.

It is almost the 4th of July and we have not had any rain to speak of in weeks.  Things are very dry folks.  That means when people set off fireworks, their chances of starting a wildfire are very good.

It would be a good idea this 4th if people in our Neighborhood kept a hose ready in case a stray spark landed near their house.

Recently we had an incidence of vandalism in the Neighborhood.  The brave vandal came around at 30 minutes after midnight and made a second pass through the Neighborhood at 38 minutes past midnight. He cruised down 136th turned down 117th toured 138th, then up to 136th, right to Jennifer Court back up to 136th, down to 138th then back up and out of the Neighborhood.  According to several people who looked at the pictures  he was driving a mid 1990s two door, dark Honda Civic.  He was wearing a hoodie and what looks like basketball shorts.  His photograph is below, showing his skinny legs and beard.  If anyone has seen him please give Dav or me a call or e-mail us. This vandalism was reported to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Thanks to all of you who gave me input for this post.

This morning in the wee hours (that translates to 0639hrs) I received a call in which a message recorded by a woman who spoke good English informed me (actually she informed whoever picked up the phone) that that after repeated attempts to reach me I was being given one last chance to avoid having the Government file a lawsuit against me.  I was to immediately  call the number they gave. {I have to wonder how they are going to file a lawsuit if they don’t even know my name.}

Thinking I could get the number from my Caller ID I simply hung up the phone.  Surprise!  My Caller ID said UNKNOWN NAME-PRIVATE CALLER. Well if nothing else, that made me certain that the caller was not from any branch of the US Government.

I’m going to post the information to the Do Not Call List  https://www.donotcall.gov/   {copy and paste this link to go directly to the National Do Not Call Registry}.  If you get a call like this I urge you to report it.

I received a call asking for my daughter Kimberly.  I informed the caller that Kimberly was not at home and asked if I could help him. The caller said his name was John Baker and Kimberly should call him at 909-545-6529  (the caller ID said Ontario, CA).  I asked what it was about and “John” said it was a tax mater.  I then informed “John” that I did not believe his name was John Baker because of his pronounced Middle Eastern or Indian accent.  Whereupon “John” threatened to have Kimberly jailed “within 48 hours” if she did not call him.

This was obviously a scam and since “John” did not even know that Kimberly does not live at home I have to wonder how he expected to have her jailed “within 48 hours”.  I have read of this type of thing before.  The caller attempts to scare you into giving some sort of payment to keep from being thrown into jail, so you will have time to sort the mess out.  The caller will ask you to send the money in some way that makes it impossible to retrieve if you come to your senses later.  Frequently they ask you to purchase a prepaid bank card and send it to them to stop the legal action against you. It does not work that way folks.

If you get such a call check the number out on the Internet.  You will most likely find lots of comments.  Be certain to report it to the Do Not Call List  https://www.donotcall.gov/   {copy and paste this link to go directly to the National Do Not Call Registry}

In the 4 years that the Sunrise Terrace Camera Security Project as been operational:

(1) There have been 2 servers storing pictures received from neighborhood IP cameras. The original server was replaced in July 2013.

(2) Major security upgrades to protect camera security and server availability were implemented in 2014 Q3.  The updated internet security eliminated several thousand hits to the server each day by web-bots looking for servers to exploit.  These changes allowed us to support more IP cameras participating in the neighborhood service.

(3) The Snapshot Repository retains pictures dating back to 2013.  Snapshots from 2012 were deleted last year.  The archive currently holds over 5,300,000 snapshots (pictures) in more then 1,970 directories (daily folders) and consuming 480 GB of disk storage.

(4) This month (2015 May) the Repository Server FTP service supporting IP cameras received a daily average of 9,000 pictures using over 1.1 GB of data across the network.

(5) This month (2015 May) the Repository Server WEB service supporting the Sunrise BLOG responded to an average of 79 hits daily ranging from a low of 4 hits per day to a high 264 hits per day and using 1.6MB of server and network data.

(6) Changes have been made to how some of the Neighborhood IP cameras display data.  It is now possible to download time sequential pictures in batches after they have been translated by looking for them in the folder marked (.flat), as in 11701w138.flat, rather than 11701w138, which would show only the most recent pictures before they have been translated.