Some of you may be aware that there are problems with the people who are currently occupying the house at 11915 136th Ave. E. (North East corner of 136^th Ave. E. and Military Rd. E. { Parcel # 8015000031} ). Several weeks ago, there was a large (7 car) Sheriff’s presence at the house and at least one person was taken away in handcuffs.

Several attempts were made to alert the property owner and when he was reached, he said that no one was supposed to be living in the home. It was subsequently learned that the house is scheduled for Foreclosure by Quality Loan Service Corp. of Washington;108 1^st Ave South, Suite 202, Seattle, WA 98104, Phone Number (866) 925-0241.

We were given the name of one of the deputies who responded to the house on August 22.  His name is Deputy Phil Wylie and his number is (253) 377-1764.  Deputy Wylie was called on Oct. 11, and in summary, we were given to understand that the occupants at the house at 11915 136th Ave. E. are “Squatting” and are “bad people.”  We were advised not to approach the house but should report any suspicious activity to Deputy Wylie.

We think it’s also good to follow through on the reporting neighbors started with Pierce County Code Enforcement. To file a report you can start at (https://pals.piercecountywa.gov/palsonline/#/app/srs/issue). At the Pierce County website, under code enforcement, there is an option to search for a case by case number (https://pals.piercecountywa.gov/palsonline/#/app/srs/srsSearch#auto4 ). We did that yesterday and saw the property has case number 68128 and has been assigned to Jason Arbogast, jason.arbogast@piercecountywa.gov. Jason’s number is listed as (253) 798-8582.   We are assuming the more people that file a report, the better.

Doorbell cameras are advertised everywhere these days. They are convenient if you wish to be able to see who is at your door.  Most of them record to the cloud if you pay a fee, so that you can review what happened if you do not receive the direct feed.  “Ring” brand doorbells have a feature which sends out notices when other “Ring” owners post about bad things which have happened to them, like mail thefts or car break-ins. Unfortunately I see many people commenting that their “Ring” did not pick up the bad guys. They seem annoyed by this failing.

The simple fact is that doorbell cameras are meant to serve one function, to give you a visual of the people who have come to your door, and (if you are a subscriber to their cloud service) give you a record of who they are.  To do this satisfactory, the doorbell must be positioned so that it is able to observe people approach the doorbell directly. Many houses have the doorbell off to the side so that its field of view is limited.

I personally have a “Ring” doorbell installed at my home.  However I also have a full CCTV security system that I have just upgraded to 4K  (8MP) cameras.  This system gives me a full 360 degree coverage of my home, with one of the sharpest pictures on the market today. Because the cameras have a 131 degree field of view my neighbors benefit from  coverage by some of my cameras.

I received the following e-mail from one of our neighbors.

This morning ( 7/12/2019 )about 6:30 am when leaving for work, my husband and I found a bundle of mail in the grass along the side of our cul de sac (we live one street down from the addresses on the mail we found). I don’t think the mail was there very long given the misty morning and the mail was only slightly damp, and not soaking wet.

There are 3 addresses affected, all on 136th Avenue East: 12402, 12403 and 12421. These items were coupon newspaper mailers, and store mailers so were addressed to the address or Resident and only 3 items had names on them.   There was one window envelope with no address that had been ripped open (contents taken) that was from Credit One Bank and the words Personal and Confidential are on the front of the envelope. Not sure if a solicitation offering credit or if a bank statement/credit card because there wasn’t any content left, only the ripped envelope, so unfortunately there’s no way to know who it belonged too. I reported the theft to the USPS this morning (call 800-275-8777, press 5, then say FRAUD, then say THEFT, which gets you to an operator). He instructed us to give it to our mail carrier to collect, to do local reporting and then deliver to the rightful owners.

Bottom line for all this is that the mail stolen seems to be either mail which was not removed from the boxes after the mail delivery or mail that was put out the night before for pick up the next day. PLEASE remove your mail after it is delivered and PLEASE do not put out mail at night for pick up the next morning. {Or if you must do either or both, then PLEASE get a good strong locking mail box and mount it on a good strong post.}

On the news tonight was a piece about a Dangerous New SCAM. People from California through Washington State have been robbed beside the highway because they gave in to their natural desire to help.

The victims  have pulled over to help a (usually well dressed) family with car trouble. There are children in the car  and the parents make a heartfelt plea for monetary assistance, often offering their jewelry as collateral.  If you accept that Rolex and give them all the money in your wallet (say for the sake of argument you just cashed a check and have $300), you just got ripped off by about $280.  The Rolex, along with all the other jewelry they have is fake.

A woman here in Washington stopped for a well dressed family driving a nice car.  After hearing his plea she gave the man $20, but he followed her to her car and grabbed other cash she had there (cash which did not belong to her, and which she had to sell belongings to replace.

This vicious SCAM is spreading.  In the future if you see a family stranded by the side of the road, with someone frantically trying to flag you down for help, DO NOT STOP.  Instead get a description of the car (and license number if possible) and the people in it.  Then call 911, giving the location of the vehicle and any other information you have.  Tell the 911 operator you suspect criminal activity and you believe that these people have police scanners. Warn the 911 operator that if the call goes out over the air, the crooks will move.

If the people are innocent and are really in trouble, then you have provided better help than you could give.  If they are crooks, then you have provided help to all the rest of us.

Dav Eide and my wife recently received an invitation to join a social networking site called NextDoor . Someone is spending a lot of money to send out these invitations. Both Dav and I like the idea of the CrimeReports web site but definitely do not want to join any social networking site. In Dav’s words “Our neighborhood BLOG is better and more secure”.  Dav is going to comment on this POST about the advantages of checking with the CrimeReports web site.  On 17 March 2019 I wrote about CrimeReports for the Blog  and gave the link to the CrimeReports web site for this area. On the site it appears that the Puyallup area is virtually crime free, but that is because the Puyallup Police Department does not report crimes to the web site.  If you are interested, you can follow this link to our area by clicking on this link to CrimeReports: https://www.crimereports.com/home/#!/dashboard?lat=47.16112394046272&lng=-122.35061645507812&zoom=12&incident_types=Assault%252CAssault%2520with%2520Deadly%2520Weapon%252CBreaking%2520%2526%2520Entering%252CDisorder%252CDrugs%252CHomicide%252CKidnapping%252CLiquor%252COther%2520Sexual%2520Offense%252CProperty%2520Crime%252CProperty%2520Crime%2520Commercial%252CProperty%2520Crime%2520Residential%252CQuality%2520of%2520Life%252CRobbery%252CSexual%2520Assault%252CSexual%2520Offense%252CTheft%252CTheft%2520from%2520Vehicle%252CTheft%2520of%2520Vehicle&start_date=2019-03-03&end_date=2019-03-17&days=sunday%252Cmonday%252Ctuesday%252Cwednesday%252Cthursday%252Cfriday%252Csaturday&start_time=0&end_time=23&include_sex_offenders=false&current_tab=list&shapeIds=&position_id=hyxk-v3np-row-rdux_e7gm__aa6i&shape_id=false .

Carol Silvernail asked me if there was a local Pierce County site which gave local crime information.  I found this site: https://matterhornwab.co.pierce.wa.us/publicgis/?theme=0  .  It covers our area and even covers the Puyallup area, but it is a little trickier to use than the CrimeReports . To get to the data about crimes you have to enlarge the area you are interested in. In the post before this one I gave direct links to areas of the Pierce County site which I think may be useful.

Any of you are welcome to join NextDoor. Just because Dav and I don’t think it is a good idea does not mean that you have to stay off it.

Please remember that the Sunrise Neighborhood Blog  is more secure than Social Networking Sites, and is the “Official” means for disseminating information about our Neighborhood. 

Thanks to a little prodding from Carol Silvernail I did some research on Reported Crimes in the Puyallup area after Carol asked me if there was a specific Pierce County web site which dealt with reported crimes.  I found https://matterhornwab.co.pierce.wa.us/publicgis/?theme=0  .  This site is not quite as easy to use as CrimeReports but it covers the Puyallup area. I pulled the below reports from the Pierce County site. It looks like our area had less crime than most of the areas around us.  Follow these links for the information:

(1) Pierce County in General    https://mattflask.co.pierce.wa.us/report?path=*Sheriff*Crime_Report_by_City_for_previous_12_months-CityName&val=Pierce%20County&time=2019-05-26T20:47:24-07:00

(2)  Our Neighborhood   https://mattflask.co.pierce.wa.us/report?path=*Sheriff*Crime_Report_By_NAT_for_previous_12_months-NATName&val=Sunrise%20Terrace&time=5/26/2019-13:45:51

It said police released surveillance video from a nearby camera that showed the mother getting thrown out of the car and crying for help on the street.

The above was excerpted from an article I just read.  It concerned a young girl who was kidnapped while walking with her mother. The mother tried to get her daughter out of the kidnapper’s car, and was thrown out by the kidnapper. The girl was rescued unharmed.  More and more often I have seen mention of the police receiving information about a serious crime by checking video from cameras in the vicinity.  It perfectly illustrates the fact that home video cameras are useful to the police.

If something happens to you or your neighbor, the police are more likely to be able to find out who is responsible if they have good clear video of the incident.  If you do not have a surveillance system or your system is over four years old you should consider getting one for your home.  By today’s standards, anything with cameras less than 5 MegaPixels is considered old and if you are looking for a system, 5MP cameras should be your baseline.