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.