BMX Bike thefts

Neighborhood Security, Public Service Announcements

There have been a rash of BMX bicycle thefts recently.  One appears to have been 0.1 miles from my home, but in an area our Neighborhood Cameras do not cover.  The owner of this BMX stated that his “Ring” camera did not catch the theft.  This is not surprising  as the original “Ring” cameras were meant strictly as entry way cameras.  Another was stolen from the 7-11 at the corner of Meridian and 128th.  Its picture is the bike at the forefront in the 2nd picture.

I am posting pictures of these bikes as a public service with the hopes that they will be recovered.  The owners were told to check “Offer Up”,  “Craig’s List”, and other sites in the hopes that they will show up there.  At least one of the owners of the bikes shown below have filed a police report, which will make it easy to recover the bikes if they show up on any of the selling sites.

BMX Stolen at 7-11 on Meridian and 128thStolen BMX bicycle

Emergency Request For Comments

Public Service Announcements

Elvin Lerew one of our neighbors in Shawnee Ridge has sent me some material about the Miles Sand and Gravel Mine on the east side of the valley.  As you know the operation has been expanding steadily over the past several years, and a new large product pile has appeared on the crest of the hill around 3000ft south of the original mining operation.

Now Miles Sand and Gravel has asked for an amendment to Conditional Use Permit CP11-08, Fennel Resources,  Application number: 939160 and 940194.  If granted, these changes will change the view we enjoy toward Mt. Rainier for the next 20 to 30 years or longer.

Please write to express your views of this unwarranted change to the original permit.  Below are copies of the  amendment application and Elvin’s letter.  There is a very short deadline.  Comments must be in by close of business on 9 September 2020. Please send comments (citing  Conditional Use Permit CP11-08, Fennel Resources,  Application number: 939160 and 940194) to:

 Pierce County Planning and Public Woks                                                                       Development Center                                                                                                                                   2401 South 35th Street, Room 2                                                                                                     Tacoma, Washington 98409

I apologize for the orientation of some of the documents but this was a rush job.

Tehaleh Road0001Tehaleh Road0002Pierce-County- Planning-and-Publics9

Thank You!

Interesting Things

On the morning of 18 August at 7:13 AM two of our neighbors were out walking when they came across the mess left by the people who tipped over the trash bins in front of Wayne Flood’s home. Instead of walking around the mess, they stopped and cleaned it up. They did not have to do it, but they did.   We just want to say:

                    emoji2020-08-18_07-13-07[M][0@0][0]2020-08-18_07-14-05[M][0@0][0]2020-08-18_07-14-05[M][0@0][0]-1

Mindlessness in our Neighborhood

Neighborhood Events

 

At 11:23 PM on 17 August a white car stopped in front of Wayne Flood’s home. Three or four people got out of the car and tipped the trash bins there into the street. They then reentered the car and proceeded north on 136 Ave. E. It appears they turned into Shawnee Ridge. It is unknown what possessed these people to do this mindless act. If you recognize the car and/or know of three or four people who got home in the early hours of 18 Aug, it would be nice to let them know that this is not acceptable action for civilized individuals. Below are pictures of the event. The last two pictures are blow ups of the individuals getting out of the car at times 23:23:23 and 23:23:24.2020-08-17_23-23-13[M][0@0][0]2020-08-17_23-23-23[M][0@0][0]2020-08-17_23-23-24[M][0@0][0]2020-08-17_23-23-36[M][0@0][0]2020-08-17_23-23-24[M][0@0][0]-12020-08-17_23-23-25[M][0@0][0]-1

Theft on 138th Ave. E. (South of 122nd St. E.)

Neighborhood Security, Safety

Ross  Connors experienced a break in on Friday early morning from 1:46:30 am on his camera until about 1:58 am.  And, then it has been told to us that they moved over to the white house on the corner of Military and 138th, went through the yard and didn’t find anything to steal so they moved on.  There were 2 people, who seemed to know the exact things they were looking for.  They opened all of the compartments on Ross’s truck and took several large ticket power tools and some smaller stuff.  I do not have a list yet.  But, all the compartments were locked and so was the cab of the truck.  It looks as though the jimmied the locks taking a few seconds to open all of them pick what was the most valuable. A police report has been made.

Ross is interested in knowing about the rest of the neighborhood and if they saw activity on their cameras.  It appears that they must have parked their vehicle at some other place and walked to Ross’s. We would be very interested in having a picture of their vehicle and if possible their license plate.

You can contact me if you have any information on the people pictured or their vehicle.

Thieves

Beware of Aggressive Door-to-Door Pest Control Salespeople

Neighborhood Security, Public Service Announcements, Safety

By Luke Rambo

This time of year, we get reports from our clients about aggressive door-to-door pest control salespeople. 

There seem to be more and more companies popping up each year, hiring temporary unlicensed people to go door-to-door selling pest control services. These temporary workers are typically not trained in proper identification of insects, and they are often brought in from out of state for the summer months.

As we all know, fear can be a powerful motivator, and many times the only training these salespeople receive is on sales tactics designed to capitalize on people’s natural fear of pests. They have little to no training on our local insects and pests.

The stated goal of some of these companies is to grow the business for two years then sell to a large national chain. “No Soliciting” signs mean nothing to these people!

At our company, we choose to deal in facts and reality, not fear and doubt. The aggressive sales tactics exhibited by some of these door-to-door companies give our industry a bad reputation, and it is increasingly frustrating for us (and our local competitors who “play by the rules”) to see some of our long-term clients sign up with these poorly-run organizations.

So what can you, the client, do about it?

Do Your Research

We strongly urge you to look for online reviews and do your own research before signing up with any service company.

Report Aggressive Pest Control Salespeople

If you have one of these doorknockers come to your door, we advise you to ask for their Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Pest Control Operator (PCO) license number. If they do not provide you with that, and they proceed to mention anything about Carpenter Ants, Termites, or other wood destroying organisms, please report that person and their company to WSDA—they are breaking the law.

The WSDA Pesticide Licensing Department can be reached at 1-877-301-4555. We are active members of Washington State Pest Management Association (WSPMA), comprised of 200 pest control companies and affiliated businesses, and our association has worked directly with the WSDA from a consumer protection point of view in an attempt to combat these unprofessional and unethical organizations.

The WSDA has stated the only way they can enforce the laws against these types of activities is if consumers report them directly. For this reason, many of these companies will not leave sales literature or even a business card. We also urge you to inform your neighbors of these issues if you see or hear about the doorknockers coming to your neighborhood. We have heard some wild stories about some companies sending the same salesperson to the same house as many as 10 times, all hours of the day and night. A firm “No thank you!” may not be enough sometimes.

Pest Control Salesman - front viewPest Control Salesman - back view

 

Pest Control “Salesman” – Front & Rear Views

New E-Mail Scam

Neighborhood Security, Safety

Yesterday I received an e-mail from one of the people in the Neighborhood asking if I had an Amazon Account. I responded that I did not have one but asked what she needed.  I was surprised by the answering request because I really did not know the person who sent the e-mail.  This is what I received:

I am sorry for bothering you with this mail, I need to get an Amazon gift card for my Niece, Its her birthday but i can’t do this now because I’m currently traveling and i tried purchasing online but unfortunately no luck with that. Can you get it from any store around you? I’ll pay back as soon as i am back. Kindly let me know if you can handle this.

 Await your soonest response.

Thanks,

The request did not ring true for several reasons. To name a few: (1) I did not know the person well enough for them to have made such a request. (2) The supposed inability to purchase a gift card online was suspicious. (3) The wording of the request was strange. (4) Why didn’t the person write a family member with this request?

Finally, I did something I should have done before I answered the e-mail.  I looked at the e-mail address, then went to the Neighborhood Directory and compared the e-Mail address of the sender with the e-mail address for the person in our Directory.  The results were enlightening.  The person who sent me the e-mail had an address like this xxxxxx1@comcast.net, while the person in our Directory had almost the same address of xxxxxx@comcast.net .  That 1 in the e-mail address made quite a difference.

I sent an e-mail to the man and wife whose e-mails were in the Neighborhood Directory and this is what I received back:

My email has been hacked.  Sorry.

I asked permission to write a Blog Post about this incident and got this reply:

Yes, that seems to be the second email that was sent if someone responded.  Do write it on the Blog Post.  They also wiped my address book clean.  I’ve lost all my email addresses so that should be fun to reconstruct.  I was also unable to change my email password on the main computer, so finally go it done on my laptop.  It has been a messed up afternoon and evening, not to mention what it has done to my friends and acquaintances.

This seems to be a variation on the old scam where a supposed family member or friend contacts you saying they broke down and need money for car repair or whatever.  The Bad Guys also destroyed her address book, making it difficult for her to warn people once the scam was discovered.

I suspect that if I had complied and bought the Gift Card I would have probably been asked to send the card number to the supposed “Niece”, and I would have been out the money I had spent to purchase the Gift Card.

If you get an unusual request by e-mail, first do what I should have done immediately, Call or e-mail (using a known good e-mail) the supposed sender and check whether they sent the message.  Remember – There a lot of wicked people out there who want to separate you from your money.  Take care.  Don’t be a Victim.

Where’s My Package? Again!

Neighborhood Security, Safety

This is a continuation of a post I put up on 3 October 2014 (if you want to check out the original, titled “Where’s My Package?”).

Once again, we received notice that a package had been delivered, went to retrieve it, and found no package.  So, this time I checked my camera system to determine whether I had been the victim of “Porch Pirates”.  To my relief (if you want to call it that), there was no sign of a package delivery at my residense.  I checked my front door camera, my driveway cameras and  my cameras which show 138th Ave. Ct. E. and 117th St. E.  I saw no record of a delivery van when the package was supposed to have been delivered.  Then I surveyed the time from early morning until after we received the e-mail telling us that the package had arrived.  No sign of a delivery van that entire day.  I contacted the carrier and explained that I had received an e-mail telling me that my package had arrived, but I had cameras and knew that no delivery man entered my property.  I stated my cameras also surveyed the roadway and I could say for certain that no delivery van had been on 136th Ave. Ct. E. on the day my package was supposed to have arrived.

I asked the carrier to contact the driver and ask him where he had dropped my package. I was told that they would “try” but I would probably have to wait until the driver finished his rounds.  They promised to call me back.   Not very satisfactory, especially since the followup call back never came.

Further sleuthing convinced me that the carrier was using an unmarked van and it had probably dropped my package off at a neighbors.  Their house number is the same as mine, just one street over from mine.  A quick call elicited the information that my neighbor had just arrived home and found my package at her front door. Soon thanks to her husband, who brought the package over, I was actually in receipt of my package.

I was able to track down my package because I had access to my cameras and Neighborhood snapshots in our neighborhood repository.  In this case it probably only saved me about 5 minutes because when I called the neighbors my package had just been discovered.  Thank goodness for good neighbors.

It’s nice to have cameras.  If someone had stolen the package from my front door, I would have had a pictorial record of them, from several cameras, all time stamped and evidence  to show police. The pictures would have been far better than you can get from the 1080P that even the better doorbell cameras have.

Before I started this post, I contacted Dav Eide, and he told me that he too had a missing package recently.  Dav knew it had never arrived because he also has a camera system.  In his case, the vendor shipped a replacement which was lost, probably by delivery to the wrong address.

Covid-19 Thoughts

Public Service Announcements, Safety

Today (28 April 2020) I had to venture out, and what I saw appalled me.  Traffic was still not heavy, but it was a lot heavier than it should have been. It also seemed that I was the only one wearing a face mask. I saw people in vehicles (I know that you don’t have to wear mask as long as you stay in the vehicle, but how many of those people were carrying mask with them to wear when they reached their destination), on the street, in businesses and even waiting for buses, all without masks. To me it was an indicator that the people I was seeing did not care if they were carriers of the Covid-19 virus, and were willing to spread it to others, just so they did not have to wear a mask.

I understand the desire of people to get out of the house, see friends, do the normal things we all did before the Pandemic hit.  Unfortunately, the Pandemic is NOT OVER, and stopping the precautions prematurely, will surely backfire.  I hope I am pessimistic, but I am looking for a strong resurgence in the Covid-19 infection rates  in the near future, because of the premature stopping of the precautions.

Our Neighborhood has a large percentage of  seniors, who are more vulnerable to serious complications if they contract Covid-19. We still do not know enough about Covid-19 to deal with it as we would other diseases. We do know that it is highly infectious and easily transmitted. We know that wearing face masks helps protect others if we are unknowing carriers of the virus, by keeping the virus in our coughs and breathing from traveling far enough to infect others (hopefully).

Please do not listen to the politicians, who want to please their supporters by declaring that it is OK to stop the precautions we have been taking, even though it is these same precautions which have helped slow the spread of this disease. Listen to the scientists who are recommending caution and saying that if we are not careful Covid-19 infections will come roaring back and more will die. This is shown historically during the 1918 influenza Pandemic. Seattle and San Francisco relaxed restrictions after the Armistice that ended WWI.  That resulted in a 2nd wave of infections which destroyed many more lives.  Don’t let this happen to us.

My wife commented that resuming normal life too soon is like sending all the firefighters home as soon as the forest fire is beaten down.  Experience has shown that hidden hot spots can easily reignite the fire and unless precautions have been taken to keep firefighters on hand until it is certain that the fire is completely out you have to fight the fire a second time.