This month, I received an uplifting email from a neighborhood, long time constable patrol subscriber. With her permission, I will share her story with you. The family was out of town and requested the vacation watch.
“We have been constable patrol members since inception and have had many watches. Constable Bettencourt went above and beyond. On one particularly heavy storm day, he called our cat sitter. Having not gotten a response, he reached out to me to let me know our scared-of-thunder cat had been left outside and was currently on the porch looking very unhappy in the downpour. As a result, we were able to get him inside and dried off stat. The constable stopped by a few days ago and our cat was very happy to circle his feet. We thanked him in person for caring not only for our house and property, but being kind enough to factor in a scared little animal.” Anne & William Baumgardner
The Usual Reminders (especially now that it's hurricane season!):
1. Lock your car!
2. Don’t leave your wallet in the car
3. Don’t leave valuables in your car
4. Don’t leave anything you want to keep in plain sight
5. If you're having construction, yard work or anything else that involves tools, tell the people you have hired to lock up their equipment. It can be stolen and is stolen in the blink of an eye.
6. If you are building, renovating or do anything else where you have multiple people in and out of your house;
Know who is in your house
Make sure the property is secured at night
Know who has access
Visit your property (if currently not residing in the residence) as frequently as possible
7. As my father always told us (it was really for my sister), be aware of your surroundings.
8. Get to know your neighbors (even the nosey ones... you may really need them one day!) In doing this, friendships are built you never thought would be possible. Your children’s best friends may be on your block but you have to meet them first. All of these actions help add another layer of security. We can pay for constables (which have helped our neighborhood tremendously) but we are the true eyes and ears of our our neighborhood. We know it better than anyone else. It’s our home.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns. Let’s keep our two shifts. Let’s try and add more. This can only happen with you. We have about 2000 households in our community. There are currently under 400 keeping this program alive. We don’t want to resuscitate it, we want it to respire and continue beating on….. Sign up and if you already are a member, tell someone else about the program.
Are you a Constable Patrol subscriber? Sign up here:
https://www.woodland-heights.org/store
-Margaux Poizat, Director of Security
security@woodland-heights.org
