Summer and Boat House safety

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[Rob]

We contacted the Elgin police last evening to inquire about a neighborhood watch program and how to get it started. With all the various subdivisions and homeowners associations, we should try to coordinate everyone to attend a meeting to get a neighborhood watch program started. This has gotten insanely out of control.  We have repeat instances of damage and vandalism, break ins to cars and, most concerning, break ins to houses where very serious damage and loss of property has occurred.  The vandals might not be the same ones robbing people but we need to stop both because both are disruptive to the kind of neighborhood I'm sure we all want to live and raise our children in and both end up costing someone money

My wife has contacted the HOA for Shadow Hill and was supposed to be getting a call today from someone within the EPD that can explain the necessary steps to take to start a neighborhood watch.  More details to come on that.   

In the meantime, if anyone is interested in playing an active role in setting up and coordinating a neighborhood watch, please post.

[ElginResident]

Agreed - we have to do something, and we can't spend weeks getting a group (and a plan of attack) organized, either. It angers me that this occurred because as the new letters were being painted, it should've been apparent that a retaliation attack would be imminent and that someone should be notified to watch the letters. Of course, you could have someone stand out there overnight every night for several days, and the minute you decide to stop standing guard, they'll come out and do what they want to do. Police can't just stand guard staring at our sign for the rest of creation. We need cameras, more lights at the entrance, more frequent police patrols, etc. We need something that's going to catch these people in the act. Once these people are caught, which they will be if they continue - they'll slip up eventually - they better be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It also amazes me that we live in a neighborhood with so many police officers' homes scattered through it that nothing has been done yet. You'd think those people would have the resources to pull something together to help end vandalism in their own neighborhods quicker than neighborhoods without law enforcement living in it.

[Daisy]

Drove by this afternoon and noticed that a multitude of colors were used, which meant many cans of spray paint.  So either someone had a boatload of cans to carry or multiple people were involved.  Which would make sense, a few of them painting and someone standing watch?

Perhaps the HOA needs to be more concerned about property damage then whether or not a resident's inflatable toddler pool is against the HOA's guidelines, or whether or not someone's storage box is actually a shed.

Sorry, sounds snarky but honestly for the amount of time and effort the HOA puts into patrolling the property in their vehicle to send out citations to the resident's that pay their HOA fees it would be so much smarter and a better use of our money to have surveillance cameras and what not to ensure the property stays secure.

As for neighborhood watch program, I thought that it was already done or tried.  http://newelgin.com/index.php?topic=1257.0  Can anyone update on this?

[ElginResident]

I was just talking to my wife about this. She commented that she thought based on what we've seen that the vandalism has seemingly occurred on weeknights versus weekends. Does that make sense, or can someone indicate an instance where it was a weekend? There are way more people coming in and out of the neighborhood on weekend evenings and even late night. I've come home at 2am from a night out on a Friday or Saturday night and there are so many people turning into the neighborhood, you'd think it was 5pm. My wife said that she'd be happy to drive out there on a weeknight when she's up late with some work she's taken home - 2am or whenever, to see what's going on. But, really, you'd need to approach on foot to make sure to catch someone, and then you'd run the risk of being outnumbered or having police think you're the perpetrator. The most likely night to go out and catch someone would be a night immediately after they fix the sign once again. It would be almost worth getting a group of 5 people together, dressing in black, getting lawn chairs, and sitting behind the sign in wait. You'd be guaranteed to catch someone. When I saw the beautiful sign last night as I drove into the neighborhood, I should've thought about this

Finally, it's most likely these people are doing this between something like midnight and 3am, versus 3am to 5am. 5am is too early and after 3am is really getting kind of late unless they're up all night. You can narrow the watch period down. So, the watch period is really reduced down to no more than the midnight to 5am period at this time of year. Of course, as winter approaches (depressing thought), that period will grow in length. If someone could only verify that they drove in sometime later last night and saw the sign looked perfect - then we could begin narrowing down when the vandals struck. It may be a random time every time they do, but hey, at this point, you have to start trying to piece it together by considering any patterns you can.

[FountainFamily]

Took a better look at the sign and it looks as if they were using paintball guns....many colors and round dots then it dripped down....So they could be shooting from a distance or hiding in the landscaping on the other side of the street so they don't get noticed... especially like someone else said...there is an awful lot of traffic late at night so how could they have not been seen???

[ElginResident]

Anyone aware of any teens or older "kids" or I guess even adults in the neighborhood with paintball guns? If it can be verified that it's paintball paint, that would narrow who we'd be looking for considerably. They probably didn't borrow the paintball guns - they likely have regular access to them and own them.  If answering that doesn't lead to anyone, then it's likely the vandals don't live in the neighborhood. It's multi-colored. Even with a rapid-fire paintball gun, I'd think we're definitely looking at more than one person.

I still think it's likely bored teens. Gangbangers aren't going to waste time on a sign or "harmless" vandalism without reward. They'd be more likely to drive out here to break into cars or homes, however. 

[Rob]

I really like the idea of a group of people sitting out waiting for these vandals to strike again.
 I would be willing to to do that. I live in Shadow Hill but at this point it doesn't matter what HOA we are a part of, we all need to band together and stop this crap.

[dweinrich]

I do not think it is paintball paint on the Providence sign.  Paintball paint is washable so with last nights rain it would have washed off.   

[seek26]

I recently exchanged email with Cathy Blake at ACM, she confirmed it is valdalism, but I asked if the police had been contacted and she side stepped that question.
She said the letters were broken off and had to be repaired, but never said anything about painted letters, a temporary solution and really looks cheesy. Don't we pay for signage upkeep as part of the assessments?  Now the paint, what ever is going on is only indicative of a growing problem.   As I read the threads, its obvious that there is an issue here that will only grow if we don't make ourselves more visable.

Cathy told me that the community is scheduled to be turned over later in the year and we all will get a letter 30 days in advance. 

A new issue, I have the boathouse rented for an event and I got a call last week saying that there is no electricity and they have to cancell my reservation or reschedule.  Letty, the girl in the office, poor thing, I really gave her a hard time, said they are working with COM ED to rectify the problem.  I assume it's not only  a circuit breaker thats the problem, what on earth could be wrong that the whole boathouse has no electric?  is this valdalism too?
I can't cancel or reschedule my event...is this ijust one more screw up by T&C?
 Does anyone know what is going on there?

[roze1]

I'd be more than willing to be a part of a neighborhood watch.  The folks on this thread are right, it needs to be the whole community area around here.  Providence, Copper Springs, Shadow Hill...

We need to band together and show the people that are doing these things that we are watching.  That we will protect our property and our neighbors.  This is a great place to live, and the only way to keep it that way is to band together as a community and get this to stop.

I will keep an open eye...and a camera-phone ready. 

[mshell823]

sign was all fixed up today...lets hope it still looks good in the morning!   

[GoodNeighbor]

I think they changed the spot lights on the front sign to 4 smaller landscapte lights vs the original larger high powered spot light.  Does not look very good and most of light is lost in bushes on ground. Was the original light also damaged in all the vandalism?   

[sgtdisney]

If they made the lights brighter and found a way to keep them lit and prevent vandalism to the lights, I think we wouldn't have seen all this stuff happening to the sign. 

[mark]

The other day I took a walk behind the sign and found an empty bottle of bright pink/red "Primo Gold" brand bingo marker.  Anyone know of any bingo players in the area who have teens?  I doubt that grandma would want to waste her bingo marker to vandalize the sign.

[lotsofkids]

Don't know how to quote- but actually, I thought the lights looked much brighter.  I  could see the sign from Randall when going over the bridge.  There are now 7 lights on the sign.

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