Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Take a Bite Out of Crime

Our house was burglarized a few weeks ago. Nothing too serious…we have a broken window to deal with and the (clearly idiotic) thief only took a fireproof lock box that he obviously thought had lots of cash in it but which really only contained personal papers. Most were found and returned to us the next day by a good Samaritan. We were lucky. I should be clear that I live on a fairly busy street in an extremely safe neighborhood—Hollin Hills—and that the incident took place in the middle of a sunny day. On the other hand, the house backs on to woods, is set pretty far back from the street, and has 44 single pane windows about 3/16th of an inch thick. It took a rock the size of a golf ball to break in.

The detective assigned to our case suggested a home security survey. What is this, you might ask? It is a free service offered by Fairfax County and anyone who lives here can request one. A Fairfax County Police Officer will come to your home and identify potential security issues by inspecting locks, doors, windows, exterior lighting and landscaping. The officer will then make recommendations for ways to improve your home security and potentially deter a burglar. You can arrange for an inspection by contacting MPO Robbie Clift at 703-360-8400 ext 2259 or PFC Daryl Davis at 703-360-8400 ext 2263 at the Mount Vernon District Police Department.

Looking for crime statistics for your neighborhood? The Fairfax County website offers two ways to track crime reports:

  1. Look up weekly incident summaries by district (our district is Mount Vernon).
  2. Access the My Neighborhood internet and information mapping application to search for incidents by specific location. Simply enter any address and select view by "police incidents." You can also use this service to search for parks, polling places, libraries, and many other area features and facilities, as well as demographics, in the proximity of any address you enter in.

As for me, I'm anxiously awaiting the installation of my new double-pane tempered safety glass windows.
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1 comment:

  1. Jennifer FolsomFebruary 26, 2009 at 8:56 AM

    The Bucknell Manor N'hood Watch is meeting Monday 3/2 at 7:30 at the Mt Vernon Police Station on Parkers Lane. They're going to talk about burglary protection, etc. Our street, including our cars, have had several breakins over the last few months and the very nice officers said that in this economy crimes of opportunity are only going to rise. Lock those doors!

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