I am personally aware of instances where thieves would come by at night to recently constructed homes and remove the appliances (scrap). In fact I know of one couple that went through their walk-through and asked why there were no appliances. When the realtor checked with the developer, it turned out that the appliances had been delivered days before and the scrappers had come by the night before the walk-through and removed them.

A house does not have to be occupied to have items of value to thieves.

Kitty. I hope your dog is named "magnum," as in 44.

The Villages is safe!
 

As the OP on this thread, I really want to re-emphasize how truly safe The Villages is. It is much, much safer than any other community of this size. I was so very impressed with Sumter County Sheriff's office....and their Crime Specialist. We have the best here!

I look back at the time when I was thinking of buying here .....before, during and after. Maybe hearing about these burglaries would have scared me a bit......but I would still want to be aware.

TV is a wonderful, fun, safe place to live. However, we must be Vigilant, Observant and Persistent. Lt. Hayworth, I listened!

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables, and when he picked up a CD player to place in his pack, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying, "Jesus is watching you."

He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight out, and froze. When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, promised himself a vacation after the next big score, then clicked the light on and began searching for more valuables. Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard, "Jesus is watching you."

Freaked out, he shone his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. "Did you say that?", he hissed at the parrot.

"Yep," the parrot confessed, then squawked, "I'm just trying to warn you."

The burglar relaxed. "Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?"

"Moses," replied the bird.

"Moses?" the burglar laughed. "What kind of people would name a bird Moses?"

"The kind of people that would name a Rottweiller Jesus."

First... Thank you Carl for a little bit of levity.

When I first came on TOTV I saw nothing but posts about how wonderful The Villages is and how nothing bad EVER happens in The Villages. This is true... It is wonderful. But telling everyone that NOTHING bad ever happens here leads them to be careless, thus making us easy targets. I don't mean to imply the people who were victims of the break ins were careless... But we have all not paid as much attention to what's going on around us like we should.

When this first started, several of us tried to come on here and tell people. It was hard because at that time, it wasn't even in The Villages News. So, one by one, we were shot down.

Finally it came out in the news and people believed us... After how many homes were broken into????

Karen and I went to the Sheriffs office to find out what we could do about the burglaries in our neighborhoods. As she pointed out in an earlier post, some of the people who are trying to dissuade us now, are the same people who encouraged us to do this.

Karen invited everyone on TOTV to join us there for the meeting. How many people do you think showed up?

As Karen stated, Lt. Hayworth spoke to us for almost an hour. He gave us a lot of good information. He wanted to do everything he could, to help us help him, stop the break ins. We gave you much of it and for our efforts many of you have mocked us

Let me explain this to you as nicely as I can... I don't care! This is my home and I will do everything I can to protect it! I will not stop as long as people's home are being broken into! I will not! I want every news article that Gracie posts! I want any scanner that someone hears! I want any news we can get from the VCDD! I want any information we can get from the Sheriffs office! I want all the information I can get to protect myself AND my neighbors from crime in The Villages!

This IS a safe place to live! I WILL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO KEEP IT THAT WAY!

Capish????

That is all!

hehah, really? Carl u are making my day at 10 p.m. well done. that is so funny.

My puppy is Emma. She's a great Beard. She is only as aggressive as the situation warrants.

I found it surprising that some of the very posters who suggested that I take my ideas to the Sheriff's Dept (which I did) and said that my idea was a good idea.... were the very ones who gave me a hard time......once I followed their advice. I was shaking my head and saying, "I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't." Sometimes ya just can't win! Maybe some posters are trying to stir the pot? Ya think????

That being said, thank to you on TOTV who showed gratefulness via posts and/or PM's. I am glad that I did contact the Sheriff and had the meeting with their Crime Specialist. IF the information given to us and shared with you can prevent one burglary (or robbery :icon_wink:), it will all be worth it.

Karen

Email
 

I just sent an email out to those who requested it. If you gave me your email address and you didn't receive an email from me, please give me your email again. I received so many... I'm afraid I may have missed some.

Thanks for all your support in this.

You know what they say... The more you know.....

Angie

I just sent this to 80 of my closest friends.:clap2::clap2:

Angie and Swimdawg, thanks so much for your efforts. It doesn't take a whole lot of common sense to know WHY people need to be kept aware of what is going on. As I'm sure the police officer told you, many crimes are solved because someone saw something and didn't think a thing about it until they found out a crime had occurred. Happens all the time with burglaries.
Don't let the haters stop you, (I guess January ends a couple of weeks early in Florida) many appreciate your efforts and understand why they are needed.

We really need a "like" button.

Sometimes it is a good idea, and other times not so good. On some forums I frequent, many posters actually ask for people to click their "like" button, or reputation button. It can create an atmosphere that I'm guessing most of us would not want here. Personally, I believe that thanking someone in a post or PM is the way to go here.

But that is not the topic of this thread.

Karen and Angie, I appreciate (and know everyone else does as well) what you have done for those of us who couldn't attend the Sheriff's briefing.

Sooooo, let me get this straight. When folks originally posted on here that there were break-ins here and there, SOME said "Don't pay attention to this gossip or rumors until it is confirmed by the Sheriff's Office." Sooooo, you go to the Sheriff's Office, IN PERSON and talk to them to confirm everything. Then .....you will get confirmation directly from the Sherriff's Office about any new activity in order to pass on ACCURATE information and now that's a problem??????? Geesh, I sure hope the Sherriff never starts posting on here directly, he won't stand a chance......
Please, by all means, keep us informed in any way possible.
And, thank you for your due dilegence in the face of such scrutiny.

I for one want to say THANK YOU for all your efforts. I also find it sad when someone comes on to "help" people and are shot down for it. I know there are rumors, I realize not everything is correct but at least it makes us all aware instead of living in the bubble and assuming everything is always OK.

Thanks so much for trying to raise awareness.

I find it disappointing and more than a little odd that people can reach our age and not already know the cautions and precautions that are being offered by the police department. This kind of information is what we taught our children decades ago.

Equally distressing is when people who feed on drama fan the flames of panic and rumor. I am sure they believe that they are being helpful, and I commend them for their intentions, but if you see a crime or suspect you have useful information, call a cop. THEY will investigate. THEY will talk to your neighbors. THEY are trained to extract information from potential witnesses. Everyone else, calm down and go play golf.

Less than a dozen burglaries in a community of over 60,000 homes within an even larger tri-county area is not a crime wave.