they’ve got him?!?

this is great news. if this is indeed the perp or one of the perps, let’s hope the city prosecutes him justly, and he’s not back on the street in 6 months. zero tolerance, people, zero tolerance!

I wrote to Lt.King and asked if there was anythign official that I could get on this. He replied:

We did arrest someone this afternoon and he matches most descriptions, however,

I don’t want to say that he is the one who is doing all of them. Once the

detectives finish their investigations, we’ll know more. For now we are very

happy we caught this guy and we will continue to work hard to solve and prevent others.

He’s lucky that I didn’t catch him.

good news indeed, but I’ll keep up the vigilance anyway. unfortunately, there will be a next one. good site, by the way. the brother finally persuaded me to dial it up.

Re: video cameras –

As a woman who works at home (and hence keeps motion detectors off for the most part), I had my fiance wire the front and back doors with motion-sensitive video cameras. Not that they would keep someone from entering, but if someone did, they’d be on candid camera — no mystery as to who we’d have to chase down. Luckily, no one has freaked me out with such an unwelcome visit.

As an aside – I had started feeding a feral cat, leaving food out before I went to bed. The tapes showed us that in fact I was feeding a raccoon, about 3 cats, birds, and two muskrat/possum-type creatures. I quickly stopped the midnight feedings — I don’t want a raccoon terrorizing my cat. The point: video can also give you all kinds of insight re: what’s going on around your home that you might not otherwise know about.

If you are interested in learning about or installing your own video monitoring system, send an email.

B

RTD: Burglary suspect arrested

A tip from a Church Hill resident led police Thursday night to a suspect in at least 30 burglaries in that part of the city.Officers arrested James Stanley Smith, 50, of the 2100 block of Creighton Road, on North 27th Street moments after he had broken into a home. The tip came from a resident of the area who observed Smith behaving suspiciously in a neighbor’s backyard.Police charged Smith with breaking and entering and with felony larceny. He is being questioned about the rash of additional burglaries.

Is this guy the same burglar/asshole mentioned in Mark Holmberg’s column in today’s TD?

Don’t know if anything came of it, but I called 911 on Tuesday night when I noticed a man walking with a ladder at 8:30 pm through my alley (400 block of 31st! — please no more). When my husband asked if he had “gotten locked-out”, he replied, “yes, and don’t tell anybody about this.” It wasn’t a threat, but seemed mighty suspicious. I don’t know if it was related to the B&Es (btw, can someone tell the writers of the Church Hill Newsletter that break-ins does not require an apostrophe), but it matched the MO. He was in his 40s, African-American, and wearing a pale yellow baseball cap.

One of the Ginter Park robbers was caught according to the R T-D.

cb, I’m your friendly neighbor two doors down (in case you didn’t know). I called 911 twice (the suspect disappeared and then reappeared about 15 minutes later), chatted with the police about what I saw, and alerted our ally neighbors on 32nd. I was hoping to say goodbye to you today… I’m off to the field today. But you and the hubbies should tackle the house between ours! Loved our brief neighbor time.

Gosh, it was dark and I didn’t notice? Why? Cuz of prints?

Ladders are worth stealing themselves, for recycling value alone. We’ve had a few go missing.