By Paul Goldfinger
Last Thursday to Friday, the crime stats on Mt. Hermon Way began to heat up. An elderly woman (A) who lives alone walked onto her porch at 10:30 p.m. There were no cars on the street (near New Jersey Avenue) but there was an unmarked white pick-up parked there, and a man was sitting in it. The woman did not recognize the truck.
She sat there on her porch and watched. He finally pulled out and drove away. She thought that he got nervous because she was watching. The next morning, when her painting contractor showed up, he noticed that her front flower garden ornament — a pig — was gone. That pig was important to her. She called the police. They came over and told her that a close neighbor (B) had called the police recently to report the theft of a heavy valuable garden globe. Another neighbor (C) knew who that victim was, so it wasn’t a secret.
Two weeks ago, another neighbor (D), one block away, was outside and noticed two kids on one bike. They were black. One kid had dreadlocks. They were driving down Mt. Hermon, looking from side to side as if they were checking all the houses. She decided to follow them in her car.
They went down by the ocean and then up Lake Avenue, crossing into Bradley Beach. She followed them into BB. They stopped and then one of them made a phone call. Then they rode off, and she gave up. She called 911. The phone rang at least 20 times. Imagine: 911 did not answer! That’s almost as bad as no answer at a suicide hot line. What if the caller had been watching someone approaching with a gun? Bradley Beach cops finally called her, but they didn’t even meet with her — the interview was over the phone. They did tell her that the 911 is understaffed due to budget cuts!
So, over a fairly short period of time, the neighbors in a small sub-section of Mt. Hermon Way were experiencing more trouble than they wanted. This is the north part of town, but it seems like the wild west.
But wait — this is only a small part of the current Grove crime story. Yesterday there was chaos on the Embury Avenue beach block. We heard about this from Gail Shaffer, who lives there. A car was stolen and others ransacked. Lawn ornaments were also stolen. She observed that their street is very dark lately — many homeowners are now gone. She said, “No wonder there’s crime. It’s pitch black here at night.”
And that’s not all. A couple of days ago, Sue Roach of Franklin Avenue heard a loud popping noise at 6 a.m. She looked outside and saw a tall thin black kid trying to break the windshield on her daughter’s car. She called the police. Meanwhile, the perp did about $400 in damage before he escaped without being caught. Sue, who has lived in the Grove for 12 years, was shaken. For the first time, she said, she is considering leaving the town.
These accounts fell into my lap randomly. You have to assume that there is much more than what I heard.
Only the police know how many crimes are actually occurring and they are not sharing. You also can appreciate that Grovers are watching and are calling the police. But this approach is a failure. The Neptune PD needs to come clean and tell us exactly what is going on and what they are going to do. People are verbalizing that they are frightened and they are considering moving out of town. This is not idle chatter.
For starters, we ask all Grovers to report TO BLOGFINGER (in addition to the police) every crime that occurs so that we can establish our own “blotter” on Blogfinger. There is no Neptune police blotter in the Coaster or the APP. The public needs this information. We will post each incident.
Winter is approaching, and there will be fewer eyes, ears and voices, so those of us who remain need to be extra vigilant. It is essential that every porch have a light. Please call your “second homer” neighbors and beg them to install lights on the porches and around the houses. This is huge! Please volunteer for the Citizens Patrol. I plan to do so myself.
As for the police, they need to reach out more to the citizens and make them feel that we are part of a real collaborative effort and that the NTPD is really committed to solving our crime problems. So far, they haven’t been very successful. Our politicians must communicate with us and tell us what they are going to do. The Home Owners Association must adopt this issue and do something. This is at least as important as the other concerns which they are highlighting. And how about those cameras and maybe a sting or two?
Below is a link to our July 2011 article about the true cost of small town crime in OG. Also here is a link to our March 2012 article about the Broken Window Theory of Crime Fighting in OG. And finally our article about neighborhood watch.
Blogfinger Neighborhood Watch article
The broken window theory in OG