Do you know who your neighbors are?

Photo courtesy of capjournal.com

Crime in any town is nothing new, but once upon a time we used to know our neighbors. There were neighborhood picnics and get togethers. Kids played outside all day long until porch lights came on and moms could be heard calling their childs name to come home for dinner.  Parents didn’t worry about the potential monsters that we worry about today. 

Did they exists back then? Probably. Were there as many? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe once upon a time we didn’t worry so much because there were more stay at home parents that could keep an eye on each others children as they played and rode bikes in the neighborhood streets, but in this day and age its a necessity that both parents work just to make ends meet and maybe that’s why we aren’t as close to our neighbors as our parents and grandparents were to their neighbors.

Times - they are a changing, but thankfully so are our resources. We may not be able to get to know our neighbors the way we would like, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t know who our neighbors are. While watching the news last week with the recent events of the U.S. Marshall that was shot in the face and legs while trying to serve warrants to a suspect, a woman being interviewed on the news mentioned that she never even knew someone with such a violent past lived right down the street, all the while her children were out playing. 

This got me thinking, why are people not educating themselves on who lives near them? The resources are right at our finger tips! I see it each night, the kids are put to bed and the parents are on Facebook or the next morning they’re on Facebook talking about the t.v. show they watched the night before. Safeguarding their family would take only a couple minutes of their time. Actually, the Florida Sexual Offender and Predator (FDLE) website will allow you to set up alerts that will go right to your email when an offender gets released from prison or when one moves within a certain mileage of your home. 

For those of us living in the Cheyenne Estates neighborhood, you’ll be interested to know that we have had one move back in. Residing at 5338 Medicine Bow Street, is Rodriquez L Porter. He drives a red pick up truck. Convicted of sexual battery upon a person 12 years of age or older, without that person's consent. You can view all the details of his flier by clicking here. 

**Update on this...we're told the man no longer lives at this address and when you check the FDLE website, he is no longer there. This means he no longer has to register, but that doesn't mean we should let our guard down, once a predator, always a predator.

***Another update is we have a new offender living at 5309 Casper Circle. His name is Trent Martin. He's guilty of Lewd or lascivious conduct victim under 16 years old by offender 18 years or older. Here is the link to view his picture.
 By setting up alerts to go right into your email, you’ll know who the person is and where they live.

The next resource is the Florida Department of Corrections if you know a persons name, you can enter it in or even search by zip code, but remember - a convicted murderer that served his or her time is not required by law to register with a parole officer or with the community once they are released. So, unless you feel like running all your neighbors names through this data base you may not truly know the background of your neighbors unless you pay to run a background check.  

The point to this blog is that we really need to try to get to know our neighbors face to face and since that is so hard with work its great that we have resources like this blog and Facebook to help us connect. 
Its also vital that we keep watch over our children while they are outside playing and walking to and from the bus stop, because even if we knew the background of every single person in our neighborhood, that doesn't mean that a monster from out of town won’t drive through...Take the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping for example. She was kidnapped on her WAY TO the bus stop. Early morning. "Dugard thought the man in the car would ask for directions, but when he rolled down the window, Phillip Garrido shocked Dugard unconscious with a stun gun and abducted her" - all while her step dad watched from within sight of their home. Click here for more on this awful story.

Keep your children safe. Sit outside while they play, you may even get to know your neighbors better.

Summer Nostalgia

As summer approaches and day light hours get longer the nostalgia of crickets chirping and neighbors gathering for cookouts returns. Our hope this summer is to capture that feeling and give our children that same experience. The kids have been running through sprinklers all day, enjoying ice cold popsicles, and their little faces and shoulders are starting to turn a slight shade of pink from the hot sun. But, summer seems to have a magical essence in the evening. Just as the sun is setting and everyone is finishing up their grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, there’s a peace that comes over the evening. The stars come out; the kids bring out the glow sticks, still not wanting to settle down. And so we let them enjoy this time. This time, when they don’t have to obey the strict bedtime rules and they are allowed to stay up a little later because it is summer.  The adults are sitting in lounge chairs chatting about politics, religion, recipes, children, and anything else that happens to come up. But, even with the kids still running around and all the chatter among the adults, not one person misses how great it feels to have a place to call home, people to call friends, and that magical happy feeling the summer night has brought to all of them.  THAT is what we want to bring back this summer to Cheyenne Estates. Our hope to have more cookouts with more people.  Get to know more of our neighbors.  We’d love to have a huge block party with ALL the neighbors. But we’ll need everyone’s help to spread the word. Let’s get more people involved on-line with the Facebook page that may be easier for some to join in conversation and post ideas. We have so many different things we can do as a neighborhood and it’s time we join together and get to know each other on a more personal level.  If you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions there is a form on the Facebook page you can fill out to contact us or you can leave a comment on this blog.  We can’t wait to see how this turns out and we sure hope everyone will want to join us in this venture.

Have a happy Monday!

-Jenn V.