MPSA Mailbag May 2009
What the Neighbors are telling us. As always, mailbag items do not necessarily reflect MPSA position…
Con-artist making rounds - I just had a young man named “Tim” ring my doorbell and ask me to buy cookie dough to support his soccer league. He had tattoos on his forearms (barely showing under rolled up sleeves), so I asked how old he was– he said he was 20 and it was for a collegiate team. He said that he went to St. Mary’s and I asked if he meant the one affiliated with Notre Dame. He said yes and when I said I thought that was a girl’s school, he assured me they have a boy’s division. I said no to the cookies and went back inside. Once I confirmed that St. Mary’s is in fact a women’s institution, I walked to my neighbor’s house (on Myrtle) where he was soliciting and confronted him on the issue and asked to see his id. He said he didn’t have his id and “admitted” that he was doing this for his little sister. He was not at all defensive and seemed very nervous. I told him to leave the neighborhood, he said “yes ma’am” and he walked quickly up 4th street towards Piedmont. He was a nice looking kid and could have been believable if not for the tattoos (I think he would have gone with a high school story if I hadn’t immediately asked about that) and then the St. Mary’s slip up.
He was about 5’10″ or 5’11″, slim, very fair skin and very light blond hair. Wearing a white button down shirt with a light stripe, jeans, and white shoes. I called 911 and also reported the incident to Sgt. Cooper, but I thought I’d pass this along so that none of our members are conned out of money by this guy.
Car theft - My car, a 2001 gold dodge neon, was stolen Friday night (5/8) or early Saturday (5/9) morning. It was parked directly in front of our unit [in the 900 block of Myrtle Street]. There was nothing valuable in the car to tempt any sort of theft of the vehicle and the car itself isn’t really worth much. The car was recovered late Sunday (5/10) evening on Windsor St (downtown area). The police discovered the car abandoned in a parking lot without any gas. There was damage to the bumper, side mirror, ignition (steering column), tail light, and lock which cost ~$2200 to repair. Considering the damage to the lock of the door on the driver’s side, it looks like the perpetrator managed to some how jimmy the lock.
Parcel theft #1 - Yesterday we had a package taken from our front step in broad daylight. Our nanny saw a black male in blue jeans and burgundy shirt come up to the door and then leave. She thought it was a solicitor placing a menu on the door handle or something, and thought nothing of it because UPS did not ring the doorbell when dropping off our package. One of our neighbors found the opened box in an alley nearby. In any event, thought I would send out the APB so you could warn Midtown. We are now going to have everything delivered to our offices.
Parcel theft #2 – I wanted to let you know that we are having a problem here on St. Charles Ave NE with theft from porches. Yesterday, someone(s) followed the UPS truck and grabbed the boxes from porches. I found the empty boxes (1 cell phone, 1 cookbook) from two separate homes on Lakeview Dr. between St. Charles and Lakeview. I contacted the owners of these two homes and called our MPSA (Sgt. Cooper). It seems like this has become a recurring incident. Are there any solutions in the works? The obvious short term solution is to get packages sent to the UPS office, but that adds another trip to pick it up. Has APD thought about trailing the big Brown Truck in order to catch the thieves? I know there are more pressing issues like armed robbery and muggings, but thought I would let you know about our problems too.
MPSA Response: This problem all around Midtown comes and goes, from street to street. We have had long conversations with UPS, so they are aware. They track all of these losses as it costs them money. From what they tell us, they include the problem in their training, etc. Apparently the problem is not large enough in their world for them to come up with a real solution, especially ones that work well elsewhere. That leaves it where it is, on our porches! We recommend that people use alternative drop off sites, such as offices or renting mailboxes at a UPS Store. We can’t set up a third party drop off location due to the liability involved. Unfortunately, neither MPSA nor APD has the personnel to devote to the issue. And, if we happened to catch one of them, there would be many others to take their place. If enough people divert their deliveries, then there won’t be as much to offer the criminals, and they will move to more lucrative locations.
Parcel theft story – one afternoon a year or so ago I just happened to notice a young man on my front porch and initially thought he was with UPS. I went to the front porch to get whatever he was leaving and instead found him rifling through my mail and holding a stack of “menus” in the other hand (the type local restaurants leave on doors around here). When he saw me, he threw down my mail and several of the menus and ran. After calling APD with a full, detailed description of the guy, I then called the restaurant listed on the menu and of course they had no people giving out menus but were very interested in how this young man got a handful of their menus to use as his cover…MPSA Note holding a hand full of menus is a good ploy for getting onto your porch and into your mailbox without suspicion!
Purse snatching – At 6:45 [Sunday] morning, a women that lives across 6th street from our back porch [6th & Piedmont] was walking to her building from Juniper street. She was grabbed by a tall, older, black man who looked like a vagrant. He drug her down the street while wrestling her purse away and then ran off in the direction of Piedmont. [We] heard her scream, banged on our back door to scare him off, and called 911. It is entirely possible that he followed her all the way down the block from where Loco Luna used to be. She seemed to be unharmed but he did get away with her purse. MPSA NOTE: We relayed this, along with a detailed report on the criminogenic conditions on that block to Major Williams. He directed his lieutenants to visit and assess that location. They will research police reports, and Major Williams will seek a major property owner for a meeting. Always report suspicious and criminal activity to 911.
And, another burglary - Our garage [in the upper half of] Penn Ave was broken into sometime last week to have our lawnmower stolen as well as wine/alcoholic beverages from the refrigerator…unsure as to what else may have been taken at this time, but wanted to pass the info along – the garage now has a padlock.
HOMICIDE IN PIEDMONT PARK
Local media have reported a homicide in Piedmont Park during curfew hours, and an apparent street robbery at or near 6th & Juniper. In response to our inquiry on the case, Major Williams responded as follows:
This morning’s homicide, at Piedmont Park, is “likely” to be “male-hustling” related. A person found with blood stains and injuries this morning, in Midtown, is being interviewed by our Homicide Unit. This person has claimed to have been inside of the park but has not made any confessions. The investigation continues. Our personnel are tasked with park checks throughout the night, to address “anyone” being inside the park, after dark. We will continue the efforts and initiate arrests when there are violations.
APD Zone 5′s Home Assistance Program
Major Williams has implemented a new program to ensure the safety of Midtown residents going home alone from work. from restaurants, etc. This program came from the Take Back the Streets Walk where a young woman speaking with the Major, told him she worked late into the nights and was afraid going from her car to her home, and asked what she could do. In response, the Major designed the program described below. We encourage anyone who is afraid to go home alone at night to take advantage of this police escort service, including those walking home from area restaurants and bars. It is important for you to let us know how the program is working as this is a pilot for the rest of Zone 5, so send us an email if you use the service. Major Williams further explained this program in an e-mail:
As it relates to so many of our residents living alone, and coming home late at night, we are implementing a “Home Assistance” program for the Midtown community. This initiative is intended to assist our residents who arrive home late at night. Simply, they can dial 404.658.7830 (Zone 5′s Mobile Precinct) and request that an officer be available to meet them at their residence. Our staff will dispatch the request to a supervisor, who will exhaust all means to go directly to the address and wait, for a short time, for the resident to arrive. Our personnel will arrive in marked police cars and have their blues activated. I am hopeful that this will provide our men and women residents a feeling of being safe, when arriving home. If we can be of further assistance please inform me. We are implementing this as a pilot program and if successful, we will implement this for each of Zone 5′s communities.
ACTIVE CHILD MOLESTER OUT THERE SOMEWHERE
We just got word that about a month ago that a boy was molested in Piedmont Park by a stranger. According to reports circulating widely around intown neighborhoods, the boy was lured away to a restroom with an offering of candy, while his mother was busy feeding his infant sibling. The child’s mother reportledly did not fully realize it until the boy began to speak out about it over the next several days. The suspect, according to the mother’s report, is that he is of African-American descent – no more is known at this point.
We are told that a police report was made, and that Piedmont Park Conservancy was alerted. Piedmont Park Conservancy responded to our inquiry as follows:
Please be advised that we have requested and been provided no names, actual date or location for any reported attack. We have also asked the Police Department to provide us with a copy of any filed report so that we can at least look at potentially vulnerable areas of the Park. We are extremely concerned that Piedmont Park continued to be viewed as a safe environment. If you are aware of details that we are not, please notify [us}. Of course, we want everyone to be safe in the Park at all times. Your consideration and cooperation is, as always, appreciated.
Summer is just around the corner, and we wish to make folks aware of this in time for the many summer camps. Please be vigilant, and share any insights and information ASAP with the Atlanta Police.
Bedford Pine update 5/19/2009
It appears that Bedford Pine wants to amplify the status quo in that area, which leads to a massive open-air drug market driving a significant portion of the crime in our area. Apparently Bedford Pine is eligible for some Federal funding as a result of the stimulus package, but they need to have their plan in by this week. This requires input from the City (which in turns requires a loop through the NPU system, hence the meeting summarized below). They are not seeking to redevelop the area, but to replace existing buildings with larger ones. Their plans do not clearly call for a reduced percentage of subsidized units. The Atlanta Housing Authority recommends a configuration of 70% market-rate and 30% subsidized units (We would like to see more like 80/20 or 90/10).
John Wolfinger, our safety contact in Virginia Highland, gave us the following report.
I went to the Fourth Ward Alliance meeting in order to hear a presentation about Bedford Pine Village specifically concerning a proposed new building project on Parkway Drive. Why should I be concerned about this housing area many blocks from Virginia Highland? The open drug trade on the streets of Bedford Pine very directly affects our general quality of life and most certainly our public safety. I would hazard a guess that a significant portion of the money that changes hands on these streets comes from the sale of articles stolen from our streets on the north side of PDL Avenue and east of the Beltline tracks.
First of all – some interesting facts about this huge Section 8 housing area that I learned this evening. This is the single largest concentration of Section 8 housing in the Southeast comprised of 689 housing units. It is managed by Wingate Properties [a subsidiary of Continental Wingate based in Needham, Massachusetts]. The two smooth-talking representatives of Wingate in attendance talked in generalities about the fact that it is time for the entire complex of buildings to be redone, with some buildings to be torn down and some “classic” buildings to be completely rehabbed. The last time they were rehabbed was 40 years ago, and these two reps talked in glowing terms as to how they want to work with Fourth Ward folks to come up with a master redevelopment plan.
The project that was proposed this evening involved the demolition of three buildings on Parkway Drive between PDL and North Avenues that currently contain 42 housing units, and to be replaced with a five story building (with underground parking) to contain 87 housing units. Federal Fair Housing laws dictate that the occupants of the 42 razed units will have first choice in returning to the new building. They talked in generalities about devoting a certain amount of the units over and above the 42 units to be dedicated to senior citizen housing. Yet I would personally wonder how many senior citizens would feel safe living next door to some of the folks I see hanging out in front of those buildings now.
Wingate also pressured Fourth Ward for an approval vote to be taken tonight since they claim they face a May 21st deadline to apply for current funds for tax credits from some of the stimulus monies. They also resisted any talk of making a certain percentage of these proposed 87 units to be rented at market rates to dilute the amount of Section 8 folks crowded together on this one block. The Fourth Ward folks were not impressed and the motion to approve the new building was handily defeated.
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