VaHi Safety Team Report: April 18, 2014
By: John Wolfinger
Crime/Safety Summit Meeting
Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves will be hosting this meeting 4/22/14 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at St. Mark Methodist Church at Peachtree and 5th Streets in Midtown. On the panel will be 5 judges representing all of the county courts as well as DA Paul Howard, Sheriff Ted Jackson, City Councilman Andre Dickens, Zone 5 Commander Major James Whitmire, and Chris Leighty now of Midtown Blue. There is parking at 5th and Juniper Streets. I have attended one of these meetings in southwest Atlanta and it is very interesting as these folks discuss how their jobs interact.
Two Atlanta Firefighters Pass
Our thoughts are with all of our Atlanta firefighters as they mourn the passing of two of their comrades – Jermaine Hall and Frank Guinn. http://www.wsbtv.com/ap/ap/georgia/funerals-scheduled-for-2-atlanta-firefighters/nfb6s/
Our VaHi Safe Delivery Program
For all of the new VaHi residents who have packages delivered by USPS, UPS and FedEx and want to make sure they are not stolen from their front porches – please use the safe delivery address program that has been in operation for several successful years now. Simply go to Intown Hardware, Morningstar Self-Storage or Urban Body on PDL Place and sign up for this free service from these neighborhood merchants, and then have your packages delivered to them in their secure environment. They will even call you when you have a package to pick up.
APD Traffic Stops
I’ve had some questions about the traffic stops that APD conducts city-wide on a regular basis. No – these operations do not steal personnel from the affected beat. Most of the Officers conducting these stops are “floaters” who are not assigned to a particular beat that day. These operations catch a lot of folks with warrants and drivers who are driving without either a license or insurance. You are only detained for a few minutes, but they serve a very distinct purpose and end up benefitting us all in the long run.
APD On Facebook
If you are a Facebook user you may want to friend City of Atlanta Police Department and City of Atlanta Fire Rescue Department – both have very good pages that allow you to see what all they are doing in real time.
The following reports are taken from our APD Zone 6 (http://atlantapd.org/Zone6.aspx) Beat 601 reported incidents for the 2014 weeks 11, 12 and 13 (3/9 – 3/29). These reports are not meant to scare anyone, but to raise your level of alertness as to what happens around us everyday.
Aggravated Assault: No reported incidents in Beat 601. However in a North Avenue road rage incident, the victim exited his vehicle to confront the other driver who pulled a pistol on him. The suspect turned around and fled when the victim told him he was calling 911. Yeah – you may really be ticked off when somebody veers in front of you or something of this nature – but keep your middle finger down and off the horn – the other driver may be armed and confrontational.
Auto Theft: A 2000 Honda Civic was taken from Frederica Street, a 2006 Honda Accord taken from North Highland Avenue, and a 2007 Jeep Liberty was also stolen on North Highland Avenue.
Residential Burglary: No reported incidents in Beat 601.
Commercial Burglary: No reported incidents in Beat 601.
Residential Robbery: No reported incidents in Beat 601.
Commercial Robbery: No reported incidents in Beat 601.
Pedestrian Robbery: No reported incidents in Beat 601. However in nearby Little 5 Points there were three such incidents on the evening watch (3 – 11 p.m.).
Larceny From Vehicle: I usually only list the streets where these incidents happened – but this time I am listing what was stolen to give you an idea of what is left in vehicles to keep these thieves coming back to VaHi on a regular basis. St. Charles Avenue (lingerie), PDL Place (backpack, boots, sweater, jacket), North Highland Avenue ($250 cash, purses, clothing, prescription drugs), North Highland Avenue (briefcase), Maiden Lane ( bookbag, gym clothes), Arlington Place (laptop, leather bag, books), Drewry Street (suitcase, laptop, camera, GPS, leather jacket, usb modem, clothes, gift card), Briarcliff Terrace (laptop, wallet, $50 cash, passport, credit and ATM cards, driver’s license), Virginia Avenue (laptop), North Highland Avenue (laptop), and Greenwood Avenue (jacket, bicycle). As long as we and our visitors continue to offer all of these items available for theft – the thieves will be here. PLEASE – remember and remind visitors about the Clean Car Campaign that states ALL parked cars are to be cleaned out ALL times. In all of Zone 6 in this time period there were 99 reported such incidents – all of which kept our Officers tied up for a long time filling out these reports.
Larceny Other: On PDL Avenue at Chipotle a patron left behind a purse and when she returned (you guessed it) the purse was gone. At the CVS store on North Highland Avenue 2 males came in, went behind the counter and took 6 cartons of cigarettes – they tried to strike the manager as they fled. This must be the 3rd or 4th such incident at CVS stores around the city in the past few weeks. On St. Charles Avenue a FedEx driver gave a package containing a computer to a person who said he was a neighbor – but he was not. I guess that this resident did not know about the safe address delivery program. At the Inman School a 16 y/o juvenile stole an I-phone and was arrested. Also at this school a 12 y/o juvenile took an envelope from a counter in the office containing $20 – they were also arrested.
Nearby there were 2 shoplifters caught at the PDL Avenue Kroger and Publix stores – 8 shoplifters caught at the Walgreens and Publix stores at North and Piedmont Avenues, and 8 caught shoplifting in Edgewood Retail District retailers.
A tip from a recent Virginia Circle vehicle theft victim – keep one copy of your registration card out of the vehicle for easier identification.
Stay alert, remember the Clean Car Campaign and enjoy this cool spring weather.