I live in what could be called a semi-transitional neighborhood that's safe and quiet for the most part, but does suffer from occasional minor crime sprees. Case in point: people in the area started having various items vanish from their yards recently. Lawn mowers, bikes, etc left outside or in open garages were walking away. Finally, one residents notices these two young-ish guys in a crappy blue van back into a driveway, load a mower into the van and take off. He sends out an email to the neighborhood mailing list warning everyone to be on the lookout for the van. A few people respond that they've seen the van as well.
The scam seems to be that these guys do yardwork for a few homes in the area as cover; while they're mowing lawns or whatever, they grab stuff from neighboring homes. Also, they were knocking on doors to "inquire about yardwork" which really meant "making sure no one was home before they grab something". If anyone asks what they're up to, the yardwork is their "cover" for knocking on doors and such. They were apparently confronted several times by people in the area who were suspicious but kept coming back anyway thinking their cover story was somehow foolproof.
Anywho, a few more emails go around and we decide to compile all the info on these jerkoffs and talk to the Dekalb County cops. We had all the emails, a description and tag for the van, a good description of both suspects, etc. My neighbor and I even caught them knocking on doors one day, sat in the truck until they noticed we were watching them, and then very conspicuously tailed them for about 10 miles out of the area to another house. We get email responses back from the cops, who then send a detective out to talk to a few of us. While he was in the area, the morons drove right by him. He calls uniformed cops, they show up and nail the bastards who are blithely doing their thing knocking on doors looking for stuff to steal. Further evidence of their huge stupidity is all the stolen crap they have in the back of the van when they finally are busted. A few of us go down to the slammer, pick them out of a lineup and they're more than likely going to be doing some time in the near future.
Cliff's Notes
* Some guys were stealing stuff in my 'hood while posing as yardwork handymen types
* People in the neighborhood noticed
* We let them know we knew what was up
* They kept coming back anyway
* We called the cops
* They're busted and are going to be Bubba's Boyfriends soon
The scam seems to be that these guys do yardwork for a few homes in the area as cover; while they're mowing lawns or whatever, they grab stuff from neighboring homes. Also, they were knocking on doors to "inquire about yardwork" which really meant "making sure no one was home before they grab something". If anyone asks what they're up to, the yardwork is their "cover" for knocking on doors and such. They were apparently confronted several times by people in the area who were suspicious but kept coming back anyway thinking their cover story was somehow foolproof.
Anywho, a few more emails go around and we decide to compile all the info on these jerkoffs and talk to the Dekalb County cops. We had all the emails, a description and tag for the van, a good description of both suspects, etc. My neighbor and I even caught them knocking on doors one day, sat in the truck until they noticed we were watching them, and then very conspicuously tailed them for about 10 miles out of the area to another house. We get email responses back from the cops, who then send a detective out to talk to a few of us. While he was in the area, the morons drove right by him. He calls uniformed cops, they show up and nail the bastards who are blithely doing their thing knocking on doors looking for stuff to steal. Further evidence of their huge stupidity is all the stolen crap they have in the back of the van when they finally are busted. A few of us go down to the slammer, pick them out of a lineup and they're more than likely going to be doing some time in the near future.
Cliff's Notes
* Some guys were stealing stuff in my 'hood while posing as yardwork handymen types
* People in the neighborhood noticed
* We let them know we knew what was up
* They kept coming back anyway
* We called the cops
* They're busted and are going to be Bubba's Boyfriends soon