Spring Time Safety

“Behind the Badge”               Summer time troubles

By Joseph Pangaro

Once again the terrible cloak of winter has been lifted, for the most part. With the Spring comes the flowers, leaves on the trees, warm breezes, bar-b-ques and the driveway scammers, fake home repair scams, door to door sales scams and a host of others.

Yup, this time of year we can expect all of that. The flowers and leaves are not too much of a problem, it’s the scammers we have to watch out for, especially for our older population.

Over the years the scams change a little here and there in the way they are employed, but for the most part they are constant.

#1 The driveway sealer scam;  “Hi we are doing a job up the street and we have some left over driveway sealer.  We can give you a great deal”.  That’s usually how the pitch goes. Then the scammer will ask the potential victim if they can pay for the job or at least give them a good portion of the money and they will be back to do the job as soon as they finish with the other job. The price is usually set to be a great value so many people will take advantage of a bargain and give up the money. The scammers leave and do not return with driveway sealer or your money.

There are variations on this scam, sometimes they will offer to do the job right then and there. You pay them and they seal your driveway, only instead of a high quality driveway sealer, they use old motor oil, some kerosene or some other substance. Either way it’s a rip off.

#2  The door to door salesman routine is a distraction job. Someone may knock on your door and offer to sell you some product or other. Their job is distract you and get you away from the main part of the house so their partner can sneak in a steal whatever isn’t nailed down.

# 3 is the fake home repair scam. This is similar to the door to door salesman routine. At times after a summer storm when the trees are knocked down, you might get a visit form a nice fella in a truck. He will knock on your door or talk to you in the street about your broken tree branches or shrubbery and offer to clean then up. Some of these guys are really just hard working people looking to make an honest living, others not so much. The scammers will start the job and then tell you they see some shingles have come off your roof and need to be repaired, or they see a potential leak area that needs some attention. Many people will panic when they hear this and go along with the scammer. He will offer some price to go up on the roof and fix it. Many people are cheated this way every year. They might climb on the roof and nail up a shingle or two, or just bang some nails into your roof or tell you about a bigger problem requiring more money. These thieves tend to target our older neighbors because they don’t think they can get up on the roof to check.

In any event we must be vigilant to these types of rip offs. If someone knocks at your door and you decide to hear them out, ask for a name and phone number. Most people have cell phones, even the bad guys. If they give you a cell number, call it and see if their phone rings. Take down their license plate number. Even better yet ask them if they mind if you call your local police and see if they ever heard of them. Real people seeking to do honest work will have no problem with your requests. Scammers will usually make some excuse and leave.

If you have older friends, neighbors or relatives, tell them to call you before they agree to have anyone do work on or in their home. This can help protect them from being victimized.

Next up, are the car burglars. These are the people that walk our neighborhoods during the night time hours and steal whatever they can get from our vehicles. The best way to combat these guys is to always lock your car doors, every day. Take all your valuables out of the car or at least out of view and put them into the trunk. While locking your car is no guarantee that the really aggressive car burglar will not smash your car window, your chances of being a victim go down if the car is locked. Most car burglars walk up and down the street pulling on door handles. The ones that open, they enter. When they find a locked one, they keep going.

 And last but never least is the house burglar. Warmer weather leads to open windows. Burglars look for open windows. Many house burglaries take place during the day light hours when many people are out for the day. A common way they operate is to knock on your door. If no one answers they go around and enter through an open window. If there is no open window they may pop a window and get in.  A good strategy to help prevent this is to use window stops, little gadgets that allow your windows to open but only 6 or 7 inches. Enough for a cool breeze to get in but not a burglar. Leave a radio on in your house while you’re out. Burglars do not want to confront anyone at home. If they hear a radio, they may think someone is home and move on.

Another good thing to do is get a Crime Prevention Survey conducted at your home. These involve a crime prevention expert coming out and looking over your home and property. They make suggestions on ways to safe guard your home and prevent burglaries. Some insurance companies offer discounts on your homeowners policy if you get a crime prevention survey.

So there we have it our Spring time primmer on not being victimized.  It’s a beautiful time of year, enjoy it. A few simple safety thoughts can go a long way. If you want more information on Crime Prevention Surveys send me an email and I’ll point you in the right direction. 

Let me know what you think.