file photo by Boyd Loving
Village of Ridgewood – E-Notice – Thursday, 09 July 2015
Dear E-Notice Residents,
Early this week we had a burglary on the west side of town – last week we had one as well. I wanted to drop everyone a note as a reminder as to how we best protect ourselves; the economic demographics of Ridgewood make this a highly attractive town for burglaries but there are many things that we can do together to deter this.
First and foremost if you see anything or anyone suspicious please call our Police Department. Look out for your neighbors. Also, try to make your home look like it’s occupied – for example, take your newspapers in, try not to leave dry cleaning on your front door, leave a car in the driveway, and put your lights, tv and/or radio on timers so they are on during the proper times. Also, please make sure that your doors are locked. If you have two sets of doors, i.e. a storm/screen door and a regular entry door insure both are locked – locking just the screen door (which tends to be easier to force open) is not sufficient. Close and lock your garage door; one of our burglaries recently was the theft of a bicycle out of a garage. In fact we have had a significant number of bike thefts so putting bicycles away is a good idea as well. When you are leaving your home for an extended period of time, you can call our Police Department and let them know. Also, if you leave your car outside, please make sure that nothing of value is visible within the car and that it is locked – entering a car and stealing is common and can largely be avoided.
I am by no means minimizing the level of burglaries in Ridgewood this year but the metrics indicate that this is similar to last year. We have had 9 residential burglaries and 3 attempts this year versus 10 last year during the same time frame. We remain a very safe community with a top notch law enforcement capability.
In the last two weeks the two west side burglaries were in the Old Country Club area, and last fall we saw a number of burglaries on the east side of our Village. We see this concentration of activity in a particular area for a time and then it seems to shift to another section of town or other municipalities. The Police Department is actively investigating these crimes and they are a priority.
Have a safe, relaxing and wonderful summer, Roberta
Best regards,
Roberta
