Paranoia Paranoia, Everybody's Coming to Get You..

The world we live in today includes some very smart criminals. Every news report includes the latest scam, and how not to become a victim. People are becoming hyper-aware, trying to stay one step ahead of the newest fad in crime. We hear about identity theft, bank fraud, companies that steal by promising to bail you out of foreclosure while really signing themselves over the deed to your home.

Its a scary time to be alive. But imagine ALWAYS being scared.

Lets talk about suspicious persons/suspicious vehicles. Its a frequent call we get at 911. Someone will call in that there is a maroon older four door Honda Civic parked across the street and down a few doors. Can the officers check it out? At this point, we need to find out exactly what we are checking out. Is the vehicle occupied? No. How long has it been there?Three hours. Ok. What is suspicious about it? Well, I've never seen it in my neighborhood before.

It never fails. Being unfamiliar with a vehicle does not make it suspicious. If that were so, your neighbors could never have guests or relatives over. Their child's teacher could never stop by to discuss why little Jimmy never turned in his science project. The pastor could never check on a sick parishioner. See where this is going? Just because you've never seen a vehicle around before doesn't mean the occupant of said vehicle is low crawling through the grass to get to your garbage can, to procure documents which will enable him to steal your life savings. Sometimes people just park their cars.

Oh, and here's one just for the graveyard shift. That suspicious vehicle that's cruising your neighborhood between 3 and 5 am? The one that is driving very slowly, sometimes on the wrong side of the road, pulling into driveways, "casing houses" and continuing on down? That's your friendly neighborhood paper carrier. Everyone thinks this is someone trying to steal mail. Really? Aren't the majority of mailboxes empty at 4 am? If yours isn't, maybe you deserve to have your mail stolen.

I like the suspicious person calls too. We get a lot that are just like the suspicious vehicle calls. The only thing the person is doing wrong is being a stranger in that neighborhood. Oh, and if he's talking on a cell phone, that's double suspicious, because he's always talking to his drug dealer. Sometimes I can tell a caller doesn't want to just come out and say it, but the person is suspicious because of his/her race. They make sure we are aware they live in {insert name of high end, gated community} and the person on the corner is...black. You know that old joke about the crime of "walking while black"? That attitude still exists. In a very scary way. I took a call just last night when a woman described two people as "colored". What the hell? It shocks me every time I realize this stuff still exists out there. I guess inside I'm just still a small town girl from a very liberal state, who was taught better than that. Not everyone was.

If you're really worried that people are trying to victimize you, so scared that you call 911 about every car you've never seen before, here are some things you can do to help keep yourself safe.

Do: Remove valuables from your car every time you exit your vehicle. No, it will not be ok for 5 minutes while you run inside to grab something, it only takes 30 seconds to smash a window and grab that GPS. And they will!

Do: Invest in a locking mailbox. Never worry about that pesky paper carrier stealing your mail ever again!

Do: Shred paper with personal information on it. Pain the ass, but so much easier than trying to repair your credit after having your identity stolen.

Do: Put a "NO SOLICITING" sign on your front door. Then you won't have to call 911 in a panic that maybe the person you just spent 20 minutes chatting up might not have been a Kirby salesman after all, but was probably casing your house!

Don't: Be afraid to call 911 if there is really something suspicious going on. This could be someone digging through your trash, someone you don't know knocking on your front door at midnight (this most likely is NOT the Kirby salesman!) or someone trying door handles on parked cars. Just be prepared to tell us what is suspicious about what is going on. The guy being black doesn't count.

Remember, a little common sense goes a long way. Try not to live your life afraid of every new vehicle, or person you've never met. Most of them are not out to get you. Notice I said most. Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you...