By Chris Newman
We hope that all our GPSP members had safe travels and a nice holiday weekend. With school now out for the summer, we have some reminders for your personal safety:
At the end of April there was a pedestrian robbery of two women who were leaving one of the restaurants along Memorial Drive. They were walking back to their vehicle at Cherokee Avenue and Bryan Street when they were approached by three young black males who jumped from a car. They had purses, phones, and jewelry taken. This occurred at about 11:30pm.
There continue to be some cell phone or iPhone snatches in the park. On Friday a Grant Park resident was a victim of an attempted iPhone snatch. She was walking down the hill near the tennis courts and was approached by a young black male who asked her where the basketball courts were located. After giving him directions, he came back up behind her and attempted to grab her iPhone. She was able to push him away and he did not get the phone. She describes him as 15-18 years old, about 5’11” and 140 pounds. He has close-cut hair. The incident occurred at 9:45am. She rode around with the police but they did not locate the suspect.
There is one reported burglary from the 600 block of Mead Street. This burglary occurred at about 2:00pm and a TV and wallet were taken. A neighbor reported seeing a light complexion black male closing the trunk of his light-colored sedan, which was parked in front of the victim’s house. The house is for sale, so the neighbor thought it might be a potential homebuyer.
This is a time of year when we see a spike in auto thefts and vehicle larcenies. Please keep cars clean of valuables and do not leave spare keys in the glove box or console. Vehicle larcenies continue to be a problem especially near the restaurants along Memorial Drive. These are happening at all times of the day and night. Do not assume it’s okay to leave valuables in the car even while having lunch.
Our GPSP officers will check on your home while you are away for a summer vacation. Please forward GPSP the dates of your travel, emergency contact information, and the names of anyone who will have access to your home.
And a reminder to all members to notify GPSP if you are changing email addresses: If GPSP does not have your correct address, you will miss crime alerts, invoices, and more. Members who join online can verify their payments at the Security Patrol section of www.gpna.org and also edit email addresses there. Otherwise, send your new email address to grantparksecurity@mindspring.com.
Major Keith Meadows has been promoted to commander of Zone 6. Please leave messages for the Major at the Zone 3 precinct at 404-371-5331.
Thanks to all our members for your continuing support of GPSP. In case you are not familiar with GPSP, it is a non-profit corporation run by volunteers. Membership costs $40 each quarter or $160 annually. GPSP uses that money to hire off-duty police officers to patrol the streets of Grant Park. During each patrol, the GPSP officer will usually pass each member’s house at least three times. If a member lets GPSP know that they will be out of town, additional attention is paid to their house while they are away. The more members GPSP has, the more patrol hours can be afforded, so please join!
There is now a convenient online payment program. Just go to www.gpna.org and click on Security Patrol at the top. Please let GPSP know how easy/hard or useful you find the online system as it is regularly being tweaked. If you’d prefer to receive a hard copy of the invoice with an envelope to pay by mail, just email GPSP. If you are already a member, please encourage a friend or neighbor to join.
Since GPSP began over twenty years ago, burglaries in the neighborhood have dropped by 70% and some of that dramatic decrease can be attributed to the work of the GPSP officers.
Thanks to Botwinick and Botwinick, CPAs; APCO Graphics Inc.; and Adams Realtors for sponsoring additional patrol hours this quarter. For information about joining GPSP, please email Chris Newman at grantparksecurity@mindspring.com or link to the GPSP site by going to www.gpna.org and clicking on Security Patrol at the top.
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