Block Watch Heroes
Geoff Shepherd
Thursday Evening, Feb. 26, 2009
Geoff Shepherd, my wonderful next door neighbor, my wonderful next door neighbor, was out for a run late last night without his cell phone. I know. I lectured. He reminded me he already has a mom….but here is
what happened.
Between 17th and 16th, on Rucker after 11:00p.m., there were 5 young men walking slowly by cars, and another man walking in the middle of the street. At least one had a backpack on. One of the teens was seen getting into a car and had a flashlight they used to look around. The car was later noted to be ransacked. Jeff ran home, called 911, and the Everett Police Department was here within minutes. He called me and I watched from my upstairs window, wondering if I could see any activity, when I saw a police car with lights heading down 18th toward Grand
Avenue Park, where several police, cars, even the K9 unit, had apprehended subjects. There’s one group of car prowlers apprehended!-
Pam Herzog
Patti & Lilly Ingalls
Early Saturday Morning, Feb.14, 2009
Lily, Patti’s dog started barking like crazy the evening of Feb.13 at around 1:30 a.m. There was someone trying to break into her neighbor’s van. Patti pounded on the window and he took off. She called 911 and they responded immediately. You just have to love our wonderful watch dogs and best friends! No broken widows, just an open door.
Robert Warners
Thursday Evening, Jan. 15, 2009
During the afternoon the fence at the corner of 18th street and 1800 block of Colby was tagged as well as the sidewalk, telephone poll, and a tree.
The people responsible were apprehended because of a very vigilant neighbor Robert Warners.
We believe these same people came back later that night and ran through another neighbor’s white 4′ high wooden picket fence. They drove from 18th street through her yard and out onto Hoyt smashing her fence in two places, and taking 4 sections of fence with them. They signed ugly words in black pen on the metal poll and also on the red stop sign for all to see. A witness said the vehicle lights were off.
We believe these people came back mistakenly thinking that this was the home of the people that called the police on them while they were tagging the fence during the day.
This could very well be part of a gang thing. These incidents were reported to the police and they came out and investigated and took notes. Since the police had apprehended the taggers during the day it’s a fair bet that the same people were responsible and were trying to get their revenge.
Troy McClelland
Here’s his write up from Dec. 2, 2008:
“Just wanted to let you know that this afternoon while we were home we noticed two men climb over the hedge in Grand Avenue Park and discreetly watched them for a couple of minutes since their behavior seemed out of place. Ultimately we called 911 and the police arrived in 5-10 minutes. They approached the gentlemen (who were at this point still behind the hedge, crouched down out of sight), interviewed them and secured a backpack that they had in their possession.
Long story short, this evening I received a follow-up call from the Everett Police and they believe that the backpack was stashed behind the hedge after an August burglary in our neighborhood where one of these two gentlemen had been arrested as a suspect. In fact, the gentleman in question just got out of jail last week for the August burglary and speculation is that he came back for the stashed backpack today.
Everett Police were clear to say thank you for the vigilance. For our part, it was a clear reminder that if someone is making the effort to jump over the hedge, they are more than likely up to no good and a call to the police is appropriate.”
Dotti Fickel- was very instrumental in catching the two individuals a few years ago.
Here’s a write up about the incident from Shannon Affholter:
Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006
She called her block watch neighbors and they tracked the individuals into the home. If it wasn’t for her calling others, the criminals never would have been caught. Captain Dotti Fickel (1705 Hoyt) then takes the information from Captain Shannon Affholter (1519 Hoyt) and makes calls to a variety of individuals in her block watch group to let them know of possible suspects, a male in his 20s and a female in her 20s, walking in the alleys. The suspects were noticed by block watch group members and 911 was again called reporting of the individuals being in the area. Shortly thereafter, in the early morning, the suspects were caught breaking into a home on 1700 block of Rucker. They are also considered to be connected to a burglary ring in the NW Neighborhood due to the detectives recovering an estimated $10,000 worth of jewelry, electronics, tools and other items from an Everett home the suspect lived in. Got’em!
Geoffrey Grice
Here’s a write up about the incident from Shannon Affholter:
Friday, September 19, 2008
Dear NW Block Watch Captains:
I want to make sure each of you are aware the actions of Geoff Grice last night. I received a call from Geoff last night (Friday, September 19) around 11:30 PM informing me he was following a young man in his 20s with a back pack who was going in and out of neighbors yards looking for items to take. He wanted to let me know the individual was in the alley between Rucker and Grand between 13th & 14th. During the conversation Geoff confronted the individual and began to ask the individual to stop and be still. At that time the phone went dead. Not sure what had happened, I asked Shannon Lee to call 911 as I hurried out to the car so I could drive to the location Geoff had described earlier. As I arrived, Geoff had the individual located in the alley with the police arriving just seconds after I did. The individual was apprehended by the police with stolen property and was taken in.-Shannon Affholter
