neighborhood watch

So Mueller has this blog of sorts, really more like a site where you can post and respond to forums on different topics. It's got its fair share of serial-posters and I-just-like-to-see-myself-post posters, but in general it's a pretty interesting little conglomerate of neighborhood input. 

There are a lot of event awareness posts, mostly things requiring exclamation marks: 

"Movie Night!" 

"Splash Night!" 

"****4th of July Parade****It's On!"

Then there are the standard advisory posts:

"Don't forget to send your tax appraisals in"

"Watch out, there was poop in the pool yesterday" 

And then there are the theft posts - car break-ins, garage break-ins, etc. It's a good way to keep the community actively looking out for suspicious activity. It's also a good way to flip people's crazy switch. 

The thread on thefts had been dormant for about three weeks when I posted that my bike had been stolen out of my garage. 

Backstory: I accidentally left the garage door open and when I went back 24 hours later to get in my car, I realized the door was open, immediately looked over at the space where my bike used to be, and then started on a manhunt around the adjacent neighborhood, looking for someone anyone riding around on my bike. I'm not sure what I'd planned to do when I found them, but it was going to be rough.

Anyway, so being the good neighbor that I am, I posted about it so people would be reminded to shut their garage doors, especially since the exact same thing had happened to my friends next door. This woke the Beasts of the Blog, and in the last 2 weeks since then there have been 24 posts. First, people were simply noting the importance of making police reports, the usefulness of automatic garage door closers, etc. 

Then enter user C. Frimire. Here's the logo on his profile, just to let you know what we're working with. 

C. Frimire, who has never been burglarized in Mueller, decides to host a stake-out. 

Hi. 

Last night I left my garage door open and waited til 3am for someone to try and rob me. No luck last night, but I'll keep trying, and when I do catch one of these guys just stepping into my garage I'm going to make damn sure he learns how we all feel about thieves stealing our stuff. Hopefully he'll go back and tell all the others that it's no longer worth it. I'll keep you posted.

I'll be honest, his gameplan sounds about as solid as me driving around looking for the hoodlum who stole my bike. I mean what's the guy going to do, give the thief a stern talking to? Preach on the socioeconomic underpinnings of theft? Club him over the head with a weed wacker?

But Justice is patient.... 

Another eventless evening last night. But it's just a matter of time. 

And today, a response post from another user. 

Look dude, if that was you I saw crouching in the black jumpsuit the other night while I was looking for my mom's cat, you need to cut that craziness out. You scared me half to death. And I don't know what you think you're going to do with that +2 Mag Light, but you're officially out of your mind. 

Neighborhood Watch at its best!